Page:The Conquest of Mexico Volume 1.djvu/521

 Page 373 (1).—If the Historian will descend but a generation later for his authorities, he may find materials for as good a chapter as any in Sir John Mandeville or the Arabian nights.

Page 374 (1).—"One regrets to record, in connection with so great a sovereign, the vanity exhibited by a constant change of costume, and the desire for flattery only satisfied by the prostration of the crowd." (Livy, Hist., lib. 9, cap. 18.) The remarks of the Roman historian in reference to Alexander, after he was infected by the manners of Persia, fit equally well the Aztec emperor.

Page 377 (1).—"Jewells of gold and silver and precious stones besides feather-works and gold and silver embroidery, wrought with such consummate skill that the comprehension of them, let alone their imitation, is beyond human ingenuity." (Carta del Lic. Zuazo, MS.) The licentiate then enumerates several of these elegant pieces of mechanism. Cortés is not less emphatic in his admiration: "Reproductions of natural forms in gold, silver, hard-stone and feather-work so accurate that, as regards those of gold and silver, no goldsmith in the world could produce better; while, as regards the stone-cutting, the imagination cannot conceive with what instruments they attained such perfection; and as for the feather-work, that such perfection of technic could be produced by wax and brush alone." (Rel. Seg., ap. Lorenzana, p 110.) Peter Martyr, a less prejudiced critic than Cortés, and who saw and examined many of these golden trinkets afterwards in Castile, bears the same testimony to the exquisite character of the workmanship, which, he says, far surpassed the value of the material.—De Orbe Novo, dec. 5, cap. 10.

Page 377 (2).—Herrera makes the unauthorised assertion, repeated by Solis, that the Mexicans were unacquainted with the value of the cochineal, till it was taught them by the Spaniards. (Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 4, lib. 8, cap. 11.) The natives, on the contrary, took infinite pains to rear the insect on plantations of the cactus, and it formed one of the staple tributes to the crown from certain districts.—See the tribute-rolls, ap. Lorenzana, Nos. 23, 24.—Hernandez, Hist. Plantarum, lib. 6, cap. 116.—Also, Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. i. p. 114, nota.

Page 377 (3).—Ante, p. 69.

Page 378 (1).—Zuazo, who seems to have been nice in these matters, concludes a paragraph of dainties with the following tribute to the Aztec cuisine: "There were on sale eggs, boiled, raw or in omelette form, and a great variety of the stews which they know how to prepare; and many soups besides, and pastry, such do not exist, nor can be found, in the meagre kitchens of Medina, nor elsewhere in Tlamencos, where, so it is said, such merchandise could not be seen."— Carta, MS.

Page 378 (2).—Ample details—many more than I have thought it necessary to give—of the Aztec market of Tlatelolco, may be found in the writings of all the old Spaniards who visited the capital.—Among others, see Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, pp. 103-105.—Toribio, Hist. de los Indios, MS., Parte 3, cap. 7.—Carta del Lic. Zuazo, MS.—Rel. d'un gent., ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 309.—Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 92.

Page 378 (3).—Zuazo raises it to 80,000! (Carta, MS.) Cortés to 60,000 (Rel. Seg., ubi supra.) The most modest computation is that of the "Anonymous Conqueror," who says from 40,000 to 50,000. "And on market-day, which is held every five days, between forty and fifty thousand people assemble" (Rel. d'un gent., ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 309); a confirmation, by the bye, of the supposition that the estimated population of the capital, found in the Italian version of this author, is a misprint. He would hardly have crowded an amount equal to the whole of it into the market.

Page 380 (1).—Humboldt, Essai Politique, tom. ii. p. 40. On paving the square, not long ago, round the modern cathedral, there were found large blocks of sculptured stone buried between thirty and forty feet deep in the ground.—Ibid. loc. cit.