Notes
of the Aztecs, touched obliquely the great southern avenue, by which the Spaniards first entered the capital. As the waters which once entirely surrounded Mexico have shrunk into their narrow basin, the face of the country has undergone a great change, and, though the foundations of the principal causeways are still maintained, it is not always easy to discern vestiges of the ancient avenues.
Page 216 (1).—Diaz gives the opening redondillas of the romance, which I have not been able to find in any of the printed collections:—
"En Tacuba esta Cortés,
co su esquadron esforçado,
triste estaus, y muy penoso,
triste, y con gran cuidado,
la vna mano en la mexilla,
y la otra en el costado," etc.
It may be thus done into pretty literal doggerel:—
In Tacuba stood Cortés,
With many a care opprest,
Thoughts of the past came o'er him.
And he bowed his haughty crest.
One hand upon his cheek he laid.
The other on his breast,
While his valiant squadrons round him, etc.
Page 219 (1).—Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 3, lib. i, cap. 15.—Relacion de Alonso de Verzara, Escrivano Publico de Vera Cruz, MS., dec. 21.
Page 224 (1).—The brigantines were still to be seen, preserved as precious memorials long after the Conquest, in the dockyards of Mexico.—Toribio, Hist, de los Indios, MS., Parte 1, cap. 1.
Page 225 (1).—Rel. Terc. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 234.
Page 225 (2).—Bernal Diaz, Hist, de la Conquista, cap. 147.
Page 225 (3).—Ibid., ubi supra. Hidalguia, besides its legal privileges, brought with it some fanciful ones to its possessor; if, indeed, it be considered a privilege to have excluded him from many a humble, but honest calling, by which the poor man might have gained his bread. (For an amusing account of these, see Doblado's Letters from Spain, Let. 2.) In no country has the poor gentleman afforded so rich a theme for the satirist, as the writings of Le Sage, Cervantes, and Lope de Vega, abundantly show.
Page 226 (1).—"And their banners unfurled, and the white bird which they had for cognisance, which was like an eagle with extended wings." (Bernal Diaz, Hist, de la Conquista, cap. 149.) A spread eagle of gold, Clavigero considers as the arms of the Republic. (Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. p. 145.) But as Bernal Diaz speaks of it as "white," it may have been the white heron, which belonged to the house of Xicotencatl.
Page 226 (2).—The precise amount of each division, as given by Cortés, was,—in that of Alvarado, 30 horse, 168 Castilian infantry, and 25.000 Tlascalans; in that of Olid, 33 horse, 178 infantry, 20,000 Tlascalans; and in Sandoval's, 24 horse, 167 infantry, 30,000 Indians. (Rel. Terc, ap. Lorenzana, p. 236.) Diaz reduces the number of native troops to one-third.—Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 150.437
