Captain Cortes

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EXT. PORT - DAY

Above the ships largest mast a banner standard unfurls like a ribbon. Red and black velvrt with gold trim. the royal arms of Spain with a cross on each side. Beneath the Latin inscription: In hoc signum vinces!

Translated: "Thru this Sign We Shall Conquer."

Cortes steps onto the docks. Chest held high and his legs somewhat bull-legged but well set. He has strong arms and is of good proportion.

The Captain gazes up at his ship. His face ashy and not very merry. His eyes grave but with a somewhat loving glance. He rubs his dark sparse beard and starts off.

The dock is in a frenzy of activity. Spaniards and Indians lose no detail in perpetration for departure.

Native women adorned with flowers, monks administer their …show more content…

FIRST MATE
I have the manifest Captain General.

He hands it to Cortes.

CORTES
Eleven ships, five-hundred soldiers, one hundred sailors, sixteen horses, thirty-two crossbows, thirteen muskets, four falconets, one large canon. -- What are we starting a war?

He hands the back the manifest.

CORTES
(studying the coast)
We are. And we are entering a kingdom of which we know nothing... A forbidden world.

Cortes looks to the sea. Nothing but vast ocean except for costal jungle.

Two rough soldiers watch Cortes at a distance. Loading weaponry onto the ship. Saying things they would never say in his presence.

SOLDIER 1
I never did see such an inauspicious, selfish-minded, calculating individual.

SOLDIER 2
What does inauspicious mean?

SOLDIER 1
It's a fools errand. You will see. I did not come to this place to be sacrificed on some pagan altar.

Soldier #2 clasps his chest at the thought ... Swallows hard ...

SOLDIER #1
(unqualing eye at Cortes)
Death lies beyond the coast and Mary and all her siants will not save you.

SOLDIER 3
(at a distance)
Gold can be found in any outpost of the new world. It's as common as cats where I am from. No. It is not gold the Captain

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