Conquest of Mexico
Page 121 (3).—Latrobe gives the description of this cavity, into which he and his fellow travellers penetrated.—Rambler in Mexico, Let. 7.
Page 121 (4).—The dimensions are given by Bullock (Six Months in Mexico, vol. ii. chap. 26), who has sometimes seen what has eluded the optics of other travellers.
Page 122 (1).—Such is the account given by the cavalier Boturini.—Idea, pp. 42, 43.
Page 122 (2).—Both Ixtlilxochitl and Boturini, who visited these monuments, one, early in the seventeenth, the other, in the first part of the eighteenth century, testify to their having seen the remains of this statue. They had entirely disappeared by 1757, when Veytia examined the pyramid.—Hist. Antig. tom. i. cap. 26.
Page 122 (3).—"The husbandman, labouring the earth with his curved plough, will turn up the pike-heads eaten away with rust," etc.—Georg., lib. 1.
Page 124 (1).—Camargo, Hist, de Tlascala, MS.—Oviedo, Hist, de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 14.—-Bernal Diaz, Hist, de la Conquista, cap. 128.—Sahagun, Hist, de Nueva España, MS., lib. 12, cap. 27. Cortés might have addressed his troops, as Napoleon did his in the famous battle with the Mamelukes: "From yonder pyramids forty centuries look down upon you." But the situation of the Spaniards was altogether too serious for theatrical display.
Page 125 (1).—It is Sahagun's simile. "The Spaniards stood like a little island in the sea, buffeted by the waves in all directions." (Hist, de Nueva España, MS., lib. 12, cap. 27.) The venerable missionary gathered the particulars of the action, as he informs us, from several who were present in it.
Page 127 (1).—The brave cavalier was afterwards permitted by the emperor Charles V. to assume this trophy on his own escutcheon, in commemoration of his exploit.—Bernal Diaz, Hist, de la Conquista, cap. 128.
Page 127 2).—The historians all concur in celebrating this glorious achievement of Cortés; who, concludes Gomara, "by his single arm saved the whole army from destruction."—See Crónica, cap. 110. Also, Sahagun, Hist, de Nueva España, MS., lib. 12, cap. 27.—Camargo, Hist, de Tlascala, MS.—Bernal Diaz, Hist, de la Conquista, cap. 128.—Oviedo, Hist, de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 47.—Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 2, lib. 10, cap. 13. —Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS. cap. 89. The brief and extremely modest notice of the affair in the general's own letter forms a beautiful contrast to the style of panegyric by others. "This struggle engaged us nearly all the day, until it pleased God that a great personage of theirs should be killed, a man of such importance that upon his death all the fighting ceased."—Rel. Seg., ap. Lorenzana, p. 148.
Page 127 (3).—"As for us," says the doughty Captain Diaz, " we felt neither wounds, hunger, nor thirst, and it seemed as though we had neither suffered nor passed through any hardship. We followed up our victory, killing and wounding. Then our friends the Tlascalans were very lions, and with their swords and broadswords and other weapons which they bore, they behaved very well and valiantly."—Hist, de la Conquista, loc cit.
Page 127 (4).—Ibid., ubi supra.
Page 127 (5).—The beligerent apostle St. James, riding, as usual, his milk-white courser, came to the rescue on this occasion; an event commemorated by the dedication of a hermitage to him, in the neighbourhood. (Camargo, Hist, de Tlascala.) Diaz, a sceptic on former occasions admits his indubitable appearance on this. (Ibid., ubi supra.) According to the Tezcucan chronicler, he was supported by the Virgin and St. Peter. (Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 89.) Voltaire sensibly remarks, "Those who have given accounts of these strange events have wished to dignify428
