[164] [Alaman asserts that there was no cathedral in Tlatelolco, but a Franciscan convent, dedicated to St. James, which still exists. Conquista de Méjico (trad. de Vega), tom. ii. p. 255.]

[165] Rel. d’un gentil’ huomo, ap. Ramusio, ubi supra.

[166] Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 177.

[167] Rel. Quarta de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 376, nota.

[168] For an account of this singular enterprise, see ante, vol. ii. p. 227.

[169] “Cortes, reckoning only the Indian population, says treinta mil vecinos. (Rel. Quarta, ap. Lorenzana, p. 375.) Gomara, speaking of Mexico some years later, estimates the number of Spanish householders as in the text. Crónica, cap. 162.

[170] “Toribio, Hist. de los Indios, MS., Parte 3, cap. 7.—Yet this is scarcely stronger language than that of the Anonymous Conqueror: “Così ben ordinato et di si belle piazze et strade, quanto d’ altre città che siano al mondo.” Rel. d’un gentil’ huomo, ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 309.

[171] “Y tengo por cierto, que aquel Pueblo ha de ser, despues de esta Ciudad, el mejor que obiere en esta Nueva España.” (Rel. Quarta, ap. Lorenzana, p. 382.) The archbishop confounds this town with the modern Vera Cruz. But the general’s description of the port refutes this supposition, and confirms our confidence in Clavigero’s statement that the present city was founded by the Conde de Monterey, at the time mentioned in the text. See ante, vol. ii. p. 47, note.

[172] Ordenanzas municipales, Tenochtitlan, Marzo, 1524, MS.{*}—The Ordinances made by Cortés for the government of the country during his viceroyalty are still preserved in Mexico; and the copy in my possession was transmitted to me from that capital. They give ample evidence of the wise and penetrating spirit which embraced every object worthy of the attention of an enlightened ruler; and I will quote, in the original, the singular provisions mentioned in the text:

“Item. Por que mas se manifieste la voluntad que los pobladores de estas partes tienen de residir y permanecer en ellas, mando que todas las personas que tuvieren Indios, que fueren casados en Castilla ó en otras partes, que traigan sus mugeres dentro de un año y medio primero siguientes de como estas ordenanzas fueren pregonadas, so pena de perder los Indios, y todo lo con ellos adquirido é grangeado; y por que muchas personas podrian poner por achaque aunque tuviesen aparejo de decir que no tienen dineros para enviar por ellas, por hende las tales personas que tuvieran esta necesidad parescan ante el Rᵒ. Pᵉ. Fray Juan de Tecto y ante Alonso de Estrada, tesorero de su Magestad, á les informar de su necesidad, para que ellos la comuniquen á mí, y su necesidad se remedie; y si algunas personas hay que casados y no tienen sus mugeres en esta tierra, y quisieran traerlas, sepan que trayéndolas serán ayudadas así mismo para las traer, dando fianzas.

“Item. Por quanto en esta tierra hay muchas personas que tienen Indios de encomienda y no son casados, por hende por que conviene así para la salud de sus conciencias de los tales por estar en buen estado, como por la poblacion é noblecimiento de sus tierras, mando que las tales personas se casen, traigan y tengan sus mugeres en esta tierra dentro de un año y medio, despues que fueren pregonadas estas dichas Ordenanzas, é que no haciendo lo por el mismo caso sean privados y pierdan los tales Indios que así tienen.”

{*} [The exact date is given at the close of the document—“fecha en esta dicha ciudad [de Temixtitan] á veinte dias del mes de marzo de mil y quinientos é veinte y cuatro años.” Sir Arthur Helps says a copy sent by Cortés to the emperor in October of the same year “has been lost, but the orders manifestly related to this subject of encomiendas.” The original seems also to have disappeared. But an ancient copy of these, as well as of subsequent ordinances and instructions of a similar nature, is preserved in the archives of the duke of Terranova y Monteleone in the Hospital of Jesus at Mexico, and the whole series was published, so far back as 1844, by Señor Alaman, in his Disertaciones históricas, tom. i. pp. 105-143. The contents, therefore, are not a matter of inference. They do not relate chiefly or directly to the encomiendas, that system having been already established and become, in the language of Alaman, “the basis of the whole organization of the country.” The “Ordenanzas,” while they incidentally modify the system, consist for the most part of regulations suggested by the general condition and circumstances of a new colony. They make provision for the military equipment and inspection of the settlers, with a view to their readiness for service; for their permanent residence in the country, which is made a condition of their holding repartimientos; for the conversion of the natives, their protection against robbery and oppression, and the education of the children of their chiefs; for the cultivation of imported plants and grain, and the raising of cattle, sheep, and swine; for facilitating traffic by the establishment of markets, adjustment of prices, etc.; and for the organization of the municipalities, prescribing their powers and forms of administration. Some of these provisions are still in force, while others, though obsolete, indicate the origin of certain existing customs. Taken together, they contain, in the opinion of Alaman, the foundation of all the later institutions of the country,—“el fundamento de todas nuestras instituciones.”—K.]

