Book description
Vivid, powerful and absorbing, this is a first-person account of one
of the most startling military episodes in history: the overthrow of
Montezuma's doomed Aztec Empire by the ruthless Hernan Cortes and his
band of adventurers.
Bernal D az del Castillo, himself a soldier under Cortes, presents a
fascinatingly detailed description of the Spanish landing in Mexico in
1520 and their amazement at the city, the exploitation of the natives
for gold and other treasures, the expulsion and flight of the
Spaniards, their regrouping and eventual capture of the Aztec capital.
Spanish historian Bernal Diaz del Castillo (c. 1492-1584) was a
soldier in the army of the conquistador Cortes in the attack on the Aztecs.
J M Cohen translated widely from French and Spanish, including for
Penguin Classics Montaigne's Essays and Cervantes' Don Quixote.
