[151] According to Gomara, _Hist. Mex._, 40, and Herrera, dec. ii. lib. v. cap. iv., this new interpreter is not discovered until four days later. [152] ‘Entremetida, é desembuelta,’ slabbers that lecherous old soldier Bernal Diaz. To call women loose comes well from men who spend their lives in making them so. If, as has been stated, the women of her native district have borne a reputation not altogether enviable, whose fault is it? Not theirs, truly. That this girl was the mistress of men, under the circumstances, detracts not one iota from her good name in the minds of right-thinking persons; nay, it detracts nothing from her purity of mind, her honesty, or her innate morality. ‘Reprehensible medio de asegurarla en su fidelidad,’ says Solis, _Hist. Conq. Mex._, i. 119, otherwise so ready to cover up the defects of his hero. [153] _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Verdad._, 24-5. According to Gomara she was born in Viluta, in the direction of Jalisco, the daughter of rich parents, related to the cacique. From them she was stolen by traders and sold in Xicalanco. _Hist. Mex._, 40. The town and district may be a corruption of Huilotlan, in Xalatzinco, which Ixtlilxochitl, _Hist. Chich._, 287, gives as her native place, and this may be identical with the present Oluta or Holuta, near Acayucan, on the isthmus of Tehuantepec. Painala is no longer known. Fossey, who travelled through the region, states that tradition makes Xaltipan or Altipan her birthplace, and in support of this belief a mountain is pointed out, close to the town, bearing the name of Malinche. _Mexique_, 26-7; _Gomara_, _Hist. Mex._ (Bustamante ed.), i. 41; _Berendt_, in _Salazar_, _Méx. en 1554_, 178; _Herrera_, dec. ii. lib. v. cap. vi.; Sahagun, _Hist. Conq._ i. 15, mentions Teticpac, and Oviedo names Mexico as Marina’s native place, iii. 259, while Saavedra undertakes to reconcile the different statements by supposing that her family came originally from Jalisco, west of Anáhuac, to Mexico city, and thence to Goazacoalco. Her high intelligence indicates that she was educated in the capital. _Dic. Univ._, ix. 774.