Note 657 — Chapter XXI · THE COUP DE MAÎTRE OF CORTÉS. May, 1520.

‘Aquellos españoles le dejaba encomendados con todo aquel oro y joyas que él me habia dado ... y le dí muchas joyas y ropas á él,’ et seq. Cortés, Cartas, 119-20. ‘Aun prometiò, que embiaria en nuestra ayuda cinco mil hombres de guerra, e Cortes ... bien entendiò que no los auia de embiar, e le dixo, que no auia menester.’ Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 91; Vetancvrt, Teatro Mex., pt. iii. 135. Ixtlilxochitl assumes in one place that Cortés asked for men, and was told that Aztecs dared not fight Spaniards, but would go as carriers. In another version the confederate kings grant the auxiliaries. Hist. Chich., 300; Relaciones, 389, 412. Solis assumes that Montezuma is devoted to Cortés; so does Zamacois, who sees a proof thereof in the offer of troops. He could not communicate with Narvaez for want of interpreters, and had he wished to aid the latter he would have attacked the Spanish quarters. Hist. Mex., ii. 70-1. All of which shows that this author is not profound either in investigation or argument.