long, she was of course perfectly
familiar, at the same time she had not forgotten her native Mexican.
It would have been impossible for Cortes to have communicated with the
Mexicans without Malinal, for Aguilar could turn Spanish into Maya, and
Malinal could turn Maya into Mexican. This means of communication,
round about though it might be, was at once established. The
intervention of Aguilar soon became unnecessary, for Malinal presently
learned to speak pure Castilian with fluency and grace. She received
instruction from the worthy priests who accompanied the expedition and
was {124} baptised under the name of Marina, and it is by that name
that she is known in history. Her eminence is even greater than that
unfortunate Florinda, whose father, to revenge her mistreatment by King
Roderick, the Goth, sold Spain to Tarik, the Saracen, so many centuries
before.

Marina learnt among other things to love Cortes, whose fortunes she
followed and whom she served with an absolute, unquestioning, blind
devotion and fidelity until the end. So absolute was this attachment
of hers that Cortes became known to the Aztecs as the Lord of Marina.
The Aztecs could not pronounce the letter R. Marina was therefore
changed to Malina, which curiously enough was nearly her original name.
The word "Tzin" is the Aztec name for Lord, consequently Cortes was
called Malintzin, or more shortly Malinche, meaning, as has been
stated, the Lord of Malina.

Sir Arthur Helps has this to say of her: "Indeed her fidelity was
assured by the love which she bore her master. Bernal Diaz says that
she was handsome, clever, and eager to be useful (one that will have an
oar in every boat), and she looked the great lady that she was.

"There was hardly any person in history to whom the ruin of that
person's native land can be so distinctly brought home, as it can be to
the wicked mother of Donna Marina. Cortes, valiant and skilful as he
was in the use of the sword, was not less valiant (perhaps we might
say, not less audacious) nor less skilful, in the use of the tongue.
All the craft which he afterward showed in negotiations would have been
profitless without a competent and trusty interpreter. . . . If a
medal had been struck to commemorate the deeds of {125} Cortes, the
head of Donna Marina should have been associated with that of Cortes on
the face of the medal; for, without her aid, his conquest of Mexico
would never have been accomplished."