17.Status: Aztec women’s roles have been studied extensively by scholars, producing a literature that cannot be adequately covered here (but good starting points are the essays in Schroeder et al. 1997, especially one by Louise Burkhart; Evans 1998; Kellogg 2005: 18–30; and Pennock 2008). Polygyny: Hassig (2016; quote on p. 7); also see Townsend (2014). Discrete compound: e.g., Herrera (Dec. II, Bk. VII; 1728, I: 407).
18.“Three thousand”: Herrera (Dec. II, Bk. VII; 1728, I: 40) (Dormían pocos hombres en esta casa Real. Avía mil mugeres: aunque otros dizen que tres mil, y esto se tiene por mas cierto, entre señoras, criadas, y esclavas). Also see Torquemada (1614, I: 250–51; Bk. 2, Ch. 89). Wives: Ogilby (1670: 239) (Herrera comment is: y assi dizen que úvo vezes que tuvo ciento y cinquenta preñadas à un tiempo: las quales à persuassion del diablo movían, tomando cosas para lançar las criaturas, para estar desembaraçadas, para dar solaz à Motezuma, ò porque sabían que sus hijos no avían de heredar).
19.CCR (1522; 1960: 68; 1971: 112) (todas nuevas y nunca más se les vestía otra vez), repeated by Gómara and then misrepeated by Díaz (see Brooks 1995: 173).
20.Brussels, as a major city in the Spanish Netherlands, was part of Carlos’s European empire. On the loot, the Totonacs, and their tour, see Russo (2011); van Deusen (2015a).
21.DC, I: 242–49; Fernández de Oviedo (1959 [1535], IV: 10) (que todo era mucho de ver).
22.Solís (1724: 77).
23.FC, VIII (Sahagún 1954, VIII: 45); CCR (1522: f. 17v; 1960: 66; 1971: 108); Tapia (c.1545; Fuentes 1963: 40–42; J. Díaz et al. 1988: 101–5); Gómara (1552: Ch. 79; 1964: 161); Gemelli (1704: 513). Examples of Aztec animal figurines are in museums such as Mexico’s National Museum of Anthropology, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, and the British Museum.
24.Las Casas (first quote), in Boone (1992: 160); Díaz XCI (1908, II: 67–68; 2005, I: 232) (pintores y entalladores muy sublimados). Tovar to Acosta: Boone (2000: 29); see ibid. (28–63) for an explanation of how Aztec writing was not fully hieroglyphic (as the Maya system was), but largely pictorial, with some phonetic components and abstract marks that conveyed meanings (rather than particular words), allowing the system to function in multiple languages. Cano (in Martínez Baracs 2006: 50) claimed there were five sets of books, each covering a different aspect of imperial government. On the tribute lists, see Berdan (1987: 162–74); Hassig (1985); “great house” is Díaz XCI (1632: f. 67v; 1910, II: 64; 2005, I: 230) (y tenia destos libros una gran casa dellos).
25.Berdan (1987: 165); Solari (2007: 254), who led me to López Luján (1994: 240–43).
26.Gómara (1552: Ch. 66; 1964: 142) (es verdad que tengo plata, oro, plumas, armas y otras cosas y riquezasen el tesoro de mis padres y abuelos, guardado de grandes tiempos a esta parte, como es costumbre de reyes) (Russo 2011: 12 drew my attention to this passage); Ixtlilxochitl (1985 [c.1630]: 136). Chimalpahin added to his version of Gómara: “a thousand kinds of fierce animals were kept by order of the great lord, and all because he knew his ancestors had done so” (Schroeder et. al. 2010: 196). On Nezahualcoyotl, see Martínez (1972); on Tetzcoco’s palaces, Evans (2004: 24–29).
27.Solari (2007: 248–51); Durán XXIII (1967 [1581], II: 192; 1994 [1589]: 189) (la grandeza . . . la facilidad con que los mexicanos hacían todo lo que querían . . . que os calienta con su calor y fuego, señor excelente de lo criado).
28.FC, IX. On these first four means of acquisition, also see Berdan (1987).
