A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Marina, Dona
MARINA, DONA,
Celebrated for her faithfulness to the Spaniards, and for the assistance which she afforded them in the conquest of Mexico, was born at Painalla, in the province of Coatzacualco, on the south-eastern borders of the Mexican empire. Her father, a rich and powerful Cacique, died when she was very young. Her mother married again; and, wishing to give her daughter's inheritance to her son by the second marriage, she cruelly sold her to some travelling merchants, and announcing her death, performed a mock-funeral to deceive those around her. These merchants sold the Indian maiden to the Cacique of Tabasco; and when the Tabascans surrendered to Cortés, she was one of twenty female slaves who were sent to him as propitiatory offerings. Speaking two of the Mexican dialects, Marina was a valuable acquisition to Cortés as interpreter, which value increased tenfold, when with remarkable rapidity she acquired the Spanish language. Cortés knew how to value her services; he made her his secretary, and, finally won by her charms, his mistress. She had a son by him, Don Martin Cortés, commendador of the military order of St. James, who afterwards rose to high consideration; but finally falling under suspicion of treasonable practises against the government, was, in 1568, shamefully subjected to the torture in the very capital which his father had acquired for the Castilian crown!
Prescott, to whose admirable work, "The Conquest of Mexico,' we are chiefly indebted for this memoir, describes Marina as follows:—"She is said to have possessed uncommon personal attractions; and her open, expressive features, indicated her generous temper. She always remained faithful to the countrymen of her adoption; and her knowledge of the language and customs of the Mexicans, and often of their designs, enabled her to extricate the Spaniards, more than once, from the most embarrassing and perilous situations. She had her errors, as we have seen; but they should be rather charged to the defects of her early education, and to the evil influence of him to whom, in the darkness of her spirit, she looked with simple confidence for the light to guide her. All agree that she was full of excellent qualities; and the important services which she rendered the Spaniards have made her memory deservedly dear to them; while the name of Malinche—the name by which she is known in Mexico—was pronounced with kindness by the conquered races, with whose misfortunes she showed an invariable sympathy."
Cortés finally gave Marina away in marriage to a Spanish knight, Don Juan Xamarillo. She had estates assigned her, where she probably passed the remainder of her life. Marina is represented as having met and recognised her mother after a long lapse of time, when passing through her native province. Her mother was greatly terrified, fearing that Cortés would severely punish her; but Marina embraced her, and allayed her fears, saying, "that she was sure she knew not what she did when she sold her to the traders, and that she forgave her." She is said to have given her mother all the jewels and ornaments about her person, and to have assured her of her happiness since she had cast off the yoke of heathen bondage, and adopted the Christian faith.