PREFACE. 



xi 



In this hiftory, nothing has been more anxioufly jfludi- 

 ed than fidelity ; I might have abridged my labours, and, 

 perhaps, rendered my work more acceptable to many, if 

 all the diligence which I ufed to inveftigate fafts, had 

 been employed to flrew the relation with philofophical 

 and political reflexions, or fi£i:ions of capricious inven- 

 tion, after the example of many authors in this boafled 

 age ; but to me, as to thofe who are the fworn enemies 

 of deceit, falfehood, or afFe^lation, truth appears a beauty 

 whofe charms increafe in proportion to her fimplicity of 

 drefs. In recounting the events of the conqueft made by 

 the Spaniards, I have equally abftained from the pane- 

 gyric of Solis, or the inveftives of Las Cafas (a) ; being 

 unwilling either to flatter or calumniate my countrymen. 

 I have left fa61:s in the fame degree of certainty, or proba- 

 bility, in which 1 found them ; wherever I could not af- 

 certain an event on account of the difagreement among 

 authors, as for example, the death of Montezuma, I 

 have faithfully reported their different opinions, without 

 having omitted, however, fuch additional conjectures as 

 reflexion on the fubje£l has fuggefled. In fliort, I have 

 always had before my eyes the two facred laws of hiflory ; 

 not to dare to fpeak what is falfe ; nor to fear to fpeak 

 what is true : and I flatter myfelf I have violated neither, 

 I do not doubt there may be readers too nice and re- 

 fined to bear with the harflinefs of fo many Mexican 

 names as are fcattered through this hifl:ory ; but it is an 

 evil which I have not been able to remedy, without 

 hazarding another defeat lefs tolerable, though fufEciently 

 common in almofl: all the Europeans who have written 



on 



(a) I do not mean to charge Solis with flattery, nor Lras Cafas with calumny : 

 all I wifh to be underftood is, that 1 could not adopt the fentiments of Solis, who 

 was ambitious of aggrandizing his hero ; nor of Las Cafas, who was fired with 

 pious zeal in behalf of the Indians, without accufing myfelf of both. 



