CHAPTER XVII
Diego Velasquez despatches one of his officials to Spain.
My readers may perhaps think, that what I am now about to relate does not exactly belong to this history; but in the course of it they will readily perceive that I have been obliged to notice many circumstances before I could introduce them to the captain, Hernando Cortes. They ought also to bear in mind, that it often happens that two or three things take place at the same moment; in which case there only remains for the historian to treat of one circumstance after the other, and begin with that which lies nearest at hand. In this place the following comes first under our consideration.
After the arrival of Pedro de Alvarado with the gold which we had made in the newly-discovered country, Diego Velasquez began to fear that some one at court, who might have received private information of all this, would anticipate him, in forwarding his imperial majesty the first news of our important discovery, and so rob him of the reward. He, therefore, despatched one of his chaplains, named Benito Martinez, a thorough man of business, to Spain, with letters and a few of the valuable things, to Don Juan Rodriguez Fonseca, bishop of Burgos, and archbishop of Rosano. He wrote at the same time to the licentiate Louis Zapata, and the secretary Lope Conchillos, who at that time had the conduct of all Indian affairs under the archbishop.
Diego Velasquez was quite devoted to these gentlemen, and had presented them with considerable Indian villages in Cuba, with the inhabitants of which they worked their gold mines. But he took particular care to provide well for the archbishop, troubling himself very little about his majesty, who was at that time in Flanders.
He sent moreover to these, his patrons, a great portion of the gold trinkets which Alvarado had brought with him; for everything that was determined in the imperial council of India depended upon these gentlemen. Diego Velasquez therefore sought, by means of his chaplain, to obtain unlimited permission to fit out armaments at any time he might think proper to make voyages of discovery, and to found colonies in the new countries as well as in those that might subsequently be discovered: in the accounts he transmitted to Spain, he spoke of the many thousands of gold-pesos which he had already spent in like undertakings; thereby giving such a favorable direction to the negotiations of his chaplain, Benito Martinez, that his expectations were more than fulfilled, who even obtained for him the additional title of Adelantado of Cuba. This latter appointment, however, did not arrive until the new expedition under Cortes had left. I will not make any further remarks on these matters at present, but rather say a few words respecting Francisco Lopez de Gomara's History of the Conquest of New Spain and Mexico. His history fell into my hands while I was writing my own, and I soon foresaw that I should have to contradict him in many instances. My intention is to give a faithful account, and that in due order, of every circumstance; this will greatly differ from his narrative, which is quite at variance with truth.
CHAPTER XVIII
Of some errors in the work of Francisco Lopez de Gomara.
While busily engaged writing this narrative, the eloquent History of the Conquest of Mexico and New Spain, by Gomara, fell into my hands; and when I perceived the elegance of his style, and considered the rudeness of my own, I laid down my pen, ashamed at the very thoughts of its being read by men of distinction. With my spirits thus damped, I once more undertook to go through his history; it was then I, for the first time, discovered how mistaken this author was with respect to the occurrences which had really taken place in New 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