Page:The Conquest of Mexico Volume 2.djvu/457

 Page 296 (1).—Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 3, lib. 2, cap. 8.—Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 156.—Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva Esp., MS., lib. 12, cap. 42.—Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 30.—Ixtlilxochitl, Venida de los Esp., pp. 51, 52.

Page 300 (1).—By none has this obloquy been poured with such unsparing hand on the heads of the old Conquerors as by their own descendants, the modern Mexicans. Ixtlilxochitl's editor, Bustamante, concludes an animated invective against the invaders with recommending that a monument should be raised on the spot,—now dry land,—where Guatemozin was taken, which, as the proposed inscription itself intimates, should "devote to eternal execration the detested memory of these banditti!" (Venida de los Esp., p. 52, nota.) One would suppose that the pure Aztec blood, uncontaminated by a drop of Castilian, flowed in the veins of the indignant editor and his compatriots; or, at least, that their sympathies for the conquered race would make them anxious to reinstate them in their ancient rights. Notwithstanding these bursts of generous indignation, however, which plentifully season the writings of the Mexicans of our day, we do not find that the Revolution, or any of its numerous brood of pronunciamientos, has resulted in restoring them to an acre of their ancient territory.

Page 306 (1).—"In the Ninth book, which treated of the Conquest, there were certain defects, that is to say, some things were mentioned in the story which should have had no place there, while other things were absent concerning which it was necessary to speak. For this reason, in this year 1585, the book has been amended."—MS.

Page 310 (1).—"¿Estoi yo en algun deleite, ó baño.?" (Gomara, Crónica, cap. 145.) The literal version is not so poetical as "the bed of flowers," into which this exclamation of Guatemozin is usually rendered.

Page 310 (2).—The most particular account of this disgraceful transaction is given by Bernal Diaz, one of those selected to accompany the lord of Tacuba to his villa. (Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 157.) He notices the affair with becoming indignation, but excuses Cortés from a voluntary part in it.

Page 312 (1).—Rel. Terc. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 308. The simple statement of the Conqueror contrasts strongly with the pompous narrative of Herrera (Hist. General, dec. 3, lib. 3, cap. 3), and with that of Father Cavo, who may draw a little on his own imagination. "Cortés took the King Vehichilze and the nobles of Michoacan to Mexico, in a richly draped canoe. Here is one of the palaces of Moctheuzoma, he told them; there is the great temple of Huitzilopuctli; these are the ruins of the great edifice of Quauhtemoc, and there are the remains of the great market place. Vehichilze was so moved by this spectacle that tears flowed from his eyes."— Los Tres Siglos de Mexico (Mexico, 1836), tom. i. p. 13.

Page 314 (1).—Ante, p. 270.

Page 314 (2).—Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 3, lib. 4, cap. 8.—Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 32.—Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.—Gomara, Crónica, cap. 162. "During the first years of the rebuilding of the city more people were employed than in the erection of the temple of Jerusalem, for the crowds of workers were so great that although the streets are very wide, it was only by certain paths that one could force a way through."—(Toribio, Hist. de los Indios, MS., Parte 1, cap. 1.) Ixtlilxochitl supplies any blank which the imagination might leave, by filling it up with 400,000, as the number of natives employed in this work by Cortés!—Venida de los Esp., p. 60.

Page 314 (3).—"They presented to the king many stones, among them a fine emerald, as broad as the palm of a hand, but square, which terminated in a point like a pyramid." (Gomara, Crónica, cap. 146.) Martyr confirms the account of this wonderful emerald, which, he says, "was reported to the king and council to be nearly as broad as the palm of the hand, and which those who had seen it thought could not be procured for any sum."—De Orbe Novo, dec. 8, cap. 4.