It might be claimed that by holding captive the chiefs their safety would have been assured; but treason was rife everywhere, and a lesson was needed.
doubtless the view Las Casas would have taken. Intent on pleading the cause of his dusky protégés, he cared not to sift statements that might create sympathy for them. Yet, had he foreseen how widely his accusations would be used to sully Spanish fame, he might have been more circumspect. 'E' vero, che fu troppo rigorosa la vendetta, ed orribile la strage,' says Clavigero; yet he severely condemns Las Casas for his distorted account. Storia Mess., iii. 63-4. According to Sahagun's native record, the Tlascaltecs persuaded Cortés to avenge them on the Cholultecs, and as the latter received him coldly, he began to believe the accusations of his allies. Assembling the chiefs and soldiers, together with citizens, in the temple court, he slaughtered them, defenceless as they were. Hist. Conq., 18. Bustamante comments on this version, and denounces the conquerors as atrociously cruel. Id. (ed. 1840), 56-63. Duran's version is a little milder. His main object being to give the life of Montezuma, he has passed by many events connected with the Spaniards, and has suppressed many accounts of their cruelties. He accordingly refers but briefly to the Cholula massacre, saying that 'the Indians, in their eagerness to serve the Spaniards, came in such large numbers to their quarters with provisions, grass, etc., that Cortés suspected treasonable designs, and put them to the sword.' Hist. Ind., MS., ii. 438-9. Ixtlilxochitl evidently struggles between his fear of the Spanish rulers and the desire to tell what he regards as the truth. He intimates that the only ground for suspicion against the Cholultecs was the effort to dissuade Cortés from going to Mexico. The chiefs and the citizens were assembled on the pretence of selecting carriers, and over 5000 fell beneath the sword. Hist. Chich., 294. An antagonistic view of the affair is offered by Juan Cano, of Narvaez' expedition, who gave Oviedo the hearsay statement that Cortés had asked for 3000 carriers, and wantonly killed them. iii. 552. Carbajal Espinosa, a Mexican historian, like Bustamante, regards the victims as innocent and the deed as barbarous. Hist. Mex., ii. 182. Robertson considers that Cortés had good reasons for it, yet 'the punishment was certainly excessive and atrocious.' Hist. Am., ii. 452. Solis condemns those who seek to accuse the Spaniards of cruelty and to pity the Indians — 'maligna compasion, hija del odio y de la envidia.' The conquerors gave religion to them, and that he regards as sufficient compensation. Hist. Mex., i. 345. 'Cortez felt but doubtful of their fidelity, and feared to leave his rear to a people who might ruin his enterprise,' says Wilson, Conq., Mex., 383, in explanation of the motive; but he forgets that a few hostages, as taken from other peoples on the route, would have secured Cortés far more than the murder of a small percentage of this population. Prescott compares the deed with European cruelties, and, considering the danger threatening the Spaniards, he excuses it. He prefaces his comments by a consideration of the right of conquest. Mex., ii. 29-39. Alas for honesty, humanity, decency, when talented American authors talk of the right of one people to rob and murder another people! See also Veytia, Hist. Ant. Méj., iii. 381-2; Pizarro y Orellano, Varones Ilvstres, 86-9; Peralta, Not. Hist., 112-13, 313-14; Pimentel, Mem. Sit., 90-2. Although some of the early Dutch writers eagerly copy and even exaggerate Las Casas' version, the contemporary German writers are quite moderate. Cortés' version is given in the Weltbuch Spiegel und bildtnis des gantzen Erdtbodens von Sebastiano Franco Wördensi, Tübingen, 1534, ccxxxvii leaves, beside preface and register. This book was much sought after in its day, and received several editions, in German and Dutch, as late as the seventeenth century. The earliest mentioned by Harrisse is dated 1533. The new continent was gradually receiving a larger space in the cosmographies at this period, and Franck actually assigns it a whole section, as one of the four parts of the world. The historic and geographic description of Africa occupies
