Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs

by Buddy Levy

  Chapter 2

  1. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 67.

  2. This episode is recounted in numerous places, including a detailed account in John Grier Varner and Jeannette Johnson Varner, Dogs of the Conquest (Norman, Okla., 1983), 61–63.

  3. Cortés, Letters, 19–20; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 68–69, 68n; Gómara, Cortés, 40; Innes, Conquistadors, 50–51, map on 40–41.

  4. Cortés, Letters, 19–20; the history of the requerimiento is fully explained in 453–454n. See also Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 69–70; Tapia, in Fuentes, Conquistadors, 22–23; Gómara, Cortés, 38–39; Prescott, History, 201–2.

  5. Quoted in Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 71. Prescott’s translation is “Strike at the chief!” Prescott, History, 202. See also Cortés, Letters, 21–22; Gómara, Cortés, 38–42.

  6. Prescott, History, 203; Gómara, Cortés, 42; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 71.

  7. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 71; Prescott, History, 203; Cortés, Letters, 19–20.

  8. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 70–71, 71n; Thomas, Conquest, 167; Prescott, History, 203–4; Marks, Cortés, 48–49.

  9. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 72; Prescott, History, 204; Salvadore de Madariaga, Hernán Cortés: Conqueror of Mexico (Coral Gables, Fla., 1942), 114–15; John Eoghan Kelly, Pedro de Alvarado: Conquistador (Princeton, N.J., 1932), 11, 22.

  10. Quoted in Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 72; Cortés, Letters, 20–21; Gómara, Cortés, 45–46.

  11. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 73–74; Prescott, History, 204–5; Gómara, Cortés, 45–47. Díaz claims there were 24,000 Tabascans, while Gómara says 40,000.

  12. See R. B. Cunninghame Graham, Horses of the Conquest (Long Riders’ Guild Press, 2004), 15–20. Also see Robert M. Denhardt, The Horse of the Americas (Norman, Okla., 1947), 5–11, 53–65. Also J. Frank Dobie, The Mustangs (Edison, N.J., 1934), 3–9, 21–24. For further reading on the history of the horse and its reintroduction to North America, see Sylvia Loch, The Royal Horse of Europe (London, 1986); and Paulo Gonzaga, The History of the Horse, vols. 1 and 2 (London, 2004).

  13. For a discussion of Mexican armor and weaponry, see Pohl and Robinson, Aztecs and Conquistadors, 56–91. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 75. Also of interest is Ross Hassig, War and Society in Ancient Mesoamerica (Berkeley, Calif., 1992), 135–64.

  14. The Battle of Cintla, which took place on March 25, 1519, and its aftermath are recounted in Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 74–84; Gómara, Cortés, 45–47; Prescott, History, 206–8; Cortés, Letters, 20–22; Innes, Conquistadors, 51–55; Koch, Aztecs, 126–28; John Manchip White, Cortés and the Downfall of the Aztec Empire (Worcester and London, 1970), 167–69; and Thomas, Conquest, 169–70.

  15. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 76.

  16. The ploy with the mare and stallion is recorded variously, including in Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 79–80; Innes, Conquistadors, 55; Madariaga, Cortés, 115–16.

  17. Prescott, History, 209; Innes, Conquistadors, 55; Díaz, New Spain, 82.

  18. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 81–82; Gómara, Cortés, 56–58; Tapia, in Fuentes, Conquistadors, 24; Innes, Conquistadors, 55–56; Prescott, History, 213–15. Also see Matthew Restall, Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest (Oxford, U.K., 2003), 77–99. For a fascinating study of the life and mythology surrounding the historical figure of Malinche, see Anna Lanyon, Malinche’s Conquest (New South Wales, 1999). Also very interesting is Frances Karttunen, Between Worlds: Interpreters, Guides, and Survivors (New Brunswick, N.J., 1994), 1–23.Finally, see Francis Karttunen’s “Rethinking Malinche,” in Susan Schroeder, Stephanie Wood, and Robert Haskett, Indian Women of Early Mexico (Norman, Okla., and London, 1997), 290–312.

