When Montezuma Met Cortes

by Matthew Restall

  14.Hatuey: LCHI Bk. 3, Ch. 25; numerous other sources. “Obesity”: Indeed, it reflects the sniping that characterized the feud between Cortés and Velázquez (and between their allies) for decades after 1519 and even after the two men’s deaths. Quote in Anonymous 1858 [1550s] in CDHM, I: 320 (por su obesidad). Also see Thomas (1993: 75–80).

  15.Bad leg: Cervantes de Salazar (1914 [1560s]: 98 [Bk. 2, Ch. XVI]); Thomas (1993: 132); Duverger (2005: 98). Explorations: Rather than preface his Conquest of Mexico with coverage of conquest campaigns in which Cortés was conspicuously absent, Gómara described them in a separate book, La Istoria de las Yndias (1552b: ff. 18–26) (although some editions bound and sold the two works together). For eighteenth-century accounts of Spanish activities of 1504–18, when Cortés was in the Caribbean but largely absent from the story, see Prévost (1746–59, XII [1754]: 132–251) and Robertson (1777, I: 177–245), both based largely on Gómara and Herrera (the latter’s coverage is in Dec. I, Libro VI through Dec. II, Libro III, e.g., Herrera 1728: 129–217). Some primary sources from the AGI are in CDII, I: 1–365, including the repartimiento, or allocation of groups of indigenous villagers to Spanish settlers, of the island of Hispaniola. Also see Fernández de Oviedo (1959 [1535], I: Bks. I–V; II: Bks. XVI–XVIII). For modern scholarly coverage, see Mira Caballos (1997); Livi Bacci (2008); and Stone (2014: 128–207; 2017). American Traveller: Anonymous (1741); this second or interior title page (p. 97), an engraving of a young, bearded Cortés, armored but sporting a soft hat and a baton of office, was used as a frontispiece to The American Traveller, published in London from 1741 through to the next century.

  16.“Nicaragua”: Berry and Best (1968: 123). Collis: Collis (1954: 23–24).

  17.Ochoa: DCM: #720; WWC: 99–100; Schwaller and Nader (2014: 236–37); Alvarado brothers: Numerous biographical details in works cited in this note, but the best starting point is DCM: #s40–44; Bermúdez: DCM: #130; WWC: 169; Schwaller and Nader (2014: 193); Sopuerta: DCM: #969; WWC: 237; Schwaller and Nader (2014: 196).

  18.Mira Caballos (1997: 391–99); Livi Bacci (2008); Stone (2014; “harvest” of “Indians” plays off the title of this dissertation; 2017); Reséndez (2016: 34–45, 325). Source documentation includes AGI Contaduría 1017, which details the taking of enslaved Taínos from Hispaniola to Puerto Rico (my thanks to Scott Cave for the citation and summary); also see numerous mentions in ENE, I.

  19.Gómara (1552: f. 3v; 1964: 13) (Diego Velazquez temio por ver le armado, y a tal ora. Rogo que le cenasse, y descãsasse sin recelo; su amigo y seruidor; Tocaronse las manos por amigos, y despues de muchas platicas se acostaron juntos en una cama. Donde los hallo la mañana Diego de Orellana, que fue al ver el gouernador y al dezir le como se auia ido Cortes).

  20.Gómara (1552: f. 3v; 1964: 14) (Por semejantes peligros y rodeos corren su camino los muy escelentes varones hasta llegandoles esta guardada su buena dicha); Madariaga (1942: 66).

  21.See “Cortés Outwits” and “Cortés Renounces” in the Gallery. Variations on “Cortés Outwits” were repeated in many versions of the Cortés story (e.g., Abbott 1904 [1856]: 47). This figure is from Dalton (1862: 61).

  22.Gómara (1552: ff. 5r, 3r, 56r, 57r; 1964: 19, 12, 192, 196) (el era demasiado mugeril; muy enojado de fernando Cortes; etaua mal anojado e indignado). Díaz (1632; etc.) mentions Velázquez frequently, in antipathetic and critical ways, throughout his account; indeed he is consistently hostile to the Velázquez faction (as Duverger points out, arguing that Cortés was the ghost author of Díaz’s book; 2013: esp. cf. 191).

