Discovery and Conquest of Mexico and New Spain. Vol 1

Discovery and Conquest of Mexico and New Spain. Vol 1

<p> Few conquests in history have been recorded by someone who was actually there, sword in hand, from the very first landing. <em>Bernal Diaz del Castillo</em> was one of the few. </p> <p> A minor Spanish settler with little formal education, Diaz sailed to the Americas in 1514 seeking his fortune and found instead years of hardship, failed expeditions, and shifting alliances among rival Spanish captains. This first volume follows his early ventures along the Yucatan and Gulf coasts under commanders Hernandez de Cordoba and Juan de Grijalva, before he joined the far larger expedition led by Hernan Cortes. </p> <p> Written decades after the events it describes, and expressly as a corrective to more polished official histories, Diaz's account favors plain soldierly detail over courtly flattery. He names the men who fought and died beside him, describes the terror and wonder of encountering unfamiliar peoples and cities, and tracks the expedition's uneasy march inland. </p> <p> What emerges is less a triumphant chronicle than a working soldier's record of fear, greed, opportunism, and endurance, shot through with genuine astonishment at the scale of what the Spaniards found in <em>Mexico</em>. </p> <p> This <b>eyewitness account</b> remains one of the most detailed firsthand narratives to survive from the era of Spanish expansion in the Americas, valued by historians for the density of its observation. This first volume carries the story to the eve of the march on <b>Tenochtitlan</b>. </p>