Bernal Diaz del Castillo

The defeat of the Aztecs by Hernan Cortes and his small band of adventurers is one of the most startling military feats in history. Fifty years after the event, Bernal Diaz (c. 1498-1580), who served under Cortes, wrote this account of the march from the coast, Montezuma's death, the massacre of the Spaniards, and the eventual capture of the capital...

This rugged new translation—the first entirely new English translation in half a century and the only one based on the most recent critical edition of the Guatemalan manuscript—allows Díaz to recount, in his own battle-weary and often cynical voice, the achievements, stratagems, and frequent cruelty of Hernán Cortés and his men as they set out to overthrow Moctezuma's Aztec kingdom...