Note 1228 — Chapter XXXIV · THE CONQUEST ACHIEVED. July-August, 1521.

‘Hiço herrar algunos Hombres, y Mugeres por Esclavos; à todos los demàs dexò en libertad.’ Torquemada, 573. ‘À muchos indios é indias, porque estaban dados por traydores,’ says Oviedo, iii. 517. Cortés stayed and punished those who took slaves, ‘aunque todavia herraron en la cara á algunos mancebos y mugeres.’ So states the native record of Sahagun, Hist. Conq. (ed. 1840), 231. But if he punished slave-takers it was for not declaring the capture to the royal official. Duran reduces his account of Spanish liberality to an absurdity, but more from politic reasons than because he had not at hand better evidence, Hist. Ind., MS., ii. 510.