Excerpt from Hernando Cortes: Conqueror of Mexico At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the youth of Spain had become inspired with the hope, if not the belief, that wealth and honors awaited them in the West Indies, and what more natural than that many of them should wish to try their fortunes there? Among those who looked towards the Occident for the betterment of their birthrights was the boy who, as a man, became the conqueror of Mexico, Hernando Cortes. He was born to poverty, but could boast descent from most distinguished ancestry, as the son of a retired captain of the Spanish army, Don Martin Cortes de Monroy, and his worthy wife, Dona Catalina Pizarro Altamirano. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."