APPENDIX.

TRANSLATIONS FROM THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF

NEW SPAIN BY BERNAL DIAZ.

What the Marquis del Valle did after his return to Castile.

As his Majesty had now returned to Castile, from an expedition to chastise the city of Ghent, he raised a large army to attack Algiers, and the Marquis del Valle went to serve in it, and took with him his son and heir, and also his son Don Martin Cortes by Donna Marina, and a large retinue of esquires, servants, and horses. He embarked in a handsome galley with Don Henrique Henriques: but it pleased God to raise so violent a storm that nearly the whole royal armada was lost. The galley in which Cortes sailed was also sunk. But he escaped with his children and the gentlemen who accompanied him, but not without great risk of their lives—although at such moments there is no time for reflection, when death was staring them in the face, many of the servants of Cortes said that they saw him bind around his arm some small bundles containing very precious stones which, being a great lord, he had carried with him-and not because he had any use for them. When he reached the shore in safety, he found that he had lost all these valuable jewels, which were worth many dollars in gold.

All of the Captains and Masters of the Camp who constituted the royal council advised his Majesty to abandon the siege of Algiers, and sail for Bexia-since they saw that our Lord had been pleased to raise such a storm that they could do no more than they had done. Cortes was not summoned to this council, nor was his opinion asked. But when he was informed of it, he said that if his Majesty were pleased to entrust the matter to him, that—with the aid of God-the good fortune of our Cæsar,

and the soldiers which they then had-he would take Algiers. He then uttered many praises of his captains and soldiers who had been with him in the conquest of Mexico-" that we were the men to endure hunger and fatigues; and, although wounded and toil-worn, to march wherever we were ordered, perform heroic achievements, and storm every city and fortress, although at the imminent peril of our lives." When many of the gentlemen of the expedition heard this, they said to his Majesty that it would have been better to have invited Cortes to the council, and that it was a great mistake not to have done so-others said that the reason that the Marquis was not invited to the council was, that they knew that his opinion would be opposed to raising the siege; and that, at such a moment of imminent peril, there was no time for councils, except as to the means of placing in safety his Majesty and the gentlemen of his retinue, who were in the greatest danger; and that they might afterwards return and renew the siege of Algiers :-and so they departed for Buxia.

Let us now leave this subject, and speak of the return to Castile from this toilsome expedition.

The Marquis was weary of remaining in Castile and attending upon the court and on his return from Buxia being very much broken down by the toils of the expedition-was greatly desirous of returning to New Spain, if he could obtain permission to do so. He had sent to Mexico for his oldest daughter, Donna Maria Cortes, whom he had contracted in marriage to Don Alvaro Perez Osorio, the heir of the marquis of Astorga, and had promised her as a marriage portion more than a hundred thousand ducats in gold, besides a large amount in jewels and other articles; and he went to Seville to receive her.

The marriage was broken off, as many gentlemen said, from the fault of Don Alvaro Perez Osorio-which so much enraged the "Marquis as to bring on a fever, accompanied with dysentery--and, as he daily grew worse, he determined to leave Seville, to relieve himself from the importunities of those who had business with him, and he retired to the town of Castilleja de la Cuesta, for the purpose of attending to his soul, and making his will: which, when he had done, and received the holy sacrament, our Lord Jesus Christ was pleased to remove him from this troublesome world. He died on the 2d of December, in the year 1547. His body was carried with great pomp and a large procession of the clergy, and gentlemen in mourning, and buried in the chapel of the Dukes of Medina Sidonia. His bones were afterwards carried to New Spain, and were, according to the directions of his will, deposited in a sepulchre in Cuyoacan or Tezcuco, I am not certain which. I will now state what I think his age was, from facts which I will state. The year in which we sailed from Cuba

for New Spain was that of 1519. He then frequently sa in conversation with us, his companions of the expedition, that he was thirty-four years old; to which add twenty-eight more, until he died, and it makes sixty

two.

The legitimate children which he left were-Don Martin Cortes, the present Marquis; Donna Maria Cortes, who, I have before said, was contracted in marriage to Don Alvaro Perez Osorio, the heir of the Marquisate of Astorga, and who afterwards married the Count Luna de Leon; Donna Juanna, who married Don Hernando Henriques, the heir of the Marquisate of Tariffa ; Donna Catalina Arillano, who died in Seville. These all came to Castile with their mother, the Marchioness Donna Joana Zuniga, accompanied by her brother, the friar Don Antonio de Zuniga.

There was another daughter, who was in Mexico-Donna Leonor Cortes, -who married one Juanes de Tolosa, a Biscaiynian, who was worth more than a hundred thousand dollars, besides rich silver mines. The young marquis was much enraged at this marriage when he arrived in New Spain. He had also two illegitimate sons. Don Martin Cortes, whose mother was Donna Marina, and who was a knight of the Order of Santiago, and Luis Cortes, also a knight of Santiago, and whose mother was Dona Hermosilla. He left also three illegitimate daughters; one by an Indian woman of Cuba, and the others by Mexican women. He gave to these illegitimate daughters handsome dowries; for in their infancy he gave them some valuable Indian villages called Chinanta.

