Page:The Mastering of Mexico.djvu/17

Rh the archives of Guatemala where he finally settled after the Conquest—the True History has had the excellent fortune of an edition brought out in Mexico through the initiation, and under the direction, of Señor Don Genaro García; and of translation into English by the Honorable Professor of Archaeology of the National Museum of Mexico and publication by The Hakluyt Society.

Besides Bernal Diaz of Castile scores of writers, such as Acosta, Cortes, Solis, Herrera, have prompted to this retelling of Diaz' tale of the great city's capture. And also such as "T. N." (Thomas Nicholas) and his black letter, "The Pleasant Historie of the Conquest of the Weast India now called New Spayne," "out of the Spanish" of Gomara, 1578; certain narrators in "Purchas, his Pilgrim"; Maurice Keatinge in his translation of "The True History of the Conquest of Mexico," 1800; and others; but chiefest, and originally affording the foundation of our narrative, John Graham Lockhart in his "Memoirs of the Conquistador, Bernal Diaz del Castillo," 1844. Without the sincere, admirable work of these Englishmen this book would not have been. But their age-scented, and sometimes cumbrous, volumes not infrequently stand idle in our libraries. This book is for everyday use, offered with full knowledge that the veteran Spaniard wished nothing taken from his work because all he said was