Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- EXTRACTS FROM INTRODUCTION BY SEÑOR DON GENARO GARCÍA
- BERNAL DÍAZ DEL CASTILLO: HIS LIFE
- INTRODUCTION BY THE TRANSLATOR
- NOTE ON SPELLING, ETC.
- ITINERARY—FEBRUARY 8, 1517, TO APRIL 21, 1519
- The True History of the Conquest of New Spain
- PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR
- BOOK I THE DISCOVERY: THE EXPEDITION UNDER FRANCISCO HERNÁNDEZ DE CÓRDOVA
- THE EXPEDITION UNDER JUAN DE GRIJALVA
- BOOK II THE EXPEDITION UNDER HERNANDO CORTÉS. THE VOYAGE
- BOOK III THE MARCH INLAND
- BOOK IV THE WAR IN TLAXCALA
- CHAPTER LXII
- CHAPTER LXIII
- CHAPTER LXIV
- CHAPTER LXV
- CHAPTER LXVI
- CHAPTER LXVII
- CHAPTER LXVIII
- CHAPTER LXIX
- CHAPTER LXX
- CHAPTER LXXI
- CHAPTER LXXII
- CHAPTER LXXIII
- CHAPTER LXXIV
- CHAPTER LXXV
- CHAPTER LXXVI
- CHAPTER LXXVII
- CHAPTER LXXVIII
- CHAPTER LXXIX
- CHAPTER LXXX
- CHAPTER LXXXI
- APPENDIX
- GLOSSARY OF MEXICAN, SPANISH, AND OTHER FOREIGN WORDS
- PLACE-NAMES
- BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MEXICO
- INDEX
- Plate section
CHAPTER LXII
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- EXTRACTS FROM INTRODUCTION BY SEÑOR DON GENARO GARCÍA
- BERNAL DÍAZ DEL CASTILLO: HIS LIFE
- INTRODUCTION BY THE TRANSLATOR
- NOTE ON SPELLING, ETC.
- ITINERARY—FEBRUARY 8, 1517, TO APRIL 21, 1519
- The True History of the Conquest of New Spain
- PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR
- BOOK I THE DISCOVERY: THE EXPEDITION UNDER FRANCISCO HERNÁNDEZ DE CÓRDOVA
- THE EXPEDITION UNDER JUAN DE GRIJALVA
- BOOK II THE EXPEDITION UNDER HERNANDO CORTÉS. THE VOYAGE
- BOOK III THE MARCH INLAND
- BOOK IV THE WAR IN TLAXCALA
- CHAPTER LXII
- CHAPTER LXIII
- CHAPTER LXIV
- CHAPTER LXV
- CHAPTER LXVI
- CHAPTER LXVII
- CHAPTER LXVIII
- CHAPTER LXIX
- CHAPTER LXX
- CHAPTER LXXI
- CHAPTER LXXII
- CHAPTER LXXIII
- CHAPTER LXXIV
- CHAPTER LXXV
- CHAPTER LXXVI
- CHAPTER LXXVII
- CHAPTER LXXVIII
- CHAPTER LXXIX
- CHAPTER LXXX
- CHAPTER LXXXI
- APPENDIX
- GLOSSARY OF MEXICAN, SPANISH, AND OTHER FOREIGN WORDS
- PLACE-NAMES
- BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MEXICO
- INDEX
- Plate section
Summary
How we decided to go by way of Tlaxcala, and how we sent messengers to induce the Tlaxcalans to agree to our passage through their country, how the messengers were taken prisoners, and what else happened.
SO we set out from Castilblanco and began our march with the scouts in advance, constantly on the alert, and the musketeers and crossbowmen in good order, as was necessary, and the horsemen in even closer order, and we all carrying our arms, as was always our custom. I will say nothing more about this, for it is no use wasting words over it, for we were always so much on the alert both by day and night that if an alarm had been given ten times over we should have been found ready every time.
In such order we arrived at a little town of Xalacingo, where they gave us a golden necklace and some cloth and two Indian women, and from that town we sent two Cempoalan chieftains as messengers to Tlaxcala, with a letter, and a fluffy red Flemish hat, such as was then worn. We well knew that the Tlaxcalans could not read the letter, but we thought that when they saw paper different from their own, they would understand that it contained a message; and what we sent to tell them was that we were coming to their town, and hoped they would receive us well, as we came, not to do them harm, but to make them our friends. We did this because in this little town they assured us that the whole of Tlaxcala was up in arms against us, for it appears that they had already received news of our approach and that we were accompanied by many friends, both from Cempoala and Zocotlan, and other towns through which we had passed. As all these towns usually paid tribute to Montezuma, the Tlaxcalans took it for granted that we were coming to attack Tlaxcala, as their country had often been entered by craft and cunning and then laid waste, and they thought that this was another attempt to do so. So as soon as our two messengers arrived with the letter and the hat and began to deliver their message, they were seized as prisoners before their story was finished, and we waited all that day and the next for an answer and none arrived.
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- The True History of the Conquest of New Spain , pp. 225 - 230Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1908