Bernal Díaz del Castillo (1492? - 1584)

Bernal Díaz del Castillo (1492 to 1496, birth date is uncertain – 1584) was a Spanish conquistador, who did not hold a leadership position in the conquest of Mexico, but participated as a soldier of fortune with Hernán Cortés. As an experienced soldier of fortune, he had already participated in expeditions to Tierra Firme, Cuba, and to Yucatán before joining Cortés. In his later years he was an encomendero and governor in Guatemala where he wrote his memoirs called "The True History of the Conquest of New Spain". He began his account of the conquest almost thirty years after the events and later revised and expanded it in response to the biography published by Cortes's chaplain Francisco López de Gómara, which he considered to be largely inaccurate in that it did not give due recognition to the efforts and sacrifices of others in the Spanish expedition.