by Buddy Levy
21. Cortés, Letters, 154–55; Hassig, Mexico, 129–130; Thomas, Conquest, 446.
22. Prescott, History, 643–44.
23. Ibid., 644; Thomas, Conquest, 440.
24. Cortés, Letters, 157.
25. Ibid., 158, 482n. Pagden notes that Grijalva was actually the first to coin this phrase.
26. Ibid., 159.
27. Díaz, Discovery, 448–49; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 311; Gómara, Cortés, 237; Prescott, History, 644–46.
28. Díaz, Discovery, 448; Prescott, History, 641.
29. Díaz, Discovery, 444.
30. Ibid., 446.
31. Ibid., 449; Cortés, Letters, 164; Gómara, Cortés, 237; Prescott, History, 646; Thomas, Conquest, 450.
32. Cortés, Letters, 164; Gómara, Cortés, 237.
33. Prescott, History, 646.
34. Ibid., 446; Cortés, Letters, 165; Gómara, Cortés, 238; Díaz, Discovery, 450.
35. Díaz, Discovery, 450; Prescott, History, 646.
36. Cortés, Letters, 165; Gómara, Cortés, 238.
37. Quoted in Gardiner, Naval Power, 103.
Chapter 17
1. Quoted in Prescott, History, 649, 649–50n. Prescott borrows from Sahagún, General History.
2. Codex Ramirez, 145.
3. Quoted in Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 309.
4. Gómara, Cortés, 239.
5. Ibid., 239; Hassig, Mexico, 172.
6. Cortés, Letters, 166; Gómara, Cortés, 239.
7. Díaz, Discovery, 552; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 311. Gómara, Cortés, 243, says that there were twenty thousand Tlaxcalans.
8. Quoted in Gómara, Cortés, 241; Cortés, Letters, 166, 482n.
9. Gómara, Cortés, 241.
10. This phrase, “laugh or cry,” was uttered by Bartolomé de las Casas in History of the Indies of Spain, trans. and ed. Andree Collard (New York, 1971).
11. Cortés, Letters, 166.
12. Quoted in Thomas, Conquest, 456; Prescott, History, 654. Prescott’s translation, though slightly different, retains the flavor: “The principal motive…is the desire to wean the natives from their gloomy idolatry, and to impart to them the knowledge of the purer faith; and next, to recover for his master, the emperor, the dominions which of right belong to him.”
13. Prescott, History, 655. These provisions or ordinances of conduct are also in Gardiner, The Constant Captain, 68–70.
14. Quoted in Prescott, History, 655.
15. Cortés, Letters, 167.
16. Ibid., 168; Prescott, History, 658; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 312.
17. Cortés, Letters, 168.
18. Ibid., 169. Smoke signals were commonly used to warn nearby towns and cities that war was engaged or that an enemy was marching. See Hassig, Aztec Warfare, 95–96, 292n.
19. Gómara, Cortés, 244.
20. Díaz, Discovery, 453; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 312–13; Gómara, Cortés, 244.
21. Thomas, Conquest, 458, 744n; Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl, Ally of Cortés: Account 13: Of the Coming of the Spaniards and the Beginning of Evangelical Law, trans. and ed. Douglass K. Ballentine (El Paso, Tex., 1969), 10–15, 272–73; Hassig, Mexico, 136; Duran, Indies, 550. Duran points out the long-standing relationship that developed between Cortés and Ixtlilxochitl.
22. Cortés, Letters, 170; Gómara, Cortés, 244.
23. Cortés, Letters, 172; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 315.
24. Thomas, Conquest, 459, 744n; Ixtlilxochitl, Ally, 12–15.
25. Hassig, Mexico, 136–37; Jerome A. Offner, Law and Politics in Aztec Texcoco (London, 1983), 239–40; Padden, Hummingbird and Hawk, 209–10. Hassig suggests, interestingly, that Tecocol’s sudden death was “convenient and suspicious,” which makes sense, given the usefulness of having Ixtlilxochitl installed for political purposes (though Cortés could simply have assisted in installing Ixtlilxochitl in the first place).
