castles, and escutcheons, to witness of your heroic deeds to posterity, like the escutcheons of so many illustrious families do of the deeds of their forefathers, but which have not surpassed yours? Where, inquired illustrious Fame, where are the Conquistadores, who escaped alive from all those battles; where are the tombs of those great heroes who fell in battle; where are their escutcheons?
I can answer this with few words: O, excellent and illustrious Fame, who art praised and desired by all good and virtuous men: the malice and envy of those who have sought to cast our heroic deeds into the shade are not desirous of seeing you, nor even to hear your illustrious name mentioned, that you may not praise us according to our deserts. Know then, O Fame, that of the five hundred and fifty warriors who sailed with Cortes from Cuba, that there are now, in the year 1568, while I am writing this, only five of us alive, and that all the others were either captured by the Indians, and sacrified to their idols, or were killed in battle, or have since died in their beds! And with respect to their tombs, I say that the bellies of the Indians were their sepultures, and those parts of their flesh which the Indians did not eat themselves were thrown to the lions, tigers, and serpents, which were kept by the Mexicans in strong cages. These cages were their monuments and their escutcheons; and those who died so cruel a death, who rendered such important services to God and to their emperor, and who gave light to those who lived in darkness, ought to have had their names perpetuated in letters of gold; but they were never remunerated! They did not even obtain wealth, although this is the goal of all men!
Illustrious Fame then inquired after those who had arrived with Narvaez and Garay, and I answered her as follows: Narvaez's troops, without including the sailors, amounted to thirteen hundred men, of which only ten or twelve are now living, the greater part of the rest having fallen in the battles, or were captured by the Indians, and sacrificed. The troops of Garay, including those three companies which landed in San Juan de