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Title: History of the Conquest of Mexico; vol. 1/4
Author: William Hickling Prescott
Release date: June 15, 2019 [eBook #59755]
Most recently updated: January 24, 2021
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE
CONQUEST OF MEXICO; VOL. 1/4 ***](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/33293-250303074134-9cf2885d/85/Your-Wish-Is-My-Command-Programming-by-Example-Henry-Lieberman-32-320.jpg)
![General Contents.
Contents of Volume I.
List of Illustrations
(In certain versions of this etext [in
certain browsers] clicking on the
image will bring up a larger
version.)
Footnotes
(etext transcriber's note)
Montezuma Edition
THE WORKS OF WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT
TWENTY-TWO VOLUMES
Vol. I
The Montezuma Edition of William H. Prescott’s Works is limited to one
thousand copies, of which this is
No. 345](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/33293-250303074134-9cf2885d/85/Your-Wish-Is-My-Command-Programming-by-Example-Henry-Lieberman-33-320.jpg)
![writers had essayed to tell the story of Hernando Cortés and of the
marvellous empire which that daring and resourceful captain had converted
into a province of Spain, but never before had one attempted the task in
whom patient research, careful reflection, and brilliant historical
imagination were so happily blended. The result of Prescott’s labors was
hailed with delight throughout the English-speaking world. His work was
speedily translated into many languages and his subject acquired an interest
which it has never since lost. To use the words of another American scholar,
[1] who did not agree with Prescott in many of the conclusions he reached
respecting the so-called Aztec civilization, “It called into existence a larger
number of works than was ever before written upon any people of the same
number and of the same importance.”
In order to appreciate the sensation the book created we must go
backward almost two generations and place ourselves in a country which
numbered hardly more than eighteen millions of inhabitants—less people
than now dwell in the New England States and in the four neighboring
Middle States,—New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.
These people were for the most part scattered throughout the regions
bordering upon the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes. Comparatively few
were to be found west of the Mississippi River. Texas was an independent
republic. California and the lands adjacent belonged to Mexico. The
ownership of the vast region then vaguely known as Oregon had not been
settled. Alaska was Russian territory. Between the Mississippi and the
Sierras of California stretched great wastes of prairie and desert, of
mountain and table-land, which now support millions of people, but which
even so far-seeing a statesman as Daniel Webster then supposed would
never become fit for human habitation. Communication between even the
most thickly-settled States was exasperatingly infrequent. The first public
telegraph line had not been constructed; the railway system of the country
was still in feeble infancy; letters were carried at so much per mile and at a
very heavy charge; the postage upon books was exceedingly costly. Only
three years had elapsed since the first transatlantic steamship line (the
Cunard) had started its pioneer vessel across the ocean. Newspapers for a
long time afterwards headed their columns with announcements of news so
many “days later from Europe.”
Yet within a year seven thousand copies of the “Conquest of Mexico”
were sold in this sparsely-settled country, notwithstanding its slow methods](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/33293-250303074134-9cf2885d/85/Your-Wish-Is-My-Command-Programming-by-Example-Henry-Lieberman-43-320.jpg)
![A
achievement the auto da fe of Arabic manuscripts which Archbishop
Ximenes had celebrated in Granada twenty years before, burned all the
manuscripts and other idolatrous material he could collect in one great
“mountain-heap” in the market-place of Tlatelolco.[2]
But when that additional knowledge shall have been attained, it is hardly
likely that any man will attempt to write anew the history of the Spanish
Conquest. The information secured from the rude pictorial descriptions of
the Aztec scribes and from the chiselled inscriptions of the Aztec sculptors
will be incorporated as footnotes in subsequent editions of Prescott’s
volumes. For even the critics who arraign Prescott most severely for his
misconception of Aztec institutions admit that in everything which he wrote
concerning the Conquest and the men who took part in it he adhered most
carefully to facts and followed conscientiously the narratives of the
participants. Those narratives, as Prescott’s most prominent critic (Mr.
Lewis H. Morgan) admits, “may be trusted in whatever relates to the acts of
the Spaniards and to the acts and the personal characteristics of the Indians;
in whatever relates to their weapons, implements, and utensils, fabrics,
food, and raiment, and things of a similar character.”
Because he followed those contemporary writers so carefully, because
with his vivid historical imagination he was able to transport himself into
the remote past, to live with the conquering Spaniards the life of toil and
privation that was sometimes almost beyond their iron endurance, to share
with them their ever-present danger, to rejoice with them in their final
victories, because so living, sharing, and rejoicing he was able to translate
their dull stories into pages that sparkle with the fulness of life, men will
still turn to those pages for the most graphic account of the exploits of
Cortés and his associates,—for generations yet to come his work will
continue to be read as one of the greatest masterpieces of descriptive
literature.
W. H. M.
PREFACE
S the Conquest of Mexico has occupied the pens of Solís and of
Robertson, two of the ablest historians of their respective nations, it
might seem that little could remain at the present day to be gleaned by
the historical inquirer. But Robertson’s narrative is necessarily brief,](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/33293-250303074134-9cf2885d/85/Your-Wish-Is-My-Command-Programming-by-Example-Henry-Lieberman-46-320.jpg)
![by a handful of adventurers, taken with all its strange and picturesque
accompaniments, has the air of romance rather than of sober history; and it
is not easy to treat such a theme according to the severe rules prescribed by
historical criticism. But, notwithstanding the seductions of the subject, I
have conscientiously endeavored to distinguish fact from fiction, and to
establish the narrative on as broad a basis as possible of contemporary
evidence; and I have taken occasion to corroborate the text by ample
citations from authorities, usually in the original, since few of them can be
very accessible to the reader. In these extracts I have scrupulously
conformed to the ancient orthography, however obsolete and even
barbarous, rather than impair in any degree the integrity of the original
document.
Although the subject of the work is, properly, only the Conquest of
Mexico, I have prepared the way for it by such a view of the civilization of
the ancient Mexicans as might acquaint the reader with the character of this
extraordinary race, and enable him to understand the difficulties which the
Spaniards had to encounter in their subjugation. This Introductory part of
the work, with the essay in the Appendix which properly belongs to the
Introduction,[3] although both together making only half a volume, has cost
me as much labor, and nearly as much time, as the remainder of the history.
If I shall have succeeded in giving the reader a just idea of the true nature
and extent of the civilization to which the Mexicans had attained, it will not
be labor lost.
