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.
[4]. Bernal Diaz, Chap. 147.
[5]. A Vocabulario en la lengua Castellana y Mexicana, por el Revn 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.
[6]. Let us quote from Bernal Diaz, Chapter 157, without any comment, the following anecdote concerning the word tepuzque. “In the smelting of gold there was also allowed an eighth of alloy to every ounce to assist the men in the purchase of the necessaries of life. But we (the soldiers) derived no advantage from this, but on the contrary, it proved very prejudicial to us, for the merchants added the same percentage to the price of their goods and sold for five pesos what was only worth three, and so this alloy became, as the Indians term it, tepuzque or copper. This expression became so common among us, that we added it to the names of the distinguished cavaliers to express the worth of their character, as, for instance, we used to say, Señor Don Juan of so much tepuzque.”
[7]. Those who wish to be more extensively instructed in the Mexican system of numeration can read: Leon y Gama, Descripcion Hist. y Cronol. de las dos Piedras, Parte II., Appendice II., page 128, Edit. C. M. de Bustamante, Mexico, 1832. Clavigero, Storia antica di Messico, English translation by Ch. Cullen, London, 1807, Vol. I., Book 4, pag. 410; and an article recently published by Orozco y Berra, in Tom. I., Entrega 6ma of the Anales del Museo Nacional de Mexico, 1879, page 258, which article is the most complete hitherto written on the subject, and is illustrated by 53 cuts.
[8]. There is, indeed, one passage in Herrera (Antonio de), Hist. Gen. de los hechos de los Castellanos, Madrid, 1729, in his introductory Descripcion de las Indias, §§ Zacatula and Colima, where the working of copper mines by the indigenous people of these provinces is mentioned: “There are very abundant copper mines in this district, more towards the East, and near the port of Santiago. The Indians make marvelous vessels (vasos) of this copper, because it is sweet (dulce). They have, however, still another kind of copper, which is hard, and which they employed for tilling the ground, instead of using iron, for they were not acquainted with iron before the Spaniards entered the kingdom.” As will be seen later, there is no doubt as to the latter assertion. But we fear the former to be an anachronism and the manufacturing of vasos de cobre (copper vessels) will have to be assigned to the epoch after the Conquest, when the art of hammering was introduced and eagerly accepted and practised by the natives.
[9]. Carta de Hernan Cortes al Emperador, de la gran ciudad de Tenochtitlan, desta Nueva España, a 13 dias del mes de Octubre de 1524. Edicion Gayangos (Don Pascual de), Paris, 1866.
[10]. Tachco, to-day Tasco, at a distance of 25 miles, S. S. W. from the Capital. A. v. Humboldt visited the memorable spot. See Essay s. l. Nouv. Espagne, Livre IV., Chap. xi.: “At the west of Tehuilotepec, is the Cerro de la Campañia, where Cortes began his work of investigation.”
[11]. The words of the text are: “Ciertas pieçeçuelas dello, a manera de moneda muy delgada, y procediendo por mio pezoquiza, halle que en la dicha provincia y aun en otras, se trataba por moneda.”