Note 1163 — Chapter VI · (continued 2)

Scherzer (in his edition of Ximenes’ Las historias del origen de los Indios de esta provincia de Guatemala, 1857) says that the text as published is very incorrect, and adds that the original manuscript is in the city library at Guatemala. Brasseur says he has seen it there. It is said to have a memorandum to show that it was finished in 1605 at Guatemala. We have no certain knowledge of Diaz’ death to confirm the impression that he could have lived to the improbable age which this implies. (Cf. Magazine of American History, i. 129, 328-329.) There are two editions of it, in different type, which have the seal of authenticity. One was dated in 1632; the other, known as the second edition, is without date, and has an additional chapter (numbered wrongly ccxxii.) concerning the portents among the Mexicans which preceded the coming of the Spaniards. It is explained that this was omitted in the first edition as not falling within the personal observation of Diaz. (Cf. Sabin, vol. vi. nos. 19,978, 19,979; Carter-Brown, ii. 387; Murphy, no. 790; Court, nos. 106, 107; Leclerc, no. 1,115. Rich priced it in his day at $10; it now usually brings about $30.) There are later editions of the Spanish text,—one issued at Mexico in 1794-1795, in four small volumes (Sabin, vol. vi. no. 19,980; Leclerc, no. 1,117, 40 francs); a second, Paris, 1837 (Sabin, vol. vi. no. 19,981); and another, published in 1854, in two quarto volumes, with annotations from the Cortés letters, etc. It is also contained in Vedia’s edition of the Historiadores primitivos, vol. ii. There are three German editions, one published at Hamburg in 1848, with a preface by Karl Ritter, and others bearing date at Bonn, 1838 and 1843 (Sabin, vi. no. 19,986-19,987). There are two English versions,—one by Maurice Keating, published at London in 1800 (with a large map of the Lake of Mexico), which was reprinted at Salem, Mass., in 1803 (Sabin, vol. vi. nos. 19,984-19,985). Mr. Deane points out how Keating, without any explanation, transfers from chap. xviii. and other parts of the text sundry passages to a preface. A second English translation,—Memoirs of Diaz,—by John Ingram Lockhart, was published in London in 1844 (Sabin, vol. vi. no. 19,983), and is also included in Kerr’s Voyages, vols. iii. and iv. Munsell issued an abridged English translation by Arthur Prynne at Albany in 1839 (Sabin, vol. vi. no. 19,982). The best annotated of the modern issues is a French translation by D. Jourdanet, Histoire véridique de la conquête de la Nouvelle Espagne, Paris, 1876. In the following year a second edition was issued, accompanied by a study on the human sacrifices of the Aztecs, and enriched with notes, a bibliography, and a chapter from Sahagun on the vices of the Mexicans. It also contained a modern map of Mexico, showing the marches of Cortés; the map of the valley, indicating the contraction of the lake (the same as used by Jourdanet in other works), and a reproduction of a map of the lake illustrating the operations of Cortés, which follows a map given in the Mexican edition of Clavigero. A list of the Conquistadores gives three hundred and seventy-seven names, which are distinguished apart as constituting the followers of Cortés, Camargo, Salcedo, Garay, Narvaez, and Ponçe de Leon. This list is borrowed from the Diccionario universal de historia y de geografia, ... especialmente sobre la república Mexicana, 1853-1856. (Cf. Norton’s Literary Gazette, Jan. 15, 1835, and Revue des questions historiques, xxiii. 249.) This Diccionario was published at Mexico, in 1853-1856, in ten volumes, based on a similar work printed in Spain, but augmented in respect to Mexican matters by various creditable collaborators, while vols. viii., ix., and x. are entirely given to Mexico, and more particularly edited by Manuel Orozco y Berra. The work is worth about 400 francs. The Cartas de Indias (Madrid, 1877) contained a few unpublished letters of Bernal Diaz.