Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/128

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francisco lopez de gomara

The Historia General de las Indias and the Cronica de la Conquista de Nueva-España, which were published in Saragossa, 1552, were at first received with the greatest favour by the public, and other editions as well as translations into Italian and French rapidly followed. This success, however, was short-lived, as Gomara's facts and appreciations were promptly impugned, first by Bernal Diaz del Castillo, who, in publishing his book, called it The True History of the Conquest, in contradistinction to Gomara's false and fanciful one.

In 1553 the Spanish Government took steps to suppress the work, and withdraw it from circulation, imposing a fine of 200,000 maravedis upon any one who should print or sell it in the future. This rigid prohibition was not revoked until 1727. Concerning Gomara's birth and antecedents, nothing is known, and, likewise, neither the date nor place of his death is recorded: "He came like water and like wind he went.' He is said to have held the Chair of Rhetoric at the University of Alcala, and afterwards to have passed several years in Rome. In 1540 he entered the service of Fernando Cortes, then Marques del Valle, and recently returned to Spain. Dr. Robertson surmises that he then began his historical work, under the inspiration, if not at the dictation, of his patron, and this would seem to be likely. He is undoubtedly the apologist of Cortes, and, although the latter was dead some years when the work was published, the first part is dedicated to the Emperor, and the second to Don Martin Cortes, second Marques del Valle.

But, all reservations admitted, the work of Gomara illustrates a most important and interesting period of history, and, if he was constrained to treat his hero leniently, he nevertheless had access to a mass of original information, by which he profited with excellent results. His style is agreeable and scholarly, revealing a writer of wide culture, gifted with unusual knowledge of astronomy, geography, and history. Although he never was in America (as far as is Digitized by Microsoft ®