America presume to vie with the conqueror of the great Mexican Empire?

_Penn_.--Friend, I pretend to no glory--the Lord preserve me from it. All
glory is His; but this I say, that I was His instrument in a more
glorious work than that performed by thee--incomparably more glorious.

_Cortez_.--Dost thou not know, William Penn, that with less than six
hundred Spanish foot, eighteen horse, and a few small pieces of cannon, I
fought and defeated innumerable armies of very brave men; dethroned an
emperor who had been raised to the throne by his valour, and excelled all
his countrymen in the science of war, as much as they excelled all the
rest of the West Indian nations? That I made him my prisoner in his own
capital; and, after he had been deposed and slain by his subjects,
vanquished and took Guatimozin, his successor, and accomplished my
conquest of the whole empire of Mexico, which I loyally annexed to the
Spanish Crown? Dost thou not know that, in doing these wonderful acts, I
showed as much courage as Alexander the Great, as much prudence as Caesar?
That by my policy I ranged under my banners the powerful commonwealth of
Tlascala, and brought them to assist me in subduing the Mexicans, though
with the loss of their own beloved independence? and that, to consummate
my glory, when the Governor of Cuba, Velasquez, would have taken my
command from me and sacrificed me to his envy and jealousy, I drew from
him all his forces and joined them to my own, showing myself as superior
to all other Spaniards as I was to the Indians?

_Penn_.--I know very well that thou wast as fierce as a lion and as
subtle as a serpent. The devil perhaps may place thee as high in his
black list of heroes as Alexander or Caesar. It is not my business to
interfere with him in settling thy rank. But hark thee, friend Cortez.
What right hadst thou, or had the King of Spain himself, to the Mexican