The story of the Conquest terminates with the fall of the capital. Yet I
have preferred to continue the narrative to the death of Cortés, relying on
the interest which the development of his character in his military career
may have excited in the reader. I am not insensible to the hazard I incur by
such a course. The mind, previously occupied with one great idea, that of
the subversion of the capital, may feel the prolongation of the story beyond
that point superfluous, if not tedious, and may find it difficult, after the
excitement caused by witnessing a great national catastrophe, to take an
interest in the adventures of a private individual. Solís took the more politic
course of concluding his narrative with the fall of Mexico, and thus leaves
his readers with the full impression of that memorable event, undisturbed,
on their minds. To prolong the narrative is to expose the historian to the
error so much censured by the French critics in some of their most
celebrated dramas, where the author by a premature dénouement has](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/33293-250303074134-9cf2885d/85/Your-Wish-Is-My-Command-Programming-by-Example-Henry-Lieberman-49-320.jpg)
Your Wish Is My Command: Programming by Example Henry Lieberman
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- 5. ■<* EDITED BY HENRY LIEBERMAN YOUR WISH IS MY COMMAND o
- 6. I 'S' • ^' : »• -•J^‘ A; • .'•I - ^•1
- 7. Microsoft UK Technical Learning Centre .1IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 33554000003957 Your Wish Is My Command Programming by Example
- 8. The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Interactive Technologies Series Editors: ■ Stuart Card, Xerox PARC ■ Jonathan Grudin, Microsoft ■ Jakob Nielsen, Nielsen Norman Group ■ Tim Skelly, Design Happy Your Wish is My Command: Programming by Example Edited by Henry Lieberman GUI Bloopers: Don’ts and Do’sfor Software Developers and Web Designers Jeff Johnson Information Visualization: Perception for Design Colin Ware Robotsfor Kids: Exploring New Technologiesfor Learning Edited by Allison Druin and James Hendler Information Appliances and Beyond: Interaction Design for Consumer Products Edited by Eric Bergman Readings in Information Visualization: Using Vision to Think Written and edited by Stuart K. Card, Jock D. Mackinlay, and Ben Shneiderman The Design ofChildren’s Technology Edited by Allison Druin The Usability Engineering Lifecycle: A Practitioner’s Handbook for User Interface Design Deborah J. Mayhew Contextual Design: Defining Customer-Centered Systems Hugh Beyer and Karen Holtzblatt Human-Computer Interface Design: Success Stories, Emerging Methods, and Real World Context Edited by Marianne Rudisill, Clayton Lewis, Peter P. Poison, and Timothy D. McKay
- 9. Your Wish Is My Command Programming by Example Edited by Henry Lieberman Media Lab Massachusetts Institute of Technology MORGAN KAUFMANN PUBLISHERS AN IMPRINT OF ACADEMIC PRESS A Harcourt Science and Technology Company SAN FRANCISCO SAN DIEGO NEW YORK BOSTON LONDON SYDNEY TOKYO
- 10. Executive Editor Diane D. Cerra Assistant Developmental Editor Marilyn Alan Publishing Services Manager Scott Norton Production Editor Howard Severson Editorial Assistant Mona Buehler Cover Design Yvo Riezebos Cover Image Kazuo Kawai / Photonica; Back photo: © 2000 by Webb Chappell Text Design Rebecca Evans & Associates Copyeditor Laura Larson Proofreader Ruth Stevens Composition & Illustration Technologies ‘N Typography Indexer Steve Rath Printer Courier Corporation The following material is reprinted with permission from Communications ofthe ACM, March 2000, Vol. 43(3): Smith, D. C., Cypher, A., and Tesler, L. “Novice Programming Comes ofAge,” 75-81; Myers, B. A., McDaniel, R., and Wolber, D. “Intelligence in Demonstrational Interfaces,” fig. 3; Reperming, A. and Perrone, C. "Programming by Analogous Examples,” figs. 3, 4, and 5; St. Amant, R., Lieberman, H., Potter, R., and Zettlemoyer, L. “Visual Generalization in Programming by Example,” figs. 3 and 4. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often cltumed as trademarks or registered trademarks. In all instances where Morgan Kaufinann Publishers is aware of a claim, the product names appear in initial capital or all capital letters. Readers, however, should contact the appropriate companies for more com¬ plete information regarding trademarks and registration. ACADEMIC PRESS A Harcourt Science and Technology Company 525 B Street, Suite 1900, San Diego, CA 92101-4495, USA http://www.academicpress.com Academic Press Harcourt Place, 32 Jamestown Road, London NWl 7BY, United Kingdom http://www.academicpress.com Morgan Kaufinann Publishers 340 Pine Street, Sixth Floor, San Francisco, CA 94104-3205, USA http://WWW.mkp.com © 2001 by Academic Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States ofAmerica 05 04 03 02 01 54321 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Your wish is my command : programming by example / Henry Lieberman, editor, p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 1-55860-688-2 1. Computer programming. I. Lieberman, Henry. QA76.6.Y63 2001 005.2—dc21 00-069638 This book has been printed on acid-free paper.
- 11. Foreword Ben Shneiderman University of Maryland Setting an alarm clock is probably the most common form of programming. Users set a time and then put the clock in alarm mode. Older twelve-hour mechanical clocks usually had a special alarm hand that could be moved to the time for the alarm to ring, and then the users turned the alarm switch on. A nice form of direct manipulation programming—easy to learn and use. Direct manipulation is a term I coined in 1981 to describe the visual world of action in many successful graphical user interfaces such as video games, air traffic control, and what-you-see-is-what-you-get word proces¬ sors. The principles were to • represent the objects and actions visually, • replace typing with pointing and dragging, • provide rapid, incremental and reversible actions, and • offer immediate and continuous feedback to users. These principles can lead to interfaces that help novices and experts, pre¬ vent or at least reduce errors, and encourage exploration because reversibil¬ ity is supported. Designers continue to refine and extend direct manipula¬ tion, but critics complain that direct manipulation only works for limited tasks. They often ignore the possibility of direct manipulation program¬ ming, which was part of the original conception (Shneiderman 1982, 1983). To explore the possibilities, we built a direct manipulation programming tool in 1984-85 that enables users to create macros for MS DOS. This tool. Direct Manipulation DOS (DMDOS) (Iseki 1986), enabled users to record and view their actions, and then store and replay macros. We were moti¬ vated by successful macro facilities for Unk, word processors, and spread¬ sheets. These early keyboard-oriented systems led us to joke that “those who ignore history are destined to retype it.” We were also inspired by V
- 12. vi Foreword innovative programming by demonstration in David Canfield Smith’s (1977) Pygmalion, graphical macro facilities in Dan Halbert’s (1984) SmallStar, and Alan MacDonald’s (1982) early call for visual programming. These pioneers and other innovators believed in the goal of empowering users to create useful programs, extend existing interfaces, and build small just-in-time programs that automated daily tasks. This important volume carries forward the agenda of making direct ma¬ nipulation programming (or programming by example, programming by demonstration, end-user programming, programming in the user interface, etc.) a reality. While there have been successes in the intervening years, such as programmable machine tools, visual programming languages, and a variety of macro-building programs, widespread adoption is still elusive. Henry Lieberman deserves credit for his long devotion to this topic and for collecting the diverse strategies and application domains in this volume. He and the contributors to this volume remind us all of the breadth of opportu¬ nities and depth of ambition. The allure of direct manipulation programming is its capacity to em¬ power users, while minimizing learning of programming concepts. Re¬ searchers continue to seek simple cognitive models for programming that are in harmony with the cognitive model of the existing user interface. Just as the programmable mechanical alarm clock is tied to the familiar model of clock hands, researchers have wanted to build on the visual nature of graphical user interfaces. This fundamental human-computer interaction challenge has inspired a generation of designers, who have come up with innovative strategies for supporting iteration, conditionals, parameter passing, modular design, pat¬ tern matching, and data representation. This treasure chest of strategies is likely to pay off in multiple solutions for direct manipulation programming and related problems. A successful strategy would not only be easy to learn but also support rapid composition of common programs. Then it would also be easy to invoke, with comprehensible feedback about successful and unsuccessful executions. One strategy represented in this book is to develop software that recog¬ nizes familiar patterns of action and infers a useful program. There may be some opportunities along this path, but 1 prefer the second path of special tools for users to create a program, just as they move the special hand of an alarm clock to set the wake-up time. A third path, also well represented in this book, is visual programming languages in which the users set out to write a program, but visually instead of textually. Visual programming languages may have a simple basis such as
- 13. Foreword vii dragging items from a relational table to a screen-based form to create a re¬ port program. More elaborate visual programming languages have graphic symbols to represent objects, actions, conditionals, loops, and pattern matching. A fourth path might be to add history capture environments for every interface. Unix command line interfaces had a history log that allowed users to conveniently review and reuse commands. World Wide Web browsers support history keeping of page visits with relatively easy review and reuse. Microsoft Word captures a history of actions to support undo operations, but users cannot review the history or save it. Adobe Photoshop 5.0 added a nice history feature for graphic designers, demonstrating that even in com¬ plex environments, rich history support is possible. Our current efforts with Simulation Processes in a Learning Environ¬ ment have emphasized history keeping, enabling users to review their work, replay it, annotate it, and send it to peers or mentors for advice (Plaisant 1999). An immediate payoff was that faculty could run the simulation in ex¬ emplary or inappropriate ways and store the histories for students to use as a training aid. The story of this field and this book is that there is magic and power in creating programs by direct manipulation activities, as opposed to writing code. The potential for users to take control of technology, customize their experiences, and creatively extend their software tools is compelling. Eighteenth-century scientists, such as Ben Franklin, experimented with electricity and found its properties quite amazing. Franklin, Michael Fara¬ day, James Clerk Maxwell, and others laid the foundation for Thomas Edi¬ son’s diverse applications, such as refinements of telegraphy, generators, and electric lighting. This book brings reports from many Franklins, Fara¬ days, and Maxwells who are laying the foundation for the Thomas Edisons still to come. It is difficult to tell which idea will trigger broad dissemination or whose insight will spark a new industry. However, the excitement is electric. References Halbert, Daniel. 1984. Programming by example. Ph.D. diss. University of California, Berkeley. (Available as Xerox Report OSD-T8402, Palo Alto, CA, 1984.) Iseki, O. and B. Shneiderman. 1986. Applying direct manipulation concepts: Direct Manipulation Disk Operating System (DMDOS). ACM SIGSOFT Software Engi¬ neering Notes 11, no. 2 (April): 22-26.
