Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 267 



respecting not only the first introduction of horses into Mexico, 

 but even minute descriptions of the animals themselves, whilst 

 there is also reliable evidence for the first carrying of horses to 

 the western bank of the Mississippi, though unfortunately we 

 have no details respecting the colour or colours of these animals. 

 This however is of no great matter since it can be shown 

 that they were the same kind of animals as those brought to 

 Mexico. 



After Columbus had discovered the New World, the 

 Spaniards first settled in Hispaniola (San Domingo), and hither 

 horses were introduced very soon, for beyond doubt they were 

 already in that island when Diego Velasquez crossed over to 

 Cuba in 1511 and conquered that island with little opposition. 

 As the islands formed the base for all subsequent expeditions 

 to the northern parts of South America, to Darien, to Yucatan, 

 to Mexico, and to Florida and the lands beyond the Mississippi, 

 we need not be surprised to find horses of the same kinds in 

 modern times in the northern parts of South America, in 

 Mexico, and the Western States. 



The difficulty of transporting horses from Spain to Hispaniola 

 and Cuba in the small ships of the time naturally rendered 

 these animals very scarce and very dear for some time in the 

 islands, as is put beyond all doubt by the fact that when 

 Hernando Cortes set forth (1519) from Cuba to conquer the 

 empire of Montezuma he was only able to take sixteen horses 

 with him. From the statements contained in the depositions 

 at Villa Segura, it appears that the cost of the horses for the 

 expedition was from four to five hundred pesos de oro each 1 . 

 Bernal Diaz, Cortes's comrade, who wrote the immortal account 

 of the conquest of Mexico 2 , was a lover of horses and he has given 

 us in his work a minute account of each of the sixteen horses 

 brought to Mexico. There were eleven horses and five mares 

 and these were of many different colours. There were only 

 two jennets, that is, fine-bred horses, the rest being cross-bred 

 animals. Cortes himself had a chestnut ( without any white ' 

 (zaino), there were two termed simply 'chestnut' (castano), three 



1 W. H. Prescott, The Conquest of Mexico, Vol. i. pp. 260-1, note. 



2 Bernal Diaz, La Conquista de Nueva-Espana, cap. xxm. 



