cuerpo, porque así dicen que se lo mandaba el Diablo, que hablaba con ellas y decíales que se sacrificasen ellas las orejas y las lenguas y sus naturas, é se sacasen mucha sangre é se la ofreciesen, é así lo hacian en efeto. Parecia la casa de Montezuma vna cibdad mui poblada. Tenia sus porteros en cada puerta. Tenia 20 puertas de servicio; entraban muchas calles de agua á ellas, por las quales entraban é salian las canoas con mahiz, é otros bastimentos, é leña. Entraba en esta casa vn caño de agua dulce, que venia de dos leguas de allí, por encima de vna calzada de piedra, que venia de vna fuente, que se dice chapictepeque, que nace en vn peñón, que está en la Laguna salada, de mui excelente agua.
No. XI.—See vol. iii. p. 90, et alibi
DIALOGUE OF OVIEDO WITH DON THOAN CANO, AP. “HISTORIA DE LAS INDIAS,” MS., LIB. XXXIII. CAP. LIV.
[The most remarkable, in some respects, of Oviedo’s compositions is his Quincuagenas, a collection of imaginary dialogues with the most eminent persons of his time, frequently founded, no doubt, on the personal communications which he had held with them. In his “History of the Indies” he has also introduced a dialogue which he tells us he actually had with Don Thoan Cano, a Castilian hidalgo, who married Guatemozin’s widow, the lovely daughter of Montezuma. He came into the country originally with Narvaez; and, as he was a man of intelligence, according to Oviedo, and his peculiar position both before and after the Conquest opened to him the best sources of information, his testimony is of the highest value. As such I have made frequent use of it in the preceding pages, and I now transcribe it entire, in the original, as an important document for the history of the Conquest.]
DIÁLOGO DEL ALCAYDE DE LA FORTALEZA DE LA CIBDAD É PUERTO DE SANTO DOMINGO DE LA ISLA ESPAÑOLA, AUTOR Y CHRONISTA DESTAS HISTORIAS, DE LA VNA PARTE,