Page:The Conquest of Mexico Volume 2.djvu/427



Page 4 (1).—Solís regards this ceremony as supplying what was before defective in the title of the Spaniards to the country. The remarks are curious, even from a professed casuist: "Being as it were a supernatural sanction to the title afterwards established by right of arms, after just provocation, as we shall presently see. This was a remarkable circumstance, which contributed to the conquest of Mexico and helped to justify it, quite apart from those general considerations which in other regions have rendered war not only just but even legitimate and rational, as supplying the necessary opportunity for the introduction of the Gospel."—Conquista, lib. 4, cap. 3.

Page 6 (1).—Peter Martyr, distrusting some extravagance in this statement of Cortés, found it fully confirmed by the testimony of others: "The accounts are incredible. Nevertheless we must believe them when a man of such calibre dares to send written descriptions to the Emperor and to the Councillors of our College of the Indies. Besides, he adds that he omits much lest he become wearisome by reporting in such detail. Those who return to us from that country supply confirmation."—De Orbe Novo, dec. 5, cap. 3.

Page 7 (1).—Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 99. This estimate of the royal fifth is confirmed (with the exception of the four hundred ounces) by the affidavits of a number of witnesses cited on behalf of Cortés, to show the amount of the treasure. Among these witnesses, we find some of the most respectable names in the army, as Olid, Ordaz, Avila, the priests Olmedo and Diaz,—the last, it may be added, not too friendly to the general. The instrument, which is without date, is in the collection of Vargas Ponze.—Probanza fecha á pedimento de Juan de Lexalde, MS.

Page 8 1).—The quantity of silver taken from the American mines has exceeded that of gold in the ratio of forty-six to one. (Humboldt, Essai Politique, tom. iii. p. 401.) The value of the latter metal, says Clemencin, which, on the discovery of the New World, was only eleven times greater than that of the former, has now come to be sixteen times. (Memorias de la Real Acad, de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 20.) This does not vary materially from Smith's estimate made after the middle of the last century. (Wealth of Nations, book i. chap. 11.) The difference would have been much more considerable, but for the greater demand for silver for objects of ornament and use.

Page 8 (2).—Dr. Robertson preferring the authority, it seems, of Diaz, speaks of the value of the treasure as 600,000 pesos. (History of America, vol. ii. pp. 296, 298.) The value of the peso is an ounce of silver, or dollar, which, making allowance for the depreciation of silver, represented, in the time of Cortés, nearly four times its value at the present day. But that of the peso de oro was nearly three times that sum, or eleven dollars sixty-seven cents. (See ante, book ii. chap. 6, p. 199, note.) Robertson makes his own estimate, so much reduced below that of his original, an argument for doubting the existence, in any great quantity, of either gold or silver in the country. In accounting for the scarcity of the former metal in this argument, he falls into an error in stating that gold was not one of the standards by which the value of other commodities in Mexico was estimated.—Comp. ante, vol. i. p. 96.