Duke University Press

Review
Author(s): A. Curtis Wilgus
Review by: A. Curtis Wilgus
Source: The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Nov., 1928), pp. 553-554
Published by: Duke University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2506396
Accessed: 30-10-2015 14:19 UTC

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 BOOK REVIEWS 553
to the Mexican hierarchy. Neither this hierarchy, other members of
the Catholic clergy, nor anyone else having knowledge of the other
side of the question have been given an opportunity to state their case.
The author has prepared no index. The book is printed on poor
paper and is barely saved from the pamphlet category by a cheap
looking binding. In make-up and in content it deserves none but an
ephemeral interest. In fact, to the present reviewer, it conveys the
impression of having been hastily compiled and published for the
purposes of propaganda.
ALFREDHASBROUCK.
Lake Forest College, Illinois.

The true History of the Conquest of Mexico written in the Year 1568
by Captain Bernal Diaz del Castillo, on of the Conquerors, and
translated from the original Spanish by MAURIcE KEATINGE, Esq.
With an introduction by ARTHUR D. HOWDEN SMITH. (New York:
Robert McBride and Co., 1927. 2 vols. Pp. VI, [2], 526. Illus.)
The author of this memoir was born in 1492 in Medina del Campo
in old Castille. In 1514 he went to the Indies in company with Pedro
Arias de Avila and joined Cordova's expedition to Yucatan. Later
he served for a short time under Grijalva, finally enlisting as a com-
mon soldier with Cortes for the conquest of Mexico. In that great
adventure he fought (so he states) in 119 different engagements,
was wounded a number of times, and almost fell prisoner to the
Aztecs. At the end of the struggle be obtained a small share of the
spoils. But being of a restless nature he subsequently participated
in expeditions under Sandoval, Alvarado, Garay and other followers
of Cortes, and accompanied the latter to HIonduras. At the com-
pletion of these campaigns he retired to civil life without apparent
interest in recording his adventures until on reading Gomara's biased
account of Cortes he determined to depict the story from the view-
point of the subordinate rather than from that of the leader. Wlhen
he began his writing in 1568 only five of the participants in the con-
quest remained alive. He was then regidor in Guatemala and his
task of writing lasted until 1572.
As a story teller the author has later prototypes in John Smith
and "Trader Horn". Writing some fifty years after the conquest
he recalled with vividness and simplicity those days so trying for the

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554 THE HISPANIC AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW

conquerors. Cortes was his hero yet he did not hesitate to criticize
his actions. The story is so simple and naive that it has been gen-
erally accepted as true.
After his manuscript was completed a copy, which appears to
have been made for Philip II. of Spain, reachedthe hands of Father
Alonso Rem6n, chroniclerof the Order of Mercy, who proceeded to
edit the work for printing. In the process he emended,interpolated,
obscured,and suppressed certain parts mainly for the purpose of
magnifying the importance of the part played in the conquest by
Padre Olmedoand other friars of the Orderof Mercy. The resultant
volume appearedin Madrid in 1632. A second Spanish edition with
an added chapter-(CCXII but numberedCCXXII)-appeared the
same year. The first edition of 1632 has been translated into many
languages. In 1800 an English translation by MauriceKeatinge was
publishedin London. The volumesunder review are simply a reissue
of this edition. Keatinge, while translating, slightly altered some
parts of the text and transferred certain passages in order to form
a preface.
Sometwo-hundredand fifty years after the appearanceof Remon's
edition there was discovered in the archives of Guatemalawhat has
since been declared to be the original manuscript. The Mexican gov-
ernment obtained a facsimile copy in 1895 which Genaro Garcia
commencedediting in 1901, and which was published in Spanish in
two volumes in 1904. A translation of this edition was made into
English by A. Percival Maudslay for the Hakluyt Society and pub-
lished in Series 2 as volumes 23, 24, 25, 30, 40 (London, 1908-1916).
The work under review is thus a reissue of an inexact translation
of a faulty manuscript. But the editor of the Argonaut Series to
which the two volumesbelong, appears in his ramblingand discursive
introductionto be unaware of the foregoing bibliographicalinforma-
tion. It is the reviewer's opinion that there is really no need for
such a product as this, though the fact that the volumes are issued
at a semi-popularprice will give them a certain utility.
A. CURTIS WILGUS.
University of South Carolina.

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