"When we saw all those cities and villages built in the water, and other great towns on dry land, and that straight and level causeway leading to Mexico, we were astounded. These great towns and cues and buildings rising from the water all made of stone, seemed like an enchanted vision from the tale of Amadis. Indeed, some of our soldiers asked whether it was not all a dream. It is not surprising therefore that I should write in this vein. It was all so wonderful that I do not know how to descri...

An absolutely astonishing first-hand account of the conquest of Mexico, written some decades after the conquest took place. It’s fair to say that Díaz del Castillo portrays the conquistadores in a more favourable light than they generally receive. Some of the worst excesses during the conquest are either played down or not mentioned at all. He clearly resents some of the criticisms levelled by Bartolomé de las Casas. Díaz does though portray the conquistadores' unbridled greed, often in strongl...

On the spot reportage from 16th century conquistadorMany decades ago, as a college sophomore, I was assigned to read Bernal Díaz' work as part of a Latin American history course. The title did not give me much hope. I imagined having to force myself to sit at a desk night after night in order to finish the book. To my great surprise, once I began to read this incredible eye-witness account, I could not put it down. Still, some 50 odd years later, Bernal Díaz' story, as one of the soldiers who ac...

The author started writing this when he was over 70, made his fair copy of it at age 76, and wrote a preliminary note for it at age 84. Five years later, he was dead.Arguedas's "Deep Rivers" and Galeano's "Genesis (Memory of Fire 1)", which I recently read, both have an unmistakable bias against the Spanish conquistadores of the Americas during the 16th and 17th centuries. Here, for a change, I listen to one of these conquistadores, for the author Bernal Diaz del Castillo was a Spanish soldier w...

The Conquest of New Spain, Mexico.By Bernal Diaz del Castillo (1495 – 1584)“The true story”, told by the eye witness, as being History as he has seen it and witnessed it.Hernando Cortez is the name of the leader of the expedition, commonly associated with New Spain, and Mexico, the ancient capital of the Aztec Empire.Cortez and his six hundred soldiers, sixteen horses and some light artillery, set out from Cuba in 1519, with orders to explore the continent and to bring back gold and riches.Howev...

Whatever you heard about Cortés in grade school is probably true enough, but wow, the details are amazing.Sure, Cortés might have been a deceitful, gold-hungry, womanizing, slave-taking, blood-soaked psychopath (and alleged poisoner), but that's part of what makes him a riveting character, because he was also a brilliant and charismatic velvet-glove-over-iron-fist diplomat, a savvy and calculating strategist, and--if Diaz is to be believed--a fervent Christian (lecturing people constantly on the...

This is a 2-volume English translation of Castillo’s memoirs centered on his years with Cortes’ expedition-invasion of Mexico and Mexico City in the 1519-21 period. Castillo was one of the 550 original conquistadors w/Cortes. In his later years he was an official in Guatemala. Castillo wrote his memoirs beginning in 1568 and he indicates towards the end of the book that he is one of 5 surviving original conquistadors.The book approaches 1000 pages. It has 213 chapters. I read it on and off over

Wow. This book stands out as one of the most fascinating books that I can think of. The only thing I can fault it for are the doubts about its veracity. It certainly reads like an authentic account, and if it is, what an account. History was never so fascinating. I certainly enjoyed this book far more than A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies and it comes across as far more accurate and nuanced. The characters really come to life in this account. Cortés is captured as a magnificent,

The “discovery” of Mexico, as we all know, had nothing to do with the Spaniards. The true discoverers of Mexico crossed the land bridge from Asia tens of thousands of years ago, and made their way down through the Americas to what is now Mexico; those bold explorers were the ancestors of the indigenous North Americans who inhabited Mexico when Hernando Cortés and his expeditionary force arrived there in 1519. But the Spaniards certainly did conquer Mexico; and that story, in all its blood and fi...

De l'audace, et encore de l'audace, et toujours de l'audaceFirst, this makes every high fantasy adventure novel out there seem like rather thin gruel. It is easy to imagine it larded with appropriate conversations and lurid description to make it three or four time the size and then selling a gazillion copies as a story of a group of ruthless fantasy adventurers overthrowing an evil empire.Second, it is lucky Osama bin Laden (I assume) never read it, since it is practically a textbook example of...

Anthony read this book in college and recommended it to me. I read it during our flights to and from Iceland - and loved it! It gives a first hand account of Cortes and his conquest over the Aztec empire and the defeat of Montezuma. Translated from the diary of Bernal Diaz - a solider who accompanied Cortes - it creates vivid pictures and insight of the trials and successes of the Spanish.

It was amazing to read a first hand account of events that took place 500 years ago (1519-1521). Maudslay included translations of some of Cortez's letters to provide different perspectives of some battles. Those sections did not read as well as Castillo's narrative.It would seem that "the Discovery and Conquest of Mexico" by Bernal Diaz Del Castillo, was the main source for Hancock's War God trilogy. There was sufficient material that there could have been two more books in the series but perha...

Bernal Díaz del Castillo's Discovery and Conquest of Mexico is the remarkable chronicle of some of the earliest episodes of Europe's domination of the New World, all told by means of the eyewitness account of Castillo himself. It's a vivid portrayal that conveys as much the entirely justified anxieties of the Conquistadors as they enter and begin to gain supremacy over the cities of Mexico, as it conveys the tragedies faced by, and inflicted on, each side. It's an absolutely riveting tale. It's

The feats included in this book are the substance of legend. Apologists in the contemporary era revel in perpetuating the Black Legend with regard to the Spanish conquistadors — which is largely resultant of centuries of British propaganda in an age of competing empires — but little attention is given to heinous accounts of cannibalism and human sacrifice in pre-conquest Mexico. Granted, this was all going on during the height of the Inquisition, and so many of the writings and traditions of pre...

