ABSTRACT
While I was writing this story, I saw by chance, what had been written by Gómara, Yllescas and Jovio, about the conquest of Mexico and New Spain, and when I had read their accounts and saw and appreciated their polished style, and thought how rudely and lamely my story was told, I stopped writing it, seeing that such good histories already existed. Being in this perplexed state of mind, I began to look into the arguments and discourses which are told in these books, and I saw that from beginning to end they did not tell correctly what took place in New Spain. When they begin to write about the great cities, and the great number of the inhabitants, they are as ready to write eighty thousand as eight thousand. Then about the great slaughter which they say we committed :—As we were only four hundred and fifty soldiers who marched to that war, we had enough to do to defend ourselves from being killed or defeated and carried off; and even had the Indians been craven cowards, we could not have committed all the slaughter attributed to us, more particularly as the Indians were very bold warriors who had cotton armour which shielded their bodies, and were armed with bows, arrows, shields, long lances, and two-handled stone-edged swords, which cut better than our swords did, Nevertheless, the historians say that we made as great a slaughter and committed as great cruelties as did Alaric, that bravest of kings, and the haughty warrior Attila, on the battlefields of Catalonia. To go back to my story, they say that we destroyed and burnt many cities and temples, that is their Cues, and in saying this, they seem to think that they are giving pleasure to those who read their histories, and they do not understand when they write, that the conquerors themselves, and the inquisitive readers, who know what really took place, could tell them clearly that if they write other histories in the way they have written that of New Spain, such history will be worthless. The amusing part of it is, that they exalt some captains, and belittle others, and they speak of some, who were not even present at the conquest, as though they were there, and they make many other statements of equal value, but there are so many matters about which they are ignorant, that I cannot note them all. But there is one thing that they say worse than all and that is that Cortés sent secret orders to scuttle the ships, on the contrary, it was on the distinct advice of most of the other soldiers and my own, that he sent to have the ships sunk without any concealment whatever, and it was done so that the sailors who were in them might help to keep watch and make war. Indeed, in all they write, they speak with prejudice, so why should I go on dipping my pen to mention each item separately, it is merely wasting ink and paper, moreover I should say it badly, for I have got no style.
