Page:The Conquest of Mexico Volume 1.djvu/505

 Page 216 (1).—Peter Martyr, pre-eminent above his contemporaries for the enlightened views he took of the new discoveries, devotes half a chapter to Indian manuscripts, in which he recognised the evidence of a civilisation analogous to the Egyptian. —De Orbe Novo, dec. 4, cap. 8.

Page 217 (1).—Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 54-57.—Gomara, Cronica, cap. 40.— Herrara, Hist. General, dec. 2, lib. 5, cap. 14.—Carta de Vera Cruz, MS. Martyr copious information was chiefly derived from hit conversations with Alaminos and the two envoys, on their arrival at court.—De Orbe Novo, dec. 4, cap. 6, et alibi; also Idem, Opus Epistolarum (Amastelodami, 1670), ep. 650.

Page 220 (1).—Perhaps the most remarkable of these examples is that of Julian, who, in his unfortunate Assyrian invasion, burnt the fleet which had carried him up the Tigris. The story is told by Gibbon, who shows very satisfactorily that the fleet would have proved a hindrance rather than a help to the emperor in his further progress.—See History of the Decline and Fall (vol. ix. p. 177), of Milman's excellent edition.

Page 220 (2).—The account given in the text of the destruction of the fleet is not that of Bernal Diaz, who states it to have been accomplished, not only with the knowledge, but entire approbation of the army, though at the suggestion of Cortés. (Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 58.) This version is sanctioned by Dr. Robertson (History of America, vol. ii. pp. 253, 254). One should be very slow to depart from the honest record of the old soldier, especially when confirmed by the discriminating judgment of the historian of America. But Cortés expressly declares in his letter to the emperor that he ordered the vessels to be sunk, without the knowledge of his men, from the apprehension, that, if the means of escape were open, the timid and disaffected might, at some future time, avail themselves of them. (Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 41.) The cavaliers Montejo y Puertocarrero, on their visit to Spain, stated, in their depositions, that the general destroyed the fleet on information received from the pilots. (Declaraciones, MSS.) Narvaez, in his accusation of Cortés, and Las Casas, speak of the act in terms of unqualified reprobation, charging him, moreover, with bribing the pilots to bore holes in the bottoms of the ships, in order to disable them. (Demanda de Narvaez, MS.—Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap. 122.) The same account of the transaction, though with a very different commentary as to its merits, is repeated by Oviedo (Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 2), Gomara (Crónica, cap. 42), and Peter Martyr (De Orbe Novo, dec. 5, cap. 1), all of whom had access to the best sources of information.

The affair, so remarkable as the act of one individual, becomes absolutely incredible, when considered as the result of so many independent wills. It is not improbable, that Bernal Diaz, from his known devotion to the cause, may have been one of the few to whom Cortés confided his purpose. The veteran, in writing his narrative, many years after, may have mistaken a part for the whole, and in his zeal to secure to the army a full share of the glory of the expedition, too exclusively appropriated by the general (a great object, as he tells us, of his history), may have distributed among his comrades the credit of an exploit, which, in this instance, at least, properly belonged to their commander.—Whatever be the cause of the discrepancy, his solitary testimony can hardly be sustained against the weight of contemporary evidence from such competent sources.

Page 229 (1).—"Cabra coja no tenga siesta."

Page 230 (1).—Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 1.—Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, pp. 42-45.—Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 59, 60.

Page 231 (1).—Gomara, Crónica, cap. 44.—Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 33.—Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 61. The number of the Indian auxiliaries stated in the text is much larger than that allowed by either Cortés or Diaz. But both these actors in the drama show too obvious a desire to magnify their own prowess, by exaggerating the numbers of their foes, and diminishing their own, to be entitled to much confidence in their estimates.