Therefore, considering all these cases, when engaged in composing their narration, the Spaniards would have remembered the circumstances connected with the memorable visit to the market, and have enumerated the metals in the order in which they actually are found; first, the bronze, the main object of their curiosity, and then the copper and tin as the key to the puzzle. We, however, make no defence of this forced and artificial interpretation of the language, and still less would in this manner build a premise from which to deduce the final conclusion, that the natives make bronze from copper and tin. On the contrary, the facts elicited from our material, as will be seen later, conduct us to very different conclusions. Still, having been struck by the occurrence of the three words and their relative positions, we could not dismiss them altogether, especially as Cortes and Bernal Diaz were eye-witnesses and were, therefore, of highest authority. Besides, it is by no means impossible that in the future, instruments of bronze may actually be discovered and found to be composed of tin and copper. In such an event our judgment would favor the opinion that Cortes and his followers were keener observers and investigators than those who during three and one-half centuries have attempted to ventilate the question. For the same position of words, compare also _Gomara_ (_Francisco Lopez de_), Historia General de las Indias, Ed. Barcia, Cap. 79: “There is also much featherwork in the market, and gold, silver, copper, lead, bronze (_laton_) and tin, though these three latter metals are scarce.” Gomara, it will be noticed, changed somewhat the position of the words, as compilers often do. He was a secretary to Cortes, and his work appeared in Zaragoza, 1552–1553, five years after Cortes’ death. Footnote 4: _Bernal Diaz_, Chap. 147. Footnote 5: A Vocabulario en la lengua Castellana y Mexicana, por el Rev^n Padre Fray _Alonso de Molina_: Guardian del Convento de San Antonio de Tezcuco, de la Orden de los Frayles Menores. México, 1572. This edition was preceded by a smaller one, 1552, which was the _fourteenth book_ in the series of those which were printed in Mexico. Footnote 6: