The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo Vol. 2

1/25/22, 8:50 PM The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo written by himself, containing a true an…
ourselves to be led about by Cortes and this handful of Christians. If we were
other people than we are, andwould break through the promise we have made
these Spaniards, we could play them a pretty trick here, and revenge ourselves
upon them for all they have done to us, and the ill-treatment my cousin
Quauhtemoctzin has suffered at their hands.' To this the Mexican monarch
replied, 'I beg of you Cohuanacotzin to drop this subject,lest some one should
overhear us, and imagine we were in earnest.' It appears(continues Torquemada)
that they were indeed overheard, for the whole of this discoursewas reported to
Cortes by a low-minded Mexican of the lower classes."(p. 244.)
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With respect to the running or melting of the fat in the body causing instantdeath,
it was most likely a notion entertained by the medical men of that day; theremark
is, therefore, very excusable in an old soldier. (p. 255.)
Probably the iguana, a species of lizard common to St. Domingo, where it is
eaten, and considered delicate food. (p. 255.)
Here our author has evidently erred, for Cortes left Mexico in the month of
October, 1524, and the author repeatedly says that two years and three months
werespent in this expedition; thus he cannot have returned until the year 1526. (p.
302.)
Cortes must either have worn mourning for an uncommon length of time for his
wife, or our author must have been misinformed when he says that she died a few
months after her arrival in New Spain. (p. 327.)
Bernal Diaz had forgotten the precise year, and says he arrived there in themonth
of May, 1536 or 1537. (p. 352.)
The psydium pyriferum or pomiferum of Linnæus. (p. 352.)
Bernal Diaz has fallen into an error here, for the meeting of the two monarchsat
Aigues-Mortes was accidental, the emperor having been cast on the shore of
Provence on a sea-voyage to Barcelona, and Francis the First, who happened to
be in the neighbourhood at the time, kindly invited him to the place above
mentioned. Neither was there any treaty of peace concluded between the two
monarchs on thisoccasion, but an armistice for ten years had been agreed upon
between them shortlybeforehand, on the 18th of June, 1538. (p. 355.)
This chapter 202 we may distinguish as the most uninteresting of all; it seemsa
mere jumble of facts thrown in anyhow; but the author himself remarks at theend
of the chapter, "I relate all this merely from hearsay." (p. 357.)
A little below, Bernal Diaz particularly mentions Cojohuacan. (p. 364.)
Gomara agrees with Bernal Diaz as to the day of Cortes' death, (the 2d day of
December, 1547,) but says he was sixty-three years of age. (p. 364.)
Our author omits to mention anything about the third daughter. In thesepassages
we cannot sufficiently admire the excellent feeling of the old soldier, which was
charitable to a degree; for though he had great reason to complain of the neglect
he suffered from his hero Cortes, yet, after his death, he tries to raise him in your
estimation, and he lets him die an honest man. (p. 365.)
The famous general Gonsalo Hernandez de Cordoba. (p. 373.)
The inns in Spain, which stand along the high roads at great distances fromany
town, are called ventas, and are mostly built by government. (p. 378.)
This passage proves volumes for the honesty, judiciousness, and education ofthe
author; for uneducated minds are fond of large numbers to create astonishment,
but he takes the least number, while the so termed learned historians have not
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