Notes
Page 289 (2).—They came from the distance of two hundred leagues, says Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 3, cap. 19.
Page 290 (1).—Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 2, lib. 7, cap. 2.—Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., ubi supra.
Page 290 (2).—"And I declare to your Highness that, from the summit of one shrine, I counted more than four hundred towers in this city, and all are the towers of shrines."—Rel. Seg., ap. Lorenzana, p. 67.
Page 290 (3).—The city of Puebla de los Angeles was founded by the Spaniards soon after the Conquest, on the site of an insignificant village in the territory of Cholula, a few miles to the east of that capital. It is, perhaps, the most considerable city in New Spain, after Mexico itself, which it rivals in beauty. It seems to have inherited the religious pre-eminence of the ancient Cholula, being distinguished, like her, for the number and splendour of its churches, the multitude of its clergy, and the magnificence of its ceremonies and festivals. These are fully displayed in the pages of travellers who have passed through the place on the usual route from Vera Cruz to the capital. (See, in particular, Bullock's Mexico, vol. i. chap. 6.) The environs of Cholula, still irrigated as in the days of the Aztecs, are equally remarkable for the fruitfulness of the soil. The best wheat lands, according to a very respectable authority, yield in the proportion of eighty for one.—Ward's Mexico, vol. ii. p. 270.—See also Humboldt, Essai Politique, tom. ii. p. 158; tom. iv. p. 330.
Page 291 (1).—The words of the Conquistador are yet stronger, "There was not a handbreadth of land which was not under cultivation."—Rel. Seg., ap. Lorenzana, p. 67.
Page 307 (1).—Bernal Diaz, Hist, de la Conquista, cap. 83.—Ixtlilxockitl, Hist. Chich., MS., ubi supra.
Page 307 (2).—Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 83. The descendants of the principa, Cholulan cacique are living at this day in Puebla, according to Bustamente.—See Gomara, Crónica, trad. de Chimalpain (Mexico, 1826), tom. i. p. 98, nota.
Page 307 (3).—Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, 66.—Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.— Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 84.—Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 4, 45.—Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 83.—Gomara, Crónica, cap. 60.—Sagahun, Hist. de Nueva España, MS., lib. 12, cap. 11. Las Casas, in his printed treatise on the Destruction of the Indies, garnishes his account of these transactions with some additional and rather startling particulars. According to him, Cortés caused a hundred or more of the caciques to be impaled or roasted at the stake! He adds the report, that, while the massacre in the courtyard was going on, the Spanish general repeated a scrap of an old romance, describing Nero as rejoicing over the burning ruins of Rome: "Nero from the Tarpeian rock gazed upon Rome as it burned. Old and young alike wept, but he cared not at all."—Brevisima Relacion, p. 46. This is the first instance, I suspect, on record, of any person being ambitious of finding a parallel for himself in that emperor! Bernal Diaz, who had seen "the interminable narrative," as he calls it, of Las Casas, treats it with great contempt. His own version—one of those chiefly followed in the text—was corroborated by the report of the missionaries, who, after the Conquest, visited Cholula, and investigated the affair with the aid of the priests and several old survivors who had witnessed it. It is confirmed in its substantial details by the other contemporary accounts. The excellent bishop of Chiapa wrote with the avowed object of moving the sympathies of his country-men in behalf of the oppressed natives; a generous object, certainly, but one that has too often warped his judgment from the strict line of historic impartiality. He was not an eye-witness of the transactions in New Spain, and was much too willing to receive whatever would make for his case, and to "over-red," if I may so say, his argument with such details of blood and slaughter as, from their very extravagance, carry their own refutation with them.
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