[44] Ibid., cap. 36.--Cortés, in his Second Letter to the Emperor Charles V., estimates the number of fighting-men at 50,000. Relacion segunda, ap. Lorenzana, p. 40. [45] Las Casas, Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap. 121.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 81.--Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. 33, cap. 1. [46] The historian, with the aid of Clavigero, himself a Mexican, may rectify frequent blunders of former writers, in the orthography of Aztec names. Both Robertson and Solís spell the name of this place _Quiabislan_. Blunders in such a barbarous nomenclature must be admitted to be very pardonable. [47] “Grande artífice,” exclaims Solís, “de medir lo que disponia con lo que recelaba; y prudente capitan él que sabe caminar en alcance de las contingencias”! Conquista, lib. 2, cap. 9. [48] Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 81.--Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 40.--Gomara, Crónica, cap. 34-36, ap. Barcia, tom. ii.--Bernal Diaz, Conquista, cap. 46, 47.--Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 5, cap. 10, 11. [49] Carta de Vera Cruz, MS.--Bernal Diaz, Conquista, cap. 48.--Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 1.--Declaracion de Montejo, MS.--Notwithstanding the advantages of its situation, La Villa Rica was abandoned in a few years for a neighboring position to the south, not far from the mouth of the Antigua. This second settlement was known by the name of _Vera Cruz Vieja_, “Old Vera Cruz.” Early in the seventeenth century this place, also, was abandoned for the present city, _Nueva Vera Cruz_, or New Vera Cruz, as it is called. (See _ante_, chap. 5, note 8.) Of the true cause of these successive migrations we are ignorant. If, as is pretended, it was on account of the _vómito_, the inhabitants, one would suppose, can have gained little by the exchange. (See Humboldt, Essai politique, tom. ii. p. 210.) A want of attention to these changes has led to much confusion and inaccuracy in the ancient maps. Lorenzana has not escaped them in his chart and topographical account of the route of Cortés. [50] “Teniendo respeto á que tiene por cierto, que somos los que sus antepassados les auian dicho, que auian de venir á sus tierras, é que deuemos de ser de sus linajes.” Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 48. [51] Gomara, Crónica, cap. 37.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 82. [52] “De buena gana recibirian las Doncellas como fuesen Christianas; porque de otra manera, no era permitido á hombres, hijos de la Iglesia de Dios, tener comercio con idólatras.” Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 5, cap. 13. [53] Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 5, cap. 13.--Las Casas, Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap. 122.--Herrera has put a very edifying harangue, on this occasion, into the mouth of Cortés, which savors much more of the priest than the soldier. Does he not confound him with Father Olmedo?