CORTES IN PERIL. Cortes easily entered the City of Mexico, and forced Montezuma to resign. But here the natives attacked his army in such numbers that he had to retreat to escape capture. The Spaniards fled from the city at night amid the onslaught of the inhabitants fighting for their religion and their homes. [Illustration: CANNON OF THE TIME OF CORTES After Van Menken. There are in the naval museum at Annapolis guns captured in the Mexican War supposed to be those used by Cortes] The retreat cost the Spaniards terrible losses. Cortes started in the evening on the retreat with 1,250 soldiers, 6,000 Indian allies, and 80 horses. There were left in the morning 500 soldiers, 2,000 allies, and 20 horses. Cortes is said to have buried his face in his hands and wept for his lost followers, but he never wavered in his purpose of taking Mexico. He was able to defeat the Indians in the open country, and to return to the attack on the capital city. CAPTURE OF THE CITY OF MEXICO. The siege which followed, lasting nearly three months, has rarely been matched in history for the bravery and suffering of the natives. The fighting was constant and terrible. The fresh water supply was cut off from the inhabitants in the city, and famine aided the invaders. At length the defenders were exhausted and Cortes entered. It had taken him two years to conquer the Aztecs. A greater task remained for him to do. He was to cleanse and rebuild the City of Mexico, make it a center of Spanish civilization, and Mexico a New Spain. By such work Cortes showed that he could be not only a great conqueror, but also an able ruler in time of peace. [Illustration: THE CITY OF MEXICO UNDER THE CONQUERORS From the engraving in the "Niewe Wereld" of Montanus] PIZARRO. A few years after Cortes conquered Mexico a second army conquered another famous Indian kingdom. Francisco Pizarro commanded this expedition, which set out from Panama in 1531. Pizarro had been with Balboa at the discovery of the South Sea or Pacific Ocean, and, like his master, had become interested in the stories the Indians told of a rich kingdom far to the south. The golden kingdom which the Indians described was that of the Incas, who lived much as the Aztecs. The Spaniards called the region of the Incas the Biru country or, by softening the first letter, the Peru country, from Biru, who was a native Indian chieftain. [Illustration: A STONE IDOL OF THE AZTEC'S It is more than eight feet high and five feet across, and was dug up in the central square of the City of Mexico more than one hundred years ago]