Letters from Mexico
Hernán Cortés (Author), Anthony Pagden (Editor, Translator), J. H. Elliott (Writer of introduction)
"Hernán Cortés's Cartas de Relacíon, written over a seven-year period to Charles V of Spain between 1519 and 1526, provide a narrative account of the conquest of Mexico from the founding of the coastal town of Veracruz until Cortés's journey to Honduras in 1525. In addition to a detailed description of the military and political aspects of the conquest itself, these five lengthy reports offer a plain and vigorous account of Cortés's own struggle for recognition by the Crown and of the many difficult problems posed by the establishment and administration of a new colony. This new translation into English has been prepared from a fresh examination of the earliest surviving manuscripts now in the Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek and Biblioteca Nacional (Madrid), and of the first printed editions. The critical commentary attempts not only to elucidate obscurities in the text itself but also, by drawing on other contemporary sources, to throw some light on the accuracy of Cortés's statements, his political motivations, and his reliability as a historical source. In his introduction, the editor seeks to revise some current ideas about Cortés's biography and to explain the many textual problems of the Cartas. A further introduction by J.H. Elliot explains Cortés's conflicts with the Crown and with Diego Velázquez, the governor of Cuba." -- Provided by publisher
Print Book, English, 1986
Yale University Press, New Haven, 1986