  Chapter 3

  1. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 88–90; Gómara, Cortés, 54–55; Cortés, Letters, 23–24; Prescott, History, 212–14; Thomas, Conquest, 175–76.

  2. Though it is imprecise (actually pronounced something akin to “Mock-tey-coo-schoma,” and commonly now spelled Motecuhzoma, I have opted for the more commonly used term Montezuma.

  3. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 89; Gómara, Cortés, 55; Cortés, Letters, 23; Koch, Aztecs, 130; Thomas, Conquest, 176.

  4. Gómara, Cortés, 56; Thomas, Conquest, 176–77; Koch, Aztecs, 131.

  5. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 89–90; Gómara, Cortés, 56; Koch, Aztecs, 131; Marks, Cortés, 58.

  6. Quoted in Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 90.

  7. Ibid., 91. These “books” told the story of the people, and were similar to the ones made later, after the conquest, by friars, including Bernardino de Sahagún, which are now referred to as the “codices.” The so-called Florentine Codex (also referred to as the Codice Florentino) was prepared by Dominican friar Bernadino de Sahagún under the title The General History of the Things of New Spain. Written over a time span of nearly forty years (approximately 1540–77), Sahagún’s work was monumental in scope, translated from Nahuatl Indians who were present before, during, and after the conquest. The thirteen-volume work records all aspects of Aztec life and culture in one of the most remarkable and ambitious ethnological studies ever attempted. The English-language gold standard of this text is Bernardino de Sahugún, The General History of the Things of New Spain, 13 vols, trans. Charles E. Dibble and Arthur J. O. Anderson (Salt Lake City, 1950–82).

  8. Sahagún quoted in Varner and Varner, Dogs, 61–63. Also Gómara, Cortés, 57; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 91. The helmet reference is also in Inga Clendinnen, Aztecs (Cambridge, U.K., 1991), 268; and Koch, Aztecs, 131–32.

  9. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 94, 94n; Marks, Cortés, 58–59, 101; Thomas, Conquest, 177–79; Prescott, History, 604n. See also Innes, Conquistadors, 60.

  10. Quoted in Gómara, Cortés, 58; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 91–92; Koch, Aztecs, 131–32; Marks, Cortés, 58–61; Thomas, Conquest, 177–78; Prescott, History, 219–20.

  11. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 85–87; Gómara, Cortés, 56–58; Prescott, History, 214–15; Thomas, Conquest, 171–73. A fascinating and informative account of her life and role in the conquest of Mexico is Lanyon, Malinche’s Conquest. Also of interest is Mary Louise Pratt, “‘Yo Soy La Malinche’: Chicana Writers and the Poetics of Ethnonationalism,” Callaloo 16:4 (1993), 859–73.

  12. Some translations use the phrase “as big as a cartwheel.” Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 93; Innes, Conquistadors, 60.

  13. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 93; Gómara, Cortés, 59. The itemized list of these gifts, in detail, appears in Cortés, Letters, 40–46; Koch, Aztecs, 149–51; Prescott, History, 230.

  14. Quoted in Prescott, History, 232. Also a nearly identical quote in Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 94.

  15. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 94–95; Thomas, Conquest, 199; Prescott, History, 233; Koch, Aztecs, 151.

  16. Miguel León-Portilla, The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico (Boston, 1992), 30.

  17. Ibid., 14–15.

  18. For explanations of the complex calendar systems see Michael E. Smith, The Aztecs (Malden, Mass., 2003), 246–50; and Jacques Soustelle, Daily Life of the Aztecs (London, 1961), 109–11, 246–47. Also see the monumental work by Fray Diego Duran, Book of Gods and Rites of the Ancient Calendar, trans. and ed. Fernando Horcasitas and Doris Heyden (Norman, Okla., 1971).