29.“Best”: Díaz XCI (1908, II: 68–69); Evans (2000). “Trustworthy”: Motolinía (1951: 268), quoted by Solari (2007: 251). “Bird-net”: Sahagún (1997 [c.1560]: 207).
30.Tapia (c.1545; Fuentes 1963: 40; J. Díaz et al. 1988: 101) (asaz de oro e plata e piedras verdes); Gómara (1552: Ch. 93; 1964: 186); Solari (2007: 241–43, 247).
31.Cortés (CCR 1522: ff. 17v–18r; 1960: 67; 1971: 110–11); Solís (1724: 75–76; 1733: 81).
32.“thick timbers”: Cortés (CCR 1522: f. 18r; 1960: 67; 1971: 111) ( jaulas grandes de muy gruesos maderos muy bien labrados y encajados); FC, VIII: 44–45. “Diseases”: the Solís (1724: 75) version of Cortés (CCR 1522: f. 18r; 1960: 67; 1971: 110–11).
33.Zuazo in CDHM, I: 362–65; Díaz XCI–XCII (1632: ff. 66–72); CCR (1522; 1960: 51–69; 1971: 85–113); Tapia (c.1545; Fuentes 1963: 39–44; J. Díaz et al. 1988: 100–8).
34.“Bodies”: Gómara in Chimalpahin version (Schroeder et al. 2010: 197); Solís (1724: 76); Díaz XCI (1632: f. 68r; 1910, II: 67 and again in CCX, 1916, V: 274; 1963 [1632]: 229–30; 1983 [1632]: 169; 2005 [1632]: 232; les davan a comer de los cuerpos de los indios que sacrificavan). Snakes to devil: Ranking (1827: 349–50). Last line: For example, Marshall Sahlins and S. L. Washburn speculated in the New York Review of Books in 1979 that the zoo’s function was tied to Aztec human sacrifice, with the animals fed human body parts.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1979/nov/08.
35.“Custom”: Solís (1724: 76).
36.Impey and MacGregor (1984); Findlen (1994); Johnson (2011: quote here is hers, 231).
37.CCR (1522: f. 17; 1971: 101; 1993: 230–32) (otras que yo le di figuradas y el les mando hacer de oro); Russo (2011: 10–18; 22n59) led me to Gómara (1552: Ch. 39) and Las Casas (LCHI Bk. 3, Ch. 121 [e.g., 1876, IV: 486]); Johnson (2011: Chs. 3, 6).
38.“Died”: Cortés writing to his father in 1527 (AGI Justicia 1005, No. 1: f. 3r; quoted more fully below). Chorographs: e.g., Harris (1705) reproduced in Restall (2003: xiv). Children’s book: Herman-O’Neal (2013). Also see Solari (2007).
39.“Darwin”: Romerovargas Iturbide (1964: 25) (tres siglos antes que Darwin mandó organizar parques zoológicos). It also seems possible, and surely not mere coincidence, that the development of botanical gardens in Europe, starting in Italy in the 1540s, was influenced by descriptions of Aztec garden complexes (as suggested by Ian Mursell; mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/aztefacts/aztec-pleasure-gardens; also see López Lázaro 2007: 18–26).
40.AGI Justicia 1005, No. 1: f. 4r (letter of 23 Nov 1527 within 1531 file relating to Cortés’s dealings with his cousin Francisco de Las Casas; letter also in DC, I: 480; I am grateful to Megan McDonie for acquiring copies of the original AGI documents); note that the phrase “it is booty to be gifted [es pieça para dar]” employs the same term—pieza—that Spaniards used to describe slaves (indigenous and African, acquired in war or by purchase) (aqui en my [sic] casa se a criado un trigre [sic] desde muy pequeno y ha salido el ma[s] ermoso anymal que jamas se a visto porque demas de ser muy lindo es muy manso y andaba suelto por casa y comya a la mesa de lo que le davan y por ser tal me parescio que podria yr en el navio muy seguro y escaparía este de quantos se han muerto sup[lic]o a vra mrd se de a Su magd que de verdad es pieça para dar).
41.Solari (2007: 240, 252).
