Note 529 — Chapter XVIII · DOUBLY REFINED DEALINGS. 1519-1520.

Bernal Diaz, Hist Verdad., 77. ‘Un giuoco, che gli Spagnuoli chiamavano il bodoque.’ Clavigero, Storia Mess., iii. 97. Bodoque signifies balls in this connection. When Alvarado lost, he with great show of liberality paid in chalchiuites, stones which were highly treasured by the natives, but worth nothing to the Spaniards. Montezuma paid in quoits, worth at least 50 ducats. One day he lost 40 or 50 quoits, and with pleasure, since it gave him the opportunity to be generous. B. V. de Tapia testifies that Alvarado used to cheat in playing cards with him and others. Cortés, Residencia, i. 51-2. Another way of gratifying this bent was to accept trifles from the Spaniards and liberally compensate them. Alonso de Ojeda, for instance, had a silk-embroidered satchel with many pockets, for which Montezuma gave him two pretty slaves, beside a number of robes and jewels. Ojeda wrote a memoir on the conquest, of which Herrera makes good use. dec. ii. lib. viii. cap. v.