  19. The myth of Quetzalcoatl, including the argument that the myth was apocryphal, is discussed thoroughly in H. B. Nicholson, Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl: The Once and Future Lord of the Toltecs (Boulder, Colo., 2001). For this reference see especially 32–33. See also Carrasco and Moctezuma, Moctezuma’s Mexico 143–47. Also very informative are David Carrasco, Quetzalcoatl and the Irony of Empire (Chicago, 1982), 30–32, 180–204; John Bierhorst, Cantares Mexicanos (Stanford, Calif., 1985), 479–80; James Lockhart, We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico, vol. I (Berkeley, Calif., 1993), 18–22; Koch, Conquistadors, 103–4; Marks, Cortés, 74. Lyrical and highly readable is Rudolfo A. Anay
a, Lord of the Dawn: The Legend of Quetzalcoatl (Albuquerque, N.M., 1987). Also of interest is Gillespie, Aztec Kings, 123–72, 179–85. Finally, see Souselle, Daily Life.

  20. Quoted in Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 95.

  21. Ibid., 101–3; Gómara, Cortés, 65–69; Thomas, Conquest, 199–202; Prescott, History, 238–41; Koch, 151–52; Marks, Cortés, 65–66; Jorge Gurria Lacroix, Itinerary of Hernán Cortés (Mexico, 1973), 77.

  22. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 103–4; Prescott, History, 241; Marks, Cortés, 65.

  23. Cortés, Letters, 30; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 98; Prescott, History, 237; Koch, Aztecs, 153; Marks, Cortés, 68.

  24. Prescott, History, 243.

  25. Lacroix, Itinerary, 82.

  26. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 104; Prescott, History, 244; Pohl and Robinson, Aztecs, 103; Marks, Cortés, 68.

  27. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 107–8; Prescott, History, 249; Koch, Conquistadors, 154.

  28. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 108–10; Prescott, History, 247–49; Thomas, Conquest, 208–9; Koch, Conquistadors, 154. For further details on taxes paid the Aztecs by tribute states and cities, see Fray Diego Duran, History of the Indies of New Spain (Norman, Okla., 1994), 202–07. Also interesting is Ross Hassig, Trade, Tribute, and Transportation: The Sixteenth Century Political Economy of the Valley of Mexico (Norman, Okla., 1985), 103–10. Finally see Charles Gibson, “Structure of the Aztec Empire,” Handbook of Middle American Indians, vol. 15 (1975), 322–400.

  29. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 110; Thomas, Conquest, 207–10; Koch, Aztecs, 154–55; Marks, Cortés, 73.

  Chapter 4

  1. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 110–11; Tapia, in Fuentes, Conquistadors, 25; Gómara, Cortés, 76; Thomas, Conquest, 209; Lacroix, Itinerary, 85–86.

  2. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 111–13; Gómara, Cortés, 77–79; Ross Hassig, Mexico and the Spanish Conquest (Norman, Okla., 2006), 71–73.

  3. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 112–13; Gómara, Cortés, 77–79; Prescott, History, 250–51; Koch, Aztecs, 156–57.

  4. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 114.

  5. Thomas, Conquest, 205–11; Hassig, Mexico, 73; Prescott, History, 239–40.

  6. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 116.

  7. Ibid., 120–21; Prescott, History, 254–55; Koch, Aztecs, 157–58. There is confusion over the thief’s name—some sources say Mora (Díaz), but more say Morla, which I have chosen.

  8. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 119–21; Gómara, Cortés, 82–83; Koch, Aztecs, 157–59; Pohl and Robinson, Aztecs, 103; Thomas, Conquest, 212–13. Duran, Indies, trans. Heyden, 283n, 524n, confirms the practice of prostitution.

  9. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 123; Prescott, History, 255–57.

  10. Marks, Cortés, 78–79; Duran, Indies, trans. Heyden, 230, 486n. (Aztec priests also painted their bodies completely black).

