Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/351

 

these few casual words, Cortes refers to the existence of one of the chief characters in the splendid drama of the conquest—his Indian mistress Marina, without whose aid the success of the Spaniards is hardly thinkable. He mentions her once again in his Fifth Letter, but she appears in his narrative only under the vague figure of "the interpreter whom I had with me."

There are almost as many different accounts of Marina's birth and childhood as there were writers to compose them, but all agree that she was of noble lineage, which Herrera says was evident from her superior bearing and manners.

Senñr Garcia Icazbalceta in Note 37 to the second of the Dialogos de Cervantes, gives us a critical study of Marina. The conclusions of this learned writer admit the version given by Bernal Diaz, in spite of the fact that this contradicts those of his contemporaries. Las Casas and Gomara, the latter of whom must have had his information from his patron Cortes, himself. Clavigero adopted Bernal Diaz as his authority, as did also Solis. Prescott noticed the differences among the early writers, but refrained from pronouncing in favour of any one of them. All these authorities, however, were anterior to Garcia Icazbalceta. It would be impossible for any student of history to-day to neglect his valuable work in Mexican archives, or to ignore his conclusions, which may be safely followed and especially in this instance, in which they are sustained on the narrative of Bernal Diaz. Orozco y Berra has also eliminated some of the conflicting statements concerning Marina by an ingenious dissertation on the habitual confusion of the spelling of Mexican names by the Spaniards, and particularly by those writers who, never having been in Mexico, were passably ignorant of Indian nomenclature and Mexican geography, and took their information second-hand, often from illiterate or inaccurate persons.

Marina was the daughter of the lord of Painalla, in the province of Coatzocoalco. Her mother married a second time, and, upon the birth of a son, she agreed with her husband to dispose of her daughter, in order that the son might inherit their property. This plan was effected by giving the young girl to some Indians of Xicalango, and publishing her death, the body of a slave's child being substituted to deceive the people. The Xicalango Indians sold the girl to others in