Excerpt from The Conquest of New Spain

Translated with an introduction by J. M. Cohen, 1963; originally
published as Historia verdadera de la conquista de Nueva España
(The True History of the Conquest of New Spain)

Written in 1568; published in 1632

Of the many Spanish accounts of the fall of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán (pronounced tay-notch-teet-LAHN) in 1521, the one that is most often quoted in history books is Historia verdadera de la conquista de Nueva España (The True History of the Conquest of New Spain) written by Bernal Díaz del Castillo (1492–c. 1581) in 1568. Díaz, a member of the Spanish expedition that conquered the Aztec empire, was blessed with a healthy curiosity, an eye for detail, a remarkable memory, and a clear and conversational way of relating what he saw. His book, though not elegantly written, is full of historic...