Conquest of Mexico
Page 371 (2).—Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 504.—Gomara, Crón., cap. 237. In his last letter to the emperor, dated in February, 1544, he speaks of himself as being "sixty years of age." But he probably did not mean to be exact to a year. Gomara's statement, that he was born in the year 1485 (Crónica, cap. 1), is confirmed by Diaz, who tells us, that Cortés used to say, that, when he first came over to Mexico, in 1519, he was thirty-four years old. (Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 205.) This would coincide with the age mentioned in the text.
Page 371 (3).—Noticia del Archivero de la Santa Eclesia de Sevilla, MS.
Page 372 (1).—The full particulars of the ceremony described in the text may be found in Appendix, Part II., No. 5, translated into English, from a copy of the original document existing in the Archives of the Hospital of Jesus, in Mexico.
Page 372 (2).—Essai Politique, tom. ii. p. 60.
Page 373 (1).—Don Martin Cortés, second Marquess of the Valley, was accused, like his father, of an attempt to establish an independent sovereignty in New Spain. His natural brothers, Don Martin and Don Luis, were involved in the same accusation with himself, and the former—as I have elsewhere remarked—was in consequence subjected to the torture. Several others of his friends, on charge of abetting his treasonable designs, suffered death. The marquess was obliged to remove with his family to Spain, where the investigation was conducted; and his large estates in Mexico were sequestered until the termination of the process, a period of seven years, from 1567 to 1574, when he was declared innocent. But his property suffered irreparable injury, under the wretched administration of the royal officers, during the term of sequestration.
Page 375 (1).—The comparison to Hannibal is better founded than the old soldier probably imagined. Livy's description of the Carthaginian warrior has a marvellous application to Cortés,—better, perhaps, than that of the imaginary personage quoted a few lines below in the text. "He showed the greatest boldness in undertaking dangerous enterprises, and the greatest resource in critical moments. No physical labour could tire his body or blunt his spirit. Heat and cold he endured with equal fortitude. In eating and drinking he was guided by his physical needs, not by his pleasure. No regular hours of day or night did he set aside for sleeping or waking. He gave to sleep such time as was not required for action. Many, on frequent occasions, have seen him lying on the ground, wrapped in his military cloak, among the sentries and pickets. In dress he was not conspicuous among his peers, but in the matter of equipment and horseflesh he excelled. Whether mounted or on foot he was by far the first. Foremost in the attack, he was the last to leave the field." (Hist., lib. xxi. sec. 5.) The reader, who reflects on the fate of Guatemozin, may possibly think that the extract should have embraced the "Treachery more base that of the Carthaginians," in the succeeding sentence.
Page 375 (2).—Testamento de Hernan Cortés, MS.
Page 378 (1).—Humboldt, Essai Politique, tom. ii. p. 267.
Page 378 (2).—An extraordinary anecdote is related by Cavo, of this bigotry (shall we call it policy }) of Cortés. "In Mexico," says the historian, "it is commonly reported, that, after the Conquest, he commanded, that on Sundays and holidays all should attend, under pain of a certain number of stripes, to the expounding of the Scriptures. The general was himself guilty of an omission, on one occasion, and, after having listened to the admonition of the priest, submitted, with edifying humility, to be chastised by him, to the unspeakable amazement of the Indians! "— Hist. de los Tres Seglos, tom. i. p. 151.
Page 378 (3).—"To the King, infinite lands; to God, infinite souls," says Lope de Vega, commemorating in this couplet the double glory of Cortés. It is the light in which the Conquest was viewed by every devout Spaniard of the sixteenth century.454
