The fourth letter, on the progress of conquest after the fall of Mexico, dated at Temixtitan (Mexico), October 15, 1524, was issued at Toledo, 1525, as La quarta relacion, together with Alvarado’s and Godoy’s reports to Cortés. A second edition followed at Valencia the year after. The secret letter accompanying it was not published till 1865, when Icazbalceta, the well known Mexican collector, reproduced it in separate black-letter form, and in his Col. Doc., i. 470-83.
The substance of the above three relations has been given in a vast number of collections and histories, while in only a limited number have they been reproduced in a full or abridged form, the first reproduction being in the third volume of Ramusio Viaggi, of 1556, 1565, and 1606, which contains several other pieces on the conquest, all supplied with appropriate headings and marginals. Barcia next published them direct from the manuscript, in the Historiadores Primitivos, i. This collection bears the imprint Madrid, 1749, but the letters had already been printed in 1731, as Pinelo affirms, Epitome, ii. 597. Barcia died a few years before his set was issued. From this source Archbishop Lorenzana took the version published by him under the title of Historia de Nueva-España, Mexico, 1770, which is not free from omissions and faults, though provided with valuable notes on localities and customs, and supplemented with illustrated pieces on routes and native institutions, a map of New Spain by Alzate, an article on the Gobierno Politico by Vetancurt, a copy of a native tribute-roll from picture records, not very accurately explained, and the first map of Lower California and adjoining coast, by Castillo, in 1541. This version of the letters was reproduced in New York, 1828, with a not wholly successful attempt by Del Mar to introduce modern spelling. The work is also marked by a number of omissions and blunders, and the introductory biographic sketch by Robert Sands adds little to its value. An abridgment from Lorenzana appeared as Correspondance de Fernand Cortés, par le Vicomte de Flavigny, Paris, 1778, which obtained three reprints during the following year at different places. A great many liberties are taken with facts, as may be imagined; and the letters are, beside, misnamed first, second, and third. From the same source, or perhaps from Flavigny, of whom they savor, are Briefe des Ferdinand Cortes, Heidelberg, 1779, with several reproductions, and with notes; and the corrected Brieven van Ferdinand Cortes, Amsterdam, 1780-1. The first edition in English, from Lorenzana, was issued by Folsom, as Despatches of Hernando Cortes, New York, 1843, also with notes.
The fifth letter of the conqueror, on the famous expedition to Honduras, dated at Temixtitan, September 3, 1526, lay hidden in the Vienna Imperial Library till Robertson’s search for the first letter brought it to light. Hist. Am., i. xi. He made use of it, but the first complete copy was not published till of late, in Col. Doc. Inéd., iv. 8-167, reprinted at New York, 1848, and, in translation, in the Hakluyt Society collection, London, 1868. It bore no date, but the copy found at Madrid has that of September 3, 1526, and the companion letter printed in Col. Doc. Inéd., i. 14-23, that of September 11th. This, as well as the preceding letters, was issued by Vedia, in Ribadeneyra’s Biblioteca de Autores Españoles, xxii.; the first three letters being taken from Barcia, and the fifth from its MS. The letter of the ayuntamiento is given and a bibliographic notice of little value. A very similar collection is to be found in the Biblioteca Historica de la Iberia, i. But the most complete reproduction of the principal writings by Cortés, and connected with him, is in the Cartas y Relaciones de Hernan Cortés, Paris, 1866, by Gayangos, which contains 26 pieces, beside the relations, chiefly letters and memorials to the sovereign, a third of which are here printed for the first time. Although a few of Lorenzana’s blunders find correction, others are committed, and the notes of the archbishop are adopted without credit, and without the necessary amendment of date, etc., which often makes them absurd. The earliest combined production of Cortés’ relations, and many of his other writings, may be credited to Peter Martyr, who in his Decades gave the substance of all that they relate, although he also mingled other versions. Oviedo, in the third volume of his Hist. Gen., gives two versions of the conquest, the first, p. 258 et seq., almost a reproduction of Cortés’ letters, and the other, p. 506 et seq., from different sources.
Beside the relations, there are a number of miscellaneous letters, petitions, orders, instructions, and regulations, by Cortés, largely published in Navarrete, Col. de Viages; Col. Doc. Inéd.; Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc.; Icazbalceta, Col. Doc.; Kingsborough’s Mex. Antiq.; Alaman, Disert., and as appendices to histories of Mexico. A special collection is the Escritos Sueltos de Hernan Cortés, Mex., 1871, forming vol. xii. of the Bib. Hist. de la Iberia, which presents 43 miscellaneous documents from various printed sources, instructions, memorials, and brief letters, nearly all of which are filled with complaints against ruling men in Mexico.
