of lands to be referred to the council of the Indies, consisting of the Marquis de Mondejar president, with the licentiates Gutierre Velasquez, Tello de Sandoval, Gregorio Lopes de Briviesca, and the Doctor Hernan Perez de la Fuente, oydors or judges of that court, together with the members of other royal councils.  At this meeting, it was proposed to make a perpetual distribution of the lands of New Spain and Peru; I am uncertain if New Granada and Popayan were to have been included.  Many excellent reasons were given for this measure being adopted, but it was strenuously opposed by the members of the royal council of the Indies, together with Bishop de las Casas, Fra Rodrigo his coadjutor, and the Bishop of las Charcas, who insisted that the matter should be postponed till the return of the emperor from Vienna, when every thing should be arranged to the satisfaction of the conquerors:  And thus the affair was dropped for the present.

After my return to New Spain, the conquerors then proposed to send agents to solicit his majesty for our interest exclusively, in consequence of which I was written to here in Guatimala, by Captain Andres de Tapia, Pedro Morena de Medrana, and Juan Limpias Caravajal, on the subject.  I accordingly went round among the other conquerors who were settled in this city, to raise a sum by subscription for the purpose, but this project failed for want of money.  At a subsequent period, our present invincible king Don Philip, was pleased to command that the conquerors and their posterity should be provided for, attending in the first instance to those who were married.  But all has been of no avail.

Two learned licentiates, to whom I communicated the MS. of this history, observed that I had praised myself greatly in the battles of which I have given an account, whereas I ought to have left that to be done by others.  But how is any one who was not in the wars with us to praise us as we deserve?  To compare myself, a poor soldier, with the great emperor and warrior Julius Cesar, we are told by historians, that he used to write down with his own hand an account of his own heroic deeds, not chusing to entrust that office to others, although he had many historians in his empire.  It is not therefore extraordinary if I relate the battles in which I fought, that it may be known in future ages, thus did Bernal Diaz del Castillo; that my sons and grandsons may enjoy the fame of their ancestor, as many cavaliers and lords of vassals do the deeds and blazons of their predecessors.  I shall therefore enumerate the various battles and other warlike affairs in which I have been present.  At Cape Cotoche, under Cordova; at Pontonchan in a battle where half our number was slain; and in Florida where we landed to procure water.  Under Juan de Grijalva, I was present in the second battle of Pontonchan.  During my third voyage, under Cortes, two pitched battles at Tabasco.  On our arrival in New Spain, the battle of Cingapacinga