[1]Diego Velasquez was born at CÚellar, Segovia, in 1465—some authorities say in 1458—and died at Havana, Cuba, in 1522 or 1523. He accompanied Columbus to Hispaniola (Haiti) in 1493.
[2]Francisco Hernandez de Cordova was born about 1475 and died at Leon, Nicaragua, in 1526. He was beheaded for attempting to set up an independent government in Honduras.
[3]Juan de Grijalva was born in CuÉllar in 1489 or 1490 and died in Nicaragua. He was a nephew of Velasquez and the discoverer of Mexico.
[4]Villa Rica has been a movable municipality. It was nominally founded on the present site of Vera Cruz and known as Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz. This was in 1519. Later, actual settlement was made farther north. In 1525 the site was changed to a place on the Rio de la Antigua. The final removal to the present site was made in 1599, the city being known by its present name, Vera Cruz.
[5]Picture-writing at this time was the means employed by the Mexican priesthood for recording religious festivals and legends, for keeping calendars of years, and for recording historical events, much after the manner of the Egyptian hieroglyphs.
[6]The Tlaxcalan Indians were less advanced in the arts than the Aztecs, but were very warlike and liberty-loving. Their principal pueblo was on the spot now occupied by the city of Tlaxcala. Some of their descendants still occupy that region.
[7]Cholula is a small town sixty miles southeast of the city of Mexico. Its principal feature is its so-called Pyramid, a lofty mound or series of mounds which was probably the site of the Indian village at the time of the conquest.
[8]Puebla is a Mexican State of about 12,000 square miles. Its capital is La Puebla de los Angeles, the second city in the Republic. It was the scene of many struggles during the conquest, and of revolts in the last century. The capital derives its name from the legend that angel hosts were seen in the heavens above its site before the conquest.
[9]Popocatepetl is a volcano forty-five miles southeast of the Mexican capital. Its crater is 5000 feet in width and the peak is 17,853 feet high. It is called the “smoking mountain,” from popoca, “to smoke,” and tepetl, “mountain.”
[10]Iztaccihuatl is an extinct volcano north of Popocatepetl, about 17,000 feet high. It derives the name of “the white lady” because its west side bears some resemblance to a woman in a white shroud.
[11]The City of Mexico at the time of the conquest was in all its splendor and, as described by Cortes, “a thing of fairy creation rather than the work of mortal hands.” It was about twelve miles in circumference, intersected by canals, and connected with the mainland by six causeways. The lake has diminished in depth and extent and is now two and a half miles away from the city.
[12]“Tenochtitlan” (nopal or cactus on a stone) was the original name of the city, afterward changed to “Mexico” in honor of the war god Mexitli.
[13]Montezuma, in Aztec Matenczoma, was born in 1479. He was the son of Axayacatl and succeeded his uncle in 1503. Some of his descendants are said to be living in Mexico now, and his name is still held in great respect among the Indians.
[14]Quetzalcoatl in the Mexican religion represents the god of the air, and in legend a ruler and civilizer. He is described as a white man with long black hair and beard, who came from Yucatan and preached austerity and virtue as well as hatred of war. His name means “the feathered serpent.”
[15]Other authorities assign December 2, 1554, as the date of his death.
[16]Soon afterward he fell into neglect and could scarcely obtain an audience. One day, however, having forced his way through the crowd which surrounded the Emperor’s carriage and mounted on the doorstep, Charles, astonished at an act of such audacity, demanded to know who he was. “I am a man,” replied the conqueror of Mexico proudly, “who has given you more provinces than your ancestors left you cities.”
