276 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



Among thefe was a young girl of noble birth, beauty, 

 quick genius, and great fpirit, a native of Painalla, a 

 village of the Mexican province of Coatzacualco (<f). 

 Her father had been a feudatory of the crown of Mexi- 

 co, and lord of feveral places. Her mother having 

 been left a widow, married another noble, by whom (he 

 had a fon. The love which they bore to this fruit of their 

 marriage, induced them to pretend the death of their 

 firft-born child, that the inheritance might fall wholly 

 to the lad. To make it appear credible, they delivered 

 her up privately to fome merchants of Xicallanco, a city 

 fituated upon the borders of Tabafco, at a time when 

 the daughter of one of their flaves had died, for whofe 

 death they made as much mourning as if it had been the 

 death of their own. Thefe merchauts gave her away, 

 or fold her to their neighbours of Tabafco, who, laftly, 

 prefented her to Cortes, unfufpicious that that lingular 

 Have mould contribute by her fpeech to the conqueft of 

 all that land. Befides the native language of her own 

 country, (lie underflood the Maja language which was 

 fpoken in Yucatan and Tabafco, and in a little time me 

 learned the Spanifli. lnftru&ed readily in the tenets of 

 the Chriftian religion, (he was folemnly baptifed with 



other 



(e) In a manufcript hiftory, which was in the library of the college of St. 

 Peter and St. Paul of the Jefuits of Mexico, it is faid, that D. Marina was born 

 in Huilotla, a village of Coatzacualco. Gomara, who is copied by Herrera 

 and Torquemada, fays, me was a native of Xalixco, and taken from thence by 

 fome merchants of Xicallanco, and carried to their country ; but this is moll 

 probably falfe ; as Xalixco is more than nine hundred miles diftant from Xical- 

 lanco, and it is not known that there was any commerce between thefe two 

 provinces fo remote from each other. Bernal Diaz, who lived a long time in 

 Coatzacualco, and knew the mother and brother of Marina, confirms the truth 

 of our account, and avers to have heard it from Marina herfelf. A tradition 

 alfo, which is ftill prefer ved in Coatzacualco, conforms tp what we have faid. 



