intention is to give a faithful account, and that in due order, of every
circumstance; this will greatly differ from his narrative, which is
quite at variance with truth.

CHAPTER XVIII.

_Of some errors in the work of Francisco Lopez de Gomara._

While busily engaged writing this narrative, the eloquent History of the
Conquest of Mexico and New Spain, by Gomara, fell into my hands; and
when I perceived the elegance of his style, and considered the rudeness
of my own, I laid down my pen, ashamed at the very thoughts of its being
read by men of distinction. With my spirits thus damped, I once more
undertook to go through his history; it was then I, for the first time,
discovered how mistaken this author was with respect to the occurrences
which had really taken place in New Spain. He is equally bad whenever he
writes about the magnitude of the towns and number of the inhabitants;
in which, whenever it suits him, he does not, for instance, hesitate a
moment to put 8000 for eight. In the same way he mentions the extensive
buildings we were stated to have commenced, though, in fact, we were
only 400 in number when we first went out to war, and had sufficient
work to defend ourselves and prevent the victory from going over to our
enemies. Though the Indians may have been timid, we were, nevertheless,
guiltless of such wholesale slaughter and other barbarities as Gomara
would lay to our doors. On the contrary, such was our situation, and I
hereby seal my words with an oath when I state, that we daily offered up
our prayers to God and the Holy Virgin to preserve us from destruction.

Alaric was certainly a most courageous monarch, and Attila a soldier
whose excessive pride would not allow him to shrink back from anything;
yet they never slaughtered such multitudes of human beings on the
Catalonian plains as we do in the book of Gomara!

In the same way he mentions what numbers of towns and temples we either
burnt or destroyed. I am speaking of the Indian temples, called by the
inhabitants cues. This latter circumstance would certainly be most
pleasing to his readers; but he never gave it a thought, when he was
writing, that the conquistadores themselves, and those better informed,
would detect his errors and falsehoods. Even in his other works,
whenever he speaks about New Spain, he immediately commits blunders. In
one place he praises a commander far above his merits, for which very
reason he in another most u