On the second of April, 1519, this bold and enterprising Spaniard entered the harbor of Saint Juan de Ulua, on the eastern coast of Mexico, with eleven small vessels, containing only about six hundred men; and of these, more than a hundred were sailors. With this small force was he about to make war upon a monarch, whose dominions were more extensive than all the kingdoms subject to the Spanish crown. On the following day he landed his troops, and having selected a suitable place for a camp, began to fortify it; in which he was zealously assisted by the unsuspecting natives. Here he was soon visited by the governors of the district. He received them with many demonstrations of respect, and informed them that he had come as ambassador from Don Carlos, of Spain, the greatest king of the East, with proposals which he could only declare to their monarch himself. He therefore demanded to be led immediately to his presence. The governors attempted to dissuade him from visiting the capital, but at the same time laid before him a rich present of gold and silver articles, which had only the effect of increasing his desire to proceed. He therefore repeated his demand in a determined tone. Seeing among his visiters several painters, who were busily engaged in taking down, for the information of their sovereign, everything remarkable in the appearance of the strangers, he resolved to give them a specimen of his warlike power. He ordered his troops to be drawn up in battle-array, and to go through the evolutions of a mock battle. While the natives were gazing in astonishment at the spectacle, the cannon, pointed towards the thick woods which surrounded the camp, were suddenly fired, and made terrible havoc among the trees. At the dreadful sound, some fled, others fell to the ground, overcome by amazement and terror; and the painters had now to exercise their ingenuity to invent figures and symbols by which to represent the new and surprising things they had seen. In a few days an answer was received from the emperor, refusing an audience, and commanding the Spaniards to leave the country; but, at the same time, directing that they should be supplied with all things requisite for their voyage. Notwithstanding this prohibition, Cortez resolved to proceed, and his followers eagerly joined in the determination. They first set about founding a colony on the place where they had landed, as this was one of the objects of the expedition. The whole army labored with the utmost diligence; a number of houses, or rather huts, were soon erected, and the whole strongly fortified. The infant settlement received the name of “_Villa rica de la Vera Cruz_;” “the rich town of the true cross.”