[226] “Y querer dezir la aspereza y fragosidad de este Puerto y sierras, ni quien lo dixese lo sabria significar, ni quien lo oyese podria entender, sino que sepa V. M. que en ocho leguas que duró hasta este puerto estuvímos en las andar doze dias, digo los postreros en llegar al cabo de él, en que muriéron sesenta y ocho cavallos despeñados y desxaretados, y todos los demas viniéron heridos y tan lastimados que no pensámos aprovecharnos de ninguno.” Carta Quinta de Cortés, MS.
[227] “If any unhappy wretch had become giddy in this transit,” says Cortés, “he must inevitably have been precipitated into the gulf and perished. There were upwards of twenty of these frightful passes.” Carta Quinta, MS.
[228] “Espantáronse en gran manera, y como supiéron que era Cortés q̃ tan nombrado era en todas estas partes de las Indias, y en Castilla, no sabiā que se hazer de placer.” Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 179.
[229] Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 179, et seq.—Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 3, lib. 8, cap. 3, 4.—Carta Quinta de Cortés, MS.
[230] Carta Quinta de Cortés, MS.—Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 185.—Relacion del Tesorero Strada, MS., México, 1526.
[231] Carta Quinta de Cortés, MS.
[232] Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 184, et seq.—Carta Quinta de Cortés, MS.
[233] Carta Quinta de Cortés, MS.—Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 189, 190.—Carta de Cortés al Emperador, MS., México, Sept. 11, 1526.
[234] Carta de Ocaña, MS., Agosto 31, 1526.—Carta Quinta de Cortés, MS.
[235] “What Cortés suffered,” says Dr. Robertson, “on this march,—a distance, according to Gomara, of 3000 miles” (the distance must be greatly exaggerated),—“from famine, from the hostility of the natives, from the climate, and from hardships of every species, has nothing in history parallel to it, but what occurs in the adventures of the other discoverers and conquerors of the New World. Cortés was employed in this dreadful service above two years; and, though it was not distinguished by any splendid event, he exhibited, during the course of it, greater personal courage, more fortitude of mind, more perseverance and patience, than in any other period or scene in his life.” (Hist. of America, note 96.) The historian’s remarks are just; as the passage which I have borrowed from the extraordinary record of the Conqueror may show. Those who are desirous of seeing something of the narrative told in his own way will find a few pages of it translated in the Appendix, No. 14.