As to the provisions of his will I cannot speak positively, but I am sure that they were wise and proper, for he had ample time for that purpose, and as he was then an old man I do not doubt that it was done wisely. To relieve his conscience he ordered a hospital to be built in Mexico, and a monastery in his Town of Cuyoacan, which is two leagues from Mexico, and that his bones should be carried to New Spain. He left ample funds to carry into execution all the provisions of his will which were many and good, and such as became a good Christian, all of which I do not enumerate, both to avoid prolixity and because I do not remember them all. The motto and blazon on his arms were those of a very valiant gentleman and expressive of his heroic actions, but as they were in Latin, and I do not understand the Latin language, I shall not attempt to give them. The heads of seven captive kings were engraved on his escutcheon, and as I understand it, these seven captive Kings were Montezuma the great lord of Mexico, Cacamatqui, the nephew of Montezuma, and the great lord of Tezcuco, Coadlavaca the lord of Iztapalapa and other villages, the lord of Tacuba, the lord of Cuyoacan, and another great Cacique of two provinces called Tulapa which were adjoining Matalcuigo. This last, it was said, was the

son of a sister of Montezuma, and a very near heir to the throne of Mexico. The last of these kings was Guatemuz, who defended his provinces and city when we conquered them. These were the seven Caciques which were engraved upon his arms and escutcheon, for I do not remember any other kings who were at any time prisoners, as I have stated in former chapters. I will now pass on and describe the person and disposition of Cortes. He was of good person and stature, well proportioned and muscular; the color of his face was somewhat of an ashy paleness, and not very pleasant to look upon. If his face had been somewhat longer it would have been better; the expression of his eyes was at times amorous, at other times grave; his beard thin, brown and stiff; his hair the same; his breast full, and his shoulders well formed; he was thin and had a small stomach; a little bow-legged, with well shaped legs and thighs. He was a fine horseman, and was dexterous in the use of all kinds of arms, both on foot and on horseback, but above all he had the heart and spirit which is of most importance. I have heard it said, that when a young man in the island of Hispaniola, he was somewhat irregular in his amours, and that he was sometimes engaged in duels with dexterous swordsmen, in all of which he was victorious; he had the scar of a swordcut on his under lip, which he had received in some of these rencontres, which upon close examination could be seen, but he kept it covered with his beard. In his presence, movements, conversation, eating, dress, in everything he showed the great lord.

His clothes were of the fashion of the time, he cared nothing for silks nor damasks nor satins, but always dressed neatly and plainly; neither did he wear large chains of gold, but a small one of gold of the finest workmanship with a small medallion attached to it, on one side of which was an image of our lady the holy Virgin Mary with her precious Son in her arms, and an inscription in Latin,-on the other side an image of Saint John the Baptist, with another Latin inscription under it; he also wore on his finger a costly diamond ring. On his cap, which according to the fashion of the time was of velvet, he wore another medallion, I do not remember what face was engraved upon it, nor the inscription. Later in life he wore a plain cap without the medallion.

The furniture of his house, his retinue and servants, were those of a great lord; with major-domos, pages, &c., and many large vessels of silver and of gold. He ate heartily at the middle of the day, and drank a half-pint glass of wine and water; the only other meal which he took was supper. He cared nothing for delicate or costly dishes, except on occasions when such things were necessary, and then he did not regard the cost of them, He was always very affable with all the captains and soldiers, especially

with those of us who first sailed with him from Cuba. He was a good Latin scholar, and I have heard it said that he was a Bachelor of Laws, and whenever he conversed with learned men and Latin scholars the conversation was always in Latln. He was something of a poet, and sometimes wrote couplets; his conversation was agreeable and very polished; he prayed every morning and heard mass with devotion, he had for his advocate and intercessor our lady the Virgin Mary, as every good Christian should have; he also had for his saints, St. Peter, St. James, and St. John the Baptist. He was very charitable; whenever he swore he would say, "" on my conscience;" when he was angry with any of our soldiers he would say, "oh! may you repent of this;" when very much excited, the veins of his neck and forehead would swell, and he would, sometimes, when greatly enraged, throw off his mantle, but he was never known to utter an injurious or offensive word to any captain or soldier. He was extremely patient and forbearing, which he had great occasion to be, for the soldiers would often say inconsiderately most offensive things, but he never replied with harshness or unkindness; the most that he would say, was, "Be silent, or go in God's name, but for the future have a care what you say or it will cost you dear, for I will punish you."

He was very obstinate, especially in all military matters; for he persisted in all the ill-advised combats into which he led us, when we made the excursion in the lake to reconnoitre Mexico; and in the battles of Pinoles, which are to this day called the pinoles of the Marquis, notwithstanding all the counsel and advice which we gave him to the contrary. We all advised him against attempting to ascend to the fortress on the top of those Pinoles (craggy mountains), but that we should surround them, and not expose us to the large rocks which they would hurl over the sides of the mountain upon us, and against which we could not defend ourselves, and that to attempt it would expose us all to almost certain destruction; but he persisted in his own course against the opinions of us all. We had to commence the ascent, and great was the danger to which we were exposed. Ten or twelve of our soldiers were killed, and all of us more or less bruised and wounded, without accomplishing anything until other counsels were adopted. And then again: in the expedition to Honduras, when Christoval de Ali revolted with the armada under his command, I more than once advised that we should take the route through the mountains, but he persisted in taking that along the coast. In this he was again mistaken; for that which I recommended passed the whole way through an inhabited country. This will be understood by every one who has passed through that country. From Guagacualco the road is plain and direct to Chiapas, thence to Guatemala, and from Guatemala to Naco,