[173] Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 160.

[174] Ante, vol. i. p. 310.

[175] Of asthma, according to Bernal Diaz (Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 160); but her death seems to have been too sudden to be attributed to that disease. I shall return to the subject hereafter.

[176] Rel. Terc., ap. Lorenzana, pp. 319, 320.

[177] Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 3, lib. 5, cap. 1.

[178] Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 4, lib. 6, cap. 5.—Ordenanzas, MS.—The ordinances prescribe the service of the Indians, the hours they may be employed, their food, compensation, and the like. They require the encomendero to provide them with suitable means of religious instruction and places of worship. But what avail good laws, which in their very nature imply the toleration of a great abuse?

[179] The whole population of New Spain in 1810 is estimated by Don Fernando Navarro y Noriega at about 6,000,000; of whom more than half were pure Indians. The author had the best means for arriving at a correct result. See Humboldt, Essai politique, tom. i. pp. 318, 319, note.

[180] Rel. Quarta, ap. Lorenzana, pp. 391-394.—The petition of the Conquerors was acceded to by the government, which further prohibited “attorneys and men learned in the law from setting foot in the country, on the ground that experience had shown they would be sure by their evil practices to disturb the peace of the community.” (Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 3, lib. 5, cap. 2.) These enactments are but an indifferent tribute to the character of the two professions in Castile.

[181] Toribio, Hist. de los Indios, MS., Parte 1, cap. 1.—Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS. [My views of the character of the Spanish missionaries find favor with Señor Alaman, who warmly eulogizes the spirit of self-sacrifice and the untiring zeal which they showed in propagating the gospel among the natives: “El Sr. Prescott hace de los misioneros el justo aprecio que sus virtudes merecieron, y sus elogios son tanto mas recomendables, cuanto que sus opiniones religiosas parece deberian hacerle contrario á ellos. En efecto, solo la iglesia católica ha producido misioneros inflamados de un verdadero celo religioso, que los ha hecho sacrificar su vida por la propagacion de la religion y en beneficio de la humanidad.” Conquista de Méjico (trad. de Vega), tom. ii. p. 255. Mr. Gallatin, also, in his “Notes on the Semi-civilized Nations of America,” pays a hearty tribute to the labors of the Roman Catholic missionaries in the New World: “The Dominican monks, though inquisitors and relentless persecutors in Spain, became in America the protectors of the Indians.... The praise must be extended to all the Catholic priests, whether Franciscans or Jesuits, monks or curates. All, from the beginning, were, have ever been, and continue to be, the protectors and the friends of the Indian race.” Transactions of the American Ethnological Society, i. 213.]

[182] “Cuyo hecho del rotísimo y humilde recebimiento fué uno de los heroicos hechos que este Capitan hizo, porque fué documento para que con mayor fervor los naturales desta tierra viniesen á la conversion de nuestra fee.” (Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.—See also Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 171.) Archbishop Lorenzana falls nothing short of the Tlascalan historian in his admiration of the religious zeal of the great Conquistador, which, he assures us, “entirely overwhelms him, as savoring so much more of the apostolic missionary than of the soldier!” Lorenzana, p. 393, nota.

[183] Toribio, Hist. de los Indios, MS., Parte 3, cap. 1.—Father Sahagun, who has done better service in this way than any other of his order, describes with simple brevity the rapid process of demolition. “We took the children of the caciques,” he says, “into our schools, where we taught them to read and write, and to chant. The children of the poorer natives were brought together in the court-yard, and instructed there in the Christian faith. After our teaching, one or two brethren took the pupils to some neighboring teocalli, and, by working at it for a few days, they levelled it to the ground. In this way they demolished, in a short time, all the Aztec temples, great and small, so that not a vestige of them remained.” (Hist. de Nueva-España, tom. iii. p. 77.) This passage helps to explain why so few architectural relics of the Indian era still survive in Mexico.

