<i>The Conquest of New Spain</i> is the first-person narrative of Bernal D&iacute;az del Castillo (1492&ndash;1581), the 16th-century military adventurer, conquistador, and colonist settler, who served in three Mexican expeditions -- those of Francisco Hern&aacute;ndez de C&oacute;rdoba (1517) to the Yucat&aacute;n peninsula; the expedition of Juan de Grijalva (1518), and the expedition of Hern&aacute;n Cort&eacute;s (1517) in the Valley of Mexico. Del Castillo relates his participation in the fall of Emperor Moctezuma (Montezuma) II and the subsequent defeat of the Aztec empire. This is Volume I.