ce in the country, and those
which happen daily, are astonishing; and we cannot sufficiently thank
God and the blessed Virgin, who gave us the power to conquer this
country, where everything has already become so Christian. In Mexico
there is an universal college, where grammar, rhetoric, logic,
philosophy, theology, and other sciences and arts are taught. In this
city even books are printed both in the Latin and Spanish languages, and
here also licentiates and doctors graduate.

I could enumerate many other matters of great importance, and describe
the numerous silver mines which are worked in New Spain, and the new
ones that are daily being discovered, and from which Spain draws so much
wealth; but I have stated sufficient to prove that our heroic deeds were
never surpassed in any age, and that no men ever subdued so many
kingdoms as we, the true Conquistadores, conquered for our emperor and
master: and though there were many brave men among us, yet I was not the
least among them, and now I am the oldest alive. I repeat it, I, I, I am
the oldest, and I have always served his majesty like a good soldier.
And here I must relate something after the manner of a dialogue. When
illustrious Fame resounded from one end of the world to the other our
glorious deeds of arms, and the important services which we had rendered
to God, our emperor, and the whole of Christendom, she cried aloud, and
said, that we were more justly entitled to and deserving of lucrative
possessions than those who had neither rendered his majesty any services
here nor in any other place. Where, she asks, are your palaces, castles,
and escutcheons, to witness of your heroic deeds to posterity, like the
escutcheons of so many illustrious families do of the deeds of their
forefathers, but which have not surpassed yours? Where, inquired
illustrious Fame, where are the Conquistadores, who escaped alive from
all those battles; where are the tombs of those great heroes who fell in
battle; where are their escutcheons?

I can answer this with few words: O, excellent and illustrious Fame, who
art praised and desired by all good and virtuous men: the malice and
envy of those who have sought to cast our heroic deeds into the shade
are not desirous of seeing you, nor even to hear your illustrious name
mentioned, that you may not praise us according to our deserts. Know
then, O Fame, that of the five hundred and fifty warriors who sailed
with Cortes from Cuba, that t