42.“Apex”: Solari (2007: 260). Great Temple: Matos Moctezuma (1987).
43.Hajovsky (2015: 131), whose study of the portrait (2012; 2015: 118–36) underpins my discussion of it; see his work for photographs of what remains of the stone carving. He notes (personal communication, December 2016) that Bishop Zumárraga likely began the work of cultural destruction centuries before further rounds of official vandalism in the eighteenth century. The entire carving is more than six feet high, but the relief of Montezuma’s body is closer to four and a half feet.
44.Quote by Hajovsky (2015: 118), who does a masterful job of exploring the richness of this iconography, devoting most of a book to it (see 2012 and 2015). I also thank him for generously sharing his drawing of the portrait.
45.“Icon”: Hajovsky (2012: 188).
46.Durán LII (1967 [1581], II: 398; 1994 [1581]: 389) (por su gran valor y excelentes hechos); Codex Tovar (Tovar c.1585); Primeros Memoriales (Baird 1993: Figs. 48–49); Gillespie (1989: 96–120); Solís Olguín (2009); Matos Moctezuma (2009); Hajovsky (2015: 23); Hassig (2016: 48–59).
47.In other words, that emperor was known as Ilhuicamina in his lifetime, then as Moteuczoma during the reign of his great-grandson of the same name, and
then in the post-invasion centuries gradually as Moctezuma Ilhuicamina; the designation of the second Montezuma as Montezuma Xocoyotl (“the Younger”) was most likely a posthumous invention. For this argument (and contrary opinions), see Gillespie (1989: 167–70) and Hajovsky (2015: 15, 23). Also see Hassig (2016). The coronation stone is now in the Art Institute of Chicago: see photographs and comment by Elisenda Vila Llonch in McEwan and López Luján (2009: 68–69); also Hajovsky (2015: 114–15).
48.Durán LIV (1994 [1589]: 407); Matos Moctezuma (2009); Hajovsky (2015: 23).
49.Tizoc: Durán XXXIX–XL (1994 [1581]: 296–308); Gillespie 1989: 16. Nicaragua: Torquemada (1614, I: 193–215, 218; Bk. 2).
50.Berdan and Anawalt (1992); reproduction of tribute listings by Lorenzana in Cortés (1770: inserted between Second and Third Letters). Codex Mendoza (Bodleian Library, Oxford University, but widely reproduced in print and online), f. 15v, shows towns and city-states (altepeme) conquered by Montezuma during his reign (the facing page and its reverse, f. 16, show another twenty-eight towns conquered). The towns are identified in alphabetic Nahuatl and by name-glyphs, with flames bursting from the temples to indicate defeat. The blue band on the left is a yearly calendar, with three years added post-invasion, covering the war (1519 or One Reed; 1520 or Two Flint Knife; and 1521 or Three House). Noose: Berdan (2009: 191).
51.I have resisted the temptation to add physical and personality descriptions of Montezuma, because sources for such descriptions are colonial and strike me as overwhelmingly imaginary. But there is a rhetorical way to make the point regarding his character, one that I have used in lectures on this topic: the following adjectives, taken from a 1552 source, arguably apply well to Montezuma: very strong (gran fuerça), courageous (mucho animo), serene (assentado), devout (devoto), given to praying (rezador), well suited both to war and peace (tuvo en la guerra buen lugar, y en paz), much given to women (muy dado a mugeres), stubbornly argumentative (rezio porfiando), he dressed more neatly than extravagantly, being a very clean man (vestia mas polido, que rico, y assi era ombre limpissimo), he took delight in a large household and family (deleitavase de tener mucha casa y familia), he carried himself in a lordly way and with much gravity (tratavase muy de señor, y con tanta gravedad), as a boy he was told that he would conquer many lands and become a very great lord (le dixeron siendo muchacho, como avia de ganar muchas tierras, y ser grandissimo señor). The twist here is that these all come from Gómara’s description not of Montezuma but of Cortés (1552: f. 139v [Ch. 252]; translations mine, but for slightly different ones, see 1964: 409), reflecting how quickly the two men became “monstrous doubles of one another” (as Sayre 2005: 51 put it), and suggesting that inverting the stereotypes of the traditional narrative is one way to undo them.
