Antonio de Mendoza

“ In many places there were meetings and assemblies to discuss the Ordinances, at which it was proposed to report to his Majesty [361] so that he might order their petitions to be entertained until he could be better informed; for the thing had been done on statements of infatuated friars. In New Spain, however, there was a man abounding in virtues and quick to perceive what was best both for the King's service and the pacification of the country, Don Antonio de Mendoza. With great patience and goodwill he ignored the first outburst of the people, waiting until the general excitement had abated ”

“ She bore him two sons, Rodrigo, who was once selected to be the husband of Lucrezia Borgia, and Diego, who was the grandfather of the princess of Eboli of the reign of Philip II (see Perez, Antonio.) By another lady of a Valladolid family he had a third son who afterwards emigrated to France. In 1468 he became bishop of Siguenza. In 1473 he was created cardinal, was promoted to the archbishopric of Seville and named chancellor of Castile. During the last years of the reign of King Henry IV. he was the partisan of the Princess Isabella, afterwards queen. ”

“ Now Carreras, under the guise of politics and liberalism, was a scoundrel of the deepest dye, and the unhappy state of Mendoza was the prey of thieves, robbers, traitors, and murderers, who formed his party. He was under a noble exterior a man without heart, pity, honour, or conscience. He aspired to nothing but tyranny, and though he would have made use of Gaspar Ruiz for his nefarious designs, yet he soon became aware that to propitiate the Chilian Government would answer his purpose better. ”

“ The campaign of Mendoza, which ended in the horrible tragedy of Pilar, brought on by the bad faith of Aldao, was to him the poetry, the idealization, the realization of his readings. He was only eighteen, a beardless youth, unknown to the world, but he lived in an ecstasy of enthusiasm, ready at any moment to be a hero, to sacrifice himself, or to die, in order to obtain the smallest result in the cause for which he fought,—which was liberty to all as well as to himself. ”

“ It cannot be said that he is at his best in these pseudo-classical performances, and he dares to eke out his hendecasyllabics by using a final palabra aguda; but the extreme brilliancy of the humour carries off all technical defects in the burlesque section of his poems, which are of the loosest gaiety, most curious in a retired proconsul. Yet, if Mendoza, who excelled in the old, felt compelled to pen his forty odd sonnets in the new style, how strong must have been its charm! ”

“ Why so early in the morning?"
"My dear Perico, the first thing that you must do is to get rid of this condescending tone. When there are people present, I am perfectly willing for you to condescend, and I will call you 'most illustrious lordship' if you like; but when we are alone, just remember that I am not your vassal."
"You are always just the same, Miguel," replied Mendoza, a little exasperated.
"That is the advantage that you have over me: I am always the same; you are always changing and playing a new and brilliant rôle in society. ”

“ Of the large number of viceroys sent out by the Kings of Spain to govern their new kingdom across the sea none was better fitted for the position than the first one, Mendoza. His many estimable qualities won upon people of all classes, and he paved the way for the future government of his successors by uniting the many apparently incongruous and inharmonious elements of society. ”

“ The most copious notice with which I am acquainted, of the life of Mendoza, is that attributed to the pen of Iñigo Lopez de Avila, and prefixed to the Valencian edition of the "Guerra de Granada," published in 1776. But his countrymen have been ever ready to do honour to the memory of one who, by the brilliant success which he achieved as a statesman, a diplomatist, a novelist, a poet, and an historian, has established a reputation for versatility of genius second to none in the literature of Spain. ”

“ MENDOZA, DIEGO HURTADO DE (1503–1575) , Spanish novelist, poet, diplomatist and historian, a younger son of the count of Tendillas, governor of Granada, was born in that city in 1503. The celebrated marquis of Santillana was his great-grandfather. On leaving the university of Salamanca, Mendoza abandoned his intention of taking orders, served under Charles V. in Italy, and attended lectures at the universities of Bologna, Padua and Rome. ”

“ To say that Mendoza succeeded were too much, but he did not altogether fail; and, despite his occasional Latinised construction, his Guerra de Granada lives not solely as a brilliant and picturesque transcription. It is also a masterly example of idiomatic [210] Castilian prose, published without the writer's last touches, and, as is plain, from mutilated copies. [15] Mendoza may not be a great historian: as a literary artist he is extremely great. ”

