The population of Hayti at the advent of Columbus was estimated to have been a million, yet, before many years had elapsed, the colonists were forcibly depopulating the smaller islands to provide a supply of labor sufficient for their limited requirements. It was the people of the mainland who might have been expected and who actually did offer the stoutest resistance. No more wonderful campaign is recorded in military history than that conducted by Cortes against the Mexicans, and it may be doubted whether there was another man living who could have carried it to a successful issue. Conspicuous as a general, he was unmatched as a diplomatist, whether in dealing with his own soldiers, his allies, or his enemies. Who else in that age would have dreamed, after defeating the Tlascalans against fearful odds, of enlisting them against their deadly foes the Aztecs, and so humoring them that they never swerved in their loyalty? Or who could have traded on the superstition, of Montezuma, so as to gain complete control over his mind, and extract his treasures, valued at something like seven and a half million dollars, without a blow? But Montezuma once removed, the people, who had long been accustomed to render him an unquestioned obedience, and to submit themselves to his slightest command, were free to follow leaders who evinced more spirit; and the death of that monarch was speedily followed by the _noche triste_ with all its attendant horrors. To be captured alive, as many of the Spanish soldiers were, meant the most terrible of all ends, for they were hurried away to the temples, and their palpitating hearts torn from their living bodies, to be offered as a propitiation to the national deities. Yet even this did not disconcert Cortes and his brave adherents, who began immediately to concert another plan of campaign. The difficulties they had first encountered were as nothing compared to those they had still to face, for they had to deal with a victorious and determined foe, instead of a beaten and depressed one. Every obstacle, however, was overcome; and with the energetic assistance of allies, who little dreamed they were sealing their own doom and forever sacrificing their independence, the powerful and rich kingdom of Mexico was finally brought into complete subjection to the Castilian crown.