Text (translated from the 1579/1580L2Add, 1579 Latin, 1580/1589 German, 1581 French, 1584 Latin, 1587 French, 1588 Spanish, 1592 Latin, 1595 Latin, 1598 Dutch, 1598 French, 1601 Latin, 1602 German, 1602 Spanish, 1603 Latin, 1606 English, 1608/1612 Italian, 1609/1612/1641 Spanish and 1609/1612 Latin edition)
13.1. {1579/1580L2Add{NEW SPAIN.
13.2. Around the year 1518 this Province was by force subjected to the Spanish government under the command and conduct of Ferdinand Cortez, who with great slaughter among his own people, but far greater slaughter among the inhabitants, fighting for their liberty, conquered them. It is a region rich with silver and gold. For it has many rivers yielding sands or grains of perfect gold. At the Ocean coast of this land, there are many opportunities for fishing oysters in which they find pearls.
13.3. There are various lakes, the salt water of which is converted into excellent salt through the heat of the sun. Here is great abundance of {not in 1580G{Cassia fistula <a kind of reed>}not in 1580G}, and a kind of fruit called {1601L & 1606E only{in the Mexican language}1601L & 1606E only} Cacao, somewhat resembling almonds. They hold this in high esteem for they make a drink of it, most delicate to their own taste.
13.4. The seas and rivers belonging to this country abound mightily with fish. Their rivers also breed Crocodiles, whose flesh is food to the inhabitants. In these places, this creature is more than twenty feet long. It is a very mountainous country, and beset here and there with most lofty and cragged rocks. So great is the diversity of languages in these regions that one cannot understand one another without an interpreter.
13.5. The principal settlements to be seen in this Table <map> which in New Spain have been established by the Spaniards are in the first place Compostella, the seat of a Bishop, and one of the king's councils. Colima is also called the city of purification. Guadalajara is a town most famous, and capital of the Kingdom of New Galicia. Mechoacan is also a Bishop see. Cacatula, the city of Angels {1580G & 1602G have instead{the English}1580G instead}, is a mother-town and a Bishopric.
13.6. Mexico, is the King's city, or rather the Queen's city of all the cities in the New world, situated upon the bank of a lake, or rather of a swamp. The very soil upon which the city has been built is so marshy that you cannot enter it, nor depart, except over connecting bridges. The adjacent lake, six leagues long and five broad, is salty. It has no fish, except very small ones, which may more aptly be called worms than fish. Their putrefaction, caused by the heat of Summer, sometimes pollutes the air so much that it is most unwholesome to live there. Yet it is as much frequented by inhabitants and merchants {1581F, 1588S, 1601L, 1602G & 1606E only{as any market town in Europe}1581F, 1588S, 1601L, 1602G & 1606E only}. It is a large city, because it is about 3 leagues in diameter.
13.7. The other lake, adjacent to this, has fresh water and abounds with fish. At its shores, there are many settlements, as there are upon the banks of both lakes. {1601L{In this city (as reported by Ierome Girava) Pope Paul the third established the seat of an Archbishop in the year 1547}1601L}.
13.8. This city was conquered by the Spanish 140 years after it had first been founded, while Montezuma was its King, the ninth in number. It is a wonder how it has grown in so few years to such a large size and become so magnificent.
13.9. Whoever wants to know in greater detail about the nature, situation and customs of this city and the adjacent territory may read the reports of Fernando Cortez. They have come to us in the volume entitled Novus orbis <=new world>, {not in 1598D{and in the volume of Navigations printed in Venice in Italian}not in 1598D}, {1592L, 1595L, 1601L, 1602S, 1603L, 1608/1612I, 1609/1612/1641S & 1609/1612L only{but read especially Ioannes Gonsalvo, who in his modest book on China has the most elaborate description of this region}1592L, 1595L, 1601L, 1602S, 1603L, 1608/1612I, 1609/1612/1641S & 1609/1612L only, which end here}. {1606E only{You also find many notable discussions of it in the third Volume of M. Hakluyt's English voyages}1606E only} © Marcel van den Broecke ©.