- 14. viii Foreword MacDonald, Alan. 1982. Visual programming. Datamation 28, no. 11 (October): 132- 140. Plaisant, C., A. Rose, G. Rubloff, R. Salter, and B. Shneiderman. The design of history mechanisms and their use in collaborative educational simulations. In Proceed¬ ings of the Computer Supported Collaborative Learning Conference (December 1999). Shneiderman, B. The future of interactive systems and the emergence of direct ma¬ nipulation. Behaviour and Information Technology 1, no. 3 (1982) 237-256. - 1983. Direct manipulation: A step beyond programming languages. IEEE Computer 16, no. 8 (August 1983): 57-69. Smith, D. C. 1977. Pygmalion: A computer program to model and stimulate creative thought. Basel: Birkhauser.
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- 16. Contents Foreword Color Plates Introduction Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Ben Shneiderman V following page 192 1 Henry Lieberman Novice Programming Comes ofAge 7 David Canfield Smith, Allen Cypher, and Larry Tesler Abstract 8 1.1 Introduction 8 1.2 Programming without a Textual Programming Language 9 1.3 Theoretical Foundations 11 1.3.1 Sloman’s Approach 13 1.3.2 Bruner’s Approach 15 1.4 Empirical Evidence 16 1.5 Conclusion 18 References 19 Generalizing by Removing Detail: How Any Program Can Be Created by Working with Examples 21 Ken Kahn Abstract 22 2.1 Introduction 22 2.2 A Brief Introduction to ToonTalk 24 2.3 An Example of Programming by Example 26 ix
- 17. X Contents 2.4 Discussion 40 2.5 Conclusion 42 Acknowledgements 43 References 43 Chapter 3 Demonstrational Interfaces: Sometimes You Need a Little Intelligence, Sometimes You Need a Lot 45 Brad A. Myers and Richard McDaniel Abstract 46 3.1 Introduction 46 3.2 Our Demonstrational Systems 47 3.3 Level of Intelligence 49 3.3.1 No Inferencing 50 3.3.2 Simple Rule-Based Inferencing 50 3.3.3 Sophisticated AI Algorithms 52 3.4 Feedback 54 3.5 Conclusion 57 Acknowledgements 58 References 58 Chapter 4 Web Browsing by Example 61 Atsushi Sugiura Abstract 62 4.1 Introduction 62 4.2 Underlying Problems of PBE 63 4.2.1 Problem of Inferring User Intent 63 4.2.2 Problem ofAccessing Internal Data of Applications 64 4.3 Web Browsing: Good Domain for PBE 64 4.4 Internet Scrapbook 65 4.4.1 Overview of Internet Scrapbook 66 4.4.2 Generating Matching Patterns 67 4.4.3 Extracting Data from Web Pages 70 4.4.4 Evaluation 71 4.5 SmallBrowse: Web-Browsing Interface for Small- Screen Computers 73
- 18. Contents xi 4.5.1 Overview of SmallBrowse 74 4.5.2 Tip Help 80 4.5.3 Informal Experiments 80 4.6 Discussion 81 4.7 Conclusion 83 Appendix: Copying HTML Data from Web Browser to Scrapbook 84 References 85 Chapter 5 Trainable Information Agents for the Web 87 Mathias Bauer, Dietmar Dengler, and Gabriele Paul Abstract 88 5.1 Introduction 88 5.2 An Application Scenario 89 5.3 The HyQL Query Language 91 5.3.1 The Construction of Wrappers 94 5.4 The Training Dialogue 96 5.4.1 Wrapper Generation and Assessment 98 5.4.2 Suggesting an Action 100 5.4.3 Executing an Action 101 5.4.4 A Simple Training Dialogue 102 5.5 Lessons Learned 104 5.6 The Communication Problem 105 5.7 Another Application Scenario 109 5.8 Related Work (Non-PBE) 110 5.9 Conclusion 112 Acknowledgments 112 References 113 Chapter 6 End Users and GIS: A Demonstration Is Worth a Thousand Words 11- Carol Traynor and Marian G. Williams Abstract 116 6.1 Introduction 116 6.2 A Story of End Users and GIS 116 6.3 Why Is GIS Software So Hard to Use? 118 6.4 Are Things Improving for GIS Users? 120
- 19. xii Contents 6.5 How Can Programming by Demonstration Help? 121 6.6 A Programming-by-Demonstration Approach for CIS: C-SPRL 123 6.7 Conclusion 132 Acknowledgements 132 References 132 Chapter 7 Bringing Programming by Demonstration to CAD Users 135 Patrick Girard Abstract 136 7.1 Introduction 136 7.2 PBD and CAD 137 7.2.1 CAD: A Suitable Area for PBD 137 7.2.2 Variational and Parametric Solutions 140 7.2.3 Requirements for PBD in CAD 142 7.3 Toward a Complete Solution 143 7.3.1 Classical 2D CAD Systems 143 7.3.2 Specificity and Naming in CAD 145 7.3.3 Expressiveness 149 7.4 True Explicit PBD Solutions 155 7.4.1 Fully Integrated PBD Systems 155 7.4.2 An Actual Programming Environment, but for Users... 157 7.5 Conclusion 159 References 160 Chapter 8 Demonstrating the Hidden Features that Make an Application Work 163 Richard McDaniel Abstract 164 8.1 Introduction 164 8.2 The Perils of Plain Demonstration 165 8.3 Who Is Actually Programming? 166 8.4 Giving the System Hints 167 8.4.1 Creating Special Objects 167 8.4.2 Selecting the Right Behaviors 170
- 20. Contents 8.5 The Programming Environment Matters 171 8.6 Conclusion 172 References 174 Chapter 9 A Reporting Tool Using Programming by Example for Format Designation Tetsuya Masuishi and Nobuo Takahashi Abstract 176 9.1 Introduction 176 9.2 System Overview 178 9.2.1 System Configuration 178 9.3 User Interface of Format Editor 179 9.3.1 Window Configuration 179 9.3.2 Specifying Iteration 180 9.3.3 Adjustment 182 9.4 Extracting Formatting Rules 182 9.5 Generating Reports 183 9.6 Example of the Process 183 9.7 Evaluation 187 9.8 Conclusion 190 References 190 Chapter 10 Composition by Example Toshiyuki Masui Abstract 192 10.1 Introduction 192 10.2 PBE-Based Text Editing Systems 193 10.3 Dynamic Macro: A PBE-Based Text Editing System 193 10.4 POBox: A PBE-Based Text Input System 197 10.4.1 Various Text Input Techniques 197 10.4.2 POBox Architecture 200 10.4.3 POBox for Pen-Based Computers 202 10.4.4 Using POBox on a Cellular Phone 204 10.4.5 POBox Server on the Internet 206 10.5 Conclusion 207 References 207
