For I assure Your Majesty that if God had not mysteriously assisted us and the victory had gone to Narváez, it would have been the greatest harm that Spaniards had done to each other for a long time past.

We Spaniards know a sickness of the heart that only gold can cure.

He travels safest in the dark night who travels lightest.

Furthermore, they had calculated that if 25,000 of them died for every one of us, they would finish with us first, for they were many and we were but few.

I and my companions suffer from a disease of the heart which can be cured only with gold.

It was so wonderful that I do not know how to describe this first glimpse of things never heard of, seen or dreamed of before.

The meals were served in a large hall, in which Moctezuma was accustomed to eat, and the dishes quite filled the room, which was covered with mats and kept very clean.