{ *} [Prescott’s account of the circumstances attending the destruction of the fleet has been contested at great length by Señor Ramirez, who insists on accepting the statements of Bernal Diaz without qualification and ascribing to the army an equal share with the general in the merit of the act. He remarks with truth that the language of Cortés--“Tuve manera, como so color que los dichos navíos no estaban para navegar, los eché á la costa”--contains no _express declaration_, as stated by Prescott, that the order for the fleet to be sunk was given without the knowledge of the army, but would, at the most, lead to an inference to that effect. “Nor can even this,” he adds, “be admitted, since, in order to persuade the soldiers that the ships were unfit for sailing, he must have had an understanding with the mariners who were to make the statement, and with his friends who were to confirm it.” This is, however, very inefficient reasoning. It is not pretended that Cortés had no confidants and agents in the transaction. The question of real importance is, Was the resolution taken, as Bernal Diaz asserts, _openly and by the advice_ of the whole army,--“claramente, por consejo de todos los demas soldados”?--or was it formed by Cortés, and were measures taken for giving effect to it, without any communication with the mass of his followers? The newly discovered relation of Tápia is cited by Señor Ramirez as “in perfect accordance with the testimony of Diaz and destructive of every supposition of mystery and secrecy.” Yet Tápia says, with Herrera, that Cortés caused holes to be bored in the ships and their unserviceable condition to be reported to him, and thereupon gave orders for their destruction; no mention being made of the concurrence of the soldiers at any stage of the proceedings.--K.]
[76] Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 1.--Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, pp. 42-45.--Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 59, 60.
[77] Gomara, Crónica, cap. 44.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 83.--Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 61.--The number of the Indian auxiliaries stated in the text is much larger than that allowed by either Cortés or Diaz. But both these actors in the drama show too obvious a desire to magnify their own prowess, by exaggerating the numbers of their foes and diminishing their own, to be entitled to much confidence in their estimates.