The Conquest of New Spain

Excerpt of The Conquest of New Spain, by Bernal Diaz de Castillo,

translated by J.M. Cohen
The Entrance into Mexico
EARLY next day we left Iztapalapa with a large escort of these
great Caciques, and followed the causeway, which is eight yards wide and goes so
straight to the city of Mexico that I do not think it curves at all. Wide though it
was, it was so crowded with people that there was hardly room for them all. Some
were going to Mexico and others coming away, besides those who had come out
to see us, and we could hardly get through the crowds that were there. For the
towers and the cues were full, and they came in canoes from all parts of the lake.
No wonder, since they had never seen horses or men like us before!
With such wonderful sights to gaze on we did not know what to say, or if
this was real that we saw before our eyes. On the land side there were great cities,
and on the lake many more. The lake was crowded with canoes. At intervals along
the causeway there were many bridges, and before us was the great city of Mexico.
As for us, we were scarcely four hundred strong, and we well remembered the
words and warnings of the people of Huexotzinco and Tlascala and Tlamanalco,
and the many other warnings we had received to beware of entering the city of
Mexico, since they would kill us as soon as they had us inside. Let the interested
reader consider whether there is not much to ponder in this narrative of mine.
What men in all the world have shown such daring? But let us go on.
We marched along our causeway to a point where another small
causeway branches off to another city called Coyoacan, and there, beside some
towerlike buildings, which were their shrines, we were met by many
more Caciques and dignitaries in very rich cloaks. The different chieftains wore
different brilliant liveries, and the causeways were full of them. Montezuma had
sent these great Caciques in advance to receive us, and as soon as they came
before Cortes they told him in their language that we were welcome, and as a sign
of peace they touched the ground with their hands and kissed it.
There we halted for some time while Cacamatzin, the lord of Texcoco,
and the lords of Iztapalapa, Tacuba, and Coyoacan went ahead to meet the great
Montezuma, who approached in a rich litter, accompanied by other great lords and
feudal Caciques who owned vassals. When we came near to Mexico, at a place
where there were some other small towers, the great Montezuma descended from
his litter, and these other great Caciques supported him beneath a marvellously
rich canopy of green feathers, decorated with gold work, silver, pearls,
and chalchihuites, which hung from a sort of border. It was a marvellous sight.
The great Montezuma was magnificently clad, in their fashion, and wore sandals
of a kind for which their name is cotaras, the soles of which are of gold and the
upper parts ornamented with precious stones. And the four lords who supported
him were richly clad also in garments that seem to have been kept ready for them
on the road so that they could accompany their master. For they had not worn
clothes like this when they came out to receive us. There were four other
great Caciques who carried the canopy above their heads, and many more lords
who walked before the great Montezuma, sweeping the ground on which he was to
tread, and laying down cloaks so that his feet should not touch the earth. Not one
of these chieftains dared to look him in the face. All kept their eyes lowered most
reverently except those four lords, his nephews, who were supporting him.
When Cortes saw, heard, and was told that the great Montezuma was
approaching, he dismounted from his horse, and when he came near to
Montezuma each bowed deeply to the other. Montezuma welcomed our Captain,
and Cortes, speaking through Dona Marina, answered by wishing him very good
health. Cortes, I think, offered Montezuma his right hand, but Montezuma refused
it and extended his own. Then Cortes brought out a necklace which he had been
holding. It was made of those elaborately worked and coloured glass beads
called margaritas, of which I have spoken, and was strung on a gold cord and
dipped in musk to give it a good odour. This he hung round the great Montezuma's
neck, and as he did so attempted to embrace him. But the great princes who stood
round Montezuma grasped Cortes' arm to prevent him, for they considered this an
indignity.
Then Cortes told Montezuma that it rejoiced his heart to have seen such a
great prince, and that he took his coming in person to receive him and the repeated
favours he had done him as a high honour. After this Montezuma made him
another complimentary speech, and ordered two of his nephews who were
supporting him, the lords of Texcoco and Coyoacan, to go with us and show us
our quarters. Montezuma returned to the city with the other two kinsmen of his
escort, the lords of Cuitlahuac and Tacuba; and all those grand companies
of Caciques and dignitaries who had come with him returned also in his train. And
as they accompanied their lord we observed them marching with their eyes
downcast so that they should not see him, and keeping close to the wall as they
followed him with great reverence. Thus space was made for us to enter the streets
of Mexico without being pressed by the crowd.
