Conquest of Mexico
Page 242 (1).—Rel. Terc. ap. Lorenzana, p. 259.
Page 243 (1).—Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 151. According to Herrera, Alvarado and Sandoval did not conceal their disapprobation of the course pursued by their commander in respect of the breaches. "Alvarado and Sandoval, for their part, also did this work very well, but they blamed Cortés for his constant withdrawals, desiring earnestly that he would maintain himself at the points gained, and avoid returning to do the same thing over and over again."— Hist. General, dec. 3, lib. 1, cap. 19.
Page 247 (1).—I recollect meeting with no estimate of their numbers; nor, in the loose arithmetic of the Conquerors, would it be worth much. They must, however, have been very great, to enable them to meet the assailants so promptly and efficiently on every point.
Page 247 (2).—Defensa, MS., cap. 28.—Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva Esp., MS., lib. 12, cap. 34. The principal cities were Mexicaltzinco, Cuitlahuac, Iztapalapan, Mizquiz, Huitzilopochco, Colhuacan.
Page 248 (1).—The greatest difficulty under which the troops laboured, according to Diaz, was that of obtaining the requisite medicaments for their wounds. But this was in a great degree obviated by a Catalan soldier, who, by virtue of his prayers and incantations, wrought wonderful cures both on the Spaniards and their allies. The latter, as the more ignorant, flocked in crowds to the tent of this military Æsculapius, whose success was doubtless in a direct ratio to the faith of his patients.—Hist. de la Conquista, ubi supra.
Page 248 (2).—Diaz mourns over this unsavoury diet. (Ibid., loc. cit.) Yet the Indian fig is an agreeable, nutritious fruit; and the tortilla, made of maize-flour, with a slight infusion of lime, though not precisely a morceau friand, might pass for very tolerable camp fare. According to the lively author of Life in Mexico, it is made now precisely as it was in the days of the Aztecs. If so, a cooking receipt is almost the only thing that has not changed in this country of revolutions.
Page 248 (3).—"The more extensive," says Martyr, " was the slaughter, the more plentifully and sumptuously did the Huexotzincans and Tlaxcalans, and the other auxiliaries from the provinces, banquet. For they are wont to bury in their bellies their foes who fall in battle, and Cortés did not dare to forbid the practice." (De Orbe Novo, dec. 5, cap. 8.) "And the others showed them victims from the city, cut up into pieces, telling them that they had to sup upon this food that night, and to breakfast next day, and this they actually did." (Rel. Terc. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 256.) Yet one may well be startled by the assertion of Oviedo, that the carnivorous monsters fished up the bloated bodies of those drowned in the lake to swell their repast! "The eyes of the Catholic Christians could never behold a more horrifying and hateful thing than the sight in the camp of the Confederate Allies of the constant practice of eating the flesh boiled or roasted, of their Indian enemies, and even of the bodies of those killed in the canoes, or, drowned, which afterwards rose to the surface of the lake or were cast ashore, to be fished out and devoured."—Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 24.
Page 251 (1).—Such is the account explicitly given by Cortés to the Emperor. (Rel. Terc. ap. Lorenzana, p. 264.) Bernal Diaz, on the contrary, speaks of the assault as first conceived by the general himself. (Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 151.) Yet Diaz had not the best means of knowing; and Cortés would hardly have sent home a palpable misstatement that could have been so easily exposed.
Page 251 (2).—This punctual performance of mass by the army, in storm and in sunshine, by day and by night, among friends and enemies, draws forth a warm eulogium from the archiepiscopal editor of Cortés. "In camp, upon the highway, or among enemies, working day and night, the celebration of mass was never omitted, since all that they accomplished was to be attributed to440