  23.First and second block quote: LCHI Bk. 3, Ch. 27 (1561: f. 624r-v; 1951 [1561], II: 528–29). Third block quote: LCHI Bk. 3, Ch. 21 (1951 [1561], II: 506) (era muy gentil hombre de cuerpo y de rostro, y asi amable por ello; algo iba engordando, pero todavía perdía poco de su gentileza; era prudente, aunque tenido por grueso de entendimiento; pero engañólos con él); Bk. 3, Ch. 27 (1561: f. 624v; 1951 [1561], II: 529).

  24.Martínez in DC, I: 45n1; Thomas (1993: 75–78); Mira Caballos (1997); Stone (2014: 91–98, 135–44). Anacaona was hanged, following the massacre of her family and entourage, by an expedition led by Ovando but with Velázquez playing a leading role. Columbus’s son Diego Colón was technically still governor of Cuba, and Velázquez his lieutenant governor, but Colón had returned to Spain in 1515 and exercised no power. The Velázquez-Fonseca marriage connection is stated by Gómara (1964 [1552]: 327); Elliott (1971: xiv) accepts it, but Thomas calls it a “tropical tease” (wishful thinking by Velázquez), while detailing the personal and patronage connection between the two men (1993: 78, 84, 115, 136, 337).

  25.Enslavers: a paraphrase from Reséndez (2016: 42). Wounds: Gómara (1552: 3v; 1964: 14) (iendo por indios; discubrio a Yucatan; aun que no truxo sino heridas del descubrimiento, traxo relacion como aquella tierra era rica de oro, y plata, y la gente vestida). This summary was repeated with minor variations over the centuries (e.g., Solís 1684: 13 [Bk. I, Ch. V]). The name Yucatan derives from Mayas responding to Spaniards on Cozumel with phrases like ma natic a than, “we don’t understand your language,” or “we don’t understand what you are saying”; or, as the Franciscan friar Diego de Landa claimed, ci u than, “funny talk” or “comical language” (see Restall et al., n.d., or any of the various editions of Landa’s Relación de las cosas de Yucatán).

  26.Juan Díaz’s account, first published in 1520, is in CDHM, I: 282–308 (in Spanish and in Italian, the latter version being the oldest surviving one), in Díaz et al. (1988: 37–57) (in Spanish), and in Fuentes (1963: 5–16) (in a loose English translation). Italian and Latin editions from 1520 are in JCB. Also see Martyr d’Anghiera (1521).

  27.Dismissive: CDII, XXVII: 307 (also quoted by Thomas 1993: 114). “Wept”: Gómara (1552: f. 4r; 1964: 15) (llorava por que no querian tornar con el). “Bobo”: Juan de Salcedo was sent to Santo Domingo, Gonzalo de Guzmán and fray Benito Martín to Spain (Thomas 1993: 97, citing Díaz; see XVII). Adelantado: See introduction to the term in Chapter 2.

  28.Islands: Vásquez de Tapia, writing years later, claimed that they “received news of the great city of Mexico [tuvimos noticia de la gran ciudad de México]” (in Díaz et al., 1988: 133) but he surely used hindsight to impose such details onto the general impression given to the Spaniards in 1518; more reliable is Juan Díaz, whose account refers not to a mainland but to a series of islands, the largest being Yucatan and Ulúa. The tiny island of Ulúa (as it is still called) faces today’s Veracruz (the original Vera Cruz of 1519 was moved in 1521 to the site now called La Antigua de la Vera Cruz, and then in 1599 moved to its present location; see Myers 2015: 39–76 for an engaging approach to the “Three Veracruces”). Fray Juan: Díaz in CDHM, I: 306–7 (habitan en casas de piedra, y tienen su leyes y ordenanzas, y lugares públicos diputados a la administración de justicia); Díaz? [anon.] 1972 [1519]; Martyr d’Anghiera (1521: 32). Handcrafted: Gómara (1552: f.4; 1964: 15–17). Nothing to do with it: The argument that Velázquez made the Conquest of Mexico possible, but Cortés took all the credit, is of course made repeatedly in numerous Velázquez petitions and lawsuits. Fernández de Oviedo also made the point (see chapter epigraphs). Thomas (1993: 97–115) summarizes the Grijalva expedition, with clear citations to primary accounts by Bernal Díaz (see VIII), Juan Díaz, Vásquez de Tapia, etc.; also see Solís (1684: 14–26 [Bk. I, Chs. V–VIII]). For a brief imaginative summary of the Hernández and Grijalva expeditions, with fantastical illustrations of Maya sacrifices, see Ogilby (1670: 76–79).

