Review of “The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico” by Bernal Diaz

ammoland ^ | 20 June, 2017 | Dean Weingarten

[blueunicorn6]

The Mexicans were cannibals?

Maybe that’s why cutting off people’s heads is no big deal for them.

Build a wall. Build it high and wide.

[ckilmer]

I read Bernal Diaz Conquest of New Spain back in the mid 90’s. His description of homosexuality in the priest hood along with human sacrifice was very similar to the practices of the Canaanites described in the Old Testament.

These two peoples had no contact with each other—yet they came up with similar practices. That meant that the bible’s contention that people are bad to the bone. That is —that they have defective gene—is forensically correct.

This turned me into a Christian.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

I know people were shorter back then, but a five foot tall giant? Please.

[vladimir998]

“The Russians hacked the Aztecs”

Just test driving it.

[marktwain]

The Mexicans were cannibals?

---

It wasn’t just the Aztecs (Mexicans). Cannibalism was rampant all through the area.

“Progressives” have written it out of the history books.

[marktwain]

I know people were shorter back then, but a five foot tall giant? Please.

---

A five foot tall *thigh bone*.

[vladimir998]

“Also worthy of note: the nations which had been defeated previously by the Aztecs eagerly joined the Spanish side.”

They sure did. They knew the only reason why the Aztecs didn’t defeat them outright (before the Spanish arrival) was so the Aztecs could perpetually war against them on a lower level to take war captives and sacrifice them to their gods.

The Spanish did a great service to humanity in the conquest of Mexico.

[blueunicorn6]

So, back then, when a Mexican asked another Mexican “What’s eating you?”, it had a whole different meaning.

Build a wall. Build it high and build it wide.

[SanchoP]

Gutenburg(Project) has his memoirs in a 2 vol. set.

[odawg]

You need to read more carefully, I said five foot tall thigh bone, not five foot tall giant.

I am merely quoting the author of the book. He said he was of average height, and the thigh bone was as tall as he was. I am assuming the average height back then was five foot.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

ON line versions.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32474/32474-h/32474-h.htm

http://www.jrbooksonline.com/diaz/diaz.htm

https://archive.org/details/tesisnoqueprese00garcgoog

[HartleyMBaldwin]

I did read carefully. You wrote: “a giant which was about five foot tall”. You need to write more carefully.

[hanamizu]

Well... He *finished* the book as an old man. He started the book *at minimum* 15-20 years before it was finished.

---

I just picture him as an old man who has lived an incredibly interesting life putting pen to paper. But I also like the idea of his book taking decades to finish. Imagine the conversations he and comrades in arms had. By the time he finished it, his and his comrades’ deeds were almost beyond living memory. What they accomplished approaches the mythological. No wonder people of the 16th & 17th centuries feared the Spanish.

[marktwain]

Thanks for those online versions!

[PUGACHEV]

Yes, the Mexican were cannibals. At one of their earlier meetings, Montezuma threatened to eat Cortez with mole, which was apparently the preferred sauce for human flesh.

Bernal Diaz' book is a gem, but by no means the only first person account of the conquest. Cortez in his long letters (Relations)) to Charles V, and an anonymous history by "The Unknown Conquistador" are both eyewitness accounts. One thing concerning Diaz del Castillo seldom mentioned is that he was apparently a sorcerer. He wrote that he was forewarned of the Noche Triste, among other event, by a "familiar spirit".

[odawg]

I wrote:

“thigh bone of a giant which was about five foot tall.”

Subject of linking verb “was” is “thigh bone”. To answer the question, “what was five feet tall” leads you to “thigh bone”, not “giant”. Giant is object of proposition of. You must have flunked ninth grade English.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

Sorry, guy. I read exactly what you wrote, and it wasn’t what you meant. Should have written something like “a five-foot-tall thigh bone of a giant”, or “a giant’s thigh bone which was about five feet tall”.

[marktwain]

Bernal Diaz’ book is a gem, but by no means the only first person account of the conquest. Cortez in his long letters (Relations)) to Charles V, and an anonymous history by “The Unknown Conquistador” are both eyewitness accounts.

---

Cortez’ letters are those of commander currying favor from the Emperor, Charles V.

The history by The Unknown Conquistador is much shorter, and does not really cover Cortez’ campaign, just a small portion.

At least that was how they were described when I read of them.

[odawg]

The sentence is clear. Don’t be so anal retentive and go find a life.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

I have a life. A pleasing part of it is to annoy fools like you.