[388] Bernal Diaz, ubi supra.--“Andres de Tapia, _que me lo dijo_, i Gonçalo de Umbria, las contáron vn Dia, i halláron ciento i treinta i seis mil Calaberas, en las Vigas, i Gradas.” Gomara, Crónica, cap. 82.{*} {*} [Gomara is so often accused of exaggeration and falsehood that it is satisfactory to find his exactness, in the present instance, established by the evidence of Tápia himself, who thus describes the manner in which the estimate was made: “E quien esto escribe, y un Gonzalo de Umbréa, contaron los palos que habie, é multiplicando á cinco cabezas cada palo de los que entre viga y viga estaban, ... hallamos haber ciento treinta y seis mill cabezas, _sin las de las torres_.” (Icazbalceta, Col. de Doc. para la Hist. de México, tom. iii.) The original of this “Relacion,” recently discovered, is in the library of the Academy of History at Madrid. It is an unfinished narrative, valuable as the production of one of the chief companions of Cortés, and for the confirmation it affords of other contemporaneous accounts of the Conquest.--K.] [389] “Three collections, thus fancifully disposed, of these grinning horrors--in all 230,000--are noticed by Gibbon!” (Decline and Fall, ed. Milman, vol. i. p. 52; vol. xii. p. 45.) A _European_ scholar commends “the conqueror’s piety, his moderation, and his justice”! Rowe’s Dedication of “Tamerlane.” [390] _Ante_, vol. i. pp. 83, 84.--The desire of presenting the reader with a complete view of the actual state of the capital at the time of its occupation by the Spaniards has led me in this and the preceding chapter into a few repetitions of remarks on the Aztec institutions in the Introductory Book of this History. [391] Toribio, Hist. de los Indios, MS., Parte 1, cap. 12.--Gomara, Crónica, cap. 80.--Rel. d’un gentil’ huomo, ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 309. [392] “Es tan grande que dentro del circuito de ella, que es todo cercado de Muro muy alto, se podia muy bien facer una Villa de quinientos Vecinos.” Rel. Seg., ap. Lorenzana, p. 105. [393] “Todas estas mugeres,” says Father Toribio, “estaban aquí sirviendo al demonio por sus propios intereses; las unas porque el Demonio las hiciese modestas,” etc. Hist. de los Indios, MS., Parte 1, cap. 9. [394] See essay on the Origin of the Mexican Civilization. _Ante._ [395] “Y luego lo supímos entre todos los demas Capitanes, y soldados, y lo entrámos á ver muy secretamente, y como yo lo ví, digo que me admiré, é como en aquel tiempo era mancebo, y no auia visto en mi vida riquezas como aquellas, tuue por cierto, que en el mundo no deuiera auer otras tantas!” Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 93. [396] Ibid., loc. cit. [397] “We Spaniards,” says Cortés, frankly, “are apt to be somewhat unmanageable and troublesome.” Rel. Seg., ap. Lorenzana, p. 84.