  29.“Greedy”: Gómara (1552: f. 5r; 1964: 19) (Tenia poco estomago para gastar, siendo codicioso). Baltasar and two other Bermúdez men, Agustín and Diego, joined the company; Diego died in the war, but the other two returned to Cuba in 1520 (DCM: #s129–130; Thomas 1993: 450; WWC: 169; Schwaller and Nader 2014: 193). “Devotion”: Anonymous (1741: 391). “Heart”: Solís (1684: 27 [Bk. I, Ch. IX]) (un hombre de mucho corazon, y de poco espiritu).

  30.See the prosopography and indices in DCM; WWC; Schwaller and Nader (2014: 160–24
0).

  31.“Jealousy”: Robertson (1777, II: 6–8). “Personality”: Palomera (1988: 28), whose discussion is based entirely on Díaz (1632; etc.) (Palomera’s original: la personalidad superior de Cortés).

  32.Ogilby (1670: 90). For modern summaries of the Garay affair, see Thomas (1993: 583–85); Duverger (2005: 263–65). On the Narváez expedition: AGI Patronato 180, ramo 2.

  33.1520 testimony in DC, I: 170–209. The four officials were Alonso de Estrada, Gonzalo de Salazar, Rodrigo de Albornoz, and Pedro Almindez Chirinos.

  34.“Evils”: CCR (Letter of October 15, 1524; 1960: 202; 1971: 332) (pienso enviar por el dicho Diego Velázquez y prenderle, y preso, enviarle a vuestra majestad; porque cortando la raíz de todos males, que es este hombre, todas las otras ramas se secarán). “Grave”: Elliott (1971) in Cortés (1971: xxxvi). My summary of the Cortés-Velázquez feud owes much to Elliott (1971). Also see Duverger (2005: 227–29, 269–70); and, on Ponce de León and Cortés, AGI Patronato 16, no. 1, ramo 4 (first item, 1526).

  35.Cortés’ parents: Martínez Martínez (2006). Bulk of archival feud-related material in AGI Justicia 49 (Velázquez residencia) and 220–225 (RC, or Cortés residencia); México 203 (conquistador probanzas etc.); AGN Hospital de Jesús; DC, I: 91–101, 129–209; and II.

  36.“Brothers”: The Andean mestizo Guaman Poma writing in 1615 of Andean perceptions of conquistadors (quoted in Lamana 2008: 34); I do not mean to suggest that Mesoamerican and Andean perceptions were the same, but that Spaniards in the Americas were.

  37.The paragraphs preceding and following on conquistador cohorts are drawn from details in numerous sources, including CCR; Díaz (1632); DCM; and Thomas (1993; WWC), but especially Schwaller and Nader (2014: 119–44 in particular).

  38.DCM: #975; Díaz CXCV (1632: f. 224v; 1916, V: 142; 2005, I: 723–24); Thomas (1993: 626–27, on the Puertocarrero-Cortés kin link); Gardiner (1961); Scholes (1969). Despite the robbery, and the Crown taking its share, Sandoval’s parents received more than eight thousand pesos in gold (sufficient to support them through old age in considerable comfort)—the spoils of Sandoval’s encomienda income and placer mining, all acquired through unpaid indigenous labor (AGI Patronato 65, no. 1, ramo 19: ff. 1–23, is a 1562 probanza on Sandoval by one of his nephews; AGI Justicia 1005, no. 2, ramo 2 is a 1532 lawsuit, one of numerous documents dealing with the property of Cortés’s murdered cousin, Rodrigo de Paz, this one involving the Sandoval family; also see Justicia 1017, various but esp. no. 5 [1530]; Scholes 1969: 198).

  39.Andrés de Tapia, along with his relative Bernardino Vásquez de Tapia and Alonso de Ávila, was one of the conquistadors who joined Cortés in funding the Franciscan convent founded on the main site of Montezuma’s zoo in 1524 (NCDHM, I: 187–93).

