I have now said sufficient of every individual soldier who accompanied Cortes, and how each one ended his life. If any one wishes to know anything further about us, I can tell him that most of us were men of good families; and if the lineage of some was not quite so distinguished, we must remember that all are not born equal in this world, neither in respect to rank nor virtues. However, by the valour of our arms and our heroic deeds, we conquered New Spain, with the great city of Mexico, and many other provinces, thereby rendering the most important services to the emperor our master, though at so vast a distance from Castile; nor had we any assistance in the terrible battles we fought night and day, saving that of our Lord Jesus Christ, who indeed is our true strength. What we have done is sufficient to spread our fame throughout the world!
If we read the ancient histories, at least if they speak truth, we find that all those men who gained honorable titles to themselves, as well in Spain as in other countries, gained them solely by the valour of their arms, or by other important services they rendered to their monarchs. I have even observed that several of those celebrated cavaliers, who obtained titles and extensive grants of land, had merely entered the army for the pay they received, and yet gained for themselves and descendants, in perpetuity, towns, castles, lands, besides various privileges and immunities. When the king of Aragon, Don Jayme, reconquered a large part of his kingdom from the Moors, he divided it among the cavaliers and soldiers who had fought with him, and from that time are dated the several escutcheons which their descendants possess. The same thing was done after the conquest of Granada and Naples by the great captain. The noble house of Orange originated in a similar manner.
But we added the immense territory of New Spain to the Spanish crown, without his majesty knowing anything about it; and it is for this reason I have written these memoirs, that the great, important, and excellent services which we have rendered to God, our emperor, and to the whole of Christendom, may become known; and I think, when everything is put into the same scale, and weighed according to its quantity, we shall be found equally deserving of remuneration as those cavaliers of previous times.
Though the number of courageous soldiers enumerated in a former chapter may have been considerable, yet I myself was not one of the least among them, and I had always the reputation of being a good soldier. If the curious reader has perused this history with attention, he will have seen in how many severe battles I fought, both during the two first voyages of discovery, and in the campaigns under Cortes, in New Spain; how nearly I was killed on two different occasions, and only escaped by the utmost exertion of my strength from being sacrificed to the abominable idols; not to mention the dreadful hardships I suffered from hunger, thirst, and cold, and the many perils to which those who go out for the discovery of new countries are inevitably exposed.
I will now relate the great advantages which Spain has derived from our illustrious conquests.
CHAPTER CCVIII.
Of the human sacrifices and abominations practised by the inhabitants of New Spain; how we abolished these, and introduced the holy Christian faith into the country.
After thus describing our glorious deeds of arms, I will show how advantageous they proved in the service of God and of our emperor. These advantages were purchased with the lives of most of my companions in arms, for very few had the good fortune to escape being captured and sacrificed by the Indians.
I will commence with the human sacrifices and the other abominations which were practised throughout the whole of the provinces we subdued. According to the computations of the Franciscan monks, who arrived in New Spain subsequent to father Olmedo, above 2500 persons were annually sacrificed to the idols in Mexico, and some of the towns lying on the lake.[60] As this barbarous custom was also prevalent in all the other provinces, the number, of course, is much greater. But these human sacrifices were not the only abominations that were practised by the inhabitants; I should, however, scarcely know where to end, if I were to enumerate them all. I will, therefore, only relate what I witnessed with my own eyes, and heard with my own ears. Of the victims that were sacrificed, the faces, ears, tongues, lips, the breast, the arms and legs, were brought as a burnt-offering to the idols.