26. Smith, Aztecs, 143–45; Van Tuerenhout, Aztecs, 144 and 202; Esther Pasztory, Aztec Art (New York, 1983), 202–3.
27. Cortés, Letters, 172; Gómara, Cortés, 245.
Chapter 18
1. As usual, the number of members of the expeditions that went around the lake varies considerably. Hassig, Mexico, 138, cites seven thousand, while other sources suggest only half that many. Ixtlilxochitl, Ally, claims there were six thousand (13–14), but they weren’t exclusively Tlaxcalans—there were Texcocan warriors as well. Other chroniclers place the number lower, in the three-to-four-thousand range. Cortés, Letters, says there were “three or four thousand of our Indian allies” (174).
2. Cortés, Letters, 82–83, 174; Nigel Davies, The Aztecs (New York, 1973), 254.
3. Cortés, Letters, 175; Ixtlilxochitl, Ally, 13.
4. Cortés, Letters, 175.
5. Ibid., 177; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 320–21; Ixtlilxochitl, Ally, 16; Hassig, Aztec Warfare, 248–49.
6. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 322; Hassig, Mexico, 141.
7. Ixtlilxochitl, Ally, 16–17; Gómara, Cortés, 247–48.
8. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 322; Cortés, Letters, 179.
9. Quoted in Díaz, Discovery, 467; Gardiner, Constant Captain, 75–76.
10. Díaz, Discovery, 467; Cortés, Letters, 184; Prescott, History, 686–87.
11. Gardiner, Naval Power, 115–16; Hassig, Mexico, 142.
12. Gardiner, Naval Power, 116–17; Gardiner, Martín López, 42–43; Gardiner, Constant Captain, 76–78; Prescott, History, 687. The number of members of the caravan varies—some sources claim that as many as fifty thousand Tlaxcalans participated in carrying the brigantines from Tlaxcala to Texcoco, a distance of over fifty miles.
13. López-Portillo, They Are Coming, 293.
14. Quoted in Díaz, Discovery, 469; Cortés, Letters, 186.
15. Gardiner, Naval Power, 125–27; Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Mexico, vol. 1 (San Francisco, 1883–88), 581; Ixtlilxochitl, Ally, 15; López-Portillo, They Are Coming, 293.
16. Cortés, Letters, 186–87; Hassig, Mexico, 142.
17. Cortés, Letters, 187.
18. Díaz, Discovery, 473; Prescott, History, 692.
19. Díaz, Discovery, 473.
20. Cortés, Letters, 187.
21. Ibid.
22. Quoted in Cortés, Letters, 188.
23. Ibid.
24. Díaz, Discovery, 476.
25. Quoted in Cortés, Letters, 188; Gómara, Cortés, 253.
26. Prescott, History, 704; Gardiner, Naval Power, 119–20; Marks, Cortés, 213; Thomas, Conquest, 469–71.
27. Thomas, Conquest, 471–72; Duran, Indies, trans. Heyden, 17n.
28. Díaz, Discovery, 512–14; Prescott, History, 726–27; López-Portillo, They Are Coming, 300–1.
29. Díaz, Discovery, 514.
30. Cortés, Letters, 278; Díaz, Discovery, 514–15; López-Portillo, They Are Coming, 300–1; Thomas, Conquest, 469; Cortés, Letters, 497–98n.
31. Gómara, Cortés, 262.
32. Ibid., 261–62; Prescott, History, 703; Gardiner, Naval Power, 121–25; Ixtlilxochitl, Ally, 15–16; Marks, Cortés, 223–24.
Chapter 19
1. Díaz, Discovery, 478; Gómara, Cortés, 254; Prescott, History, 698–99. For Prescott’s overall version of the entire military encirclement of the region, see 691–724.