Cortés’ letters have not inaptly been compared by Prescott to the Commentaries of Cæsar, for both men were military commanders of the highest order, who spoke and wrote like soldiers; but their relative positions with regard to the superior authorities of their states were different, and so were their race feelings, and their times, and these features are stamped upon their writings. Cortés was not the powerful consul, the commander of legions, but the leader of a horde of adventurers, and an aspirant for favor, who made his narrative an advocate. The simplicity and energy of the style lend an air of truth to the statements, and Helps, among others, is so impressed thereby as to declare that Cortés ‘would as soon have thought of committing a small theft as of uttering a falsehood in a despatch addressed to his sovereign.’ Cortés, ii. 211. But it requires little study of the reports to discover that they are full of calculated misstatements, both direct and negative, made whenever he considered it best for his interest to conceal disagreeable and discreditable facts, or to magnify the danger and the deed. They are also stamped with the religious zeal and superstition of the age, the naïve expressions of reliance on God being even more frequent than the measured declarations of devotedness to the king; while in between are calmly related the most cold-blooded outrages on behalf of both. There is no apparent effort to attract attention to himself; there is even at times displayed a modesty most refreshing in the narrative of his own achievements, by which writers have as a rule been quite entranced; but this savors of calculation, for the general tone is in support of the ego, and this often to the exclusion of deserving officers. Indeed, generous allusions to the character or deeds of others are not frequent, or they are merged in the non-committing term of ‘one of my captains.’ Pedro de Alvarado complains of this in one of his Relaciones, in Barcia, Hist. Prim., i. 165-6. In truth, the calculating egotism of the diplomate mingles freely with the frankness of the soldier. Cortés, however, is ever mindful of his character as an hidalgo, for he never stoops to meanness, and even in speaking of his enemies he does not resort to the invectives or sharp insinuations which they so freely scatter. His style bears evidence of training in rhetoric and Latin, yet the parade of the latter is not so frequent as might be expected from the half-bred student and zealot. Equally indicative are his regulations and instructions of the experience gained as notary and alcalde, and the promise once entertained of him as a legal light. The sentences are remarkably concise and clear for the time, and the expression both fluent and pure. The whole tends to confirm the opinion already formed of his character, as one who, while not wholly free from defects of his age, indulged in grand views, and stood forward conspicuous as a born leader of men.
[985] Of the central provinces actually under control Herrera enumerates: Cempoala, with 50 towns and villages, containing over 120,000 families; Tlascala, with 60 vassal lords, over 120,000; Huexotzinco, 50,000; Cholula, 40,000; Tepeaca, Acatzingo, and Quecholac, 80,000; Quauhquechollan and Itzucan, 20,000; ‘beside a number of others.’ dec. ii. lib. x. cap. xviii.
[986] Narvaez it was, they said, who without right or without exhibiting evidence of such right, had set himself up against Cortés, and begun to rouse the natives against him and his followers as piratical intruders, intent on mischief, while his own announced object was to right the natives, release Montezuma, and then to depart from the country without taking even gold with him. These intrigues caused the uprising which lost Mexico to the emperor, together with so many hundred lives and millions of treasure. To Velazquez, therefore, no control should be given in a country lost through the machinations of himself and his lieutenant. If any grants had been made to him, they were based on false representations, and would imperil the safety of these extensive and rich lands. The second object of the latter was to laud the character of Cortés as a man and soldier, and to pray that he be confirmed in the office of captain-general and justicia mayor as the only fit and worthy person. At the foot came the signature of 534 Spaniards, the majority of the troops, headed by Alvarado, Ordaz, and similar warm friends of the commander, and also by such prominent personages of the Narvaez party as Vasco Porcallo, and Juan Diaz, the clergyman. Bernal Diaz was still down with fever, which accounts for the absence of his name. Many others whose names might have been added were probably away on expeditions and on garrison duty. For copy of letter see Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 427-36.
[987] Whom Bernal Diaz calls Francisco Álvarez Chico; and Vetancurt, Francisco Hernandez.
[988] Bernal Diaz insinuates that there were a number of officers far more suitable than Captain Ávila for this mission, but Cortés desired to be rid of so outspoken an observer and champion of the men, and at the same time to promote the more pliable Alonso de Grado to the vacated contaduría, and the devoted Andrés de Tapia to the captaincy. He thinks that Grado, or Alonso de Cáceres, the rich, should have been sent. Hist. Verdad., 117. His insinuation cannot be wholly correct, however, since Ávila had already been for some time alcalde mayor of New Spain, and Grado, contador. See Lejalde, Probanza, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 419 et seq.
[989] ‘Despues de ganado Mexico, le llamamos Solis el de la huerta, yerno de ... Bachiller Ortega.’ Hist. Verdad., 118.