m the representations which Francisco Lopez de
Gomara and doctor Illescas have given of the heroic deeds of the marquis
del Valle Oaxaca. As ignorant persons, like myself, always learn
something from men of learning, I gave it to them, but under the
condition that they should neither add nor take anything away from it;
as everything I had related was conformable to truth. When the
licentiates had read through the whole of my work, one of them who was a
great rhetorician, said he was astonished at the sharpness of my memory,
that I should not even have forgotten one single circumstance of the
many things that had taken place from my first voyage of discovery under
Cordoba down to the present time. With respect to my style of writing,
both remarked, that it was plain old Castilian, which was more agreeable
at that time than those embellished sentences which are generally
affected by historians; and that though my style was plain it was
rendered beautiful by the truth which it contained. They were, however,
of opinion that I had written too conspicuously about myself, in
describing the battles at which I was present, and that I should have
left this to others. I ought also, they said, to have quoted other
historians to confirm my statements, instead of dryly saying: This I
did, This happened to me; for, added they, I was only witnessing for
myself. To this I replied, and said as follows: "In certain despatches
which Cortes forwarded to the emperor from Mexico in the year 1540, my
name and the services I had rendered to the crown were also mentioned,
and how I had made two former voyages of discovery to New Spain." In
these despatches Cortes spoke as an eyewitness of my conduct in the many
battles we fought with the Mexicans, of the courage I had evinced on
every occasion, of the many wounds I had received in the numerous
engagements, and also how I had accompanied him on the expedition to the
Honduras, and said besides several other things in my praise, which it
would be tedious to enumerate here. The illustrious viceroy, Antonio de
Mendoza, wrote in a similar strain to his majesty respecting the
officers who were then serving in New Spain. His accounts agreed
perfectly with those of Cortes; and lastly, I myself in the year 1540
gave the royal council of the Indies sufficient proofs in confirmation
of what both had said. But should you senores licentiates, continued I,
not feel satisfied with such witnesses as the viceroy an