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COKSO 163 CORTEZ and Texas Central and other railroads; 180 miles N. E. of Austin. It is a great oil district. The city is the seat of the State Orphans' Home and the Odd Fel- lows' Widows and Orphans' Home, and has street railways, waterworks, daily and weekly newspapers, three National banks, etc. Pop. (1910) 9,749; (1920) 11.356. COBSO, an Italian term given to a leading street or fashionable carriage- drive. CORSON, HIRAM, an American edu- cator; born in Philadelphia, Pa., Nov. 6, 1828. He became Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature at St. John's Col- lege, Annapolis, in 1866, and of English language and literature, rhetoric, and oratory in Cornell University in 1870. Among his publications are: a "Hand- Book of Anglo-Saxon and Early Eng- lish" (1871); "An Introduction to the Study of Robert Browning" (1886); "Jottings on the Text of Hamlet," "Lec- tures on the English Language and Lit- erature," "The Aims of Literary Study, "Introduction to the Prose and Poetical Works of John Milton" (1899) ; etc. He died in 1911. CORTELYOU, GEORGE BRXTCE, statesman, was born in New York City, July 26, 1862. He was a general law re- porter, private secretary to several pub- lic officials, and head master of a school at Hempstead, N. Y. Private secretary to Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt, 1896-1903; Secretary of Commerce and Labor, 1903-1904; Postmaster-General 1905-1907; Secretary of the Treasury, 1907-1909. President of Consolidated Gas Co., New York, after 1909, and a director in numerous corporations. CORTES, the states or legislative as- semblies of the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal, composed of the nobility, clergy, and representatives of cities. They thus correspond in some measure to the British Houses of Parliament. CORTEZ, or CORTES, HERNANDO, the conqueror of Mexico; born in Estre- madura, Spain, in 1485. At the age of 19 he left Spain, to seek fame and for- tune in the new world. He distinguished himself under Velasquez in the conquest of Cuba ; and after passing several years in that island he obtained leave from Velasquez to conduct a small expedition to the newly discovered coast of Yuca- tan and Mexico. With less than 600 soldiers, and 16 horses, 10 cannon, and four falconets, he sailed, in 1519, to conquer the most powerful empire in America. He landed on the Mexican coast on Good Friday, April 21, on the spot where the city of Vera Cruz now stands. He persuaded his followers to destroy their ships, and to march inland, with no prospect but to succeed or per- ish. The Indian republic of Tlascala lay between him and the Mexican capital. He defeated the Tlascalans when they attacked him, and then succeeded in winning their friendship. They acted thenceforth as his zealous and faithful allies. Alarmed by the reports of the prowess of the Spaniards, and of the superhuman terrors of the arms which they wielded, Montezuma, the Mexican emperor, sought to conciliate the stran- gers, and received Cortez and his troops in the capital. Though they obtained lavish presents, and received courteous treatment, the treasures which they saw around them inflamed more and more the cupidity of the invaders. The HERNANDO CORTEZ sight of the idolatrous rites, and espe- cially of the human sacrifices which the Mexicans practiced, inflamed their re- ligious bigotry; the ambition of Cortea thirsted after absolute conquest, and, by a bold stroke of treachery, he seized the person of the Mexican emperor. Cortez, soon after this, received a ma- terial increase of strength from a force which the Viceroy of Cuba had sent to depose him and take him prisoner, but which he partly defeated, and partly persuaded to come over to him. He now found himself plunged into a most desperate war with the native Mexicans, who rose upon the Spaniards, and assaulted them in their fortified