The Conquest of New SpainThe 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 of Mexico. Diaz inspired W. H. Prescott's History of the Conquest and has been rendered here by J. M.