One of the most popular and comprehensive primary sources on the Conquest, the work offers a first hand account of the Conquistador's campaign through Mexico and defeat of the Aztecs. There has been some academic debate as to whether or not Bernal Diaz was actually there - as much of the work has clearly been lifted from Gomara's historia - but that debate is (in my humble opinion) still in its infancy. Diaz's account will probably be the most interesting work to lay people and does offer a vivi...

Got this one from Instituto Cervantes in Manila. A good primary reference for the discovery, exploration, and conquest of the Americas by the Spanish conquistadores, written by one of the members of Hernan Cortes' expedition.A great insight of this book is that while some of the Spanish conquistadores were no saints, the Aztecs were certainly no angels either. They often went to war with the purpose of capturing prisoners to be made into hundreds, even thousands, of human sacrifices for their su...

Its getting repetitive towards the end.

This is a history of the Aztec and and their fall to the Spanish conquistadors led by Cortez. It is insightful and a good read for anyone interested in the history of Mexico.

An early America historical first hand account must-read.

First hand account and one of the most complete original sources on the topic of the Conquest of Mexico and the wars between the Spanish Conquistadors and the Aztecs. Raised on classroom overviews of the topic there is often the blackist of motives attributed to the Spanish as the aggressors in the conflict and the Aztecs being the conquered are mostly given a white washing of their motives. This account reveals the truth is much more interesting and that there was a rather a very logical chain

Written in the mid-16th Century, this book feels quite different from many histories from this period; written from a "soldier's eye" view, the writing is straightforward with no attempt to present a polished or classical style. An impoverished hidalgo, Diaz travelled to the Americas to seek his fortune and became embroiled in Cortes' conquest of what would later be called New Spain. His social standing was high enough for him to be involved in (and witness to) many top-level meetings (military

First and foremost, obviously this particular piece of writing carries a mountain of bias along with it. Los conquistadores are painted in a light varying from neutral to heroic, save for enemies of Cortes dealt with along the way. This is one side of the story, and history is written by the victors. However, I still find incredible value in entering the mind of someone who experienced events such as these directly (in this case, one who was physically there to see the Aztecs fall). The horrors

Remarkable first hand account of Cortes' conquest of Mexico. Given that he was fighting alongside Cortes, it is hardly surprising that Diaz comes across as an apologist for the gold-hungry conquistadors, but the detail of the advances is impressive and the dichotomy of the brutality and sophistication of the natives comes vividly to life. Important and charmingly modest about his own part in battle, Diaz del Castillo's reminiscences should be lauded and studied, but the fragments don't coalesce

Barclay W. Conrad Book: "The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico 1517-1521" by Bernal Diaz del Castillo Edited from the only exact copy of the original MS Published by Farrar, Straus and Cudahy 1956 Library of Congress No. 56-5758 This book was acquired from my Mother's estate after her death on August 10, 2008. My interest in it was stimulated by the first-person narration of evidence that supports the origin of the "Book of Mormon", the book which was translated by Joseph Smith and published in

Very interesting and insightful book. Reading the view of a soldier during the conquest of Mexico from first discovering the land and being defeated on its beaches, to returning with an army and Cortes, and finally the battle to take Mexico City. The author talks in detail about the battles, but most interesting to me, all the other things, descriptions of their food, customs, houses, different provinces and their cultures. It mentions small jokes, funny happenings, and personalities that are of...

A truly astonishing and absolutely captivating first-hand account of the conquest of Mexico, told in breathtaking detail.J. M. Cohen's translation is first class, his abbreviations of some of Díaz' text is concise and true to Díaz' style of writing, as is his explanatory and informative footnotes.What strikes me most is how lucky Hernán Cortés seems to have been on his voyage towards the Aztec Empire. Not only does he and his conquistadors arrive during a time when the Aztec Empire seems to be l...

Díaz is no journalist and no historian, and he wrote years after the fact apparently to refute the statements of other written accounts, and as a result this tale proceeds beginning to end as an extremely literal and weirdly detailed account, with more weight given to the number of horsemen sent on a particular attack than to his impressions of Aztec culture and the strange land the Spanish find themselves in. It is gracelessly written, with little eye for summation or high-level organization of...

A confession: I didn't read the whole thing.Not to be that contemporary reader, but there is so much "we marched here and it was tough, and then we marched here and met these people, and they said this and we said that, and we slept, and woke up, and then marched here" that I couldn't get through it all.That being said, the book is amazing in that it is Bernal's real memoir of accompanying Cortez on the first European march into Mexico, and Mexico City. I'm not taking the account as gospel (beca...

this is a history lesson that stays with you long after you read it. bernal diaz's first hand account as a conquistador is intense and dramatic suspence filled epic, that will leave you breathless. his vivid description of his expedition with the spanish captain cortez in the settlement and pacification of what is now Mexico is action filled extravaganza which reads like an adventure novel. ancient civilations,undiscoverd world , secret chambers of treasure, villians , heros, heroines,. conquest...

del Castillo was one of the Spanish fortune-seekers who landed in Mexico with Cortez. This book is a detailed chronological eye-witness account of the ensuing encounters with indigenous peoples, culminating in the conquest of the Aztecs. Contrary to what you may have been told by social-studies teachers, Cortez's military success was not significantly aided by superstitious belief that the Spaniards were gods (the natives learned early on that they were mere mortals), fear of horses or men mount...