358 SUBSEQUENT CAREER OF CORTÉS. [Book VII.

captains to attend particularly to these objects. Ifhe was greedy of gold, like most of the Spanish cavaliers in the New World, it was not to hoard it,nor merely to lavish it in the support of a princelyestablishment, but to secure funds for prosecutinghis glorious discoveries. Witness his costly expe-ditions to the Gulf of California. His enterpriseswere not undertaken solely- for mercenary objects ;as is shown by the various expeditions he set on footfor the discovery of a communication between theAtlantic and the Pacific. In his schemes of ambi-tion he showed a respect for the interests of science,to be referred partly to the natural superiority of hismind, but partly, no doubt, to the influence of earlyeducation. It is, indeed, hardly possible, that a per-son of his wayward and mercurial temper shouldhave improved his advantages at the University , buthe brought away from it a tincture of scholarship,seldom found among the cavaliers of the period, andwhich had its influence in enlarging his own concep-tions. His celebrated Letters are written with asimple elegance, that, as I have already had occasionto remark, have caused them to be compared to themilitary narrative of Caesar. It will not be easy tofind in the chronicles of the period a more concise,yet comprehensive, statement, not only of the eventsof his campaigns, but of the circumstances mostworthy of notice in the character of the conqueredcountries.

Cortes was not cruel; at least, not cruel as com-pared with most of those who followed his iron