[184] “De manera que á mi juicio y verdaderamente serán bautizados en este tiempo que digo, que serán quince años, mas de nueve millones de ánimas de Indios.” Toribio, Hist. de los Indios, MS., Parte 2, cap. 3.

[185] Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. i. p. 43.—Humboldt, Essai politique, tom. iii. pp. 115, 145.—Esposicion de Don Lucás Alaman (México, 1828), p. 59.

[186] “Páraque cada Navío traiga cierta cantidad de Plantas, y que no pueda salir sin ellas, porque será mucha causa para la Poblacion, y perpetuacion de ella.” Rel. Quarta de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 397.{*}

{*} [The first wheat came from three grains which were found in a sack of rice. Other wheat had been received, but it was all more or less damaged by the voyage. See Tapia, Relacion.—M.]

[187] “Item, que cualquier vecino que tubiere Indios de repartimiento sea obligado á poner en ellos en cada un año con cada cien Indios de los que tuvieren de repartimiento mil sarmientos aunque sean de la planta de su tierra, escogiendo la mejor que pudiesse hallar.” Ordenanzas municipales, año de 1524, MS.

[188] Ordenanzas municipales, año de 1524, MS.

[189] [“No general interest would attach to the private undertakings of Cortés, if the sole object of them had been the aggrandizement of his own fortune. But they were in fact the germs of what are now the most important branches of the national wealth; and they prove the grandeur of those views which in the times of the Conquest gave an impulse to whatever promised to contribute to the prosperity of the country.” Alaman, Disertaciones históricas, tom. ii. p. 63.]

[190] “Tengo de ser causa, que Vuestra Cesarea Magestad sea en estas partes Señor de mas Reynos, y Señoríos que los que hasta hoy en nuestra Nacion se tiene noticia.” Rel. Quarta de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 374.

[191] “Much as I esteem Hernando Cortés,” exclaims Oviedo, “for the greatest captain and most practised in military matters of any we have known, I think such an opinion shows he was no great cosmographer.” (Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 41.) Oviedo had lived to see its fallacy.

[192] Martyr, Opus Epist., ep. 811.

[193] Rel. Quarto, ap. Lorenzana, p. 385.

[194] The illusion at home was kept up, in some measure, by the dazzling display of gold and jewels remitted from time to time, wrought into fanciful and often fantastic forms. One of the articles sent home by Cortés was a piece of ordnance, made of gold and silver, of very fine workmanship, the metal of which alone cost 25,000 pesos de oro. Oviedo, who saw it in the palace, speaks with admiration of this magnificent toy. Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 41.

[195] Among these may be particularly mentioned the Letters of Alvarado and Diego de Godoy, transcribed by Oviedo in his Hist. de las Ind., MS. (lib. 33, cap. 42-44), and translated by Ramusio for his rich collection, Viaggi, tom. iii.

[196] See, among others, his orders to his kinsman, Francisco Cortés,—“Instruccion civil y militar por la Expedicion de la Costa de Colima.” The paper is dated in 1524, and forms part of the Muñoz collection of MSS.

[197] Rel. Quarta, ap. Lorenzana, p. 371.—“Well may we wonder,” exclaims his archiepiscopal editor, “that Cortés and his soldiers could have overrun and subdued, in so short a time, countries, many of them so rough and difficult of access that even at the present day we can hardly penetrate them!” Ibid., nota.

[198] Carta Quinta de Cortés, MS.

[199] Carta de Albornos, MS., Mexico, Dec. 15, 1525.—Carta Quinta de Cortés, MS.—The authorities do not precisely agree as to the numbers, which were changing, probably, with every step of their march across the table-land.

[200] Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 175.

[201] Among these was Captain Diaz, who, however, left the pleasant farm, which he occupied in the province of Coatzacualco, with a very ill grace, to accompany the expedition. “But Cortés commanded it, and we dared not say no,” says the veteran. Ibid., cap. 174.

