SOURCE: "Three Studies on the Same Subject: Bernal Díaz del Castillo," in The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 25, No. 1, February, 1945, pp. 155-90.

The following is an excerpt from Wagner's exhaustive analysis of Díaz's accuracy, in which he concludes that the author made many errors.

What's in a name? Much more than is implied in the question. In fact, speaking in terms of mass psychology, everything is in a name. Only remember the power of a successful slogan in a political campaign. Remember "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion." A few centuries ago "True Accounts" and "True Relations" were eagerly swallowed by an always gullible public. Perhaps they were true: the term did not imply that others, falsified, were to be contradicted by the "True" ones. The titles of these sometimes lurid accounts of murders, hangings, shipwrecks or other such calamities were simply catchwords, not to delude the public...