olinia," which they so often repeated; and,
on being told what it was, he said, "Well, since this is the first word
of the language which I learn, it shall in future be my name!" This monk
was unremitting in his exertions to promote the welfare of the Indians,
and he alone baptized above 400,000. (p. 222.)

[45*] According to Gomara and Herrera, Cortes left Mexico in October,
1524. (p. 235.)

[46] Herrera, who has otherwise merely transcribed Gomara's account of
this expedition, has the following passage, which we do not find
elsewhere: "Medrano, the hoboist," he says, "declared that, in order to
still his hunger during this campaign, he ate of the brain and inside of
Bernardo Caldero, and of those of a nephew of his, who was also a
musician, and had died of hunger." I must here take the opportunity,
owing to an omission in the print, of offering a few remarks on the
execution of Quauhtemoctzin, and the king of Tlacupa.

Gomara, in his account of the expedition to the Honduras, positively
asserts that Quauhtemoctzin and the other chiefs were guilty of this
conspiracy, and says that they confessed it themselves, and were then
tried by a court-martial, which passed sentence of death upon them.
Torquemada, however, differs widely with Gomara; and, in speaking of the
unfortunate end of Quauhtemoctzin, he has the following: "So this matter
is related by Gomara and Herrera, but I find it differently represented
in a history written in the Mexican language, and which I believe to be
perfectly correct. While Cortes (the Mexican author says) was quartered
in a certain township, the Mexican chiefs one evening began to discourse
among themselves about the recent hardships they had suffered, and
Cohuanacotzin said to Quauhtemoctzin, to Tetlepanquetzaltzin, and to
other distinguished Mexicans, 'Thus you see, gentlemen, from kings we
are become slaves, and we suffer ourselves to be led about by Cortes and
this handful of Christians. If we were other people than we are, and
would break through the promise we have made these Spaniards, we could
play them a pretty trick here, and revenge ourselves upon them for all
they have done to us, and the ill-treatment my cousin Quauhtemoctzin has
suffered at their hands.' To this the Mexican monarch replied, 'I beg of
you Cohuanacotzin to drop this subject, lest some one should overhear
us, and imagine we were in earnest.' It appears (continues Torquemada)
that they were indeed overheard, for t