The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Vol 1 (of 2): Written by Himself Containing a True and Full Account of the Discovery and Conquest of Mexico and New Spain.Díaz del Castillo, Bernal
History
The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Vol 1 (of 2): Written by Himself Containing a True and Full Account of the Discovery and Conquest of Mexico and New Spain.
Díaz del Castillo, Bernal
Mexico -- History -- Conquest, 1519-1540
I have merely mentioned this trait to convince the curious reader how
exemplary Cortes acted, and of the necessity of being strict under
similar circumstances. Mora subsequently lost his life in a battle we
fought on a mountain in the province of Guatimala. After we had left
these two townships in peace, we found the fat cazique with the chiefs
of Sempoalla in some huts which they had constructed for us, where they
were waiting our arrival with various kinds of provisions which they had
brought with them. Although Indians, they readily perceived what a good
and holy thing is justice, and that Cortes' declaration of our having
come into these countries to put an end to all oppression, perfectly
agreed with his conduct on our entry into Tzinpantzinco; they,
therefore, became the more united to us. We passed the night in these
huts, and returned next morning, in company of our Indian friends, to
Sempoalla. Indeed, the only wish of the Sempoallans was now, that we
should never leave their country again, fearing Motecusuma would send an
army about their ears; they, therefore, proposed to Cortes, since such a
close and friendly alliance now subsisted between us, and we could look
upon each other as brothers, that we should choose wives from among
their daughters and relatives, that our posterity might descend from one
and the same stock. In order that this more intimate connexion might be
brought about, they immediately made a good beginning by presenting us
with eight females, all daughters of caziques: one of these, the niece
of the fat cazique, was given to Cortes, and Puertocarrero was presented
with the daughter of another powerful cazique, whom they called Cuesco.
All these young women were finely dressed out after the fashion of the
country: they wore beautiful shifts, had golden chains about their
necks, golden rings in their ears, and had other Indian females to wait
upon them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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