“ The friar Augustin de Tordesillas was one of the founders of the province of St. Gregory in Luzon. His narrative seems never to have been printed elsewhere. See Sbaralea's Supplement to Waddington, and N. Antonio's Bibliotheca Hispana Nova. ”

“ Scoff on, my lord, while yet thou hast the breath. Short-sighted fool! He thinks, because I rave not, clenching my hands or smiting my hot brow, that the barb does not rankle. True revenge is patient as the watchful alchymist, sagacious as the blood-hound on the scent, secret as death! ( Enter Mendoza. )
Mendoza? From the palace? Mendoza
Ay, from the palace; where dispute runs high upon De Lerma's counsel to the king, touching the Pope's new mandate. Hernando
Am I right? De Lerma spurn'd the mandate? Mendoza
And Gonzalez, 'Tis said, is for submission to the Pope. ”

“ It is, however, very certain that Mendoza was not only a brave soldier, but a man of very considerable capacity in civil affairs, although his inordinate arrogance interfered most seriously with his skill as a negotiator. He was, of course, watching with much fierceness the progress of these underhand proceedings between the French court and the rebellious subjects of his master, and using threats and expostulations in great profusion. "Mucio," too, the great stipendiary of Philip, was becoming daily more dangerous, and the adherents of the League were multiplying with great celerity. ”

“ Mendoza was not an imaginative poet; and it is observable, that when a person, not such by nature, deals in the ideal, the result is rather the ridiculous than the sublime. Acute, earnest, playful, passionate, but neither tender nor sublime, if we except a few of his minor love poems, we read Mendoza's verses rather to become acquainted with the man than seek the soul of poetry in his compositions. ”

“ Still Mendoza was not the aggressor: and his punishment was limited to a short imprisonment, where he amused himself by addressing the lady of his love in various redondillas.
Much of the latter part of his life was spent in retirement in his native city of Granada, given up to study and literature. He here composed the most esteemed of his prose works—the "History of the War of the Moriscos in Granada." The style of this work is exceedingly pure. He took the Latin authors Sallust and Cæsar for his models ”

“ The traveler who takes the seven-hundred-mile journey westward through the Camp, luxuriously housed in the coaches of the Great Western Railroad, comes upon a different scene and a different life when he reaches the ancient city of Mendoza in the foothills of the Andes. Here it was that San Martín recruited and organized his Army of Liberation, the army with which, emerging suddenly from its isolated hiding place, he startled the world by his crossing of the Andes to fall upon the unsuspecting Spanish. Mendoza is now the center of the wine and fruit industry. ”

“ Mendoza is not a temperance resort, for it is a great wine centre. This is the country of the grape, and it is this fruit that has brought wealth to Mendoza. All about the city are vineyards and meadows, and the outlines of the farms are marked by rows upon rows of graceful poplars. Millions of those poplars have beautified this country, which at one time was a barren waste, and would still be so were it not that man has harnessed the streams formed from the melting snows which rush down from the snow-clad peaks. ”

“ Mendoza, by nature firm, amiable, and just, seems nevertheless to have been a person who knew when it was necessary in a new country, to bend before the storm of popular opinion in order to avoid the destruction, not only of his own influence, but perhaps of society, civilization and the Spanish authorities themselves. ”

“ The halts at Teneriffe and at Rio de Janeiro had resulted in some dissensions among Mendoza's men, and the execution by the orders of the Chief of one of his most popular leaders had all but caused open mutiny at the latter place. Nevertheless, when his forces landed at the site of the present town of Buenos Aires, they constituted a formidable company of men, admirably equipped with everything that the science of the age could devise for the purpose of conquest and colonization, particularly the former. ”

“ One of his sayings was to the effect that—"An enemy who surrenders is a friend whom we ought to protect; it is a greater thing to give life than to destroy it." Sentiments of this kind were doubly commendable when, judging from their rarity, they could scarcely have been popular.
Notwithstanding his good intentions towards the Araucanians, Mendoza soon found himself involved in a struggle to the death with the now hereditary foes of his race, for the southern Indians—maintaining their reputation—proved themselves implacable, and would hear nothing of compromise. ”

“ MENDOZA, PEDRO GONZALEZ DE (1428–1495) , Spanish cardinal and statesman, was the fourth son of Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza, marquess of Santillana, and duke of Infantado. He was born at Guadalajara in New Castile, the chief lordship of his family, on the 3rd of May 1428. The house of Mendoza claimed to descend from the lords of Llodio in Alava, and to have been settled in Old Castile, in the 11th century. One chief of the house had been greatly distinguished at the battle of the Navas de Tolosa in 1212. Another had been Admiral of Castile in the reign of Alphonso the Wise. ”

“ A character so strongly marked would naturally attract the notice of a monarch, vigilant and clear-sighted, like Charles the Fifth; and as early as 1538, Mendoza was made his ambassador to the republic of Venice, then one of the leading powers of Europe. ”

“ If Kings wish to deceive, they begin by deceiving us the first!” So writes the renowned Mendoza to his brother-diplomatist, Zuñiga. Mendoza, one of the most illustrious of the political, military, and literary worthies of Old Spain, was Ambassador for Charles V. to Rome, and is still more celebrated as the author of Lazarillo de Tormes. ”

“ Cattle-raising, horse-breeding, wheat-growing, and meal preparation, although the staple industries of the Argentine, do not exhaust the list. Mendoza, situated at a point where the Pampas merge into the foot-hills of the Andes, is celebrated for its vineyards. Poplar trees give shelter from the cold mountain winds, and the scene might almost be laid in the Rhone valley. Woods, streams, and lakes give a diversity which is welcome to the traveller who comes from across the plains. Mendoza has plenty of wide streets and low one-story houses. ”

“ How easy it is for a man high in rank to win friends! Now, here I am! He gives me merely a natural and kindly welcome, and says a few courteous phrases, and I am ready to die for him!"
"You must not neglect to write to the general immediately," said Mendoza, gravely.
"You are a man of ice, Perico! For you there are no friendships nor hatreds; no men are congenial or antipathetic. From all you take what you need, and go your way.... Perhaps you are right."
XVIII.
"You aren't vexed with me, Maximina, are you? The idea of leaving you alone all day!" he said, as he came to his wife's bed. ”

“ From this period Dan’s life no longer belongs to the history of the ring. We may, however, observe that for several years he supported a large family, a wife and eleven children, as a publican, keeping the Admiral Nelson, in Whitechapel. He died on the 3rd of September, 1836, among his “peoplesh” in the East, in the region where he had been so long the milling star, at the advanced age of 73.
Mendoza was, in company, a shrewd, intelligent, and communicative man. As a scientific professor of the art of self-defence it was Mendoza who trod most immediately in the steps of Broughton. ”

“ For the purpose of pursuing this, our work, there is no need to state more than that the Spaniards who accompanied Mendoza had but recently come from Spain, and did not understand the ways of the New World, nor what men have to surmount there; so that many of them died. The survivors, after their Governor's death, were gentlemen and men of honour, for death takes more quickly those of low degree than the noble ”

“ Old Mendoza was a very simple-hearted man, as brave men often are, and a singularly spotless life spent chiefly in war and austere devotion had left him more than ignorant of the ways of the world. He had few friends, chiefly old comrades of his own age who did not live in the palace, and he detested gossip. Had he known what the woman was with whom he was speaking, he would have risked Dolores' life rather than give her into the keeping of Doña Ana. But to him, the latter was simply the wife of old Don Ruy Gomez de Silva, the Minister of State, and she was the head of the Queen's household. ”

“ It is refreshing to be able to speak well of one of Spain's rulers in America. Mendoza made every effort to carry out the instructions he had received. The duties of his position had been rendered somewhat less difficult of performance by the previous exertions of the second audiencia in the work of reform; nevertheless it was no easy matter to rule with satisfactory results a community divided into factions, whose opposing interests were asserted with jealous claims of merit and equal expectations of support. ”