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Bernal Díaz was not a general or a king. He was an ordinary Spanish soldier who marched with Cortés into Mexico and fought in many battles. When he was an old man, he read fancy history books that left out soldiers like him, so he wrote his own true story. He remembered the shining city on the lake, the danger, and his friends. His book lets you see history through a soldier's eyes.
Díaz took part in the expeditions to Mexico from 1517 onward and in the conquest under Cortés, then settled in Guatemala. In old age he read official histories that glorified Cortés and slighted the common soldiers who had endured the campaign. He began writing to set the record straight, working from memory and notes across many years.
This first volume covers the early voyages, the landing in Mexico, alliances with native peoples, and the march toward Tenochtitlan. Díaz describes the Aztec capital with open amazement, its causeways, markets, and temples, and he names ordinary soldiers and their fates. The style is plain and energetic, full of remembered dialogue, meals, wounds, and close escapes.
Historians prize this memoir because it balances the commander's letters with the view from the ground. Díaz is partisan and proud, and his memory was old, but his honesty about hardship and wonder is convincing. Readers who love firsthand adventure and want the conquest told by a participant will find this volume gripping.
Bernal Díaz del Castillo marched with Hernán Cortés as a common soldier and, decades later in Guatemala, wrote his memories to correct the polished histories that had forgotten men like him. Composed around 1568, his memoir tells the conquest of Mexico from the ranks: hunger, fear, gold, and wonder. This first volume offers a soldier's eyewitness story, vivid and proud, up to the heart of the campaign.
Bernal Díaz wrote his memoir half a century after the events, an old settler in Guatemala angry that published histories had turned the conquest of Mexico into the solo triumph of Hernán Cortés. He had been there as a foot soldier on the expeditions of 1517, 1518, and 1519, and his book, composed around 1568, restores the ranks to the story. This first volume runs from the first landings to the entry into the Aztec world.
It has lasted because the voice is irreplaceable: unpolished, specific, and astonished. Díaz counts rations and wounds, names comrades the chronicles omitted, and describes Tenochtitlan as a place out of enchantment even while recording the violence that surrounded it. Set beside Prescott or Cortés' own letters, his account supplies the ground truth against which grand narratives can be tested.
A first reader should know this is the first of two volumes and that Díaz writes as a proud participant, not a neutral judge. His loyalties are plain, which makes his candor about fear and suffering more, not less, valuable. Few conquest stories read this close to the ground.
Edition: Translated by John Ingram Lockhart, 1844. Volume I. Text: Project Gutenberg ebook 32474.
The first chapter
The time of my departure from Castile, and what further happened to me.
In the year 1514 I departed from Castile in the suite of Pedro Arias de Avila, who had just then been appointed governor of Terra Firma. At sea we had sometimes bad and sometimes good weather, until we arrived at Nombre Dios, where the plague was raging: of this we lost many of our men, and most of us got terrible sores on our legs, and were otherwise ill. Soon after our arrival, dissensions arose between the governor and a certain wealthy cavalier, named Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, who had brought this province to subjection, and was married to one of the daughters of Avila. As, however, suspicion had been excited against him, owing to a plan he had formed of making a voyage to the South Sea at his own expense, for which he required a considerable body of troops, his own father-in-law deposed him and afterwards sentenced him to decapitation.
While we were spectators of all this, and saw, moreover, how other soldiers rebelled against their superior officers, we learnt that the island of Cuba had just been conquered, and that a nobleman of Quellar, named Diego Velasquez, was appointed governor there. Upon this news some of us met together, cavaliers and soldiers, all persons of quality who had come with Pedro Arias de Avila, and asked his permission to proceed to the island of Cuba: this he readily granted, not having sufficient employment for so great a number of men as he had brought with him from Spain. Neither was there any further conquest to be made in these parts; all was in profound peace, so thoroughly had his son-in-law Balboa subdued the country, besides which it was but small in extent and thinly populated. As soon, therefore, as we had obtained leave, we embarked in a good vessel and took our departure. Our voyage was most prosperous, so that we speedily arrived at Cuba. The first thing we did was to pay our respects to the governor, who received us with great kindness, and made us a promise of the first Indians that might be discharged. Three years, however, passed away since our first arrival in Terra Firma and stay at Cuba, still living in the expectation of the Indians which had been promised us, but in vain. During the whole of this time we had accomplished nothing worthy of notice: we therefore, the 110 who had come from Terra Firma, with some others of Cuba, who were also without any Indians, met together to concert measures with a rich cavalier named Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba, who, besides being a person of wealth, possessed great numbers of Indians on the island. This gentleman we chose for our captain; he was to lead us out on voyages for the discovery of new countries, where we might find sufficient employment.
We purchased three vessels, two of which were of considerable burden; the third was given us by the governor, Diego Velasquez, on condition namely, that we should first invade the Guanajas islands, which lie between Cuba and the Honduras, and bring him thence three cargoes of Indians, whom he wanted for slaves; this he would consider as payment for the vessel. We were, however, fully aware that it was an act of injustice which Diego Velasquez thus required at our hands, and gave him for answer: that neither God nor the king had commanded us to turn a free people into slaves. When he learnt our determination, he confessed that our project for the discovery of new countries was more praiseworthy, and he furnished us with provisions for our voyage.
We had now three vessels and a sufficient supply of cassave bread, as it is there made from the juca root. We also purchased some pigs, which cost us three pesos a piece; for at that time there were neither cows nor sheep on the island of Cuba: to this I must also add a scanty supply of other provisions; while every soldier took with him some glass beads for barter. We had three pilots; of whom the principal one, who had the chief command of our vessels, was called Anton de Alaminos, a native of Palos; the two others were, Camacho de Triana, and Juan Alvarez el Manquillo of Huelva. In the same way we hired sailors, and furnished ourselves with ropes, anchors, water-casks, and other necessaries for our voyage, all at our own expense and personal risk.
After we had met together, in all 110, we departed for a harbour on the north coast of Cuba, called by the natives Ajaruco. The distance from this place to the town of San Christoval, then recently built, was twenty-four miles; for the Havannah had then only been two years in our possession. In order that our squadron might not want for anything really useful, we engaged a priest at the town of San Christoval. His name was Alonso Gonzalez, and by fair words and promises we persuaded him to join us. We also appointed, in the name of his majesty, a treasurer, called Beruardino Miguez, a native of Saint Domingo de la Calzada. This was done in order that if it pleased God we should discover any new countries, where either gold, silver, or pearls were to be found, there might be amongst us a qualified person to take charge of the fifths for the Emperor. After everything had been thus properly ordered and we had heard mass said, we commended ourselves to God, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the virgin Mary his blessed mother, and set out on our voyage, as I shall further relate.
Source: Project Gutenberg. Author died 1584. John Ingram Lockhart translation, published 1844. Public domain worldwide. Share this book: WhatsApp
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