When I had finished the fair copy of this my story, two Licentiates begged me to lend it to them for two days so as to know more clearly what we went through during the conquest of Mexico and New Spain, and to see in what way it differed from what the Chroniclers Gomara and Doctor Yllescas had written about the heroic deeds and exploits we accomplished in company with the valiant Marquis Cortes. So I lent them a rough draft, for it seems to me that wise men always [try to] impress a bit of their wisdom on unlearned fools such as I am, and I told them not to alter a single thing, for all that I write is quite true. When they had seen and read it, one of them who was very eloquent and had a very good opinion of himself, after extolling and praising the good memory I must have not to forget any item of all we went through from the time we came to New Spain in the year seventeen [1517] up to that of sixty-eight [1568], said that, as to the style, it followed the customary speech of Old Castile, and that in these times it is accounted the more agreeable because there are no elaborate arguments nor gilded elegance such as some writers are wont [to display], but all is in plain simple language, and that all really good narration is comprised in this true statement.