Medical References in Bernal Diaz's Account of the Discovery

MEDICAL REFERENCES IN BERNAL DIAZ’S ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY AND CONQUEST OF MEXICO (1517-1521) By WYNDHAM B. BLANTON, M.D. RICHMOND, VIRGINIA ernal dia z del cas a picture not without interest to those TILLO in the pride of his delving in the history of medicine in strength and the lust of his the two Americas before and at the time young manhood was a soldier of the Conquest. under “that valiant and doughty CapEbe- expedition under the command Btain" Don Hernando Cortes in the years of Cortes was the third venture in ex- 1519 to 1521. As an old man, in lieu ploration in which Diaz had taken part. of a legacy, he wrote down for his chil- It set sail from Santiago de Cuba on dren all his memories of men and he- November 18, 1518 and arrived in the roes. The resulting “True History of river Grijala on March 22, 1519. The the Conquest of New Spain" is the full- first battle was fought three days later est and most valuable contemporary ac- with the people of Tabasco, who re- count of these stirring days in Mexico. sisted their landing by force of arms. Elie manuscript is still preserved in the Ehis initial encounter did not begin archives of the capital of Guatemala. Of auspiciously. the many editions and translations the "When the horses were brought on latest and best is that of Serior Don Ge- shore," Diaz wrote, “they were very stiff naro Garcia. Its English translation by and afraid to move, for they had been A. P. Maudslay appeared in 1928 and many days on board ship, but the next is the source of the present paper. day they moved quite freely.” In Garcia’s estimation Diaz disclosed Elie men were in a worse plight: in his story “a very scrupulous moral At that time it happened that six or sense, a fair amount of learning, accu- seven soldiers, young men and otherwise rate philosophy, and a piety out of the in good health, suffered from pains in their common." It is, however, not with his loins, so that they could not stand on their character that we are concerned, but feet and had to be carried on men’s backs. with his references to things medical, We did not know what this sickness came for from them we get a glimpse of the from, some say that they fell ill on account Spanish and Indian medicine of his of the [quilted] cotton armor which they time in the New World. In the course never took off, but wore day and night, of his narrative there are many medical and because in Cuba they had lived dain- references. There are accounts of tily and were not used to hard work, so in wounds, not only of his own, but also of the heat they fell ill. Cortes ordered them those of his companions, and there are not to remain on land but to be taken at once 011 board ship. descriptions of the sicknesses, smallpox, fevers, chills, cachexias, jaundice, and Nor was the battle without its casual- ascites that plagued the invading force. ties on both sides: “. we bound up Taken together these references make the hurts of the wounded with cloths,’’ Diaz continued, “for we had nothing supply of poultry and little dogs in the else, and we doctored the horses by houses.” searing their wounds with the fat from On September 5, laboring under the body of a dead Indian which we cut great disadvantages, they again fought up to get out the fat, and we went to the Tlaxcalans. look at the dead lying on the plain and “All the plain was swarming with there were more than eight hundred of warriors and we stood four hundred them, the greater number killed by men in number,” Diaz claimed, “and thrusts, the others by the cannon, mus- of those many sick and wounded.” kets and cross-bows, and many were “In this engagement, one soldier was stretched on the ground half dead.” killed, and sixty were wounded, and all Fhe tise of human fat in the care of the horses were wounded as well. They the wounded is frequently mentioned gave me two wounds,” he recorded, as if it were the most logical and mat- “one in the head with a stone, and one ter-of-course substitute for the usual oil in the thigh with an arrow; but this treatment of the day. did not prevent me from fighting, and Re-embarking, the expedition sailed keeping watch, and helping our soldiers, north to arrive at San Juan de Ulna and all the soldiers who were wounded (Vera Cruz) on Holy Thursday, April did the same; for if the wounds were 21. Going ashore, the adventurers es- not very dangerous, we had to fight and tablished a permanent base from which keep guard, wounded as we were, for the march to Mexico was begun. The few of us remained unwounded.” wounds and illnesses that hampered and When they had returned to camp at times reduced their fighting strength they “doctored all the wounded with to an alarming level are graphically the fat of an Indian. It was cold comfort described. to be even without salt or oil with In their advance from the sea coast which to cure the wounded. There was towards the interior, their first bloody another want from which we suffered,” opposition came from the Tlaxcalan he added, “and it was a severe one— Indians. After the fight on September and that was clothes with which to 1, Diaz wrote: “We slept near a stream, cover ourselves, for such a cold wind and with the grease from a fat Indian came from the snow mountains, that whom we had killed and cut open, we it made us shiver, for our lances and dressed our wounds, for we had no oil, muskets and crossbows made a poor and we supped very well on some dogs covering.” which the Indians breed. .” Today, as then, the high altitude of fhe next day the battle was renewed the mountainous part of Mexico, and and won. “From the field of battle,” the cold nights following hot days, offer he recorded, “we withdrew the whole a health hazard to the traveler who can force to some Cues which were strong be more careful of his clothing and diet and lofty like a fortress. We dressed the than could these pioneer warriors. wounded men, who numbered fifteen, Then the Tlaxcalans made a night with the fat of an Indian. One man died attack and Diaz painted a dark picture of his wounds. We also doctored four of the Spaniards’ situation. or five horses which had received "When we awoke,” he said, “and saw wounds, and we rested and supped very how all of us were wounded, even well that night, for we found a good with two or three wounds, and how weary we were and how others were tall these people had been they brought sick and clothed in rags, and knew that us a leg bone of one of them which was Xicotenga was always after us, and al- very thick and the height of a man of ready over forty-five of our soldiers had ordinary stature, and that was the bone been killed in battle, or succumbed to from the hip to the knee. I measured disease and chills, and another dozen myself against it and it was as tall as I of them were ill. and our Captain Cor- am although I am of fair size. They tes himself was suffering from fever as brought other pieces of bone like the well as the Padre de la Merced, and first but they were already eaten away what with our labours and the weight and destroyed by the soil. We were all of our arms which we always carried amazed at seeing those bones and felt on our backs, and other hardships from sure that there must have been giants chills and the want of salt, for we could in this country, and our Captain Cortes never find any to eat, we began to won- said to us that it would be well to send der what would be the outcome of all that great bone to Castile so that His this fighting. .” Majesty might see it, so we sent it with Cortes continued sick, “suffering the first of our agents who went there.” from tertian fever." A little later after This account reminds one of the the capitulation of the Tlaxcalans it is stories of the Patagonian giants whom again recorded that he “wanted to take Magellan claimed to have seen when some rest, for he was ill with fever." he rounded the tip of South America About this time Xicotenga with Ca- and after whom he named the country. ciques from the capital of Tlaxcala ar- The arrival in Mexico of the Span- rived on a mission of peace. This fa- iard Panfilo de Narvaez with another mous Indian chieftain is described in army, and his battle with Cortes over the following words: “Xicotenga was their respective rights to the fruits of tall, broad shouldered and well made; the conquest then in process, nearly his face was long, pock-marked and proved the undoing of the whole ex- coarse, he was about thirty-five years pedition. Cortes’s triumph over his old and of a dignified deportment.” fellow countrymen was one of the most Sickness continued to afflict leaders dramatic of all his achievements.

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