ABSTRACT
When I had finished the fair copy of this my story, two Licentiates begged me to lend it to them for two days so as to know more clearly what we went through during the conquest of Mexico and New Spain, and to see in what way it differed from what the Chroniclers Gomara and Doctor Yllescas had written about the heroic deeds and exploits we accomplished in company with the valiant Marquis Cortés. So I lent them a rough draft, for it seems to me that wise men always [try to] impress a bit of their wisdom on unlearned fools such as I am, and I told them not to alter a single thing, 2 for all that I write is quite true. When they had seen and read it, one of them who was very eloquent and had a very good opinion of himself, after extolling and praising the good memory I must have not to forget any item of all we went through from the time we came to New Spain in the year seventeen [1517] up to that of sixty-eight [1568], said that, as to the style, it followed the customary speech of Old Castile, and that in these times it is accounted the more agreeable because there are no elaborate arguments nor gilded elegance such as some writers are wont [to display], but all is in plain simple language, and that all really good narration is comprised in this true statement. However, it seemed to him that I praised myself greatly in the accounts of battles and wars in which I was present and the services which I did to His Majesty, and that other persons should make those statements and not I ; also that in order to give greater credibility to what I write I should cite witnesses, as the chroniclers are accustomed to insert and quote proofs from other books dealing with past events, for I am not a witness for myself. To this one can answer, [as is done in] a chapter of my story, that in a letter which the Marques del Valle wrote to His Majesty in the year forty, giving him a report of my person and services, he informed him how I came to explore New Spain on two occasions before he did, and how on the third time I returned in his company ; and as an eye-witness he saw me fight in the wars like a very brave soldier, and come out of them very badly wounded, as well in the capture of Mexico as in many other conquests ; and after we had won New Spain and its provinces how I went in his company to Honduras and the Hibueras (for so it is called in this country), and other particulars which were contained in the letter which, as it is a long story, I will not repeat here. So also Don Antonio de Mendoza, the Viceroy of New Spain (of praiseworthy memory for his many virtues), wrote to His Majesty giving him a report of what had been told to him by the Captains in whose company I served as a soldier ; and it all tallied with what the Marquis had written. Moreover there were the very sufficient proofs which were presented on my behalf to the Royal Council of the Indies in the year forty, and I offer these letters as evidence—two of them were placed before His Majesty and the originals are preserved. If the Marquis and the Viceroy and the Captains and my proofs are not good enough witnesses, I wish to call another witness, and there is no better one in the whole world, that is our very great Monarch the most Christian Emperor Don Carlos, our Lord of most renowned and glorious memory, who about this matter sent his letters with the [Royal] Seal, in which he ordered the Viceroys, presidents, and governors to give me preference and advantage in everything as one of his servants. Other recommendations were contained in the Royal Letters, and for this reason I intended to include them in this story, and I wish they were preserved in my own hands.
