Page:The Conquest of Mexico Volume 1.djvu/503

 Page 201 (1).—This is Las Casas' estimate. (Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 3, cap. 121.) Torquemada hesitates between twenty, fifty, and one hundred and fifty thousand, each of which he names in different times! (Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. p. 27, nota.) The place wat gradually abandoned, after the Conquest, for others, in a more favourable position, probably, for trade. Its ruins were visible at the close of the last century.—See Lorenzana, Hist. de Nueva España, p. 39, nota.

Page 202 (1).—The courteous title of doña is usually given by the Spanish chroniclers to this accomplished Indian.

Page 203 (1).—The historian, with the aid of Clavigero, himself a Mexican, may rectify frequent blunders of former writers in the orthography of Aztec names. Both Robertson and Solis spell the name of this place Quiabislan. Blunders in such a barbarous nomenclature must be admitted to be very pardonable.

Page 207 (1).—Carta de Vera Cruz, MS.—Bernal Diaz, Conquista, cap. 48.—Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 1.—Declaracion de Montejo, MS. Notwithstanding the advantage of its situation, La Villa Rica was abandoned in a few years for a neighbouring position to the south, not far from the mouth of the Antigua. The second settlement was known by the name of Vera Cruz Vieja, "Old Vera Cruz." Early in the seventeenth century this place also was abandoned for the present city, Nueva Vera Cruz, or "New Vera Cruz," at it is called. Of the true cause of these successive migrations we are ignorant. If, at is pretended, it was on account of the vomito, the inhabitants, one would suppose, can have gained little by the exchange. (See Humboldt, Essai Politique, tom. ii. p. 210.) A want of attention to these changes has led to much confusion and inaccuracy in the ancient maps. Lorenzana has not escaped them in his chart and topographical account of the route of Cortés.

Page 210 (1).—Herrera, dec. 2, lib. 5, cap. 13.—Las Casas, Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap. 122. Herrera has put a very edifying harangue, on this occasion, into the mouth of Cortés, which savours much more of the priest than the soldier. Does he not confound him with Father Olmedo?

Page 211 (1).—"This," says the Letter of Vera Cruz, "some of us have witnessed, and those who have say that it is truly the most terrible and shocking sight they have ever seen." Still more strongly speaks Bernal Diaz (Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 51). The Letter computes that there were fifty or sixty persons thus butchered in each of the teocallis every year, giving an annual consumption, in the countries which the Spaniards had then visited, of three or four thousand victims! (Carta de Vera Cruz, MS.) However loose this arithmetic may be, the general fact is appalling.

Page 215 (1).—Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 53.—Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS. cap. 82.—Carta de Vera Cruz, MS. A complete inventory of the articles received from Montezuma is contained in the Carta de Vera Cruz.—The following are a few of the items:

Two collars made of gold and precious stones. A hundred ounces of gold ore, that their Highnesses might see in what state the gold came from the mines. Two birds made of green feathers, with feet, beaks, and eyes of gold,—and, in the same piece with them, animals of gold, resembling snails. A large alligator's head of gold A bird of green feathers, with feet, beak, and eyet of gold.

Two birds made of thread and feather work, having the quills of their wings and tails, their feet, eyes, and the ends of their beaks, of gold,—standing upon two reeds covered with gold, which are raised on balls of feather-work and gold embroidery, one white and the other yellow, with seven tassels of feather work hanging from each of them.