[172] “La qual ciudad es tan grande, y de tanta admiracion, que aunque mucho de lo, que de ella podria decir, dexe, lo poco que diré creo es casi increible, porque es muy mayor que Granada, y muy mas fuerte, y de tan buenos Edificios, y de muy murcha mas gente, que Granada tenia al tiempo que se ganó.” Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 58. [173] “En las Ruinas, que aun hoy se vén en Tlaxcala, se conoce, que no es ponderacion.” Rel. Seg. de Cortés, p. 58. Nota del editor, Lorenzana. [174] “Nullum est fictile vas apud nos, quod arte superet ab illis vasa formata.” Martyr, De Orbe Novo, dec. 5, cap. 2. [175] Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.--Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 59.--Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 4.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 83.--The last historian enumerates such a number of contemporary Indian authorities for his narrative as of itself argues no inconsiderable degree of civilization in the people. [176] Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 6, cap. 12.--The population of a place which Cortés could compare with Granada had dwindled by the beginning of the present century to 3400 inhabitants, of whom less than a thousand were of the Indian stock. See Humboldt, Essai politique, tom. ii. p. 158. [177] Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-España, MS., lib. 12, cap. 11.--Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.--Gomara, Crónica, cap. 54, 55.--Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 6, cap. 13.--Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 75. [178] Camargo notices this elastic property in the religions of Anahuac: “Este modo de hablar y decir que les querrá dar otro Dios, es saber que cuando estas gentes tenian noticia de algun Dios de buenas propiedades y costumbres, que le rescibiesen admitiéndole por tal, porque otras gentes advenedizas trujéron muchos ídolos que tubiéron por Dioses, y á este fin y propósito decian, que Cortés les traia otro Dios.” Hist. de Tlascala, MS. [179] Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 84.--Gomara, Crónica, cap. 56.--Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 76, 77.--This is not the account of Camargo. According to him, Cortés gained his point: the nobles led the way by embracing Christianity, and the idols were broken. (Hist. de Tlascala, MS.) But Camargo was himself a Christianized Indian, who lived in the next generation after the Conquest, and may very likely have felt as much desire to relieve his nation from the reproach of infidelity as a modern Spaniard would to scour out the stain--_mala raza y mancha_--of Jewish or Moorish lineage from his escutcheon. [180] The miracle is reported by Herrera (Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 6, cap. 15), and _believed_ by Solís. Conquista de Méjico, lib. 3, cap. 5.