52.On the omens, their role in the scapegoating of Montezuma, and evidence for their postwar invention, see Gillespie (1989: Ch. 6); Fernández-Armesto (1992); and Restall (2003: 114, 137, 183n36); Carrasco (2000: 236–40) takes a less skeptical position.
53.Into the present day: For example, a 2005 History Channel episode on “Cortés,” in line with the traditional narrative, has Montezuma trying to stop the Spanish advance by bribing Cortés with gifts, “sending magicians to stop him,” and ordering the Chololteca “to assassinate” him—while at the same time believing “that Cortés was a god, [that] he was immortal, that he couldn’t be killed” (Bourn 2005). “Great army”: Aguilar (c.1560; J. Díaz et al. 1988: 166; Fuentes 1963: 143) (Motecsuma, según pareció, tenía puesto el los caminos un gran ejército aunque no le vimos más de por la relación que nos fue hecha).
54.Tapia (c.1545; Fuentes 1963: 33; J. Díaz et al. 1988: 90) (los desbarataran en breve y fenecieran la guerra con ellos; e así yo que esto escribo pregunté a Muteczuma y a otros sus capitanes, qué era la cabsa porque tiniendo aquellos enemigos en medio no los acababan en un día, e me respondien: Bien lo pudiéramos hacer; pero luego no quedara donde los mancebos ejercitaran sus personas, sino lejos de aquí: y también queríamos que siempre oviese gente para sacrificar a nuestros dioses).
55.Hassig (2006: 93).
56.Caxtillan or castillan tlaca is used in CA: 274–77 and in the Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca (Lockhart 1993: 282–87); caxtilteca or castilteca in the Annals of Cuauhtitlan (op. cit.: 280–81); also see op. cit.: 14, 21.
57.The Aztec calendar was merely one of many, similar calendars used across Mesoamerica for millennia (there were Maya equivalents of the xihuitl, for example). The literature on the topic is extensive, but notable studies are Broda (1969), Florescano (1994), and Hassig (2001a); I also found DiCesare (2009) useful. Panquetzaliztli: Schwaller (see p. 401n46) argues that the dedication to Huitzilopochtli, and the central role played by merchants, were distinct to how that festival was celebrated in Tenochtitlan from the mid-fifteenth century on.
58.“Deer”: FC, XII: 160.
59.FC, I: Ch. 18; II: Ch. 21; Primeros Memoriales (Baird 1993: Figs. 14, 21); Clendinnen (1985); Carrasco (1995; 2012: 75–77); Hajovsky (2015: 31–33).
PART III
1.Epigraph sources, in sequence: using the translation of Carvajal in Jáuregui (2008 [1557]: 111) (Como! Y piensan de estorbar / que las gentes no pasasen / a las Indias a robar?); Thevet (1676: appendix p. 78); Young (1975).
CHAPTER 5: THE GREATEST ENTERPRISES
1.Epigraph sources, in sequence: Cervantes de Salazar (1953 [1554]: 47); Robertson (1777, II: 3); Fernández de Oviedo (1959 [1535], III: 149 [Bk. XVII, Ch. XIX]).
2.Mendieta (1870 [1596]: 174–75) (meter debajo de la bandera del demonio á muchos de los fieles . . . el clamor de tantas almas y sangre humana derramada en injuria de su Criador . . . infinita multitud de gentes que por años sin cuento habian estado debajo del poder de Satanás).
