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w Spain. He is equally bad whenever he
writes about the magnitude of the towns and number of the inhabitants;
in which, whenever it suits him, he does not, for instance, hesitate a
moment to put 8000 for eight. In the same way he mentions the extensive
buildings we were stated to have commenced, though, in fact, we were
only 400 in number when we first went out to war, and had sufficient
work to defend ourselves and prevent the victory from going over to our
enemies. Though the Indians may have been timid, we were, nevertheless,
guiltless of such wholesale slaughter and other barbarities as Gomara
would lay to our doors. On the contrary, such was our situation, and I
hereby seal my words with an oath when I state, that we daily offered up
our prayers to God and the Holy Virgin to preserve us from destruction.

Alaric was certainly a most courageous monarch, and Attila a soldier
whose excessive pride would not allow him to shrink back from anything;
yet they never slaughtered such multitudes of human beings on the
Catalonian plains as we do in the book of Gomara!

In the same way he mentions what numbers of towns and temples we either
burnt or destroyed. I am speaking of the Indian temples, called by the
inhabitants cues. This latter circumstance would certainly be most
pleasing to his readers; but he never gave it a thought, when he was
writing, that the conquistadores themselves, and those better informed,
would detect his errors and falsehoods. Even in his other works,
whenever he speaks about New Spain, he immediately commits blunders. In
one place he praises a commander far above his merits, for which very
reason he in another most unjustly diminishes that of a second. In
another place again, he gives many a one a command who was not even in
the army during the conquest: he gives, for instance, the chief command
at the battle fought near the town afterwards called Almeria, to Pedro
d'Irico, when, in fact, it was Juan de Escalante who commanded on that
occasion, and was killed with seven of his men. Again he says, that Juan
Velasquez de Leon founded the colony of Guacasualco, although it was
Gonzalo de Sandoval, of Avila. There is as much truth in his account
when he says that Cortes ordered the Indian Quezal Popoca, one of
Motecusuma's chiefs, to be burnt, together with the village in which it
was stated he had hid himself. Equal reliance may be placed in his
description of our entry into the town and fortress of Anga Panga, where
everything happened exactly contrary to what he has stated. In his
narrative of our proceedings on the downs, when we had appointed Cortes
captain-general and chief justice, he has allowed himself to be deceived
by false information, while he has totally misrepresented our taking of
the town Chamula, in the province of Chiapa. A still greater blunder he
commits when he states that Cortes issued his orders secretly for the
destruction of the eleven vessels which had brought us to New Spain, for
it is perfectly well known that the ships were run on shore by our
unanimous consent, and in presence of us all, in order that the sailors
might also be armed and accompany us on our march.

In like manner he lowers the merits of Juan de Grijalva, although he had
proved himself such a worthy officer; while he passes by Hernandez de
Cordoba in silence, though he was the first who discovered Yucatan: of
Francisco de Garay he says, that he had accompanied us on the previous
expedition under Grijalva, though he first visited New Spain during this
last expedition. In the account he gives of the arrival of Narvaez, and
the victory we gained over him, he is certainly more faithful, and has
been well informed of all the circumstances; but, with respect to the
battles with the Tlascallans, up to the time when peace was concluded
with them, he has again diverged from the truth. Concerning the battle
we fought in the city of Mexico itself, in which we were worsted and
beaten back with the loss of 860 of our troops, of whom a great portion
was sacrificed to the idols,--I repeat, where above 860 of our men were
killed, for out of 1300 soldiers who had marched into the town to the
relief of Pedro de Alvarado, which made out the united forces of Narvaez
and Cortes, only 440 escaped, and even these were all wounded,--of this
great and important deed of arms he speaks as if it were a mere nothing.
He says as little of the subsequent conquest we made of the great city
of Mexico, or the manner in which we accomplished it, and omits to
mention the number of our killed and wounded; as if this undertaking had
merely been a jolly marriage-procession. But why should I continue to
enumerate all these particularities one by one, it is a mere waste of
ink and paper! I can only say that it is a great pity if Gomara pursues
the same course in all his works; for in the beautiful style in which he
writes, he ought to make truth perceptible, and distinguish himself
therein. But enough of Gomara; I have sufficiently proved, to the sorrow
of his readers, how far he has gone beside the truth. I will now return
to my history, and strive to act up to the advice of wise men, who say
that honesty and truth are the true ornaments to history. Indeed, my
rude style of writing would be insupportable without truth, and
therefore I was determined to put my trust in it, and continue my
narrative in the way I had begun, that it might go to the press, and
publish to the world the conquest of New Spain, as it really took place.
In this way his imperial majesty will also learn the great services
which we, the true conquistadores, have rendered to the crown; how small
our numbers were when we first arrived in this country, under the
command of our highly-favoured and faithful captain, Hernando Cortes;
what dangers we had to brave; and, lastly, how we conquered this
kingdom, which forms a great part of the New World, and for which reason
his majesty, our most christian king and master, has so often ordered
that we should be rewarded. However, I will not say anything further on
this head, though much might be said. In resuming my pen I will, like a
careful pilot who throws out the lead when he is in danger of shallows,
search after truth, where the historian Gomara flies away from it. I
will not, however, detain my readers by entering into minute
particulars, but always keep the whole in view, in order that the costs
of gathering the leasings may not amount to more than the value of the
full vintage. If other historians should further swell out my narrative,
and bestow on Cortes, our commander, and on the brave conquistadores in
this great and holy expedition, their just measure of praise, I can at
least say that I have witnessed for the truth. These, indeed, are not
stories about strange countries, or dreams, or contradictory statements;
everything I relate, if I may so say, happened but yesterday, and the
whole of New Spain can test these representations, and judge how far
those are correct who hav

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