government, and finding consolation in tirades and petitions, and above all in dwelling upon the pictures of the glorious past, dimmed here and there by recollections of those who had yielded life upon the terrible stone of sacrifice, yet anon illumined by heroic deaths on the battle-field. Many succumbed to broken health, and a half-century after the landing of Cortés but five of his famous band of five hundred and twoscore remained, as Bernal Diaz querulously relates: "All of us aged and infirm, and very poor, burdened with-sons, and daughters to marry, and with grandchildren; and so we live in trouble and misery" — a sentence which may possibly belie itself, however. But let the old soldier grumble; it gives us pleasure sometimes to exaggerate our merits.
As for the band of Narvaez, about a thousand strong, he knows of but twelve remaining; and the followers of Garay, all gone or dispersed. Yet the conquerors did not disappear so entirely after all; the number of prominent and wealthy men who in later generations claimed descent from them is quite numerous, and many, indeed, have by illustrious deeds revived the laurels gained by their forefathers.[1]
- ↑ Bernal Diaz' own family, despite his complaints, rose to prominence, or rather sustained itself, as told in Juarros, Guat., i. 338; Pinelo, Epitome, ii. 604. His own book concludes with brief biographies of a large number of his comrades. Hist. Verdad., 14, 129, 240-7, and passim; the records in Cortés, Residencia, i. ii., and Ramirez, Proceso, give additional facts, and long and nearly complete lists of the first-comers have been collected in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 431-6; Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, 2da ép., ti. 254-63; Dicc. Univ., ii. 492-510; Ilustracion Mex., 1. 345-9. The Monumentos Hist. y Polit., MS., opens with a list of descendants living in 1590, and gives some account of their condition. See also Mex. Manif. al Rey, 22-6; Gonzalez Dávila, Teatro Ecles., i. 177; Torquemada, i. 351, etc. Additional authorities for the three preceding chapters are: Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., ii. 45-6, 114, 200-3; iv. 146-7, 566-74; vi. 277, 500, 507; viii. 21; 1x. 212; xi. 197-8; xii. — xiii. passim; xv. 443; xvi. 368, 560; xxvi. 352-564; xxvii. — ix.; Chimalpain, Hist. Cong., ti. 162-9; Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série i. tom. x. 205-57, 345-65; série ii. tom. i. 209 et seq.; tom. v. passim; Libro de Cabildo, MS., 144, 194, 240-4; Oviedo, i. 114-15; iii. 520-35; Leon, Trat. Encom., 18 et seq.; Puga, Cedulario, 6 passim; Cartas de Indias, 639, 837-41; Torquemada, i. 312-13, 502-3, 599-608; ili. 39-42, 101-2, 157, et seq.; Las Casas, Regio. Ind. Devastat., 40-5, 91-112; Ramirez, Proceso, 191-205, 236-58; Figueroa, Vindicias, MS., 121-2; Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., 1. pp. xlviii. — ix., lvi.-lxiv., 14 et seq.; ii. pp. xxiii.-v., 28-30, 156-89; Col. Doc. Inéd., i. 29, 31-4l, 103-22, 521-30; ii. 401-5; iv. 224-6; Archivo Mex., Doc., 1. passim; ii. 81, 166-7, 297-302; Morelli, Fasti Novi Orbis., 104; Florida, Col. Doc.,