- 21. xiv Contents Chapter 11 Learning Repetitive Text-Editing Procedures with SMARTedit 209 Tessa Lau, Steven A. Wolfman, Pedro Domingos, and Daniel S. Weld Abstract 210 11.1 Introduction 210 11.2 The SMARTedit User Interface 212 11.3 The Smarts behind SMARTedit 215 11.4 Choosing the Most Likely Action 219 11.5 Making SMARTedit a More Intelligent Student 221 11.6 Other Directions for SMARTedit 223 11.7 Comparison with Other Text-Editing PBD Systems 223 11.8 Conclusion 224 References 225 Chapter 12 Training Agents to Recognize Text by Example 227 Henry Lieberman, Bonnie A. Nardi, and DavidJ. Wright Abstract 228 12.1 Text Recognition Agents 228 12.2 Writing Conventional Grammars as Text 230 12.3 Programming Grammars by Example for More Accessibility 231 12.4 Grammex: A Demonstrational Interface for Grammar Definition 232 12.5 An Example: Defining a Grammar for Email Addresses 233 12.5.1 Top-Down Definition 234 12.6 Rule Definitions from Multiple Examples 236 12.6.1 Definition of Recursive Grammar Rules 236 12.6.2 Managing Sets of Rule Definitions 238 12.6.3 Complexity and Scalability 239 12.6.4 Defining Actions by Example 240 12.7 Future Work: Using Grammar Induction to Speed Up the Definition Process 241 12.8 Related Work 242
- 22. Contents XV Chapter 13 Chapter 14 12.9 Conclusion 243 Acknowledgements 243 References 243 SWYN: A Visual Representation for Regular Expressions 245 Alan E Blackwell Abstract 246 13.1 Introduction 246 13.1.1 Factors in the Usability of PBE Systems 247 13.1.2 A Test Case for Visibility in PBE 248 13.1.3 Summary of Objectives 249 13.2 Other PBE Systems for Inferring Regular Expressions 250 13.3 A User Interface for Creating Regular Expressions from Examples 251 13.4 A Heuristic Algorithm for Regular Expression Inference 255 13.4.1 Probabilistic Algorithm 256 13.5 A Visual Notation for Regular Expressions 258 13.5.1 Experiment: Evaluation of Alternative Representations 259 13.5.2 Method 261 13.5.3 Results 263 13.5.4 Discussion 264 13.6 An Integrated Facility for Regular Expression Creation 265 13.6.1 Visual Integration with Data 265 13.6.2 Modification of the Regular Expression 266 13.7 Conclusion 267 Acknowledgements 268 References 268 Learning Users’ Habits to Automate Repetitive Tasks 271 Jean-David Ruvini and Christophe Dony Abstract 272 14.1 Introduction 272
- 23. xvi Contents 14.2 Overview of APE 274 14.2.1 The Observer 276 14.2.2 The Apprentice 277 14.2.3 The Assistant 278 14.3 Illustrative Examples 279 14.3.1 Example 1 279 14.3.2 Example 2 281 14.3.3 Example 3 281 14.3.4 Example 4 284 14.4 Detecting Repetitive Tasks 284 14.4.1 Repetitive Sequences ofActions 284 14.4.2 Loops 284 14.4.3 Writing of Repetitive Pieces of Code 286 14.4.4 Repetitive Corrections of (Simple) Programming Errors 286 14.5 Learning a User’s Habits 286 14.5.1 What Makes the Problem Difficult? 287 14.5.2 Which Algorithms? 288 14.5.3 A New Algorithm 289 14.6 Use and Experimental Results 290 14.7 Conclusion 293 References 294 Chapter 15 Domain-Independent Programming by Demonstration in Existing Applications 297 Gordon W. Paynter and Ian H. Witten Abstract 298 15.1 Introduction 298 15.2 What Familiar Does 300 15.2.1 Arranging Files 301 15.2.2 When Errors Occur 304 15.2.3 Sorting Files 306 15.2.4 Converting Images 309 15.3 Platform Requirements 311 15.4 AppleScript: A Commercial Platform 313 15.4.1 High-Level Event Architectures 313 15.4.2 Deficiencies of the Language 314 15.4.3 Deficiencies of AppleScript Implementations 316
- 24. Contents xvii Chapter 16 Chapter 17 15.4.4 Learning from AppleScript’s Shortcomings 317 15.5 Conclusion 318 References 319 Stimulus-Response PBD: Demonstrating “When” as well as “What” 321 David W. Wolber and Brad A. Myers Abstract 322 16.1 Introduction 322 16.1.1 PBD: An Elaboration of Macro Recording 322 16.1.2 PBD Macro Invocation 323 16.1.3 Augmenting the Capabilities of Traditional Interface Builders 324 16.1.4 A Quick Example 324 16.1.5 Wait a Second! 326 16.2 The Syntax of Stimulus-Response 326 16.2.1 Eliminating Modes 327 16.2.2 Demonstrating Stimuli 328 16.2.3 Demonstrating Responses 334 16.2.4 Demonstrating Aids: Guide Objects and Ghost Marks 334 16.3 The Semantics of Stimulus-Response 336 16.3.1 Object Descriptor Problem 337 16.3.2 Response Parameter Descriptors 338 16.3.3 Linear Proportions 339 16.3.4 Complex Parameters 340 16.4 Feedback and Editing 340 16.4.1 Storyboards 341 16.4.2 The Stimulus-Response Score 341 16.5 Conclusion 342 References 343 Pavlov: Where PBD Meets Macromedia’s Director David Wolber Abstract 346
- 25. xviii Contents Chapter 18 Chapter 19 17.1 Introduction 346 17.2 Example 346 17.3 Objects that React Asynchronously to Events 347 17.4 Conclusion 349 References 350 Programming by Analogous Examples 351 Alexander Repenning and Corrina Perrone Abstract 352 18.1 Introduction 352 18.2 The GUI to Program Chasm 354 18.3 Programming by Analogous Examples 356 18.3.1 Making Cars Move Like Trains: An Analogy 357 18.4 Discussion 360 18.4.1 Beyond Syntactic Rewrite Rules 360 18.4.2 Erom Substitutions to Analogies 363 18.4.3 Reuse through Inheritance 366 18.5 Conclusion 367 Acknowledgements 368 References 368 Visual Generalization in Programming by Example 371 Robert St. Amant, Henry Lieberman, Richard Potter, and Luke Zettlemoyer Abstract 372 19.1 If You Can See It, You Should Be Able to Program It 372 19.2 What Does Visual Generalization Buy Us? 374 19.3 Low-Level Visual Generalization 376 19.4 High-Level Visual Generalization 378 19.5 Introducing Novel Generalizations: Generalizing on Grids 381 19.6 Conclusion 383 References 384
- 26. Visit https://ebookmass.com today to explore a vast collection of ebooks across various genres, available in popular formats like PDF, EPUB, and MOBI, fully compatible with all devices. Enjoy a seamless reading experience and effortlessly download high- quality materials in just a few simple steps. Plus, don’t miss out on exciting offers that let you access a wealth of knowledge at the best prices!