3.Valiant Cortés: Lasso de la Vega (1588; 1594: Canto XXIII, f. 259r). Forgive my unpoetic translation of Sin dar noticia alguna a Rey Christiano, / Hasta que este varon al mundo vino, / Que fue en el año mismo que Lutero, / Monstruo contra la Iglesia horrible y fiero. Saavedra: Saavedra (1880 [1599]: 85); Martínez (1990: 107) led me to this passage. The poem was titled The Indiano Pilgrim (Indiano did not mean “Indian,” but referred to a Spaniard who went to the Indies and made his living or fortune or career there, typically returning to Spain—where he might therefore be called, respectfully, an indiano). Dating problem: Torquemada (1614, I: 374; Bk. 4, prologue). Examples are Nicolás Fernández Moratín’s “Las naves de Cortés” (Martínez 1990: 108) and Juan de Escoiquiz’s México Conquistada: Poema Heroyca (Escoiquiz 1798). According to David Boruchoff (in a paper presented at the John Carter Brown Library, Providence, Rhode Island, in May 2015), by the middle of the seventeenth century, more than thirty Catholic writers had stated in print that Cortés and Luther were providentially born on the same day and year.
4.“Prose”: Adorno (2011: 46), who has keenly grasped Gómara’s agenda and how much it has tainted subsequent accounts; reprinted and translated dozens of times, the book was a huge international hit, the means whereby “Cortés and Gómara bedazzled the world” (in the words of Las Casas, who denounced it as a tissue of distortions and fabrications); also see Roa-de-la-Carrera (2005). Crony: Las Casas (1561: f. 623v; 1951 [1561], II: 528) (from the 1561 MS: no escrivio cosa sino lo quel mismo Cortes le dixo). More likely: Martínez Martínez (2010) argues persuasively that Gómara’s intimacy with Cortés has been exaggerated, and that his close relationship was with his son.
5.In the original, “buena señal . . . milagro” (Gómara 1552: f. 2v); in the early English version, “a myracle and good token . . . some sayd ye God had sente the Dove to comforte them” (1578: 4). That Christ did not begin preaching until 30 (Luke 3:23), while Cortés did not bring Christianity to indigenous Mexicans until he was about thirty-three, was probably not lost on Gómara, but making a meaningful point of such a parallel might have bordered on blasphemy.
6.Gómara (1552: f. 2r; translations mine, but see the looser translations in 1964: 7–14) (original: harto, o arrepentido de estudiar
. . . mucho peso a los padres con su ida, y se enojaron . . . era bullicioso, altivo, traviesso, amigo de armas . . . era muy buen ingenio, y habil para toda cosa . . . determino de irse por ay adelante . . . mucho oro); Gómara (1578: 2); the anonymous “Life of Ferdinand Cortés,” written in Latin in the 1550s, uses the same anecdotes and themes (probably drawn from Gómara, as Icazbalceta suggested) (Anonymous 1858 [1550s]; CDHM, I: 312–17). “French version” is Thevet, here quoted in a contemporaneous English translation (1676: 76).
7.Cervantes de Salazar (1914 [1560s]: 95–96 [Bk. 2, Ch. XV]) (Fue Hernado [sic] Cortes, a quien Dios, con los de su compañia; tomo por instrumento para tan gran negoçio . . . muy habil).
8.Díaz XIX–XX (1632: ff. 12v–14r); Solís (1684, et al.); Robertson (1777, II: 3).
9.Robertson (1777, II: 4).
10.Robertson (1777, II: 3, 3–6, 6–134); Thevet (1676: 76) (I have here used the 1676 English edition, not translated the French original).
11.Both the elision of Cortés’s Caribbean years and their characterization as a period when he was waiting for his great moment and developing the skills he would need are part of a tradition stretching from Gómara (1552: f. 2) to the present (see, for example, Elliott 2006: 7–8).
12.The final four lines of Keats’s sonnet “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer,” accessed online at poetryfoundation.org/poem/173746.
13.Some pro-Cortés Spanish accounts claim that he won his encomiendas by helping Governor Ovando put down an indigenous rebellion, but he arrived on Hispaniola a year after the Spaniards put down Anacaona’s alleged revolt by hanging her and burning other native leaders alive in the Xaragua massacre, and there is no evidence to corroborate the claim that Cortés “displayed in the field many notable feats of arms, already giving notice of his future strengths [ejecutó en esta campaña muchos y muy notables hechos de armas, dando ya anuncios de su futuro esfuerzo]” (Anonymous 1858 [1550s] in CDHM, I: 318).
When Montezuma Met Cortes Page 52