2. Cortés, Letters, 190.
3. Ibid., 191; Gardiner, Constant Captain, 78–79. Gómara, Cortés, 254; Prescott, History, 702.
4. Quoted in Díaz, Discovery, 486.
5. Cortés, Letters, 193.
6. Díaz, Discovery, says twenty thousand, but Cortés, Letters, 193, and Gómara, Cortés, 256, both cite the higher number of forty thousand. In any case, the growing number of allies would certainly have concerned Cuauhtémoc greatly.
7. Cortés, Letters, 194; Díaz, Discovery, 488.
8. Cortés, Letters, 194; this was most likely the town of Tlaycapan.
9. Díaz, Discovery, 489–90; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 334–35; Cortés, Le
tters, 194–95; Prescott, History, 707.
10. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 336.
11. Gómara, Cortés, 257–58; Díaz, Discovery, 492.
12. Cortés, Letters, 196.
13. Ibid.
14. Duran, Indies, trans. Heyden, 205n, 244–45, 244n.
15. Cortés, Letters, 197.
16. Díaz, Discovery, 497.
17. Gómara, Cortés, 258–59; Cortés, Letters, 198; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 339; Prescott, History, 711–12; López-Portillo, They Are Coming, 294–95.
18. Díaz, Discovery, 497.
19. Madariaga, Cortés, 369; Davies, Aztecs, 272.
20. Díaz, Discovery, 500.
21. Duran, Indies, trans. Heyden, 44–45n, 236–37.
22. Hassig, Mexico, 144–45; Thomas, Conquest, 479.
23. Díaz, Discovery, 501.
24. Ibid., 510; López-Portillo, They Are Coming, 297; Cortés, Letters, 486n; Marks, Cortés, 221; Prescott, History, 718. Díaz, Discovery, says that the limbs were sent to the provinces by Cuauhtemoc as a warning to those who had sided with the Spaniards (507–8).
25. Cortés, Letters, 200.
26. Ibid., 202.
27. Ibid., 486n.
28. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 348; Prescott, History, 722; Thomas, Conquest, 481; López-Portillo, They Are Coming, 298.
Chapter 20
1. Hassig, Aztec Warfare, 241. Aztec canoe design is discussed in Gardiner, Naval Power, 55–57. Also see Van Tuerenhout, Aztecs, 88, 94–95.
2. Padden, Hummingbird and Hawk, 211–12.
3. Soustelle, Daily Life, 140–41; Smith, Aztecs, 166–68.
4. Hassig, Aztec Warfare, 238; Ixtlilxochitl, Ally, 24.
5. For a discussion of the structure and organization of Aztec military order, including jaguar and eagle warriors, see Hassig, War and Society, 82–85, 142; Hassig, Aztec Warfare, 37–47.
6. Thomas, Conquest, 487–88; Duran, Book of the Gods, 19, 164. Pantitlán, place of whirlpool and water rituals, is also discussed in Keber, Aztec Ritual, 88, 182.
7. Cortés, Letters, 206.
8. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 353.
9. Gardiner, Naval Power, 127–33. Gardiner does an admirable job of re-creating the precise size and appearance of the brigantines, based on lake levels, intended usage, Martín López’s comments, and comparable Spanish craft of the day. Gardiner, Martín López, 42–46. The send-off is also chronicled in Francisco Cervantes de Salazar, Cronica de la Nueva España (Madrid, 1914), 600–1.
10. The exact time estimates for the project are difficult to determine and depend on whether one includes initial planning phases or adheres strictly to the physical construction phase. For an interesting discussion, see Gardiner, Naval Power, 128, 128n.
11. Cortés, Letters, 206–7. Most scholars and other chroniclers (Díaz, Gómara, Hassig) generally concur on these numbers.
12. Interestingly, Ixtlilxochitl, Ally (an account that carries a noticeable indigenous bias), places the number of allies at 200,000 (22), while some European chroniclers lean toward 500,000.