  11. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 124–125; Prescott, History, 257–58; Thomas, Conquest, 213.

  12. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 123; Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico, 1517–1521, ed. and trans. A. P. Maudslay (New York, 1928), 163–65; Marks, Cortés, 78–79; Thomas, Conquest, 213–14.

  13. Thomas, Conquest, 216–18; Innes, Conquistadors, 65.

  14. Ibid., 220, 691n.

  15. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 126–27; Prescott, History, 258–59; Tapia, in Fuentes, Conquistadors, 28; Thomas, Conquest, 215; Hassig, Mexico, 76.

  16. Quoted in Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 129; Gómara, Cortés, 89; Koch, Aztecs, 161; Lacroix, Itinerary, 88; Prescott, History, 264. Not all the punishments were carried out as originally specified by Cortés. He may have been bluffing, knowing he would need the men.

  17. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 130–31; Gómara, Cortés, 90–91; Gardiner, Naval Power, 28–32; Prescott, History, 266–68; Thomas, Conquest, 222–26; Koch, Aztecs, 162; Marks, Cortés, 85.

  18. Quoted variously in Thomas, Conquest, 223. Also quoted in Michael Wood, Conquistadors (Berkeley, Calif., 2000), 48; and Paul Schneider, Brutal Journey: The Epic Story of the First Crossing of North America (New York, 2006), 115.

  Chapter 5

  1. Thomas, Conquest, 227. See also Mann, 1491, 19, 222–23.

  2. Pohl and Robinson, Aztecs, 43–45, 71–72.

  3. Bernardino de Sahagún, The Conquest of New Spain, trans. and ed. Howard F. Cline and S. L. Cline (Salt Lake City, 1989), 73. Thomas, Conquest, 227. Varner and Varner, Dogs, 63–65. The numbers of the troops and the porters varies considerably among the sources, with Prescott citing a thousand porters; Thomas says 800, Díaz says 200, and Gómara 300. Similar discrepancies exist in the Spanish troop numbers, with 300 to 400 the average and most consistent.

  4. Quoted in Prescott, History, 283; also see Thomas, Conquest, 228–29.

  5. Prescott, History, 284. Duran, Indies, trans. Heyden, 10–11n, 207n.

  6. Prescott, History, 243, 243n. See also Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Mexico (New York, 1914), 232–33.

  7. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 135. Prescott, History, 285.

  8. The itinerary of this fabled march toward Tlaxcala and Tenochtitlán is recorded in the following: Lacroix, Itinerary, 91–103; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 134–39; Gómara, Cortés, 94–97; Prescott, History, 284–89; Thomas, Conquest, 232–34; Hassig, Mexico, 78; Madariaga, Cortés, 167–70.

  9. Duran, Indies, trans. Heyden, 190; David Carrasco, City of Sacrifice: The Aztec Empire and the Role of Violence in Civilization (Boston, 1999), 75–76, 121–22; and Dirk R. Van Turenhout, The Aztecs: New Perspectives (Santa Barbara, Calif., 2005), 190. The Festival of Toxcatl is described in depth, with respect to the Aztecs in particular, in Chapter 12. Also see Clendinnen, Aztecs, 104–10.

  10. Quoted in Beatrice Berler, The Conquest of Mexico: A Modern Rendering of William Prescott’s History (San Antonio, Tex., 1998), 31.

  11. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 136; Gómara, Cortés, 96–97; Berler, Conquest, 31.

  12. Berler, Conquest, 31; Soustelle, Daily Life, 155–57. Henry J. Bruman, Alcohol in Ancient Mexico (Salt Lake City, 2000), 61–82.

  13. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 137; Thomas, Conquest, 234–35; Gómara, Cortés, 95–96.

  14. Koch, Aztecs, 165; Thomas, Conquest, 237; Lacroix, Itinerary, 103–6; Gómara, Cortés, 96–98; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 138, 139.

