Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 79.—“Cortés supposed it was his own tutelar saint, St. Peter,” says Pizarro y Orellana; “but the common and indubitable opinion is that it was our glorious apostle St. James, the bulwark and safeguard of our nation.” (Varones ilustres, p. 73.) “Sinner that I am,” exclaims honest Bernal Diaz, in a more skeptical vein, “it was not permitted to me to see either the one or the other of the Apostles on this occasion.” Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 34.

It was the order—as the reader may remember—given by Cæsar to his followers in his battle with Pompey:

“Equites,” says Paolo Giovio, “unum integrum Centaurorum specie animal esse existimarent.” Elogia Virorum Illustrium (Basil, 1696), lib. 6, p. 229.

Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. iii. p. 11.

“Crean Vras. Reales Altezas por cierto, que esta batalla fué vencida mas por voluntad de Dios que por nras. fuerzas, porque para con quarenta mil hombres de guerra, poca defensa fuera quatrozientos que nosotros eramos.” (Carta de Vera Cruz, MS.—Gomara, Crónica, cap. 20.—Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 35.) It is Las Casas who, regulating his mathematics, as usual, by his feelings, rates the Indian loss at the exorbitant amount cited in the text. “This,” he concludes, dryly, “was the first preaching of the gospel by Cortés in New Spain!” Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap. 119.

Gomara, Crónica, cap. 21, 22.—Carta de Vera Cruz, MS.—Martyr, De Insulis, p. 351.—Las Casas, Hist. de las Indias, MS., ubi supra.