Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 31.djvu/545

Rh His whole narrative bears the stamp of reliability, and the student may easily from internal evidence and comparison deduct approximate truth."

Andres de Tapia, on the other hand, describes the march against Mexico as well as all that was seen and done upon its entry, and although apparently a panegyrist of the conqueror, he is absolutely silent concerning the elaborate silver presents which he is said to have received. Neither does he testify to the bronze, lead, and tin of the Mexican market. Our confidence in Cortes and Bernal Diaz, the other two eye-witnesses, being impaired, these facts should be given no little significance. There is one instance, however, in which Tapia mentions silver, and in this he says that "Montezuma's treasures of gold, silver, and greenstones, of not very fine quality, were shown to himself and another Spaniard in the Casa de las Aves," or the House of the Birds.

Another contemporary writer who is of unquestionable authority is Bernadino de Sahagun. He was a Franciscan priest, and came to Mexico eight years after the conquest. He studied the native tongue, and became more proficient in it than any other Spaniard. He studied also the motives, lives, and thoughts of the natives and got from them their hieroglyphics which he expressed in the Roman character. His work is composed from the evidence in large part of Aztec eye-witnesses, and these are mingled, though somewhat confusedly, with recollections from old Spanish soldiers. He gives considerable space to the arts of the natives and their manner of work, and though he speaks of their work in gold, and this as performed with the hammer, he fails to furnish any information in regard to silver, bronze, and tin. Now, if the ancient Mexicans separated tin from its ore and knew how to fuse it with copper to make bronze, it must certainly be considered strange that Sahagun so soon after the conquest neither saw a relic thereof, nor obtained from the surviving Aztecs any account of their skill in this regard. Sahagun, moreover, in his twelfth book, gives a full description of the conquest. Herein he describes in detail the presents of gold, feathers, etc., which Montezuma made at different times to Cortes, but he is careful to omit all mention of any of silver. Not a word about that wonderful silver disk that represented the moon, neither any mention of what we deem still more wonderful, namely, that lead, tin, and bronze were seen on sale in the marketplace of the conquered city. He would indeed be remiss in his duty as an historian should he omit all mention of a feature so singular and important were he confident that it was true. All that he has to narrate, concerning the metals that the Spaniards saw in Mexico, is that Montezuma showed them a hall where were stored bright feathers, "and many rich trinkets of plumes, gold, and stones," and then when the Spaniards expressed their desire to see the contents of his private chamber, which was called "Totocalco," or the House of the Birds,