might be supposed, that the obloquy which the missionary had brought on his head by his honest recital of the Aztec traditions, would have made him more circumspect in this rifacimento of his former narrative. But I have not found it so; or that there has been any effort to mitigate the statements that bore hardest on his countrymen. As this manuscript copy must have been that which the author himself deemed the most correct, since it is his last revision, and as it is more copious than the printed narrative, I have been usually guided by it. Señor de Bustamante is mistaken in supposing that the edition of this Twelfth Book, which he published in Mexico in 1829, is from the reformed copy of Sahagun. The manuscript cited in these pages is undoubtedly a transcript of that copy. For in the Preface to it, as we have seen, the author himself declares it.-In the intrinsic value of the two drafts there is, after all, but little difference, BOOK VII. (CONCLUSION.) SUBSEQUENT CAREER OF CORTÉS. CHAPTER I. AGAINST TORTURE OF GUATEMOZIN.-SUBMISSION OF THE COUNTRY.-REBUILDING 1521—1522. THE history of the Conquest of Mexico terminates with the surrender of the capital. But the history of the Conquest is so intimately blended with that of the extraordinary man who achieved it, that there would seem to be an incompleteness in the narrative, if it were not continued to the close of his personal career. This part of the subject has been very imperfectly treated by preceding writers. I shall therefore avail myself of the authentic materials in my possession to give a brief sketch of the brilliant, but chequered, fortunes which marked the subsequent career of Cortés. The first ebullition of triumph was succeeded in the army by very different feelings, as they beheld the scanty spoil gleaned from the conquered city, and as they brooded over the inadequate compensation they were to receive for all their toils and sufferings. Some of the soldiers of VOL. III. |