[276] Instruccion del Marques del Valle, MS.--The most particular and authentic account of Ulloa’s cruise will be found in Ramusio. (Tom. iii. pp. 340-354.) It is by one of the officers of the squadron. My limits will not allow me to give the details of the voyages made by Cortés, which, although not without interest, were attended with no permanent consequences.{*} A good summary of his expeditions in the Gulf has been given by Navarrete in the Introduction to his Relacion del Viage hecho por las Goletas Sutil y Mexicana (Madrid, 1802), pp. vi.-xxvi.; and the English reader will find a brief account of them in Greenhow’s valuable Memoir on the Northwest Coast of North America (Washington, 1840), pp. 22-27. {*} [The restless and determined spirit with which Cortés pursued his mainly ineffectual projects of discovery is exemplified by a letter to the Council of the Indies, September 20, 1538, begging that body to assist his agents in procuring pilots for him. He has at present, he says, nine vessels, very good and well equipped, and is only waiting for pilots, having tried in vain to obtain some from Panamá and Leon. Though he has not yet secured the fruits he had expected from his expeditions, he trusts in God that they will be henceforth attended with better fortune. Col. de Doc. inéd. relativos al Descubrimiento, Conquista y Colonizacion de las Posesiones españolas en América y Oceanía, tom. iii.--K.] [277] Memorial al Rey del Marques del Valle, MS., 25 de Junio, 1540. [278] Provision sobre los Descubrimientos del Sur, MS. [279] See the map prepared by the pilot Domingo del Castillo, in 1541, ap. Lorenzana, p. 328. [280] In the collection of Vargas Ponçe is a petition of Cortés, setting forth his grievances, and demanding an investigation of the viceroy’s conduct. It is without date. Peticion contra Don Antonio de Mendoza Virrey, pediendo residencia contra él, MS. [281] Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 200. [282] Gomara, Crónica, cap. 237. [283] Sandoval, Hist. de Cárlos V., lib. 12, cap. 25.--Ferreras (trad. d’Hermilly), Hist. d’Espagne, tom. ix. p. 231. [284] Voltaire tells us that, one day, Cortés, unable to obtain an audience of the emperor, pushed through the press surrounding the royal carriage, and mounted the steps; and, when Charles inquired “who that man was,” he replied, “One who has given you more kingdoms than you had towns before.” (Essai sur les Mœurs, chap. 147.) For this most improbable anecdote I have found no authority whatever. It served, however, very well to point a moral,--the main thing with the philosopher of Ferney. [285] The Letter, dated February 3, 1544, Valladolid, may be found entire, in the original, in Appendix, No. 15.