Description:
viii+514 pages with frontispiece map. Quarto (10 1/2" x 8 3/4") housed in a custom slipcase. Translated by Maurice Keatinge. First English edition.Bernal Dïaz del Castillo was a conquistador, who wrote an eyewitness account of the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards under Hernan Cortes, himself serving as a rodelero under Cortes. Born in Medina del Campo (Spain), he came from a family of little wealth and he himself had received only a minimal education. He sailed to Cuba in 1514 to make his fortune, but after two years found few opportunities there. Much of the native population of the island had already been killed by epidemics and forced labor, and in 1517 an expedition was sent to the smaller Caribbean islands to find alternative sources of labor. Dïaz joined this group, under the command of Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba. It was a difficult venture, and although they discovered the Yucatan coast, by the time the expedition returned to Cuba they were in disastrous shape. Nevertheless, Dïaz… Read More