  40.Hometown and kinship identities tied the Velázquez cohort together, as they did other cohorts: other conquistadors who did not fight in the Spanish-Aztec War but played roles in the larger story, and who were also from Cuéllar, were Juan de Grijalva, members of the Bermúdez clan (some fought in Mexico, some didn’t), and Juan de Cuéllar; the red-bearded Velazquista Pánfilo de Narváez was from the nearby village of Navalmanzano (Thomas 1993: 151). On Ordaz: AGI Patronato 150, 5, 1; Justicia 712 (old citation; Otte 1964).

  41.Elliott (1971) in Cortés (1971: xxxvii).

  42.DC, IV: 267–70 (Pensé que el haber trabajado en la juventud, me aprovechara para que en la vejez tuviera descanso, y así ha cuarenta años que me ocupado en no dormir, mal comer y a las veces ni bien ni mal, traer las armas a cuestas, poner la persona en peligros, gastar mi hacienda y edad, todo en servicio de Dios, trayendo ovejas a su corral muy remotas de nuestro hemisferio . . . sin ser ayudado de cosa alguna, antes muy estorbado por nuestros muchos émulos e envidiosos que como sanguijuelas han reventado de hartos de mi sangre . . . por defenderme del fiscal de Vuestra Majestad, que ha sido y es más dificultoso que ganar la tierra de los enemigos . . . no se me siguió reposo a la vejez, mas trabajo hasta la muerte . . . no es a culpa de V. M. . . . magnánimo y poderoso rey); the “prime minister” (he held various titles, which I have simplified with this Anglicism) was Francisco de los Cobos (he wrote No hay que responder).

  43.Prescott’s translation (1994 [1843]: 640–41) of excerpts from the 1544 letter gives Cortés more eloquence than he had (as is true of most translations of Cortés). Others have echoed Prescott’s literal reading of the 1544 petition; e.g., Madariaga (1942: 391, 393, 473–82), who titles the final part of his biography “Self-Conquest,” beginning with a chapter on “The Conqueror Conquered by his Conquest,” and concludes “Poor Cortés!”

  44.“Model”: Clendinnen (1991b: 62); in which essay she both accepts and problematizes Cortés’s “passion and talent for control of self and others” (60). “Oeuvre”: Cortés in previously quoted petition (DC, IV: 268) (esta obra que Dios hizo por mi medio es tan grande y maravillosa). “Exercise”: I am quoting and paraphrasing (somewhat unfairly, for rhetorical purposes) Elliott (1971) in Cortés (1971: xii).

  45.Hotel: Myers (2015: 67).

  46.Probably known: Juan Ponce de León had accidentally stopped on the coast of Mexico or Yucatan en route from Florida back to Cuba in 1513; in 1515, a Spanish judge in Panama claimed to have a conversation, through interpreters, with a literate Mesoamerican trader or refugee (Thomas 1993: 57), so it is likely that news and knowledge were also passing in the direction, toward Tenochtitlan, in the 1510s. As early as the Hernández de Córdoba expedition of 1517, Mayas south of Campeche were already so familiar with the newcomers (who called themselves Castilians) that they called out “Castilan!” to them as they approached (according to Díaz III; 1908, I: 19).

  47.“In-waiting”: Gruzinski (2014: 76).

  48.The June 20 petition was found and published by Schwaller and Nader (2014), from which the discussion here is heavily drawn; the block quote is my translation from the facsimile and transcription (70–71), but indebted to their translation (103). The other two documents, written first week and 10th of July, 1519, respectively, are accessible in DC, I: 77–85 and in Cortés (1971: 3–46).

  49.AGI Indiferente General 145, I, legajo 15: f. 1r; DC, I: 102 (cuatrocientos hombres . . . poblaron allí . . . una villa . . . y así poblada, la dicha gente eligieron e nombraron entre sí alcaldes e regidores e otros oficiales del Consejo y nombraron al dicho Hernando Cortés por gobernador e justicia mayor de la dicha tierra).

  50.Díaz XLII (1908, I: 156) (“Tu me lo ruegas y yo me lo quiero” glossed by Maudslay as “You are very pressing, and I want to do it” and as “You ask me to do what I have already made up my mind to do” by Prescott 1994 [1843]: 165).