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- 31. The Project Gutenberg eBook of History of the Conquest of Mexico; vol. 1/4
- 32. This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title: History of the Conquest of Mexico; vol. 1/4 Author: William Hickling Prescott Release date: June 15, 2019 [eBook #59755] Most recently updated: January 24, 2021 Language: English Credits: Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images available at The Internet Archive) *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO; VOL. 1/4 ***
- 33. General Contents. Contents of Volume I. List of Illustrations (In certain versions of this etext [in certain browsers] clicking on the image will bring up a larger version.) Footnotes (etext transcriber's note) Montezuma Edition THE WORKS OF WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT TWENTY-TWO VOLUMES Vol. I The Montezuma Edition of William H. Prescott’s Works is limited to one thousand copies, of which this is No. 345
- 34. THE LANDING OF CORTÉS AT VERA CRUZ Page 365 Copyright 1904, by J. B. Lippincott Company Goupil & Cº., Paris Montezuma Edition HISTORY OF THE Conquest of Mexico
- 35. W BY WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT EDITED BY WILFRED HAROLD MUNRO PROFESSOR OF EUROPEAN HISTORY IN BROWN UNIVERSITY AND COMPRISING THE NOTES OF THE EDITION BY JOHN FOSTER KIRK “Victrices aquilas alium laturus in orbem” Lucan, Pharsalia, lib. v., v. 238 VOL. I PHILADELPHIAAND LONDON J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY Copyright, 1843, by William H. Prescott Copyright, 1871, by William G. Prescott Copyright, 1873, by J. B. Lippincott & Co. Copyright, 1904, by J. B. Lippincott Company Electrotyped and Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia U. S. A. INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY THE EDITOR ILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT was born in Salem, Massachusetts, May 4, 1796. He died in Boston, January 28, 1859. William Prescott, his father, a lawyer of great ability and of sterling worth, was at one time a judge, and was frequently elected to public positions of trust and responsibility. His mother was a daughter of Thomas Hickling, for many years United States Consul at the Azores. His grandfather, William Prescott,
- 36. was in command of the American forces at the battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775. On both sides, therefore, the future historian was descended from what Oliver Wendell Holmes aptly termed the “New England Brahman Stock.” He was prepared for college by an unusually accomplished scholar, John Sylvester John Gardiner, for many years the rector of Trinity Church, Boston, and entered Harvard College as a sophomore in 1811. Three years later he graduated with the Class of 1814. During his junior year came the accident which was to change the whole course of his life. As he was leaving the dining-hall, in which the students sat at “Commons,” a biscuit, thrown by a careless fellow-student, struck him squarely in the left eye and stretched him senseless upon the floor. Paralysis of the retina was the result; the injury was beyond the reach of the healing art, and the sight of one eye was utterly destroyed. After a period of intense suffering, spent in a darkened room, he recovered sufficiently to resume his college work and to be graduated with his class. For a year and a half the uninjured eye served him fairly well. Then, suddenly, acute rheumatism attacked it, causing, except in occasional periods of intermission, excruciating pain during the rest of his life. Total darkness, for weeks at a time, was not infrequently Prescott’s lot, and work, except under a most careful adjustment of every ray of light, was almost out of the question. Under these circumstances the career at the bar which his father had planned for him, and to which he had looked forward with so much pleasure was no longer to be thought of. Business offered no attractions, even if a business life had been possible to him in his semi-blindness. He turned his attention to literature, and found there his vocation. But for this work he felt that the most careful preparation was necessary. In a letter, written eighteen months before his death, he says, “I proposed to devote ten years of my life to the study of ancient and modern literature, chiefly the latter, and to give ten years more to some historical work. I have had the good fortune to accomplish this design pretty nearly within the limits assigned. In the Christmas of 1837 my first work was given to the public.” During the first ten years of preparation he was a frequent contributor to the Reviews, writing some of the papers which are printed in the volume of “Miscellanies” which has always formed part of his “works.” His historical work was accomplished with the utmost difficulty. American scholarship was not then advanced, and it was almost impossible to secure readers who
- 37. possessed a knowledge of foreign languages. Pathetically Mr. Prescott tells of the difficulties surmounted. The secretary he employed at first knew no language but his own. “I taught him to pronounce the Castilian in a manner suited, I suspect, much more to my ear than to that of a Spaniard; and we began our wearisome journey through Mariana’s noble history. I cannot even now recall to mind without a smile the tedious hours in which, seated under some old trees in my country residence, we pursued our slow and melancholy way over pages which afforded no glimmering of light to him, and from which the light came dimly struggling to me through a half intelligible vocabulary. But in a few weeks the light became stronger, and I was cheered by the consciousness of my own improvement; and when we had toiled our way through seven quartos I found I could understand the book when read about two-thirds as fast as ordinary English.” Having thus gathered the ideas of his many authorities from the mechanical lips of his secretary, Mr. Prescott would ponder them for a time, and would then dictate the notes for a chapter of from forty to fifty pages. These notes were read and reread to him while the subject was still fresh in his memory. He ran them over many times in his mind before he began to dictate the final copy, and was thus able to escape errors into which men with full command of their sight frequently fall. For the last thirty years of his life he made use of a writing instrument for the blind, the noctograph, by which he was able to write his own pages and partially to dispense with dictation. With the noctograph he wrote with great rapidity, but in an almost illegible hand which only the author and his secretary could read. When, after twenty years of labor, the “History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella” was finished, its author was so doubtful respecting its value that he proposed simply to put it upon his library shelf “for the benefit of those who should come after.” His father wisely combated this morbid judgment and insisted upon its publication. “The man who writes a book which he is afraid to publish is a coward,” he said to his son. The work was given to the world in 1837 and was immediately and immensely successful. Its author, who had hitherto been only an obscure writer of reviews, took his place at once in the first rank of contemporary historians, —to use the words of Daniel Webster,—“like a comet that had blazed out upon the world in full splendor.” In a very short space of time translations appeared in Spanish, German, French, and Italian. Critics of many nationalities joined in concurrent praise.
- 38. In a way Mr. Prescott’s achievement was a national triumph. British reviewers were even more laudatory than were the American. One of the most striking testimonials came from Richard Ford, the author of the famous “Handbook for Spain,”—an English scholar whose knowledge of things Spanish was phenomenal. Mr. Ford wrote, “Mr. Prescott’s is by far the first historical work which British America has yet produced, and one that need hardly fear a comparison with any that has issued from the European press since this century began.” Mr. Ford was not enthusiastic over American institutions and was by no means prepared to believe that the American experiment in democratic government was likely to result in a permanent State. It was with an eye to posterity, therefore, that he cautiously and vaguely assigned Mr. Prescott not to the United States, but to British America. The commendatory notices that appeared in British publications showed that many men besides Mr. Ford were astounded that “British America” could produce such an excellent specimen of historical workmanship. Sydney Smith’s praise was most enthusiastic. He even went so far as to promise the American author a “Caspian Sea of Soup” if he would visit England. The new historian was not spoiled by the adulation showered upon him. Rejoicing in the unexpected praise, he devoted himself with renewed zeal, and with even greater care, to the composition of another work. This, “The History of the Conquest of Mexico,” appeared in 1843, and in less than twelve months seven thousand copies of it had been sold in the United States. The art of advertising, in which the publishers of to-day are so proficient, had not then been developed; the “Conquest of Mexico” made its own way among the reading public. For the English copyright Bentley, the London publisher, paid £650. Ten editions were published in England in sixteen years, and twenty-three were issued in the United States. Popular approval was even more pronounced than in the case of the “Ferdinand and Isabella,” and the applause of the reviewers was also much more loud. The pure and sound English appealed especially to scholars like Milman. That famous historian placed Prescott “in the midst of the small community of really good English writers of history in modern times.” Coming from the editor of the best edition of Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” this was praise indeed. The Edinburgh Review said, “Every reader of intelligence forgets the beauty of his coloring in the grandeur of his outline.... Nothing but a connected sketch of the latter can do justice to the
- 39. highest charm of the work.” Stirling, author of the “Cloister Life of the Emperor Charles the Fifth,” wrote, “The account of the Triste Noche, the woeful night in which, after the death of Montezuma, Cortés and his band retreated across the lake and over the broken causeway, cutting their way through a nation in arms, is one of the finest pictures of modern historical painting.” The Spanish Royal Academy of History had elected Prescott to membership in that august body soon after his “History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella” appeared; other historical societies and learned bodies now heaped honors upon him. The historian kept steadily at work. The task to which he had devoted himself was to tell the tale of Spanish greatness when the fortunes of Spain were at their highest point. The “History of the Conquest of Peru” was published in 1847, four years after the appearance of the “Mexico.” It reads like a romance and has always been the most popular of Prescott’s works. To-day it is the only history of the early Spanish achievements in Peru which is regarded as an “authority” on the South American republic, and is always kept in stock in Peruvian bookstores. For the English copyright of this work Bentley paid £800. Seventeen thousand copies were sold in thirteen years. The demand for it is constant. The author’s fame was now fully established. He was everywhere regarded as one of the greatest of living historians, and honors and wealth flowed steadily towards him. His income from his books was very large. Stirling estimates it at from £4000 to £5000 per annum. This, in addition to the fortune he had inherited, made Mr. Prescott a very wealthy man in the years when the enormous incomes of to-day were hardly dreamed of. He was as methodical and careful in pecuniary affairs as in his literary work. A most accurate account was kept of his receipts and expenditures, and one- tenth of his income was always devoted to charity. In 1850 he made a short visit to Europe, spending some time upon the Continent but more in England and Scotland. Everywhere he was lionized in a way that would have turned the heads of most men. The University of Oxford made him a D.C.L. The doors of the houses where learning was honored opened at his approach. His own charming personality was, however, one of the greatest factors in his social success. As a man he was most lovable.
