Rather minute on trivial circumstances, and somewhat
tedious in its reprehensions of a work on the same subject by Francisco
Lopez de Gomara; but as an original document, very little freedom has been
assumed in lopping these redundancies. The whole has been carefully
collated with the history of the same subject by Clavigero, and with the
recent interesting work of Humbolt, so as to ascertain the proper
orthography of the Mexican names of persons, places, and things, and to
illustrate or correct circumstances and accounts of events, wherever that
seemed necessary. Diaz commences his work with his own embarkation from
Spain in 1514, and gives an account of the two previous expeditions of
Hernandez de Cordova, and Juan de Grijalva, to the coast of New Spain,
both already given in the preceding chapter, but which it would have been
improper to have expunged in this edition of the original work of Diaz.
[Illustration: Sketch of Mexico and its Environs]
[1] Clavigero, History of Mexico, translated by C. Cullen, I. xiii.
PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR.
I, BERNAL DIAZ DEL CASTILLO, regidor of the loyal city of Guatemala,
while composing this most true history of the conquest of Mexico, happened
to see a work by Francisco Lopez de Gomara on the same subject, the
elegance of which made me ashamed of the vulgarity of my own, and caused
me to throw away my pen in despair.
