Page:The Conquest of Mexico Volume 1.djvu/500



Page 182 (2).—I omit the most extraordinary miracle of all,—though legal attestations of its truth were furnished the Court of Rome (See Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. i. p. 289),— namely, the resurrection of Montezuma's sister, Papantzin, four days after her burial, to warn the monarch of the approaching ruin of his empire. It finds credit with one writer, at least, in the nineteenth century!—See the note of Sahagun's Mexican editor, Bustamente, Hist. de Nueva España, tom. ii. p. 270.

Page 183 (1).—Lucan gives a fine enumeration of such prodigies witnessed in the Roman capital in a similar excitement. (Pharsalia, lib. i. v. 523 et seq.) Poor human nature is much the same everywhere. Machiavelli has thought the subject worthy of a separate chapter in his Discourses. The philosopher intimates a belief even in the existence of beneficent intelligences who send these portents as a sort of premonitories, to warn mankind of the coming tempest.—Discorsi sopra Tito Livio, lib. 1, cap. 56.

Page 186 (1).—From the chequered figure of some of these coloured cottons, Peter Martyr infers, the Indians were acquainted with chess! He notices a curious fabric made of the hair of animals, feathers, and cotton thread, interwoven together. "These feathers they interweave with the fur of rabbits, and, further, introduce cotton-fibre, producing a textile of so elaborate a technique that the process is very difficult to understand."—De Orbe Novo (Parisiis, 1587), dec. 5, cap. 10.

Page 186 (2).—Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 39.—Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. I.—Las Casas, Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap. 120.—Gomara, Crónica, cap. 27, ap. Barcia, tom. ii.—Carta de Vera Cruz, MS.—Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 2, lib. 5, cap. 5. Robertson cites Bernal Diaz as reckoning the value of the silver plate at 20,000 pesos or about £5000. (History of America, vol. ii. note 75.) But Bernal Diaz speaks only of the value of the gold plate, which he estimates at 20,000 pesos de oro, a different affair from the pesos, dollars, or ounces of silver, with which the historian confounds them. As the mention of the pesos de oro will often recur in these pages, it will be well to make the reader acquainted with its probable value. Nothing is more difficult than to ascertain the actual value of the currency of a distant age; so many circumstances occur to embarrass the calculation, besides the general depreciation of the precious metals, such as the adulteration of specific coins and the like. Señor Clemencin, the secretary of the Royal Academy of History, in the sixth volume of its Memorias, has computed with great accuracy the value of the different denominations of the Spanish currency at the close of the fifteenth century, the period just preceding that of the conquest of Mexico. He makes no mention of the peso de oro in his tables. But he ascertains the precise value of the gold ducat, which will answer our purpose as well. (Memorias de la Real Academia de Historia [Madrid, 1821], tom. vi. Ilust. 20.) Oviedo, a contemporary of the Conquerors, informs us that the peso de oro and the castellano were of the same value, and that was precisely one-third greater than the value of the ducat. (Hist. del Ind., lib. 6, cap. 8, ap. Ramusio, Navigationi et Viaggi (Venetia, 1565], tom. iii.) Now the ducat, as appears from Clemencin, reduced to our own currency, would be equal to eight dollars and seventy-five cents. The peso de oro, therefore, was equal to eleven dollars and sixty-seven cents, or two pounds, twelve shillings, and sixpence sterling. Keeping this in mind, it will be easy for the reader to determine the actual value in pesos de oro, of any sum that may be hereafter mentioned.

Page 187 (1).—"In truth a sight to be seen," exclaims Las Casas, who saw them with the Emperor Charles V., in Seville, in 1520. "All who saw those things, so rich, exhibiting so much craftsmanship and beauty that their like was never seen were (amazed)," etc. (Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap. 120.) "All this was well worth seeing," says Oviedo, who saw them in Valladolid, and describes the great wheels more minutely. (Hist. de las Indias, MS., loc cit.) The inquisitive Martyr, who examined them carefully, remarks yet more emphatically, "If human ingenuity has ever won honour in such arts, these will rightly bear off the palm. I am not indeed so much astonished by the gold and gems; I am amazed by the industry and application whereby craftsmanship has mastered its material. I have inspected a thousand forms and designs which I cannot