  51.LCHI Bk. 3, Ch. 115 (1876 [1561]: 453–54; 1971 [1561]: 229–30, quote); Bk. 3, Ch. 123 (1971: 243–45, on Vera Cruz).

  52.Ogilby (1670: 258–59).

  53.CCR (1522; 1960: 32–33; 1971: 51–52) (tuve manera como, so color que los dichos navíos no estaban para navegar, los eché a la costa por donde todos perdieron la esperanza de salir de la tierra; se me alzarían con ellos; ver los pocos españoles que éramos; por ser criados y amigos de Diego Velázquez) (modern English lacks a good cognate for criado, which I have translated here as “dependent,” and which is often translated as “servant”; its early modern English equivalent was “creature”). Also see “Cortés Orders” in the Gallery.

  54.“Remarkable”: Prescott (1994 [1843]: 186). “Unwilling”: Gómara (1552: Ch. 42; 1964: 90). “Heroic”: Díaz LIX (1908, I: 210); Sings: Sessions (1965: 14–16, 4). “Hero”: Filgueira Valverde (1960: 93–94) (Las palabras del capitán encendieron fulgores de triunfo y de codicia sobre las pavesas de los rotos maderos. Hízose esperanza de la desesperación. Y todos se sintieron barro de historia, moldeado por las manos fortísimas de un Héroe). “Episode”: Gardiner (1956: 28), who also noted the increasing exaggeration of Cortés’s actions over time, citing a number of earlier chronicles and studies.

  55.Many before me: Gardiner (1956: 29) traced this invention back to Suárez de Peralta (1949 [1589]); Elli
ott (1989 [1967]: 41) noted that a Spanish historian (F. Soler Jardón) was probably right that Cervantes de Salazar invented it in 1546 in order to underscore the classical analogy, later (1914 [1560s]: 180–82 [Bk. 3, Ch. XXII]) reverting to the ship-beaching version; Thomas (1993: 223) suggests Cervantes de Salazar may have misread quebrar (“break”) for quemar (“burn”) in conquistador testimony. Also see discussion and further references in Restall (2003: 19, 166n63–65). Julian: Julian burned more than a thousand river craft in a.d. 363 prior to launching a campaign to the east; the parallel with Cortés was imagined by Prescott (1994 [1843]: 186) and repeated many times since. Centuries of chroniclers: Gardiner (1956: 30n38) cites the run of sources from Las Casas, Motolinía, and Herrera, through Solís and Clavigero, to Bancroft and Alamán; but for some of the earlier versions stemming from Gómara, see Gómara (1964: 89–91, who virtually admits he wrote the episode to echo the “exploits” of “great men, like Omich Barbarossa”); Aguilar (Fuentes 1963: 138–39); Tapia (1963: 25–26); Cervantes de Salazar (ibid., who helped turn Gómara’s fiction into fact by insisting that Cortés’s feat was superior to Barbarossa’s); and Díaz LVII–LX (1908, I: 206–15).

  56.Escalante: Gómara (1964: 91) and Díaz LVII–LVIII (1908, I: 208–9). La Coruña: April 29, 1520 (AGI Patronato 254, no. 3, 1, ramo 1; MacNutt 1909: 112–13). “Unseaworthy”: Tapia (1963: 26). “Knowledge”: Díaz LIX (1908, I: 210).

  57.Bourn (2005).

  58.Machiavellian: Mizrahi (1993: 107); Carman (2006: 49–50); both of whom cite other scholars of literature who have made Cortés Machiavellian. “Implausible”: Clendinnen (1991b: 54) on the Meeting.

  CHAPTER 6: PRINCIPAL PLUNDERERS

  1.The sources to these three epigraphs: Thevet (1676: 77); Las Casas, LCDT: 307 (León-Portilla 2005 [1985]: 18 led me to this passage) (Tan pronto pudo entender el rey Moctezuma nuestro idioma como para comprender las estipulaciones de ese citado primer salteador, en las que se les pedia la renuncia al reino o la cesión de todo su estado real? No es verdad que sólo son válidos aquellos contratos en que las partes contratantes de entienden mutuamente?); Krauze (2010: 69) (una misteriosa convergencia los unió desde el primer momento: querían pensarse, descifrarse mutuamente).