I

BOOK V

N addition to the above mentioned alguazil, who furnished us with such ample information upon which

to form our opinion, there has just recently arrived from New Spain, conquered by Cortes, a citizen of San Lucar de Barrameda, called Diego Garcia. According to his account, he left the port of Vera Cruz about the calends of April in the year 1524, just when Garay died. He also acquits Cortes of any suspicion of poisoning, and says Garay died indeed of the pleurisy. Garcia furthermore states that Cortes has never displayed any symptoms of disobedience towards the Emperor, as some envious people have whispered. On the contrary, we know from Garcia and from others that his attitude towards the Emperor is a most humble one. He is striving at the present time to restore the ruins of the great lake-city, due to the war; the aqueducts, which were broken to assist in conquering the obstinacy of the besieged, have been restored; the destroyed bridges and many ruined houses have been rebuilt, and, little by little, the city is taking on its former appearance. The markets and fairs have not been suspended; boats come and go as actively as before, and the multitude of traders appears to be just as great as during the reign of Muteczuma.

Cortes has appointed a man of the blood royal to protect the interests of the natives and to administer justice; but his functions are not very extensive. When ' Referring again to the Chihuacoatl before mentioned.

this man is in the society of Spaniards or with Cortes, he wears a Spanish dress presented to him by the latter; but when he is with his own people he resumes the national costume to which he is accustomed.

The Prætorian guard which protects the person of Cortes, and is ready to suppress any disorder that may occur, is composed of five hundred horsemen and four thousand foot-soldiers. A number of captains have moreover been sent with their companies to accomplish several missions on land and sea; amongst others, Cristobal Olid, whose acts and deeds I will elsewhere recount.

It will be well, and also interesting, to learn what a captain called Alvarado has done in a certain matter. We have somewhere said that between Yucatan, on the frontier of New Spain, thus named by Cortes, with the Emperor's consent, and the immense territories of the new continent, there exists a vast gulf which may possibly have an exit towards the southern extremity of that country. It is in this gulf that Egidius Gonzales de Avila thinks the mouth of a great river may be found, through which flow the waters of the immense freshwater lake, of which I have spoken at length in my book which the Archbishop of Cosenza has presented to Your Holiness, and also in the Decade preceding it, dedicated to the Duke Sforza. The extremity of that gulf has been known for a long time under the name of the gulf of Figueras.

According to the report of numerous natives, a larger city than Temistitan stands on the western side of this gulf, but more than four hundred leagues in the interior. The sovereign of this country is master of a great kingdom. Cortes commissioned Alvarado to go in search of this town, giving him five hundred men-horsemen and foot-soldiers. Alvarado set out straight towards the east, preceded only by two of his own men who knew the languages of the country. He discovered numerous re

gions, sometimes mountains or plains, sometimes marshes, but in general they were sterile.

I omit the particulars of this march, for I will not risk wearying Your Holiness with minute details; so at one bound I come to what is worth hearing. Passing from one kingdom to another conducted by their native guides, Alvarado's messengers returned to their commander who followed them at a distance of several leagues, and reported to him what they had discovered. The mere announcement that the Spaniards were coming produced calm1 everywhere. None of the caciques dared to draw a sword against them, and everywhere they passed, the storehouses of provisions were opened to them. People crowded about to admire them, and especially the horses and weapons stupefied the natives, for all of them are nearly naked. They assisted our men by furnishing provisions and slaves to act as beasts of burden and carry their baggage. They make slaves of war prisoners as do all nations-not to mention kings-mad with cupidity or ambition.

Alvarado halted on the very frontier of the country ruled by that great king, and waited there, fully armed and in good order. He did not wish to trespass on his territory, so as not to appear to offer any offence, for there exists no greater outrage in the estimation of the caciques of that region than to cross their frontiers without their permission. In such cases it only remains to take vengeance for the insult; hence rivalries, disputes, and

wars.

It was still about a hundred leagues farther on to the residence of that sovereign. Alvarado sent messengers and interpreters, obtained in the neighbouring countries, in advance. They approached the king, saluted him, and were amicably received by him, for the news of the Spaniards' arrival had reached his ears. He first asked The calm that reigned in Poland.

whether these men were sent by the great Malinge,' whom they believe to be sent down from heaven, and whom they call the invincible and all-powerful hero. The messengers answered him affirmatively. He further enquired whether they came by sea or land, and if by sea in what pirogues,—that is to say ships as large as the room of the palace in which they then were. Like all the natives they have only fishing boats, dug out of treetrunks.

The king then declared that he knew about our vessels the preceding year. The ships of Egidius Gonzales, which sailed the seas lying behind Yucatan, had indeed been seen by the subjects of that cacique, whose country lay along the coast. The ships being under full sail, the natives believed them to be sea monsters, horrible and astonishing beasts newly created, and they thus informed their sovereign. The king asked one of the two messengers if he could draw a picture of a ship, and one of them, called Trevigno, promised to do so. This man who had been a woodworker and a skilful pilot set to work in a large room of the palace to paint a ship; for the dwellings of the king and the lords possess halls built of stone and plaster, as I have already said in speaking of Temistitan. Trevigno, therefore, painted a large freight-ship, such as the Genovese call carraca, with six masts and as many decks.

Appalled by this mass, the cacique fell into a long reverie. He next enquired how these vessels fought, and was told

' Meaning Malinche or more correctly Malintzin, the name by which Cortes was universally known amongst the Indians. The sobriquet derives singularly enough, from Marina, the Christian name given to the Aztec woman who accompanied Cortes throughout the conquest. The Aztecs did not pronounce the letter but, after the fashion of the Chinese, substituted for it 1, making of Marina, Malina. Tzin was the Aztec title of honour, meaning chief or commander, and Cortes was hence named by the natives Malintzin; this in turn was corrupted by the Spaniards into Malinche.

that each of them was sufficiently strong to easily triumph over thousands of men, a statement he was unwilling to believe, and which he held to be impossible; the more so as he saw that none of the Spaniards were above the ordinary height and possessed neither a more robust appearance nor stronger limbs than other men.

He was next told that our people had ferocious beasts in their service, swifter than the wind, and which helped them to fight. The cacique then asked that one of the messengers should draw him a horse as well as he could. Trevigno's companion did this, taking care to give the horse a terrifying aspect, and to make it larger than the brass horses of Phidias or Praxiteles, which stand on the Esquiline Hill, belonging to Your Holiness. Upon the animal's back, covered with harness, he placed a horseman. Struck with admiration, the cacique next asked whether they would undertake to conquer a hostile neighbour of his who ravaged his frontier, promising them an army of fifty thousand allies, in case they would do so. Alvarado's envoys next told him that the Spaniards by themselves were no stronger and no better than other men, but when in line of battle with their horses and their engines of war, they feared no other army. They promised to return to the general who had sent them, and who was awaiting them not far from the frontier of the kingdom. The cacique having asked them what report they would make, they answered that in their opinion the general would come to the cacique's assistance, and would easily conquer his enemies, their capital, and everything they possessed. The cacique answered: "If you carry out your promise, I and my subjects will henceforth obey this great and invincible hero." As a pledge of his future vassalage, he showed himself so well disposed towards the envoys that he gave them as an escort back to Alvarado, five thousand slaves laden with cocoa money used in the country, provisions, and also twenty