[149] The Anonymous Conqueror bears emphatic testimony to the valor of the Indians, specifying instances in which he had seen a single warrior defend himself for a long time against two, three, and even four Spaniards! “Sono fra loro di valētissimi huomini et che ossano morir ostinatissimamēte. Et io ho veduto un d’ essi difendersi valetemente da duoi caualli leggieri, et un altro da tre, et quattro.” Rel. d’un gentil’ huomo, ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 305. [150] The appalling effect of the cavalry on the natives reminds one of the confusion into which the Roman legions were thrown by the strange appearance of the elephants in their first engagements with Pyrrhus, as told by Plutarch in his life of that prince. [151] Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, pp. 53, 54.--Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 3.--P. Martyr, De Orbe Novo, dec. 2, cap. 2.--Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 4, cap. 32.--Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 6, cap. 8.--Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 66. [152] “Though she heard them every day talk of killing us and eating our flesh, though she had seen us surrounded in past battles, and knew that we were now all of us wounded and suffering, yet we never saw any weakness in her, but a courage far beyond that of woman.” Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 66. [153] Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 67.--Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 83. [154] The effect of the medicine--though rather a severe dose, according to the precise Diaz--was suspended during the general’s active exertions. Gomara, however, does not consider this a miracle. (Crónica, cap. 49.) Father Sandoval does. (Hist. de Cárlos Quinto, tom. i. p. 127.) Solís, after a conscientious inquiry into this perplexing matter, decides--strange as it may seem--against the father! Conquista, lib. 2, cap. 20. [155] “Dios es sobre natura.” Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 54. [156] Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 64.--Not so Cortés, who says, boldly, “I burned more than ten towns.” (Ibid., p. 52.) His reverend commentator specifies the localities of the Indian towns destroyed by him in his forays. Viaje, ap. Lorenzana, pp. ix-xi.