- 40. Upon his return to America he devoted himself to writing the “History of the Reign of Philip the Second,” for which task he had accumulated an extensive collection of documentary “authorities.” This work was to appear in six volumes, and for it the author was offered £1000 a volume by two publishers. Two volumes were published in 1855 and a third appeared three years later. Macaulay pronounced “Philip the Second” Mr. Prescott’s best work. Its style is more finished, its use of authorities more masterly than in the previous volumes. For dramatic interest the chapters describing the defence of Malta by the Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem are quite equal to the account of the “Triste Noche,” of Cortés and his companions in Mexico, which so excited the admiration of Stirling. But the work was never to be completed. After two volumes had appeared, there was published “Prescott’s Edition of Robertson’s Charles the Fifth.” This was simply a new edition of the Scottish historian’s work, with additions dealing with the later years of the Emperor’s life which Robertson had not treated. In it is given the true story of the emperor’s retirement and death. Mr. Prescott had for Robertson a very great admiration. He always acknowledged his deep obligation to him, and he felt that it would be most unnecessary, and in fact almost presumptuous, for him to attempt to re-write a history which the Scottsman had written so well. In these three works, “Ferdinand and Isabella,” “Charles the Fifth,” and “Philip the Second,” a century and a half of the most important part of Spanish history is presented. That Prescott did not live to complete the third must always be regarded as a great calamity by the literary world. Besides the volumes already specified, another, of “Miscellaneous Essays” (a selection from his earlier contributions to reviews and other periodicals) has always been included in Prescott’s published works. To the historical student this volume is even more interesting than to the general reader. It illustrates the change, which, since its publication, has taken place in the methods of the reviewer and of the writer of history as well. On February 4, 1858, Mr. Prescott was stricken with paralysis. The shock was a slight one. He soon recovered from its effects and continued with undaunted perseverance his literary work. In less than a year, January 28, 1859, while at work in his library with his secretary, he fell back speechless from a second attack and died an hour or so afterwards. It is quite within bounds to say that no historian’s death ever affected more profoundly the community in which he dwelt. Other authors have
- 41. been respected and admired by those with whom they came in contact, Prescott was universally loved. No American writer was perhaps more sincerely and more widely mourned. Affable, generous, courtly, thoughtful for others, singularly winning in his personal appearance, he had drawn the hearts of all his associates to himself, while the gracious, kindly humanity manifested in every page of his writings had endeared him to thousands of readers in all parts of the world. Mr. Prescott’s distinguishing characteristic was his intense love for truth. As an author he had no thesis to establish. He never wasted time in arguments wherewith to demonstrate the soundness of his views. His single desire was to set forth with scrupulous accuracy all the facts which belonged to his subject. Some critics will have it that his tendency towards hero-worship occasionally leads him into extravagance of statement and that his gorgeous descriptions sometimes blind us to most unpleasant facts. This is possibly partly true in the case of “Ferdinand and Isabella,” his first work, but even in those volumes the reader will almost always find footnotes to establish the author’s statements or to indicate the possibility of a doubt which he himself felt. In clear grasp of facts, in vivid powers of narration, combined with artistic control of details, no historical writer has exceeded him. The power of philosophical analysis he did not possess in so high a degree, but no philosophical historian of the first rank was ever so widely read as William Hickling Prescott has been and still is. For the additional knowledge concerning the historian, which will unquestionably be desired after a perusal of his writings, the reader is referred to the charming biography, published by George Ticknor in 1864, and reissued with this edition of Prescott’s works. More than thirty years have elapsed since the last revised edition was presented to the public. Its editor, Mr. John Foster Kirk, was pre-eminently fitted for his work. He had been Mr. Prescott’s private secretary for eleven years, and was perhaps more familiar than was any other man with the period of Spanish history of which Prescott wrote. He had, moreover, himself achieved a most enviable international reputation by his “Life of Charles the Bold.” In his notes he condensed the additional information which a generation of scholars had contributed to the subjects treated of in Prescott’s pages. Those notes are all incorporated in the present edition.
- 42. T But since Kirk’s notes were penned another generation of students has been investigating the history of Spain—a generation which has enjoyed more abundant opportunities for research than any scholars before had known. Numberless manuscripts have been rescued from monastic limbo, the caked dust of centuries has been scraped away from scores of volumes in the public archives, and the searchlights of modern scientific investigation have been turned upon places that once seemed hopelessly dark. As if this were not enough, explorers from many lands have plunged into the depths of the Mexican forests, and penetrated the quebradas of the Andes, in attempts to wrest from them the secrets of their ancient history. The result is an immense number of volumes filled with statements startlingly diverse and with conclusions widely conflicting. Many of these volumes, especially those that emanated from the explorers, were written by men unskilled in historical writing,—special pleaders, and not historians,— men who were more anxious to demonstrate the soundness of their own theories than to arrive at absolute knowledge concerning the institutions of Peru and of Mexico. It has been the task of the editor of this edition to separate from this mass of material the conclusions in which scholars for the most part agree, and to embody those conclusions in additional footnotes. He has not ordinarily deemed it necessary to specify the authors read. Because he knows that the average reader abhors quotations hurled at him in unfamiliar tongues, he has, in quoting, always used the best known authority in English. In preparing these new volumes for the press the texts of editions previously issued have been carefully compared in order to insure perfect accuracy. In all such matters the publishers have aimed to put forth Prescott’s writings in the form that must be regarded for many years to come as the standard edition of America’s most popular historian. WILFRED H. MUNRO. Brown University, December 20, 1904. EDITOR’S PREFACE HE publication of Prescott’s second work, “The History of the Conquest of Mexico,” was justly regarded as the greatest achievement in American historical writing. The theme was not a new one. Other
- 43. writers had essayed to tell the story of Hernando Cortés and of the marvellous empire which that daring and resourceful captain had converted into a province of Spain, but never before had one attempted the task in whom patient research, careful reflection, and brilliant historical imagination were so happily blended. The result of Prescott’s labors was hailed with delight throughout the English-speaking world. His work was speedily translated into many languages and his subject acquired an interest which it has never since lost. To use the words of another American scholar, [1] who did not agree with Prescott in many of the conclusions he reached respecting the so-called Aztec civilization, “It called into existence a larger number of works than was ever before written upon any people of the same number and of the same importance.” In order to appreciate the sensation the book created we must go backward almost two generations and place ourselves in a country which numbered hardly more than eighteen millions of inhabitants—less people than now dwell in the New England States and in the four neighboring Middle States,—New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. These people were for the most part scattered throughout the regions bordering upon the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes. Comparatively few were to be found west of the Mississippi River. Texas was an independent republic. California and the lands adjacent belonged to Mexico. The ownership of the vast region then vaguely known as Oregon had not been settled. Alaska was Russian territory. Between the Mississippi and the Sierras of California stretched great wastes of prairie and desert, of mountain and table-land, which now support millions of people, but which even so far-seeing a statesman as Daniel Webster then supposed would never become fit for human habitation. Communication between even the most thickly-settled States was exasperatingly infrequent. The first public telegraph line had not been constructed; the railway system of the country was still in feeble infancy; letters were carried at so much per mile and at a very heavy charge; the postage upon books was exceedingly costly. Only three years had elapsed since the first transatlantic steamship line (the Cunard) had started its pioneer vessel across the ocean. Newspapers for a long time afterwards headed their columns with announcements of news so many “days later from Europe.” Yet within a year seven thousand copies of the “Conquest of Mexico” were sold in this sparsely-settled country, notwithstanding its slow methods
