Conquest of Mexico
Page 207 (1).—The stout-hearted Diaz was one of those who performed this dangerous feat, though his head swam so, as he tells us, that he scarcely knew how he got on: "For my part, I own that of a truth when I crossed over and saw the way very dangerous and difficult to traverse, my head swam; and yet I got across, with twenty or thirty other soldiers and many Tlascaltecas." —Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, ubi supra.
Page 208 (1).—For the preceding account of the capture of Cuernavaca, see Bernal Diaz, ubi supra.—Oviedo, Hist, de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 21.—Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 93.— Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 3, lib. i, cap. 8.—Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 4, cap. 87.—Rel. Terc. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, pp. 223, 224.
Page 208 (2).—The city of Cuernavaca was comprehended in the patrimony of the dukes of Monteleone, descendants and heirs of the Conquistador.—The Spaniards, in their line of march towards the north, did not deviate far, probably, from the great road which now leads from Mexico to Acapulco, still exhibiting in this upper portion of it the same characteristic features as at the period of the Conquest.
Page 209 (1).—Ciavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. iii. p. 187, nota.
Page 210 (1).—Rel. Terc. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 226.—Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 3, lib. I, cap. 8.—Oviedo, Hist, de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 21. This is the general's own account of the matter. Diaz, however, says, that he was indebted for his rescue to a Castilian, named Olea, supported by some Tlascalans, and that his preserver received three severe wounds himself on the occasion. (Hist, de la Conquista, cap. 145.) This was an affair, however, in which Cortés ought to be better informed than any one else, and one, moreover, not likely to slip his memory. The old soldier has probably confounded it with another and similar adventure of his commander.
Page 213 (1).—Diaz, who had an easy faith, states, as a fact, that the limbs of the unfortunate men were cut off before their sacrifice. This is not very probable. The Aztecs did not, like our North American Indians, torture their enemies from mere cruelty, but in conformity to the prescribed regulations of their ritual. The captive was a religious victim.
Page 214 (1).—For other particulars of the actions at Xochimilco, see Oviedo, Hist, de las Ind., MS., lib. 23, cap. 21.—-Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 3, lib. i, cap. 8, 11.—Ixtlilxochitl, Venida de los Esp., p. 18.—Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 4, cap. 87, 88.—Bernal Diaz, Hist, de la Conquista, cap. 145. The Conqueror's own account of these engagements has not his usual perspicuity, perhaps from its brevity. A more than ordinary confusion, indeed, prevails in the different reports of them, even those proceeding from contemporaries, making it extremely difficult to collect a probable narrative from authorities, not only contradicting one another, but themselves. It is rare, at any time, that two accounts of a battle coincide in all respects; the range of observation for each individual is necessarily so limited and different, and it is so difficult to make a cool observation at all in the hurry and heat of conflict. Any one who has conversed with the survivors will readily comprehend this, and be apt to conclude that, wherever he may look for truth, it will hardly be on the battle-ground.
Page 214 (2).—This place, recommended by the exceeding beauty of its situation, became, after the Conquest, a favourite residence of Cortés, who founded a nunnery in it, and commanded in his will that his bones should be removed thither from any part of the world in which he might die. "As to my bones, they are to be taken to my town of Coyoacan, and there given to the earth in the convent of nuns which I order to be built and established in that said city of mine."— Testamento de Hernan Cortés, MS.
Page 214 (3).—This, says Archbishop Lorenzana, was the modern calzada de la Piedad. (Rel. Terc. de Cortés, p. 229, nota.) But it is not easy to reconcile this with the elaborate chart which M. de Humboldt has given of the valley. A short arm, which reached from this city in the days436
