Conquest of Mexico
Page 8 (3).—Many of them, indeed, could boast little or nothing in their coffers, Maximilian of Germany, and the more prudent Ferdinand of Spain, left scarcely enough to defray their funeral expenses. Even as late as the beginning of the next century, we find Henry IV. of France embracing his minister Sully with rapture, when he informed him, that, by dint of great economy, he had 36,000,000 livres, about 1,500,000 pounds sterling, in his treasury.—See Mémoires du Due de Sully, tom. iii. liv. 27.
Page 8 (4).—"Because it was so small, many soldiers did not wish to take it."—Bernal Diaz, Hist, de la Conquista, cap. 105.
Page 10 (1).—Ibid., cap. 105, 106.—Gomara, Crónica, cap. 93.—Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 2, lib. 8, cap. 5.
Page 10 (2).—"From lawyer, Cortés became theologian," says Martyr in his pithy manner.— De Orbe Novo, dec. 5, cap. 4.
Page 10 (3).—According to Ixtlilxochitl, Montezuma got as far on the road to conversion, as the Credo and the Ave Maria, both of which he could repeat; but his baptism was postponed, and he died before receiving it. That he ever consented to receive it is highly improbable.
Page 11 (1).—This transaction is told with more discrepancy than usual by the different writers. Cortés assures the emperor that he occupied the temple, and turned out the false gods by force, in spite of the menaces of the Mexicans. (Rel. Seg., ap. Lorenzana, p. 106.) The improbability of this Quixotic feat startles Oviedo, who nevertheless reports it. (Hist, de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 10.) It looks, indeed, very much, as if the general was somewhat too eager to set off his militant zeal to advantage in the eyes of his master. The statements of Diaz, and of other chroniclers, conformably to that in the text, seem far the most probable.—Comp. Diaz, Hist, de la Conquista, cap. 107.—Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 2, lib. 8, cap. 6.—Argensola, Anales, lib. i, cap. 88.
Page 12 (1).—According to Herrera, it was the devil himself who communicated this to Montezuma, and he reports the substance of the dialogue between the parties. (Hist. General, dec. 2, lib. g, cap. 6.) Indeed, the apparition of Satan in his own bodily presence, on this occasion, is stoutly maintained by most historians of the time.
Page 14 (1).—"I may say without vaunting," observes our stout-hearted old chronicler, Bernal Diaz, " that I was so accustomed to this way of life, that since the conquest of the country I have never been able to lie down undressed, or in a bed; yet I sleep as sound as if I were on the softest down. Even when I make the rounds of my encomienda, I never take a bed with me; unless, indeed, I go in the company of other cavaliers, who might impute this to parsimony. But even then I throw myself on it with my clothes on. Another thing I must add, that I cannot sleep long in the night without getting up to look at the heavens and the stars, and stay awhile in the open air, and this without a bonnet or covering of any sort on my head. And, thanks to God, I have received no harm from it. I mention these things, that the world may understand of what stuff we, the true Conquerors, were made, and how well drilled we were to arms and watching." —Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 108.
Page 15 (1).—In the collection of MSS., made by Don Vargas Ponce, former President of the Academv of History, is a memorial of this same Benito Martin to the emperor, setting forth the services of Velasquez, and the ingratitude and revolt of Cortés and his followers. The paper is without date; written after the arrival of the envoys, probably at the close of 1519, or the beginning of the following year.
Page 16 (1).—Sandoval, indeed, gives a singular reason,—that of being near the coast, so as to enable Chiévres, and the other Flemish blood-suckers, to escape suddenly, if need were, with their ill-gotten treasures, from the country.—Hist, de Cárlos Quinto, tom. i. p. 203, ed. Pamplona, 1634.416
