Page:The Conquest of Mexico Volume 1.djvu/519

 Page 344 (2).—Gomara, Crónica, cap. 71.—Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 2, lib. 7, cap. 9. The authorities call it "tiger," an animal not known in America. I have ventured to substitute the "ocelotl" tlalocelotl of Mexico, a native animal, which, being of the same family, might easily be confounded by the Spaniards with the tiger of the Old Continent.

Page 345 (1).—Toribio, Hist, de los Indios, MS., Parte 3, cap. 7.—Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 2, lib. 7, cap. 9.—Gomara, Crónica, cap. 71.—Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 91.—Oviedo, Hist. de Las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 5, 46.—Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, pp. 111-114.

Page 346 (1).—The ludicrous effect—if the subject be not too grave to justify the expression— of a literal belief in the doctrine of Transubstantiation in the mother country, even at this day, is well illustrated by Blanco White.—Letters from Spain (London, 1822), Lett. 1.

Page 348 (1).—Martyr, De Orbe Novo, dec. 5, cap. 3.—Gomara, Crónica, cap. 66.—Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 5.—Gonzalo de las Casas, MS., Parte 1, cap. 24. Cortés, in his brief notes of this proceeding, speaks only of the interview with Montezuma in the Spanish quarters, which he makes the scene of the preceding dialogue.—Bernal Diaz transfers this to the subsequent meeting in the palace. In the only fact of importance, the dialogue itself, both substantially agree.

Page 349 (1).—"Many are of opinion," says Father Acosta, "that, if the Spaniards had continued the course they began, they might easily have disposed of Montezuma and his kingdom, and introduced the law of Christ, without much bloodshed."—Lib. 7, cap. 25.

Page 357 (1).—The lake, it seems, had perceptibly shrunk before the Conquest, from the testimony of Motolinia, who entered the country soon after.—Toribio, Hist. de los Indios, MS., Parte 3, cap. 6.

Page 357 (2).—Humboldt, Essai Politique, tom. ii. p. 95. Cortés supposed there were regular tides in this lake. (Rel. Seg., ap. Lorenzana, p. 102.) This sorely puzzles the learned Martyr (De Orbe Novo, dec. 5, cap. 3), as it has more than one philosopher since, whom it has led to speculate on a subterraneous communication with the ocean! What the general called "tides" was probably the periodical swells caused by the prevalence of certain regular winds.

Page 358 (1).—Humboldt has given a minute account of this tunnel, which he pronounces one of the most stupendous hydraulic works in existence, and the completion of which, in its present form, does not date earlier than the latter part of the last century.—See his Essai Politique, tom. ii. p. 105 et seq.

Page 358 (2).—Humboldt, tom. ii. p. 875 et seq.—Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. p. 153.

Page 359 (1).—Toribio, Hist. de los Indios, MS. Parte 3, cap. 8. Cortés, indeed, speaks of four causeways. (Rel. Seg., ap. Lorenzana, p. 102.) He may have reckoned an arm of the southern one leading to Cojohuacan, or possibly the great aqueduct of Chapoltepec.

Page 359 (2).—Ante, p. 15.

Page 360 (1).—Toribio, Hist. de los Indios, MS., Parte 3, cap. 8.—Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 108.—Oviedo, Hist. de Las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 10, 11.—Rel. d'un gent., ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 309.

Page 360 (2).—Martyr was struck with the resemblance. "As is recorded concerning the famous city of the Venetians, that it was built upon an islet which appeared in that part of the Adriatic gulf."—Martyr, De Orbe Novo, dec. 5, cap. 10.