Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/180

fine soldierly qualities were financial and executive ability, and fair common sense, a rare combination in a Spanish cavalier. While loving adventure he did not altogether hate ideas. His world now spread itself before him, as divided into two unequal classes, those that use others, and those that are used by others, and he resolved himself forever into the former category. Like Diogenes, though enslaved at Crete, Cortés felt that if he could do one thing better than another it was to command men. Coupled with this egotism was the sensible intuition that the mastery of others begins with self-mastery. Indeed his command over himself, as well as over others, was most remarkable. "By my conscience!" was a favorite oath, which implies not brutal passion. At times a swelling vein in the forehead, and another in the throat, indicated rising anger, manifested also by a peculiarity of throwing off his cloak; but the voice would remain decorous, and the words seldom passed beyond a "Mal pese á vos!" May it bear heavily upon you. To the insolent soldier, whom we shall often find overstepping the bounds of prudence, he would merely say, "Be silent!" or "Go, in God's name, and be more careful if you would escape punishment." Equally composed in argument, he wielded his persuasive powers to their best advantage. Rio de Avenida, the Rushing River, was at one time a nickname, and later he affected long hair and lawsuits. At the gaming-table, to which he was greatly addicted, he won or lost with equal sang-froid, ever ready with a witticism to smooth the varying course of fortune. Though he did not hesitate as gay Lothario to invade the family of another, most unreasonably he was very jealous lest his own family should be invaded. While liberal to friend or mistress, and ready to sacrifice almost anything to gain an object, he was not always regarded as over-generous by his men, too many of whom were of that class, however, that nothing would satisfy. Although a fair eater, he drank but little,