13. Quoted in Díaz, Discovery, 520.
14. Hassig, Mexico, 149; Thomas, Conquest, 491. A detailed discussion on the incident may be found in Ross Hassig, “Xicotencatl: Rethinking an Indigenous Mexican Hero,” Estudios de Cultura Nahuatl 32 (2001), 29–49. The accounts conflict on the precise details; a number of sources (including Bernal Díaz) suggest that the delegation sent to retrieve Xicotenga hanged him on the spot where they overtook him rather than bringing him back to Texcoco. No sources dispute the fact that he was hanged. Hassig makes the interesting (and controversial) case that Cortés had Xicotenga the Younger branded as a traitor and hanged as an act of political expedience.
15. Díaz, Discovery, 524; Prescott, History, 738.
16. Díaz, Discovery, 526.
17. Cortés, Letters, 209.
18. Marks, Cortés, 228; López-Portillo, They Are Coming, 308–09.
19. Cortés, Letters, 211.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid., 212.
22. Ibid.
23. Ixtlilxochitl, Ally, 27; Gardiner, Naval Power, 164–65.
24. Quoted in Cortés, Letters, 212; Thomas, Conquest, 496. Thomas attributes the comment to Sandoval at Iztapalapa, but actually Cortés doesn’t specifically say which person made the comment, alluding rather to “the garrison at Coyoacán.” Those at the garrison could better see the action on the water, he wrote, which if true would suggest that the comment more likely came from Olid.
25. Cortés, Letters, 213–14; Marks, Cortés, 232; López-Portillo, They Are Coming, 311.
26. Cortés, Letters, 214; Díaz, Discovery, 532.
Chapter 21
1. Cortés, Letters, 215; Gómara, Cortés, 269; Marks, Cortés, 233.
2. Hassig, Mexico, 156–57.
3. Cortés, Letters, 214.
4. Ibid., 216.
5. Gómara, Cortés, 270; Thomas, Conquest, 500; López-Portillo, They Are Coming, 313.
6. Florentine Codex, Book 12, in Lockhart, We People Here, 193–94.
7. Cortés, Letters, 217; Thomas, Conquest, 500; Marks, Cortés, 235.
8. Lockhart, We People Here, 194–95; Cortés, Letters, 218; León-Portilla, Broken Spears, 99.
9. Quoted in Léon-Portilla, Broken Spears, 99.
10. Ibid.; Lockhart, We People Here, 195–96; Cortés, Letters, 219.
11. Cortés, Letters, 220.
12. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 364.
13. Ibid., 365.
14. Ibid.; Thomas, Conquest, 501; Prescott, History, 751–52.
15. Marks, Cortés, 234; Thomas, Conquest, 501; Ixtlilxochitl, Ally, 35.
16. Cortés, Letters, 222.
17. Ibid., 222–23.
18. Ibid., 223; Gómara, Cortés, 274–75; Prescott, History, 753–54.
19. López-Portillo, They Are Coming, 315. Padden, Hummingbird and Hawk, 213–16; Duran, Indies, trans. Heyden and Horcacitas, 312.
20. Kelly, Alvarado, 43, 94; Thomas, Conquest, 504.
21. Díaz, Discovery, 549.
22. Ibid., 550; López-Portillo, They Are Coming, 318–21; Pohl and Robinson, Aztecs, 145.
23. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 372.
24. Cortés, Letters, 235.
25. Gardiner, Naval Power, 181; López-Portillo, They Are Coming, 327.
26. Gardiner, Naval Power, 181; Kelly, Alvarado, 109; Hassig, Mexico, 160–61.
27. Cortés, Letters, 235; Gardiner, Constant Captain, 89–90.
28. Cortés, Letters, 234.
29. Ixtlilxochitl, Ally, 38–39; López-Portillo, They Are Coming, 322–23.
30. Cortés, Letters, 236.
31. Ibid., 236–37; Gómara, Cortés, 280; Prescott, History, 764–65.
32. Cortés, Letters, 237.
33. Ibid., 238; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 379; Gómara, Cortés, 280–81.
34. Cortés, Letters, 238–39.
35. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 380. Ixtlilxochitl, Ally, claims that it was actually his ancestor (and namesake) Ixtlilxochitl who severed the arms of the Aztecs who had seized and were absconding with Cortés (39–41). Most other sources confirm Díaz on this point.
