[15] Dr. Robertson, preferring the authority, it seems, of Diaz, speaks of the value of the treasure as 600,000 _pesos_. (History of America, vol. ii. pp. 296, 298.) The value of the _peso_ is an ounce of silver, or dollar, which, making allowance for the depreciation of silver, represented, in the time of Cortés, nearly four times its value at the present day. But that of the _peso de oro_ was nearly three times that sum, or eleven dollars sixty-seven cents. (See _ante_, Book II. chap. 6, note 18.) Robertson makes his own estimate, so much reduced below that of his original, an argument for doubting the existence, in any great quantity, of either gold or silver in the country. In accounting for the scarcity of the former metal in this argument, he falls into an error in stating that gold was not one of the standards by which the value of other commodities in Mexico was estimated. Comp. _ante_, vol. i. p. 161. [16] Many of them, indeed, could boast little or nothing in their coffers. Maximilian of Germany, and the more prudent Ferdinand of Spain, left scarcely enough to defray their funeral expenses. Even as late as the beginning of the next century we find Henry IV. of France embracing his minister, Sully, with rapture when he informed him that, by dint of great economy, he had 36,000,000 livres--about 1,500,000 pounds sterling--in his treasury. See Mémoires du Duc de Sully, tom. iii. liv. 27. [17] “Por ser tan poco, muchos soldados huuo que no lo quisiéron recebir.” Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 105. [18] “Palabras muy melifluas; ... razones mui bien dichas, que las sabia bien proponer.” Bernal Diaz, ubi supra. [19] Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 105, 106.--Gomara, Crónica, cap. 93.--Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 8, cap. 5. [20] “Ex jureconsulto Cortesius theologus effectus,” says Martyr, in his pithy manner. De Orbe Novo, dec. 5, cap. 4. [21] According to Ixtlilxochitl, Montezuma got as far on the road to conversion as the _Credo_ and the _Ave Maria_, both of which he could repeat, but his baptism was postponed, and he died before receiving it. That he ever consented to receive it is highly improbable. I quote the historian’s words, in which he further notices the general’s unsuccessful labors among the Indians: “Cortés comenzó á-dar órden de la conversion de los Naturales, deciéndoles, que pues eran vasallos del Rey de España que se tornasen Cristianos como él lo era, y así se comenzáron á Bautizar algunos aunque fuéron muy pocos, y Motecuhzoma aunque pidió el Bautismo, y sabia algunas de las oraciones como eran el Ave María, y el Credo, se dilató por la Pasqua siguiente, que era la de Resurreccion, y fué tan desdichado que nunca alcanzó tanto bien, y los Nuestros con la dilacion y aprieto en que se viéron, se descuidáron, de que pesó á todos mucho muriese sin Bautismo.” Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 87.