He was no longer to be condemned to a life of mercenary
drudgery; nor to be cooped up within the precincts of a petty
island; but he was to be placed on a new and independent theatre of
action, and a boundless perspective was opened to his view, which
might satisfy not merely the wildest cravings of avarice, but, to a
bold aspiring spirit like his, the far more important cravings of
ambition. He fully appreciated the importance of the late discoveries,
and read in them the existence of the great empire in the far West,
dark hints of which had floated from time to time in the islands,
and of which more certain glimpses had been caught by those who had
reached the continent. This was the country intimated to the "Great
Admiral" in his visit to Honduras in 1502, and which he might have
reached, had he held on a northern course, instead of striking to
the south in quest of an imaginary strait. As it was, "he had but
opened the gate," to use his own bitter expression, "for others to
enter." The time had at length come when they were to enter it; and
the young adventurer, whose magic lance was to dissolve the spell
which had so long hung over these mysterious regions, now stood
ready to assume the enterprise.
From this hour the deportment of Cortes seemed to undergo a
change. His thoughts, instead of evaporating in empty levities or idle
flashes of merriment, were wholly concentrated on the great object
to which he was devoted.
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