Who could now count the multitude of men, women, and boys in the
streets, on the roof-tops and in canoes on the waterways, who had come out to see
us? It was a wonderful sight and, as I write, it all comes before my eyes as if it had
happened only yesterday.
They led us to our quarters, which were in some large houses capable of
accommodating us all and had formerly belonged to the great Montezuma's father,
who was called Axayacatl. Here Montezuma now kept the great shrines of his
gods, and a secret chamber containing gold bars and jewels. This was the treasure
he had inherited from his father, which he never touched. Perhaps their reason for
lodging us here was that, since they called us Teules and considered us as such,
they wished to have us near their idols. In any case they took us to this place,
where there were many great halls, and a dais hung with the cloth of their country
for our Captain, and matting beds with canopies over them for each of us.
On our arrival we entered the large court, where the great Montezuma
was awaiting our Captain. Taking him by the hand, the prince led him to his
apartment in the hall where he was to lodge, which was very richly furnished in
their manner. Montezuma had ready for him a very rich necklace, made of golden
crabs, a marvellous piece of work, which he hung round Cortes' neck. His captains
were greatly astonished at this sign of honour.
After this ceremony, for which Cortes thanked him through our
interpreters, Montezuma said: 'Malinche, you and your brothers are in your own
house. Rest awhile.' He then returned to his palace, which was not far off.
We divided our lodgings by companies, and placed our artillery in a
convenient spot. Then the order we were to keep was clearly explained to us, and
we were warned to be very much on the alert, both the horsemen and the rest of us
soldiers. We then ate a sumptuous dinner which they had prepared for us in their
native style.
So, with luck on our side, we boldly entered the city of Tenochtitlan or
Mexico on 8 November in the year of our Lord 1519.

Bernal Diaz del Castillo (1492-1581), who was born in Medina del Campo, Spain,
accompanied both Francisco Fernandez de Cordoba (1475?-c.1525) in 1517 and
Juan de Grijalva (1489?-1527) in 1518 on the two Spanish expeditions to the
coast of present-day Mexico that preceded the one led by Hernan Cortes (1485-
1547). Diaz served as a captain under Cortes and witnessed the entire conquest of
1521. Fifty years later, he began writing his "true and wonderful" History of the
Conquest of New Spain, which he finished in 1576 at the age of eighty-four. He
wrote down his story in order to correct the more flamboyant chroniclers of the
events. In this excerpt, we read of the entrance of Cortes and his forces into
Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital, in 1519.
Diaz writes of Tenochtitlan: "With such wonderful sights to gaze on we did not
know what to say, or if this was real that we saw before our eyes." Indeed, the
great city was larger than London at the time and much cleaner than any
European city. The Spaniards compared it to Venice, one of the three leading
cities of the era, because of its size and its intricate series of canals.

Cortés, Hernán
born 1485, Medellín, near Mérida, Extremadura, Castile [Spain]
died December 2, 1547, Castilleja de la Cuesta, near Sevilla
Cortés also spelled Cortéz Spanish conquistador who overthrew the
Aztec empire (1519–21) and won Mexico for the crown of Spain.
Cortés was the son of Martín Cortés de Monroy and of Doña
Catalina Pizarro Altamarino—names of ancient lineage. “They had
little wealth, but much honour,” according to Cortés's secretary,
Francisco López de Gómara, who tells how, at age 14, the young
Hernán was sent to study at Salamanca, in west-central Spain, “because
he was very intelligent and clever in everything he did.” Gómara went
on to describe him as ruthless, haughty, mischievous, and quarrelsome,
“a source of trouble to his parents.” Certainly he was “much given to
women,” frustrated by provincial life, and excited by stories of the
Indies Columbus had just discovered. He set out for the east coast port
of Valencia with the idea of serving in the Italian wars, but instead he
“wandered idly about for nearly a year.” Clearly Spain's southern ports,
with ships coming in full of the wealth and colour of the Indies, proved
a greater attraction. He finally sailed for the island of Hispaniola (now
Santo Domingo) in 1504. He was then 19.
