COKTES. 450 COBTONA. cannon, engaged the vast numl>er of canoes on the lake. For three months the Aztecs defended their homes stubborn!}-. Street by street was taken by the Spaniard.s, who were obliged to tear down eacli • house as soon as they had stormed it, to prevent the natives from returning to the attack. At last, on August 13, the chief, Guateniozin, who had been the prineijjal organizer of the de- fense, was captured while trying to escape in a canoe, and the war ended. Cortes promptly set to work to repair the loss he had caused. The ruins of the city were used to fill in the marsliy ground so as to afford a secure foundation for new edifices. Colonists were brought from Spain, and in a very short time the City of Jlexico became the principal Euro- pean city in America. Numerous expeditions were sent off in all directions, to Tampico, across Honduras to the Gulf Coast, and to the Pacific, where Cortes established a shipyard in which were built the vessels he used later in his ex- plorations of the Pacific Coast. ileanwhile his enemies in Cuba and Spain were planning Cortes's destruction. Officials were sent to ilexico to investigate his acts and supersede him. but he succeeded in persuading them to jeturn without disturbing him. In 1528, how- ever, when Estrada arrived with explicit orders to take over the government, Cortes yielded with- out opposition and took ship for Spain. There he was welcomed with royal honors, was created Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca, the fairest domain in the New World, and was reappointed Captain-General, although not restored to the civil governorship of Mexico. He married the daughter of the Count of Aguilar and niece of the Duke of Bejar. In 1530 Cortes re- turned to ISIexico, where he amused him- self for the next ten years with schemes for further conquests. But the civil govern- ment being in other hands, lie found himself constantly checked in his activity, his property detained from him, his rights interfered with, and his prestige rapidly waning. In 1536 he discovered Lower California, and explored the Pacific coasts of Mexico, but no second treasure- trove awaited him. In 1539 Coronado secured the right to seek for the 'Seven Cities' of Marcos de Niza, and in disgust Cort&s went back to com- plain to the Court. He was received with honor, but could secure no substantial assistance toward recovering his rights or his property. Joining an expedition to Algiers, he was shipwrecked, losing a large part of his fortune. He then retired to a small estate near Seville, where he died, December 2, 1547. There is no good biog- raphy of Cortes. Prescott's Conquest of Mexico is, so far as Cortes is concerned, little more than an admirer's abstract of the conqueror's official dispatches, which may be consulted in Folsom's translation (New York, 1843). The celebrated "Fifth Letter," describing Cortes's adventurous trip across Honduras in the winter of 1524, is in the Hakluyt Society Series for 1868. CORTES, .Tosfi Domingo (c.1830-84). A Chilean author, born at Coquimbo. He was suc- cessively Journalist, member of the Chilean lega- tion in Belgium, and director-general of libraries in Bolivia. He published anthologies, histories, and biographical works, such as Diccionario hio- grdfico americano (1876); Historia de Bolivia; Los revolucionarios de la independencia de Chile; and Jiepuhlica de Mcjico (1872). COR'TEX (Lat., bark). That region of a stem or root which occurs between the central vascular region {stele) and the epidermis. In those stems which increase in diameter each year, the cortex becomes very much modified by the development of cork cells, being then usually called 'bark.' See Anatomy of Plants. CORTINA, kor-te'na, Juan Nepomuceno (1830 — ). A Mexican soldier and brigand, born in La Higuera, State of Tamaulipas. During the Slexican War he organized a band of cowboy guerrillas, later incorporated in the Mexican army. He fought at Palo Alto, rose to the rank of captain, but; at the conclusion of the war was refused a commission in the regular army. Thereupon he turned smuggler. Later he rose to l>e a general in the liberal-revolutionist forces, but after his defeat by General Hinojosa was forced to escape to the United States. From 1859 to 1803 he held sway on the frontier, devastating the country and making such oflicial appoint- ments as he saw fit. He supported the cause of Maximilian in 1864, in 1867 again joined the Republicans, and in 1869 was appointed, by Juarez, federal chief of Tamaulipas. In 1876 he was arrested by General Canales, but instead of being executed, as General Diaz had directed, was incarcerated without trial in the military prison of Santiago Tlalteloleo. CORTINA'RItrS. See Fungi, Edible, and Plate. CORT'LAND. A city and county-seat of Cortland County, X. Y., 37 miles south of Syra- cuse; on the Tiougluiioga River, and on the Lackawanna and the Lehigh Valley railroads (Map: New York, D 3) . It is the seat of a State normal school, and, as a manufacturing centre, produces extensively wire, wire-cloth, carriages and wagons, carriage-trimmings, drop-forgings, door and window screens, wall-paper, etc. The government, under a charter of 1900, is vested in a mayor, elected biennially, a municipal coun- cil, and administrative boards and officials ap- pointed by the executive, the appointments, ex- cept the board of education, being subject to the consent of the council. First settled in 1792, Cortland was included in the township of Homer until set off as Cortlandville in 1829. Population, in 1890, .8590: in 1900, 9014. COBTONA, kor-tr>'n;i. A city in the Prov- ince of Arezzo. Central Italy, situated 2170 feet above the sea, 72 miles southeast of Florence and 4 miles north of Lake Trasimeno (ancient Trasi- menus) ("Map: Italy, F 4). It has well-pre- served Cyclopean walls, 8500 feet in circum- ference, the ruins of a temple of Bacchus, a museum of Etruscan antiquities assembled by the Etruscan Academy, founded in 1726; a cathedral containing paintings by Luca Sig- uorelli (q.v.), who was born here in 1441, as was Cortona (q.v.) in 1596. The thirteenth-cen- tury church of San Domenico also contains excellent paintings. The ancient Cortona. called Kyrtonia l>y Polybius, was the strongest of the twelve cities of the Etruscan League. As a Roman colony it lost its importance, but in the eleventh century again prospered. It sided mostly with the Ghihellines, came into the possession of the Casale family in the fourteenth century, in 1409 was given by the last of the house to King
