Two birds made of thread and feather-work, having the quills of their wings and tails, their feet, eyes, and the ends of their beaks of gold,--standing upon two reeds covered with gold, which are raised on balls of feather-work and gold embroidery, one white and the other yellow, with seven tassels of feather-work hanging from each of them.
A large silver wheel weighing forty-eight marks, several bracelets and leaves of the same metal, together with five smaller shields, the whole weighing sixty-two marks of silver.
A box of feather-work embroidered on leather, with a large plate of gold, weighing seventy ounces, in the midst.
Two pieces of cloth woven with feathers; another with variegated colors; and another worked with black and white figures.
A large wheel of gold, with figures of strange animals on it, and worked with tufts of leaves; weighing three thousand eight hundred ounces.
A fan of variegated feather-work, with thirty-seven rods plated with gold.
Five fans of variegated feathers,--four of which have ten, and the other thirteen, rods embossed with gold.
Sixteen shields of precious stones, with feathers of various colors hanging from their rims.
Two pieces of cotton very richly wrought with black and white embroidery.
Six shields, each covered with a plate of gold, with something resembling a golden mitre in the centre.
[57] “Una muy larga Carta,” says Gomara, in his loose analysis of it. Crónica, cap. 40.
[58] Dr. Robertson states that the Imperial Library at Vienna was examined for this document, at his instance, but without success. (History of America, vol. ii. note 70.) I have not been more fortunate in the researches made for me in the British Museum, the Royal Library of Paris, and that of the Academy of History at Madrid. The last is a great depository for the colonial historical documents; but a very thorough inspection of its papers makes it certain that this is wanting to the collection. As the emperor received it on the eve of his embarkation for Germany, and the Letter of Vera Cruz, forwarded at the same time, is in the library of Vienna, this would seem, after all, to be the most probable place of its retreat.
[59] “By a ship,” says Cortés, in the very first sentence of his Second Letter to the Emperor, “which I despatched from this your sacred majesty’s province of New Spain on the 16th of July of the year 1519, I sent your highness a very long and particular relation of what had happened from my coming hither up to that time.” (Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 38.) “Cortés wrote,” says Bernal Diaz, “as he informed us, an accurate report, but we did not see his letter.” (Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 53.) (Also, Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 1, and Gomara, ut supra.) Were it not for these positive testimonies, one might suppose that the Carta de Vera Cruz had suggested an _imaginary_ letter of Cortés. Indeed, the copy of the former document belonging to the Spanish Academy of History--and perhaps the original at Vienna--bears the erroneous title of “Primera Relacion de Cortés.”{ *}