Years in Hispaniola and Cuba
In Hispaniola he became a farmer and notary to a town council;
for the first six years or so, he seems to have been content to establish
his position. He contracted syphilis and, as a result, missed the ill-fated
expeditions of Diego de Nicuesa and Alonso de Ojeda, which sailed for
the South American mainland in 1509. By 1511 he had recovered, and
he sailed with Diego Velázquez to conquer Cuba. There Velázquez was
appointed governor, and Cortés clerk to the treasurer. Cortés received a
repartimiento (gift of land and Indian slaves) and the first house in the
new capital of Santiago. He was now in a position of some power and
the man to whom dissident elements in the colony began to turn for
leadership.
Cortés was twice elected alcalde (“mayor”) of the town of
Santiago and was a man who “in all he did, in his presence, bearing,
conversation, manner of eating and of dressing, gave signs of being a
great lord.” It was therefore to Cortés that Velázquez turned when, after
news had come of the progress of Juan de Grijalba's efforts to establish
a colony on the mainland, it was decided to send him help. An
agreement appointing Cortés captain general of a new expedition was
signed in October 1518. Experience of the rough-and-tumble of New
World politics advised Cortés to move fast, before Velázquez changed
his mind. His sense of the dramatic, his long experience as an
administrator, the knowledge gained from so many failed expeditions,
above all his ability as a speaker gathered to him six ships and 300 men,
all in less than a month. The reaction of Velázquez was predictable; his
jealousy aroused, he resolved to place leadership of the expedition in
other hands. Cortés, however, put hastily to sea to raise more men and
ships in other Cuban ports.
The expedition to Mexico
When Cortés finally sailed for the coast of Yucatán on
February 18, 1519, he had 11 ships, 508 soldiers, about 100 sailors,
and—most important—16 horses. In March 1519 he landed at Tabasco,
where he stayed for a time in order to gain intelligence from the local
Indians. He won them over and received presents from them, including
20 women, one of whom, Marina (“Malinche”), became his mistress
and interpreter and bore him a son, Martín. Cortés sailed to another
spot on the southeastern Mexican coast and founded Veracruz, mainly
to have himself elected captain general and chief justice by his soldiers
as citizens, thus shaking off the authority of Velázquez. On the
mainland Cortés did what no other expedition leader had done: he
exercised and disciplined his army, welding it into a cohesive force.
But the ultimate expression of his determination to deal with
disaffection occurred when he burned his ships. By that single action he
committed himself and his entire force to survival by conquest.
Cortés then set out for the Mexican interior, relying sometimes
on force, sometimes on amity toward the local Indian peoples, but
always careful to keep conflict with them to a strict minimum. The key
to Cortés's subsequent conquests lay in the political crisis within the
Aztec empire; the Aztecs were bitterly resented by many of the subject
peoples who had to pay tribute to them. The ability of Cortés as a
leader is nowhere more apparent than in his quick grasp of the
situation—a grasp that was ultimately to give him more than 200,000
Indian allies. The nation of Tlaxcala, for instance, which was in a state
of chronic war with Montezuma, ruler of the Aztec empire of Mexico,
resisted Cortés at first but when defeated became his most faithful ally.
Rejecting all of Montezuma's threats and blandishments to keep him
away from Tenochtitlán or Mexico, the capital (rebuilt as Mexico City
after 1521), Cortés entered the city on November 8, 1519, with his
small Spanish force and only 1,000 Tlaxcaltecs. Montezuma, believing
him to incarnate the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl, received him with great
honour. Cortés soon decided to seize Montezuma in order to hold the
country through its monarch and achieve not only its political conquest
but its religious conversion. Marina worked on the complicated,
enigmatic mind of Montezuma so subtly that he finally became the
voluntary prisoner of her master. With this stroke Cortés became the
master of Tenochtitlán.
