Note 79 — Chapter CXVIII
John Ingram Lockhart translation
Hierro is the Spanish word for iron, and Bernal Diaz always uses Hierro for the point of a lance; otherwise one would suppose,—when he says of the Chinantecs, "Hizíeron los hierros muy mas perfetamente," etc., i.e. "they made the irons (points) much more perfect;"—that the working of iron was known in the country long before the arrival of the Spaniards; but it is evident, from what he says four lines below, that these points were made of copper. (p. 311.)