[363] Cortés speaks of these vessels as coming at the same time, but does not intimate from what quarter. (Rel. Terc., ap. Lorenzana, p. 216.) Bernal Diaz, who notices only one, says it came from Castile. (Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 143.) But the old soldier wrote long after the events he commemorates, and may have confused the true order of things. It seems hardly probable that so important a reinforcement should have arrived from Castile, considering that Cortés had yet received none of the royal patronage, or even sanction, which would stimulate adventurers in the mother country to enlist under his standard.
[364] Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 143.—Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 21.—Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 3, lib. 1, cap. 6.
[365] “Viniéron tantos, que en todas las entradas que yo auia ido, despues que en la Nueua España entré, nunca ví tanta gente de guerra de nuestros amigos, como aora fuéron en nuestra compañía.” Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 144.
[366] “Todos descalabrados, y corriendo sangre, y las vanderas rotas, y ocho muertos.” Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, ubi supra.
[367] For the assault on the rocks,—the topography of which it is impossible to verify from the narratives of the Conquerors,—see Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 144,—Rel. Terc. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, pp. 218-221,—Gomara, Crónica, cap. 127,—Ixtlilxochitl, Venida de los Españolés, pp. 16, 17,—Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 21.
[368] Cortés, according to Bernal Diaz, ordered the troops who took possession of the second fortress “not to meddle with a grain of maize belonging to the besieged.” Diaz, giving this a very liberal interpretation, proceeded forthwith to load his Indian tamanes with everything but maize, as fair booty. He was interrupted in his labors, however, by the captain of the detachment, who gave a more narrow construction to his general’s orders, much to the dissatisfaction of the latter, if we may trust the doughty chronicler. Ibid., ubi supra.
[369] “Adonde estaua la huerta que he dicho, que es la mejor que auia visto en toda mi vida, y ansí lo torno á dezir, que Cortés, y el Tesorero Alderete, desque entonces la viéron, y passeáron algo de ella, se admiráron, y dixéron, que mejor cosa de huerta no auian visto en Castilla.” Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 144.
[370] This barbarous Indian name is tortured into all possible variations by the old chroniclers. The town soon received from the Spaniards the name which it now bears, of Cuernavaca, and by which it is indicated on modern maps. “Prevalse poi quello di Cuernabaca, col quale è presentemente conosciuta dagli Spagnuoli.” Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. iii. p. 185, nota.
[371] The stout-hearted Diaz was one of those who performed this dangerous feat, though his head swam so, as he tells us, that he scarcely knew how he got on. “Porque de mí digo, que verdaderamete quando passaua, q lo ví mui peligroso, é malo de passar, y se me desvanecia la cabeça, y todavía passé yo, y otros veinte, ó treinta soldados, y muchos Tlascaltecas.” Hist. de la Conquista, ubi supra.
[372] For the preceding account of the capture of Cuernavaca, see Bernal Diaz, ubi supra,—Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 21,—Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 93,—Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 3, lib. 1, cap. 8,—Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 4, cap. 87,—Rel. Terc. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, pp. 223, 224.