[977] Bernal Diaz describes him about a year later as 23 or 24 years old, while on another occasion he alludes to him as 25. Hist. Verdad., 112, 155. Ixtlilxochitl makes him 18. Hist. Chich., 304.
[978] ‘Por muerte de su Padre gobernaba el Tlatelulco.’ Duran, Hist. Ind., MS., ii. 479. ‘Sobrino de Monteçuma, que era papa ó saçerdote mayor entre los indios.’ Cano, in Oviedo, iii. 549; Peter Martyr, dec. v. cap. vi. ‘Cuauhtemotctzin hijo del rey Ahuitzotzin y de la heredera de el Tlatelulco.’ Ixtlilxochitl, Relaciones, 413. This incorrect view is adopted by Brasseur de Bourbourg and many others.
[979] ‘Moglie già del suo Zio Cuitlahuatzin,’ is the supposition of Clavigero, Storia Mess., iii. 160. ‘Se hizo temer de tal manera, que todos los suyos temblauan dél.’ Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 112. For fanciful portraits of these last two emperors, see Frost’s Pict. Hist. Mex., 104, 114.
[980] Ixtlilxochitl, loc. cit.; Torquemada, i. 570.
[981] ‘Al que solo fue causa q̄ los Christianos se conseruassen en aquella tierra.’ Herrera, dec. ii. lib. x. cap. xix.
[982] Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 118; Herrera, ubi sup.
[983] During the absence of the troops, says Herrera, a part of the Tepeacans had formed a plot to surprise them when divided; but some women informed Marina in time to prevent trouble. Cortés inflicted on them severe chastisement. dec. ii. lib. x. cap. xvi. xviii.
[984] The reports and other papers by Cortés, written during a period of nearly three decades in connection with New Spain, are both numerous and lengthy, but only the five letters relating to the actual conquest of Mexico and Central America have achieved bibliographic celebrity, under the title of Cortés’ Letters or Relations. Although the first letter has been lost, and the companion letter long missing, yet an allusion to the expedition against Mexico appeared as early as 1520 in Ein auszug ettlicher sendbrieff dem aller durchleüchtigisten grossmechtigistẽ Fürsten ... von wegen einer new gefundẽ Inseln. Nürmberg durch Fryderichen Peypus am. 17. tag Marcij MDXX., wherein the voyages of Córdoba and Grijalva are also described. Harrisse, Bib. Am. Vet., 179, assumes that the information is taken from Peter Martyr’s Decades. A later brief reference to the city of Mexico itself is given in Translationuss hispanischer sprach zü Frantzösisch gemacht so durch dẽ Vice Rey in Neapole fraw Margareten Hertzogiñ iñ Burgundi zü geschrieben, published in 1522. On folio A. iii. is written: Not far from the same island they have conquered a city called Tenustitan, wherein 60,000 hearths have been counted, within a good wall. The letter of the ayuntamiento was first published in Col. Doc. Inéd., i., 1842.
By the time of the receipt in Spain of Cortés’ second letter, of October 30, 1520, the general and his conquest had become so famous that his communications were not likely to be lost sight of. The incidents treated of were besides highly enticing, particularly the victories in Tlascala, the entry into Montezuma’s wonderful island city, the disastrous expulsion, and the renewal of the campaign, and Cromberger had it printed in 1522 under the title of Carta de relaciõ ẽbiada a su. S. majestad del ẽpador nt̃o señor por el capitã general dela nueua spaña: llamado fernãdo cortes, etc. Seuilla: por Jacobo crõberger aleman. A viii. dias de Nouiẽbre. Año de M. d. y xxij. ‘Fué las Primicias de el Arte de la Imprenta en Sevilla, y acaso de toda España,’ observes Lorenzana, in Cortes, Hist. N. España, 171, but this is a great mistake, for printing had been done already for several decades in Spain. An Italian abstract of the letter appeared immediately after, as Noue de le Isole & Terra ferma Nouamente trouate In India per el Capitaneo de larmata de la Cesarea Maiestate. Mediolani decimosexto calẽ. Decembris M.D.XXII. A reprint of the Seville text was issued at Saragossa in January, 1523. A later abridged account of the conquest is given in Ein schöne Newe zeytung so Kayserlich Mayestet auss India yetz newlich zükommen seind, ascribed to Sigmund Grimm of Augsburg, about 1522. Bibliotheca Grenvilliana and Harrisse. Ternaux-Compans wrongly supposes the narrative to extend only to 1519, instead of 1522, and assumes the imprint to be Augsburg, 1520. Bibl. Amér., 5. Perhaps 1523 is the more correct date, which may also be ascribed to Tres sacree Imperiale et catholique mageste ... eust nouuelles des marches ysles et terre ferme occeanes. Colophon, fol. 16. Depuis sont venues a sa mageste nouuelles de certaīes ysles trouuez par les espagnolz plaines despecerie et beaucoup de mines dor, lesquelles nouuelles il receupt en ceste ville de vailladolid le primier doctobre xv. cent. xxij. This is a book noticed by no bibliographer except Sabin, who believes that it contains only the second letter, although the holder supposes the third letter to be also used. In 1524 appeared the first Latin version of the second letter, by Savorgnanus, Praeclara Ferdinãdi Cortesii de Noua maris Oceani Hyspania Narratio, Norimberga. M.D.XXIIII., which contains a copy of the now lost map of the Gulf of Mexico, and also a plan of Mexico City. In the same year two Italian translations of this version, by Liburnius, La Preclara Narratione, were printed at Venice, one by Lexona, the other by Sabio, yet both at the instance of Pederzani. The plan and map are often missing. Antonio, Bib. Hisp. Nova, iii. 375, mentions only Lexona’s issue. A translation from Flavigny appeared in the Portfolio, Philadelphia, 1817. The originals of the second and other letters were, in the early part of the eighteenth century, ‘en la Libreria de Don Miguel Nuñez de Rojas, del Consejo Real de las Ordenes,’ says Pinelo, Epitome, ii. 597. Much of the vagueness which involves the narrative of events previous to the flight from Mexico may be due to the loss of diary and documents during that episode. The loss was convenient to Cortés, since it afforded an excuse for glossing over many irregularities and misfortunes.
The third letter, dated Coyuhuacan, May 15, 1522, and relating the siege and fall of Mexico, was first published at Seville, on Cromberger’s press, March 30, 1523, as Carta tercera de relaciõ: embiada por Fernãdo cortes capitan y justicia mayor del yucatan llamado la nueua espana del mar oceano. It received a reproduction in Latin by the same hand and at the same time as the second letter. Both were reprinted, together with some missionary letters and Peter Martyr’s De Insulis, in De Insvlis nuper Inventis Ferdinandi Cortesii. Coloniæ, M.D.XXXII. The title-page displays a portrait of Charles V., and is bordered with his arms. Martyr’s part, which tells rather briefly of Cortés, found frequent reprint, while the second and third letters were republished, with other matter, in the Spanish Thesoro de virtudes, 1543; in the German Ferdinandi Cortesii. Von dem Newen Hispanien. Augspurg, 1550, wherein they are called first and second narratives, and divided into chapters, with considerable liberty; in the Latin Novus Orbis of 1555 and 1616; and in the Flemish Nieuwe Weerelt of 1563; while a French abridgment appeared at Paris in 1532. The secret epistle accompanying the third letter was first printed in Col. Doc. Inéd., i., and afterward by Kingsborough and Gayangos.