[202] This celebrated Letter, which has never been published, is usually designated as the Carta Quinta, or “Fifth Letter,” of Cortés. It is nearly as long as the longest of the printed letters of the Conqueror, is written in the same clear, simple, business-like manner, and is as full of interest as any of the preceding. It gives a minute account of the expedition to Honduras, together with events that occurred in the year following. It bears no date, but was probably written in that year from Mexico. The original manuscript is in the Imperial Library at Vienna, which, as the German sceptre was swayed at that time by the same hand which held the Castilian, contains many documents of value for the illustration of Spanish history.{*}

{*} [It is scarcely credible that a long and important document in an official form should have borne no date, and we may therefore suspect that the manuscript at Vienna, if unmutilated, is not the original. A copy in the Royal Library at Madrid, purporting to have been made “from the original” by Alonso Diaz, terminates as follows: “De la cibdad de Temixtitan, desta Nueva España á tres del mes de setiembre del nascimiento de nuestro Señor é Salvador Jesu-Cristo de 1526.” This date is confirmed by a passage in a letter which will be found cited in the notes in the next chapter with the date of Sept. 11, but of which there are in fact two originals, the duplicate being dated Sept. 3. It gives a summary, for the emperor’s own perusal, of the matters narrated at length in the Carta Quinta, which it thus describes: “Así mesmo envio agora á V. M. con lo presente una relacion bien larga y particular de todo lo que me subcedió en el camino que hice á las Hibueras, y al cabo della hago saber á V. M. muy por extenso lo que ha pasado y se ha hecho en esta Nueva España despues que yo parté de la isla de Cuba para ella.” See Col. de Doc. inéd. para la Historia de España, tom. i.—K.]

[203] “Es tierra mui baja y de muchas sienegas, tanto que en tiempo de invierno no se puede andar, ni se sirve sino en canoas, y con pasarla yo en tiempo de seca, desde la entrada hasta la salida de ella, que puede aver veinti leguas, se hiziéron mas de cinquenta puentes, que sin se hazer fuera imposible pasar.” Carta Quinta de Cortés, MS.

[204] I have examined some of the most ancient maps of the country, by Spanish, French, and Dutch cosmographers, in order to determine the route of Cortés. An inestimable collection of these maps, made by the learned German Ebeling, is to be found in the library of Harvard University. I can detect on them only four or five of the places indicated by the general. They are the places mentioned in the text, and, though few, may serve to show the general direction of the march of the army.

[205] “Donde se ponian los pies en el suelo açia arriba la claridad del cielo no se veia, tanta era la espesura y alteza de los árboles, que aunque se subian en algunos, no podian descubrir un tiro de piedra.” Carta Quinta de Cortés, MS.

[206] “Porque lleva mas que mil bigas, que la menor es casi tan gorda como un cuerpo de un hombre, y de nueve y diez brazas en largo.” Carta Quinta de Cortés, MS.

[207] “Pasada toda la gente y cavallos de la otra parte del alcon dímos luego en una gran çienega, que durava bien tres tiros de ballesta, la cosa mas espantosa que jamas las gentes viéron, donde todos los cavallos desençillados se sumiéron hasta las orejas sin parecerse otra cosa, y querer forçeiar á salir, sumianse mas, de manera que allí perdímos toda la esperanza de poder escapar cavallos ningunos, pero todavía comenzámos á trabajar y componerles haçes de yerba y ramas grandes de bajo, sobre que se sostuviesen y no se sumiesen, remediávanse algo, y andando trabajando y yendo y viniendo de la una parte á la otra, abrióse por medio de un calejon de agua y çieno, que los cavallos comenzáron algo á nadar, y con esto plugo á nuestro Señor que saliéron todos sin peligro ninguno.” Carta Quinta de Cortés, MS.

[208] Carta Quinta de Cortés, MS.

[209] Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 177.

[210] Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, ubi supra.

[211] According to Diaz, both Guatemozin and the prince of Tacuba had embraced the religion of their conquerors, and were confessed by a Franciscan friar before their execution. We are further assured by the same authority that “they were, for Indians, very good Christians, and believed well and truly.” (Ibid., loc. cit.) One is reminded of the last hours of Caupolican, converted to Christianity by the same men who tied him to the stake. See the scene, painted in the frightful coloring of a master-hand, in the Araucana, Canto 34.

[212] Guatemozin’s beautiful wife, the princess Tecuichpo, the daughter of Montezuma, lived long enough after his death to give her hand to four Castilians, all of noble descent. (See ante, vol. iii. p. 155, note 36.) She is described as having been as well instructed in the Catholic faith as any woman in Castile, as most gracious and winning in her deportment, and as having contributed greatly, by her example, and the deference with which she inspired the Aztecs, to the tranquillity of the conquered country. This pleasing portrait, it may be well enough to mention, is by the hand of her husband, Don Thoan Cano. See Appendix, No. 11.