Spanish politics and envy, however, were to bedevil Cortés
throughout his meteoric career. Cortés soon heard of the arrival of a
Spanish force from Cuba, led by Pánfilo Narváez, to deprive Cortés of
his command at a time (mid-1520) when he was holding the Aztec
capital of Tenochtitlán by little more than the force of his personality.
Leaving a garrison in Tenochtitlán of 80 Spaniards and a few hundred
Tlaxcaltecs commanded by his most reckless captain, Pedro de
Alvarado, Cortés marched against Narváez, defeated him, and enlisted
his army in his own forces. On his return, he found the Spanish
garrison in Tenochtitlán besieged by the Aztecs after Alvarado had
massacred many leading Aztec chiefs during a festival. Hard pressed
and lacking food, Cortés decided to leave the city by night. The
Spaniards' retreat from the capital was performed, but with a heavy loss
in lives and most of the treasure they had accumulated. After six days
of retreat Cortés won the battle of Otumba over the Aztecs sent in
pursuit (July 7, 1520).
Cortés eventually rejoined his Tlaxcalan allies and reorganized
his forces before again marching on Tenochtitlán in December 1520.
After subduing the neighbouring territories he laid siege to the city
itself, conquering it street by street until its capture was completed on
August 13, 1521. This victory marked the fall of the Aztec empire.
Cortés had become the absolute ruler of a huge territory extending from
the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean.
In the meantime, Velázquez was mounting an insidious
political attack on Cortés in Spain through Bishop Juan Rodríguez de
Fonseca and the Council of the Indies. Fully conscious of the
vulnerability of a successful conqueror whose field of operations was
5,000 miles (8,000 km) from the centre of political power, Cortés
countered with lengthy and detailed dispatches—five remarkable letters
to the Spanish king Charles V. His acceptance by the Indians and even
his popularity as a relatively benign ruler was such that he could have
established Mexico as an independent kingdom. Indeed, this is what the
Council of the Indies feared. But his upbringing in a feudal world in
which the king commanded absolute allegiance was against it.
Later years
In 1524 his restless urge to explore and conquer took him south
to the jungles of Honduras. The two arduous years he spent on this
disastrous expedition damaged his health and his position. His property
was seized by the officials he had left in charge, and reports of the
cruelty of their administration and the chaos it created aroused concern
in Spain. Cortés's fifth letter to the Spanish king attempts to justify his
reckless behaviour and concludes with a bitter attack on “various and
powerful rivals and enemies” who have “obscured the eyes of your
Majesty.” But it was his misfortune that he was not dealing simply with
a king of Spain but with an emperor who ruled most of Europe and who
had little time for distant colonies, except insofar as they contributed to
his treasury. The Spanish bureaucrats sent out a commission of inquiry
under Luis Ponce de León, and, when he died almost immediately,
Cortés was accused of poisoning him and was forced to retire to his
estate.
In 1528 Cortés sailed for Spain to plead his cause in person
with the king. He brought with him a great wealth of treasure and a
magnificent entourage. He was received by Charles at his court at
Toledo, confirmed as captain general (but not as governor), and created
marqués del Valle. He also remarried, into a ducal family. He returned
to New Spain in 1530 to find the country in a state of anarchy and so
many accusations made against him—even that he had murdered his
first wife, Catalina, who had died that year—that, after reasserting his
position and reestablishing some sort of order, he retired to his estates
at Cuernavaca, about 30 miles (48 km) south of Mexico City. There he
concentrated on the building of his palace and on Pacific exploration.
Finally a viceroy was appointed, after which, in 1540, Cortés
returned to Spain. By then he had become thoroughly disillusioned, his
life made miserable by litigation. All the rest is anticlimax. “I am old,
poor and in debt . . . again and again I have begged your Majesty. . . .”
In the end he was permitted to return to Mexico, but he died before he
had even reached Sevilla (Seville).
Ralph Hammond Innes
To cite this page:
MLA style:
"Hernan Cortes, Marquis del Valle de Oaxaca." Encyclopædia
Britannica. 2004. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition.
13 Sept. 2004 http://www.school.eb.com/eb/article?eu=26861.