Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 31.djvu/544

528 Thus there is scarcely a doubt that, in the process of copying, changes greater or less were made; and, since the work had to receive the sanction of the Inquisition, it is not unlikely that it was changed to conform, in certain necessary and possible features, to the records already licensed which emphasized the conquest as a triumph of the Church. It is not unlikely, also, that by this time a better knowledge of the conquered land and people had led many to doubt much that Cortes and Gomora had described, and, though dead fifty years, Bernal Diaz was thus brought forward as a convenient corroborative authority.

In this connection it is not a little significant that Bernal Diaz is an extremely zealous churchman, and that the expressions which he, an unlearned soldier, uses, correspond almost precisely to those which characterize the writings of the priests of that period. His narrative is filled throughout with religious observations and considerable emphasis is given to acts done in aid of the Church.

Moreover, we notice that he resents the imputations of Las Casas of inhumanity and inaccuracy. This is especially noteworthy when we consider that while at Guatemala in 1560 he could not have known what Las Casas had written, for the latter's "Historia General" was not completed when that author died in 1561, and then his injunction that no one should use it for forty years after his death must have been strictly obeyed.

But whether the Remon edition of Bernal Diaz be a true copy or not, we can not at any rate reconcile our knowledge of Mexican topography and resources with much that he therein relates; and as for his elaborate particulars of Mexican art and civilization, they are so plainly idealistic that our common sense forbids us to believe them. Even Mr. Prescott contends that "the more intimate our acquaintance with his narrative the less is our confidence in the accuracy of his details."

Besides Cortes and Bernal Diaz, however, there are two other authorities who were eye-witnesses of Mexican art before the conquest. These were the so-called Anonymous Conqueror and Andres de Tapia. Both were Cortes's captains, and both have left personal accounts of what they saw, which Icazbalceta has recently taken from their obscurity and published in his "Coleccion de Documentos para la Historia de Mexico." The Anonymous Conqueror gives a full description of Mexico, its country, resources, people, and customs, but, in his detailed account of the Mexican market-place, its separate stalls and the various articles on sale therein, there is no mention of any metal except gold. Mr. Hubert Bancroft has properly said of this writer that "his method and language denote intelligence and inspire confidence. Dealing wholly with native institutions he seems to have no desire as is the case with some to magnify native strength and resources for the sake of raising the estimate of the deeds of himself and comrades.