[213] The Indian chroniclers regard the pretended conspiracy of Guatemozin as an invention of Cortés. The informer himself, when afterwards put to the torture by the cacique of Tezcuco, declared that he had made no revelation of this nature to the Spanish commander. Ixtlilxochitl vouches for the truth of this story. (Venida de los Españoles, pp. 83-93.) But who will vouch for Ixtlilxochitl?

[214] “Y fué esta muerte que les diéron muy injustamente dada, y pareció mal á todos los que ibamos aquella jornada.” Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 177.

[215] “Guatemozin, Señor que fué de esta Ciudad de Temixtitan, á quien yo despues que la gané he tenido siempre preso, teniéndole por hombre bullicioso, y le llevé conmigo.” Carta Quinta, MS.

[216] “Y le hacian aquella mesma reverencia, i ceremonias, que á Moteçuma, i creo que por eso le llevaba siempre consigo por la Ciudad á Caballo si cavalgaba, i sino á pie como él iba.” Crónica, cap. 170.

[217] “I Cortés debiera guardarlo vivo, como Oro en paño, que era el triumpho, i gloria de sus Victorias.” Crónica, cap. 170.

[218] Hist. de la Conquista, ubi supra.

[219] Ibid., cap. 178.

[220] Diaz, who was present, attests the truth of this account by the most solemn adjuration: “Y todo esto que digo, se lo oí muy certificadamente y se lo juro, amen.” Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 37.

[221] [Alaman, from an examination of the municipal archives of Mexico, finds that Juan de Jaramillo was commander of one of the brigantines in the siege of Mexico. He subsequently filled the office of royal standard-bearer of the city, and was several times chosen to represent it in the assemblies of the cities of New Spain. Conquista de Méjico (trad. de Vega), tom. ii. p. 269.]

[222] [The Spanish government showed its sense of the services of Marina by the grant of several estates both in the town and country. The house in which she usually resided in Mexico was in the street of Medinas, as it is now called, which then bore the name of her husband, Jaramillo. She had a pleasure-house at Chapoltepec, and in Cuyoacan a garden that had belonged to Montezuma. She lived in the enjoyment of wealth and much consideration from her countrymen; and, as we see mention made of her grandchild during her lifetime, we may presume she reached a good old age. Conquista de Méjico (trad. de Vega), tom. ii. p. 269.—Alaman, Disertaciones históricas, tom. ii. p. 293.]

[223] Life in Mexico, let. 8.—The fair author does not pretend to have been favored with a sight of the apparition.

[224] Villagutierre says that the Iztacs, by which name the inhabitants of these islands were called, did not destroy their idols while the Spaniards remained there. (Historia de la Conquista de la Provincia de el Itza (Madrid, 1701), pp. 49, 50.) The historian is wrong, since Cortés expressly asserts that the images were broken and burnt in his presence. Carta Quinta, MS.

[225] The fact is recorded by Villagutierre, Conquista de el Itza, pp. 100-102, and Cojullado, Hist. de Yucathan, lib. 1, cap. 16.

[226] “Y querer dezir la aspereza y fragosidad de este Puerto y sierras, ni quien lo dixese lo sabria significar, ni quien lo oyese podria entender, sino que sepa V. M. que en ocho leguas que duró hasta este puerto estuvímos en las andar doze dias, digo los postreros en llegar al cabo de él, en que muriéron sesenta y ocho cavallos despeñados y desxaretados, y todos los demas viniéron heridos y tan lastimados que no pensámos aprovecharnos de ninguno.” Carta Quinta de Cortés, MS.

[227] “If any unhappy wretch had become giddy in this transit,” says Cortés, “he must inevitably have been precipitated into the gulf and perished. There were upwards of twenty of these frightful passes.” Carta Quinta, MS.

[228] “Espantáronse en gran manera, y como supiéron que era Cortés q̃ tan nombrado era en todas estas partes de las Indias, y en Castilla, no sabiā que se hazer de placer.” Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 179.

[229] Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 179, et seq.—Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 3, lib. 8, cap. 3, 4.—Carta Quinta de Cortés, MS.

[230] Carta Quinta de Cortés, MS.—Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 185.—Relacion del Tesorero Strada, MS., México, 1526.

[231] Carta Quinta de Cortés, MS.

[232] Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 184, et seq.—Carta Quinta de Cortés, MS.