36. Quoted in Cortés, Letters, 239.
37. Cortés egregiously underestimates the number of Spaniards who died that day, writing to his king that thirty-five to forty were slain and twenty wounded. He claims that a thousand allies perished, likely another understatement given the immediate subsequent attrition by allied forces. In addition, he mentions the loss of a number of crossbows, harquebuses, and one small field gun. For an itemized list of more likely numbers, see Cortés, Letters, 489n. Most sources place the count closer to sixty Spaniards dead (the greatest number by sacrifice), as well as eight horses and two cannons lost—plus thousands of allies.
38. Quoted in Díaz, Discovery, 561–62.
39. Ibid., 569; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 387. The Florentine Codex also records this spectacle; Lockhart, We People He
re, 210–18. Also interesting is León-Portilla, Broken Spears, 104–9.
40. Cortés, Letters, 241; Duran, Indies, trans. Heyden and Horcasitas, 314; Carrasco, City of Sacrifice, 50–51, 87.
Chapter 22
1. Marks, Cortés, 243–44; León-Portilla, Broken Spears, 104, 107.
2. López-Portillo, They Are Coming, 330–31; Marks, Cortés, 244; Cortés, Letters, 246; Gómara, Cortés, 282–83.
3. Cortés, Letters, 242; Gómara, Cortés, 283; Prescott, History, 780.
4. Gardiner, Constant Captain, 93; Cortés, Letters, 242; Gómara, Cortés, 283.
5. The reference to the “roasted babies” is found in Cortés, Letters, 245; Gómara, Cortés, 284; Marks, Cortés, 247.
6. Ixtlilxochitl, Ally, 42–44; Gardiner, Constant Captain, 93–95; Hassig, Mexico, 166–68.
7. Cortés, Letters, 247, 490n; Prescott, History, 781; Thomas, Conquest, 516 and 752n.
8. Prescott, History, 379; Cortés, Letters, 279, 325; Thomas, Conquest, 516.
9. Gómara, Cortés, 287; Prescott, History, 783; Thomas, Conquest, 516. Women disguised as warriors are described in Duran, Indies, 555.
10. Florentine Codex, in Lockhart, We People Here, 218; León-Portilla, Broken Spears, 107–9; Thomas, Conquest, 516; Kelly, Alvarado, 114–15.
11. Cortés, Letters, 248.
12. Ibid.
13. Ixtlilxochitl, Ally, 43–44; Hassig, Mexico, 169.
14. As we have seen, the estimates vary considerably. The figure 150,000 is actually conservative.
15. Gardiner, Constant Captain, 95–96; Cortés, Letters, 251–52; Kelly, Alvarado, 114–15; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 398–99.
16. Thomas, Conquest, 518; Prescott, History, 790–91; Díaz, Discovery, 578.
17. Cortés, Letters, 256.
18. Lockhart, We People Here, 242–43. The tent is also referred to as “red” and “varicolored.”
19. Prescott, History, 794–95; Cortés, Letters, 256–57, 490–91n; Thomas, Conquest, 520; Díaz, Discovery, 587–88.
20. Cortés, Letters, 257.
21. Sahagún, War of Conquest, 79; Marks, Cortés, 246; Kelly, Alvarado, 115.
22. Cortés, Letters, 262–63.
23. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 400.
24. Ibid., 407.
25. From Aztec accounts, including “Epic Description of the Beseiged City” in León-Portilla, Broken Spears, 137–38; and “The Fall of Tenochtitlán,” of Cantares Mexicanas, in Schwartz, Victors, 212–13. Finally, see Bancroft, History of Mexico, 192.
