None of the old explorers have exactly had it easy of late, but few have suffered at the hands of our self-appointed guardians as much as Hernando Cortez. The bare mention of His name (it seems) requires a pejorative adjective ("the ruthless Cortez"). To the sensitive the world over, Cortez has become the quintessential "ugly European."

If you have been following these articles, I hope you are beginning to question the judgment of modern men in general and historians in particular. Whenever I run across a man that is universally condemned by our contemporaries, I generally suspect I have found a friend. In regard to Cortez, my suspicions were correct.