Bernal Díaz del Castillo was a soldier who marched with Hernán Cortés during the conquest of Mexico, and his True History of the Conquest of New Spain — presented here in English as his memoirs — is one of the most vivid eyewitness accounts of any event in the Age of Exploration. Written in old age from memory and personal notes, it describes battles, diplomacy, and the fall of the Aztec empire with the immediacy of a man who lived it.
As both memoir and history, this text offers an irreplaceable view of the conquest from a common soldier’s perspective. Volume 1 of 2, this public-domain edition is available as a free EPUB download.