Herrera, who has otherwise merely transcribed Gomara's account of this expedition, has the following passage, which we do not find elsewhere: "Medrano, the hoboist," he says, "declared that, in order to still his hunger during this campaign, he ate of the brain and inside of Bernardo Caldero, and of those of a nephew of his, who was also a musician, and had died of hunger." I must here take the opportunity, owing to an omission in the print, of offering a few remarks on the execution of Quauhtemoctzin, and the king of Tlacupa.

Gomara, in his account of the expedition to the Honduras, positively asserts that Quauhtemoctzin and the other chiefs were guilty of this conspiracy, and says that they confessed it themselves, and were then tried by a court-martial, which passed sentence of death upon them. Torquemada, however, differs widely with Gomara; and, in speaking of the unfortunate end of Quauhtemoctzin, he has the following: "So this matter is related by Gomara and Herrera, but I find it differently represented in a history written in the Mexican language, and which I believe to be perfectly correct. While Cortes (the Mexican author says) was quartered in a certain township, the Mexican chiefs one evening began to discourse among themselves about the recent hardships they had suffered, and Cohuanacotzin said to Quauhtemoctzin, to Tetlepanquetzaltzin, and to other distinguished Mexicans, 'Thus you see, gentlemen, from kings we are become slaves, and we suffer ourselves to be led about by Cortes and this handful of Christians. If we were other people than we are, and would break through the promise we have made these Spaniards, we could play them a pretty trick here, and revenge ourselves upon them for all they have done to us, and the ill-treatment my cousin Quauhtemoctzin has suffered at their hands.' To this the Mexican monarch replied, 'I beg of you Cohuanacotzin to drop this subject, lest some one should overhear us, and imagine we were in earnest.' It appears (continues Torquemada) that they were indeed overheard, for the whole of this discourse was reported to Cortes by a low-minded Mexican of the lower classes." (p. 244.)