- 44. of communication. Boston was acknowledged to be the literary centre of the nation, and Prescott, with the modesty which was his marked characteristic, had supposed that the unlooked-for success which had attended his first literary venture was due to the interest of his personal friends in that city of culture. Such a supposition was no longer tenable. Nor was it possible to ascribe its great popularity to the influence of opinions expressed in Great Britain. The unprecedented success of the book was due not to personal interest in its author, not to the favorable judgment of literary Boston, not to the commendation of the English reviews, but to the merits of the work itself. A wonderful story was told wonderfully well. Men read it and commented upon it as they do not comment upon books at the present time. They discussed it not only on those rare occasions when they met friends from far away, but in the long epistles they sent to those friends, —those letters from which we to-day get so many glimpses of the life of the first half of the nineteenth century. It was passed from hand to hand in the communities where only the envied few were able to buy books, but where all men, in those far less strenuous days, were anxious to read them,—in those days also when the average critical judgment concerning good literature was more highly developed than it now is, and men were much more given to reflection and discussion than they now are. As has been stated elsewhere, Mr. Prescott was a man of considerable wealth. He was therefore able to place upon his library tables a much larger amount of material with which to work than is ordinarily possible. Not only did he purchase most of the books published upon his subject, but he also secured copies of more valuable documentary material from the libraries and public archives both of Spain and of Mexico,—in this way gradually accumulating that library which was at his death the finest private collection of books in America. His method of composition has already been described. First, his hours of work with his secretary were scrupulously observed each day; then came the hours of reflection and of careful sifting of authorities before pen was placed upon paper, followed by still more careful reflection before the final copy was written. The tendency to hero-worship which he shared with most American, and indeed with most British, writers became much less marked as his chapters increased,—though surely he may well be pardoned for rejoicing as he does in the exploits of one of the greatest generals in
- 45. European history. It was perhaps admiration for that great captain which led him to write the history of his conquests. In reading the “Mexico” we must always remember that the task to which Prescott devoted his energies was to give an accurate account of the stupendous campaigns through which Cortés made himself master of the lands of the Aztecs, and not to describe minutely the institutions Cortés encountered in the Valley of Mexico. An account of the habits, customs, and laws of the people of that valley was essential to a proper comprehension of the magnitude of the Conquest. That account Prescott constructed with material gathered from all available sources, realizing all the while how very unsatisfactory those sources were. It fills about half a volume, but, as he says in his first preface, it cost him as much labor, and nearly as much time, as all the rest of his history. This part of the work has been subjected to much severe criticism, of which mention is made in the notes of this edition. Not a few of the conclusions therein set forth have been shown to be erroneous. For example, Mr. Prescott did not understand the institutions of the Aztecs. It would have been most marvellous if he had. And yet it must be said that, notwithstanding the time spent in research since Prescott’s introductory chapters were penned, surprisingly little more is really known to-day concerning the ancient Aztec nation than was known at that time. Writers who rejected his conclusions put forth conjectures without number to supplant them, but most of those conjectures were not founded upon facts. Their authors were for the most part theorists, and not simply searchers for truth, as Prescott was. Until a larger number of the so- called “Codices” shall have been brought to light, and men shall have learned to read them as scholars have learned to read the hieroglyphics of the East, little more absolute knowledge is likely to be secured. It is hardly possible, however, that many more “Codices” will ever be found. If they exist, they are probably lying unnoticed in some obscure monastery in Spain, or under a mass of material, as yet unclassified, in the public archives of that country. Of the many agencies that have worked for their destruction three especially may be noted. First, the climate of the Mexican land, with the innumerable insects that a tropical climate breeds; second, the stern determination of the Mexicans themselves to destroy the memorials of their ancient state; and, lastly, the holocausts of Zumárraga, first archbishop of Mexico, whose hand, as Prescott says, “fell more heavily than that of time itself upon the Aztec monuments.” This prelate, emulating in his
- 46. A achievement the auto da fe of Arabic manuscripts which Archbishop Ximenes had celebrated in Granada twenty years before, burned all the manuscripts and other idolatrous material he could collect in one great “mountain-heap” in the market-place of Tlatelolco.[2] But when that additional knowledge shall have been attained, it is hardly likely that any man will attempt to write anew the history of the Spanish Conquest. The information secured from the rude pictorial descriptions of the Aztec scribes and from the chiselled inscriptions of the Aztec sculptors will be incorporated as footnotes in subsequent editions of Prescott’s volumes. For even the critics who arraign Prescott most severely for his misconception of Aztec institutions admit that in everything which he wrote concerning the Conquest and the men who took part in it he adhered most carefully to facts and followed conscientiously the narratives of the participants. Those narratives, as Prescott’s most prominent critic (Mr. Lewis H. Morgan) admits, “may be trusted in whatever relates to the acts of the Spaniards and to the acts and the personal characteristics of the Indians; in whatever relates to their weapons, implements, and utensils, fabrics, food, and raiment, and things of a similar character.” Because he followed those contemporary writers so carefully, because with his vivid historical imagination he was able to transport himself into the remote past, to live with the conquering Spaniards the life of toil and privation that was sometimes almost beyond their iron endurance, to share with them their ever-present danger, to rejoice with them in their final victories, because so living, sharing, and rejoicing he was able to translate their dull stories into pages that sparkle with the fulness of life, men will still turn to those pages for the most graphic account of the exploits of Cortés and his associates,—for generations yet to come his work will continue to be read as one of the greatest masterpieces of descriptive literature. W. H. M. PREFACE S the Conquest of Mexico has occupied the pens of Solís and of Robertson, two of the ablest historians of their respective nations, it might seem that little could remain at the present day to be gleaned by the historical inquirer. But Robertson’s narrative is necessarily brief,
- 47. forming only part of a more extended work; and neither the British nor the Castilian author was provided with the important materials for relating this event which have been since assembled by the industry of Spanish scholars. The scholar who led the way in these researches was Don Juan Baptista Muñoz, the celebrated historiographer of the Indies, who, by a royal edict, was allowed free access to the national archives, and to all libraries, public, private, and monastic, in the kingdom and its colonies. The result of his long labors was a vast body of materials, of which unhappily he did not live to reap the benefit himself. His manuscripts were deposited, after his death, in the archives of the Royal Academy of History at Madrid; and that collection was subsequently augmented by the manuscripts of Don Vargas Ponçe, President of the Academy, obtained, like those of Muñoz, from different quarters, but especially from the archives of the Indies at Seville. On my application to the Academy, in 1838, for permission to copy that part of this inestimable collection relating to Mexico and Peru, it was freely acceded to, and an eminent German scholar, one of their own number, was appointed to superintend the collation and transcription of the manuscripts; and this, it may be added, before I had any claim on the courtesy of that respectable body, as one of its associates. This conduct shows the advance of a liberal spirit in the Peninsula since the time of Dr. Robertson, who complains that he was denied admission to the most important public repositories. The favor with which my own application was regarded, however, must chiefly be attributed to the kind offices of the venerable President of the Academy, Don Martin Fernandez de Navarrete; a scholar whose personal character has secured to him the same high consideration at home which his literary labors have obtained abroad. To this eminent person I am under still further obligations, for the free use which he has allowed me to make of his own manuscripts,—the fruits of a life of accumulation, and the basis of those valuable publications with which he has at different times illustrated the Spanish colonial history. From these three magnificent collections, the result of half a century’s careful researches, I have obtained a mass of unpublished documents, relating to the Conquest and Settlement of Mexico and of Peru, comprising altogether about eight thousand folio pages. They consist of instructions of the Court, military and private journals, correspondence of the great actors in the scenes, legal instruments, contemporary chronicles, and the like,