  15. Quoted in Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 141. Also quoted in Koch, Aztecs, 166.

  16. Madariaga, Cortés, 173; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 141.

  17. The journey through the tierra caliente into the mountains and the battle with the Tlaxcalans are drawn from firsthand accounts in Gómara, Cortés, 100–23; and Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 140–65. Also see Prescott, History, 284–324; Berler, Conquest, 27–35; and Collis, Cortés, 78–95.

  18. Ross Hassig, Aztec Warfare (Norman, Okla., 1988), 41–43. Hassig primarily describes Aztec practices here. According to the sources, the different tribes’ face and body paint colors differed, as did their significance.

  19. Ibid., 42. Also George C. Vaillant, Aztecs of Mexico: Origin, Rise, and Fall of the Aztec Nation (New York, 1941), 215–23.

  20. Hassig, Warfare, 41–47. See also Pohl and Robinson, Aztecs, 61, 64–68.

  21. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 143–44; Prescott, History, 304; Marks, Cortés, 91–92; Koch, Aztecs, 166–67.

  22. Koch, Aztecs, 167; Thomas, Conquest, 242.

  23. Hassig, Warfare, 53, 89, 96; Hassig, War and Society, 152, 253n. Also Smith, Aztecs, 155.

  24. Hassig, Warfare, 96.

  25. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 144; Gómara, Cortés, 100–3; Koch, Aztecs, 168; Pohl and Robinson, Aztecs, 106.

  26. Quoted in Wood, Conquistadors, 49.

  27. Quoted in Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 147; Koch, Aztecs, 170–71.

  28. Quoted in Thomas, Conquest, 244.

  29. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 149.

  30. The political alignment and st
ructure of Tlaxcala is outlined in Charles Gibson, Tlaxcala in the Sixteenth Century (New Haven, Conn., 1952), 15–27. Also Marks, Cortés, 95–100.

  31. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 151.

  32. Prescott, History, 321–22; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 151–52; Marks, Cortés, 101–2; Berler, Conquest, 39–40.

  33. Quoted in Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 161.

  34. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 163; Marks, Cortés, 99; Koch, Aztecs, 173.

  35. The entire battle with the Tlaxcalans is recorded variously in Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 140–65; Gómara, Cortés, 94–116; Prescott, History, 295–335; Thomas, Conquest, 227–250; Koch, Aztecs, 163–76; Marks, Cortés, 85–103. Also detailed and fascinating is Gibson, Tlaxcala, 15–27.

  Chapter 6

  1. Cortés, Letters, 67.

  2. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 180. The importance of this aqueduct is also noted in Duran, Indies, trans. Heyden, 66–68. Also see Van Tuerenhout, Aztecs, 42; and Smith, Aztecs, 69.

  3. See Hassig, Mexico, 37–38, 43, 91; Smith, Aztecs, 171, 307n; Pohl and Robinson, Aztecs, 62–63. On Montezuma’s comment, see Tapia, in Fuentes, Conquistadors, 33, 217n.

  4. Charles S. Braden, Religious Aspects in the Conquest of Mexico (Durham, N.C., 1930), 100–02.

  5. Ibid., 76–81.

  6. There is some discrepancy as to the date. A number of sources (Koch, Thomas) cite October 12 rather than October 10.

  7. For the importance of Quetzalcoatl and its relationship to Cholula, see Nicholson, Topiltzin, 93–95. Also see Neil Baldwin, Legends of the Plumed Serpent: Biography of a Mexican God (New York, 1998), 37–41.

  8. Thomas, Conquest, 257; Marks, Cortés, 109–10.

  9. Pohl and Robinson, Aztecs, 103, 108; Thomas, Conquest, 258; T. R. Fehrenbach, Fire and Blood: A History of Mexico (New York, 1995), 29–30. Anaya, in Lord of the Dawn, calls it the “largest single structure in the New World” (151).