[233] Carta Quinta de Cortés, MS.—Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 189, 190.—Carta de Cortés al Emperador, MS., México, Sept. 11, 1526.

[234] Carta de Ocaña, MS., Agosto 31, 1526.—Carta Quinta de Cortés, MS.

[235] “What Cortés suffered,” says Dr. Robertson, “on this march,—a distance, according to Gomara, of 3000 miles” (the distance must be greatly exaggerated),—“from famine, from the hostility of the natives, from the climate, and from hardships of every species, has nothing in history parallel to it, but what occurs in the adventures of the other discoverers and conquerors of the New World. Cortés was employed in this dreadful service above two years; and, though it was not distinguished by any splendid event, he exhibited, during the course of it, greater personal courage, more fortitude of mind, more perseverance and patience, than in any other period or scene in his life.” (Hist. of America, note 96.) The historian’s remarks are just; as the passage which I have borrowed from the extraordinary record of the Conqueror may show. Those who are desirous of seeing something of the narrative told in his own way will find a few pages of it translated in the Appendix, No. 14.

[236] “Y esto yo lo oí dezir á los del Real Consejo de Indias, estando presente el señor Obispo Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, que se descuidó mucho Cortés en ello, y se lo tuviéron á floxedad.” Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 190.

[237] Memorial de Luis Cardenas, MS.—Carta de Diego de Ocaña, MS.—Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 3, lib. 8, cap. 14, 15.

[238] Carta del Emperador, MS., Toledo, Nov. 4, 1525.

[239] Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 192.—Carta de Cortés al Emperador, MS., México, Set. 11, 1526.

[240] Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 194.—Carta de Cortés al Emperador, MS., Set. 11, 1526.

[241] Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 4, lib. 2, cap. 1; and lib. 3, cap. 8.

[242] “Todas estas entradas están ahora para partir casi á una, plega á Dios de los guiar como él se sirva, que yo aunque V. M. mas me mande desfavoreçer no tengo de dejar de servir, que no es posible que por tiempo V. M. no conosca mis servicios, y ya que esto no sea, yo me satisfago con hazer lo que debo, y con saber que á todo el mundo tengo satisfecho, y les son notorios mis servicios, y lealdad, con que los hago, y no quiero otro mayorazgo sino este.” Carta Quinta, MS.

[243] Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 194.—Carta de Ocaña, MS., Agosto 31, 1526.

[244] The Pope, who was of the joyous Medici family, Clement VII., and the cardinals, were greatly delighted with the feats of the Indian jugglers, according to Diaz; and his Holiness, who, it may be added, received at the same time from Cortés a substantial donative of gold and jewels, publicly testified, by prayers and solemn processions, his great sense of the services rendered to Christianity by the Conquerors of Mexico, and generously requited them by bulls granting plenary absolution from their sins. Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 195.

[245] “Y en fin venia como gran Señor.” Hist. gen., dec. 4, lib. 3, cap. 8.

[246] Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 4, lib. 4, cap. 1.—Cavo, Los tres Siglos de México, tom. i. p. 78.

[247] Pizarro y Orellana, Varones ilustres, p. 121.

[248] See the conclusion of Rogers’s Voyage of Columbus.

[249] Bernal Diaz says that Sandoval was twenty-two years old when he first came to New Spain, in 1519.—Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 205.

[250] Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 195.

[251] “Vino de las Indias despues de la conquista de Mexico, con tanto acompañamiento y magestad, que mas parecia de Príncipe, ó señor poderosíssimo, que de Capitan y vasallo de algun Rey ó Emperador.” Lanuza, Historias ecclesiásticas y seculares de Aragon (Zaragoza, 1622), lib. 3, cap. 14.

[252] Gomara, Crónica, cap. 183.—Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 4, lib. 4, cap. 1.—Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 195.

[253] Título de Marques, MS., Barcelona, 6 de Julio, 1529.

[254] Humboldt, Essai politique, tom. ii. p. 30, note.—According to Lanuza, he was offered by the emperor the Order of St. Jago, but declined it, because no encomienda was attached to it. (Hist. de Aragon, tom. i. lib. 3, cap. 14.) But Caro de Torres, in his History of the Military Orders of Castile, enumerates Cortés among the members of the Compostellan fraternity. Hist. de las Órdenes militares (Madrid, 1629), fol. 103, et seq.

[255] Merced de Tierras inmediatas á Mexico, MS., Barcelona, 23 de Julio, 1529.—Merced de los Vasallos, MS., Barcelona, 6 de Julio, 1529