- 48. drawn from all the principal places in the extensive colonial empire of Spain, as well as from the public archives in the Peninsula. I have still further fortified the collection by gleaning such materials from Mexico itself as had been overlooked by my illustrious predecessors in these researches. For these I am indebted to the courtesy of Count Cortina, and, yet more, to that of Don Lúcas Alaman, Minister of Foreign Affairs in Mexico; but, above all, to my excellent friend, Don Angel Calderon de la Barca, late Minister Plenipotentiary to that country from the court of Madrid,—a gentleman whose high and estimable qualities, even more than his station, secured him the public confidence, and gained him free access to every place of interest and importance in Mexico. I have also to acknowledge the very kind offices rendered to me by the Count Camaldoli at Naples; by the Duke of Serradifalco in Sicily, a nobleman whose science gives additional lustre to his rank; and by the Duke of Monteleone, the present representative of Cortés, who has courteously opened the archives of his family to my inspection. To these names must also be added that of Sir Thomas Phillips, Bart., whose precious collection of manuscripts probably surpasses in extent that of any private gentleman in Great Britain, if not in Europe; that of M. Ternaux- Compans, the proprietor of the valuable literary collection of Don Antonio Uguina, including the papers of Muñoz, the fruits of which he is giving to the world in his excellent translations; and, lastly, that of my friend and countryman, Arthur Middleton, Esq., late Chargé-d’Affaires from the United States at the court of Madrid, for the efficient aid he has afforded me in prosecuting my inquiries in that capital. In addition to this stock of original documents obtained through these various sources, I have diligently provided myself with such printed works as have reference to the subject, including the magnificent publications, which have appeared both in France and England, on the Antiquities of Mexico, which, from their cost and colossal dimensions, would seem better suited to a public than to a private library. Having thus stated the nature of my materials, and the sources whence they are derived, it remains for me to add a few observations on the general plan and composition of the work. Among the remarkable achievements of the Spaniards in the sixteenth century, there is no one more striking to the imagination than the conquest of Mexico. The subversion of a great empire
- 49. by a handful of adventurers, taken with all its strange and picturesque accompaniments, has the air of romance rather than of sober history; and it is not easy to treat such a theme according to the severe rules prescribed by historical criticism. But, notwithstanding the seductions of the subject, I have conscientiously endeavored to distinguish fact from fiction, and to establish the narrative on as broad a basis as possible of contemporary evidence; and I have taken occasion to corroborate the text by ample citations from authorities, usually in the original, since few of them can be very accessible to the reader. In these extracts I have scrupulously conformed to the ancient orthography, however obsolete and even barbarous, rather than impair in any degree the integrity of the original document. Although the subject of the work is, properly, only the Conquest of Mexico, I have prepared the way for it by such a view of the civilization of the ancient Mexicans as might acquaint the reader with the character of this extraordinary race, and enable him to understand the difficulties which the Spaniards had to encounter in their subjugation. This Introductory part of the work, with the essay in the Appendix which properly belongs to the Introduction,[3] although both together making only half a volume, has cost me as much labor, and nearly as much time, as the remainder of the history. If I shall have succeeded in giving the reader a just idea of the true nature and extent of the civilization to which the Mexicans had attained, it will not be labor lost. The story of the Conquest terminates with the fall of the capital. Yet I have preferred to continue the narrative to the death of Cortés, relying on the interest which the development of his character in his military career may have excited in the reader. I am not insensible to the hazard I incur by such a course. The mind, previously occupied with one great idea, that of the subversion of the capital, may feel the prolongation of the story beyond that point superfluous, if not tedious, and may find it difficult, after the excitement caused by witnessing a great national catastrophe, to take an interest in the adventures of a private individual. Solís took the more politic course of concluding his narrative with the fall of Mexico, and thus leaves his readers with the full impression of that memorable event, undisturbed, on their minds. To prolong the narrative is to expose the historian to the error so much censured by the French critics in some of their most celebrated dramas, where the author by a premature dénouement has
- 50. impaired the interest of his piece. It is the defect that necessarily attaches, though in a greater degree, to the history of Columbus, in which petty adventures among a group of islands make up the sequel of a life that opened with the magnificent discovery of a World,—a defect, in short, which it has required all the genius of Irving and the magical charm of his style perfectly to overcome. Notwithstanding these objections, I have been induced to continue the narrative, partly from deference to the opinion of several Spanish scholars, who considered that the biography of Cortés had not been fully exhibited, and partly from the circumstance of my having such a body of original materials for this biography at my command. And I cannot regret that I have adopted this course; since, whatever lustre the Conquest may reflect on Cortés as a military achievement, it gives but an imperfect idea of his enlightened spirit and of his comprehensive and versatile genius. To the eye of the critic there may seem some incongruity in a plan which combines objects so dissimilar as those embraced by the present history, where the Introduction, occupied by the antiquities and origin of a nation, has somewhat the character of a philosophic theme, while the conclusion is strictly biographical, and the two may be supposed to match indifferently with the main body, or historical portion of the work. But I may hope that such objections will be found to have less weight in practice than in theory; and, if properly managed, that the general views of the Introduction will prepare the reader for the particulars of the Conquest, and that the great public events narrated in this will, without violence, open the way to the remaining personal history of the hero who is the soul of it. Whatever incongruity may exist in other respects, I may hope that the unity of interest, the only unity held of much importance by modern critics, will be found still to be preserved. The distance of the present age from the period of the narrative might be presumed to secure the historian from undue prejudice or partiality. Yet by the American and the English reader, acknowledging so different a moral standard from that of the sixteenth century, I may possibly be thought too indulgent to the errors of the Conquerors; while by a Spaniard, accustomed to the undiluted panegyric of Solís, I may be deemed to have dealt too hardly with them. To such I can only say that, while, on the one hand, I have not hesitated to expose in their strongest colors the excesses of the Conquerors, on the other, I have given them the benefit of such mitigating
- 51. reflections as might be suggested by the circumstances and the period in which they lived. I have endeavored not only to present a picture true in itself, but to place it in its proper light, and to put the spectator in a proper point of view for seeing it to the best advantage. I have endeavored, at the expense of some repetition, to surround him with the spirit of the times, and, in a word, to make him, if I may so express myself, a contemporary of the sixteenth century. Whether, and how far, I have succeeded in this, he must determine. For one thing, before I conclude, I may reasonably ask the reader’s indulgence. Owing to the state of my eyes, I have been obliged to use a writing-case made for the blind, which does not permit the writer to see his own manuscript. Nor have I ever corrected, or even read, my own original draft. As the chirography, under these disadvantages, has been too often careless and obscure, occasional errors, even with the utmost care of my secretary, must have necessarily occurred in the transcription, somewhat increased by the barbarous phraseology imported from my Mexican authorities. I cannot expect that these errors have always been detected even by the vigilant eye of the perspicacious critic to whom the proof-sheets have been subjected. In the Preface to the “History of Ferdinand and Isabella,” I lamented that, while occupied with that subject, two of its most attractive parts had engaged the attention of the most popular of American authors, Washington Irving. By a singular chance, something like the reverse of this has taken place in the composition of the present history, and I have found myself unconsciously taking up ground which he was preparing to occupy. It was not till I had become master of my rich collection of materials that I was acquainted with this circumstance; and, had he persevered in his design, I should unhesitatingly have abandoned my own, if not from courtesy, at least from policy; for, though armed with the weapons of Achilles, this could give me no hope of success in a competition with Achilles himself. But no sooner was that distinguished writer informed of the preparations I had made, than, with the gentlemanly spirit which will surprise no one who has the pleasure of his acquaintance, he instantly announced to me his intention of leaving the subject open to me. While I do but justice to Mr. Irving by this statement, I feel the prejudice it does to myself in the unavailing regret I am exciting in the bosom of the reader.
- 52. I must not conclude this Preface, too long protracted as it is already, without a word of acknowledgment to my friend George Ticknor, Esq., the friend of many years,—for his patient revision of my manuscript; a labor of love, the worth of which those only can estimate who are acquainted with his extraordinary erudition and his nice critical taste. If I have reserved his name for the last in the list of those to whose good offices I am indebted, it is most assuredly not because I value his services least. William H. Prescott. Boston, October 1, 1843. Note.—The author’s emendations of this history include many additional notes, which, being often contradictory to the text, have been printed between brackets. They were chiefly derived from the copious annotations of Don José F. Ramirez and Don Lúcas Alaman to the two Spanish translations published in Mexico. There could be no stronger guarantee of the value and general accuracy of the work than the minute labor bestowed upon it by these distinguished scholars.—K.
- 53. GENERAL CONTENTS BOOK I INTRODUCTION—VIEW OF THE AZTEC CIVILIZATION BOOK II DISCOVERY OF MEXICO BOOK III MARCH TO MEXICO BOOK IV RESIDENCE IN MEXICO BOOK V EXPULSION FROM MEXICO BOOK VI SIEGE AND SURRENDER OF MEXICO BOOK VII
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