HIS BIOGRAPHERS.
487
We cannot condemn simply because one has faults; we cannot wholly condemn if one has many and glaring faults. It is only when one displays that most offensive of faults, an unconsciousness of having any, that we may regard the case as entitled to sweeping condemnation.
The leading biographer of Cortés is Gomara, on whose works bibliographical notes will be found in my Hist. Cent. Am., i. 314-16. With regard to his Historia de Mexico, which in reality may be looked upon as a biography of Cortés, he has met with supporters and detractors. Las Casas is scathing in his criticisms of the earlier portions of his work, asserting that his information being derived from the representations of Cortés is warped. Hist. Ind., iv. 11-12, 448 et seq. Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 11, also considered that Gomara's statements are not consistent with the facts, and Muñoz charges him with accepting the accounts of previous writers without due examination, and of being credulous and deficient in discernment. Hist. Nuev. Mund., i. p.xviii. On the other hand Gomara is followed by numerous writers, ancient and modern. Herrera draws largely upon him, while at the same time he was enabled to consult documents which this father of American history never saw. Gomara obtained his materials from important sources, such as letters, reports, and other documents to which he had access; but, chaplain as he was to Cortés, it was but natural that he should be prejudiced in favor of his patron, and be disposed to somewhat color his great deeds, without chronicling those which might detract from his renown. Oviedo supplies information relative to Cortés which no one else gives. In his Hist. Gen. de Indias he reproduces the conqueror's first letters, slightly adapted to his own language. Having met him in Spain he had frequent opportunities of conversing with him. He received occasional letters from Cortés, and his mention of these and quotations from them assist in proving facts and fixing dates. Bernal Diaz detracts somewhat from the credit of his great commander by exalting that of his companions. Pizarro, Varones Ilust., gives a glowing eulogy of Cortés, but it is non-critical and partial. He enlarges on the importance of omens and natural phenomena which presented themselves at the birth and during the eventful periods of the life of the hero. He ranks him naturally enough second to his relative Pizarro. Clavigero, Storia Mess., has made a few valuable investigations, and produced Cortés' family tree. This author's usual perspicacity is displayed in his researches and conclusions relative thereto. The Residencia of Cortés, as containing the testimony of his foes, is full of dark pictures, most of which are exaggerated and many of them false. Nevertheless the student receives much aid from the statements of opposing witnesses, and particularly from such corroborative evidence as appears. From the Escritos Sueltos, the Cartas of Cortés, from letters, memorials, and other papers, in Col. Doc. Ind., and Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xv. xxvi.-xxx., and other volumes, much fresh information may be gathered as regards his actions, motives, and character. The notes
