by Buddy Levy
10. Its close rival Teotihuacán had been abandoned, so now fewer people in total ventured there each year.
11. Cortés, Letters, 75.
12. Tapia, in Fuentes, Conquistadors, 34.
13. On the zoo animals, see Gómara, Cortés, 126; Thomas, Conquest, 259; Koch, Aztecs, 179–80.
14. Koch, Aztecs, 177, 179–80; Fehrenbach, Fire, 130. Note that the Spanish and Aztec versions of the “Massacre of Cholula” differ considerably. No mention of an Aztec plot exists in Aztec accounts, which claim that the massacre was entirely unprovoked. This seems rather doubtful, though, given Cortés’s genuine attempts, in all cases but Cholula, at diplomacy and confederacy rather than unprovoked attack. For a fascinating theoretical explanation devoted to the military and political rationale for the massacre, see Hassig, Mexico, 94–102.
15. Cortés, Letters, 73; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 196–97; Gómara, Cortés, 126–27; Tapia, in Fuentes, Conquistadors, 34–35; Prescott, History, 356–58; Padden, Hummingbird and Hawk, 160–62; Thomas, Conquest, 260; Marks, Cortés, 111. Hassig, Mexico, argues that “Malinche’s Discovery” is an elaborate justification for the massacre (97–98).
16. Diego Muñoz Camargo, from Historia de Tlaxcala, in León-Portilla, Broken Spears, 47–48.
17. Gómara, Cortés, 133; Thomas, Conquest, 264; Koch, Aztecs, 185–86.
18. The Massacre of Cholula is variously chronicled in Cortés, Letters, 73–74, 465–66n; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 194–207; Gómara, Cortés, 126–34; Prescott, History, 361–74; Thomas, Conquest, 256–64; Pohl and Robinson, Aztecs, 108–9; Koch, Aztecs, 178–86; Marks, Cortés, 108–15; Burr Cartwright Brundage, A Rain of Darts: The Mexica Aztecs (Austin, Tex., and London, 1972), 258–63; and Padden, Hummingbird and Hawk, 158–62. For indigenous accounts and alternative interpretations of the events, see Tapia, in Fuentes, Conquistadors, 33–36; León-Portilla, Broken Spears, 47–49; Stuart B. Schwartz, Victors and Vanquished: Spanish and Nahua Views of the Conquest of Mexico (Boston and New York, 2000), 103, 114–19; Bernardino de Sahagún, The War of Conquest: How It Was Waged Here in Mexico: The Aztecs’ Own Story, trans. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Salt Lake City, 1978), 23–24; Laurette Séjourné, Burning Water: Thought and Religion in Ancient Mexico (New York, 1956), 2. For revisionist approaches, see Restall, Seven Myths, 25, 112, 168n; Hassig, Mexico, 94–99; and Inga Clendinnen, “Fierce and Unnatural Cruelty,” in New World Encounters, ed. Stephen Greenblatt (Berkeley, Calif., 1993), 12–47.
Chapter 7
1. Prescott, History, 376; Marks, Cortés, 115–16.
2. Nicholson, Topiltzin, 29–30; Thomas, Conquest, 267; Cortés, Letters, 77, 466n. The climb up Popocatépetl is recorded variously in Prescott, History, 377–80; Pohl and Robinson, Aztecs, 109–11; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 182–83 (though Díaz places the account in the wrong spot, while they are still in Cholula); Marks, Cortés, 116–17; Koch, Aztecs, 186–88; Thomas, Conquest, 265–68. The mountains are now locally (and affectionately) referred to as Popo and Izta. See also R. J. Secor, Mexico’s Volcanoes (Seattle, Wash., 2001) and G. W. Heil, Ecology and Man in Mexico’s Central Volcanoes Area (Dordrecht, Netherlands, 2003).
3. Cortés, Letters, 77–78; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 182–83; Madariaga, Cortés, 218–21; Prescott, History, 376–79; Marks, Cortés, 117; Thomas, Conquest, 266.
4. Quoted in Thomas, Conquest, 266; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 182.
5. Jean Descola, The Conquistadors (New York, 1957), 174–77.
6. Prescott, History, 381; Thomas, Conquest, 268; Koch, Aztecs, 189; Marks, Cortés, 119; Pohl and Robinson, Aztecs, 110–11.
7. Cortés, Letters, 80–81, 466n; Prescott, History, 383.
8. Codex Florentino, in León-Portilla, Broken Spears, 34.
9. Quoted in Thomas, Conquest, 269; Wood, Conquistadors, 52.
10. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 213; Cortés, Letters, 81.
11. Cortés, Letters, 82.
12. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 214.
13. Quoted in Wood, Conquistadors, 53.
14. Cortés, Letters, 83; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 214; Gómara, Cortés, 137–38.
15. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 216.
16. Hassig, Mexico, 152; Van Tuerenhout, Aztecs, 105–6; Hassig, Trade, Tribute, 47–53; Day, Aztec, 12–17; Vaillant, Aztecs of Mexico, 125–26.
17. Sahagún, War of Conquest, 23. Another translation is found in Lockhart, We People Here, vol. 1, 96–97.
18. Mann, 1491, 112–33; Smith, Aztecs, 1–55; Townsend, Aztecs, 44–71; Marks, Cortés, 9–10.
19. Hassig, Mexico, 101–102, 213n. Also see John E. Kicza, The Peoples and Civilizations of the Americas Before Contact (Washington, D.C.), 22.
20. The historic meeting between Cortés and Montezuma is variously (and not altogether consistently) recorded. See Cortés, Letters, 84–85; Gómara, Cortés, 138–40; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 216–19; Prescott, History, 395–96; Sahagún, War of Conquest, 68–9; León-Portillo, Broken Spears, 62–63; Tapia, in Fuentes, Conquistadors, 38; Fray Drego Duran, The Aztecs: The History of the Indies of New Spain, trans. Doris Heyden and Fernando Horcasitas (New York, 1964), 289–93; Koch, Aztecs, 194–201; Marks, Cortés, 125–27; Restall, Seven Myths, 77–82; Pohl and Robinson, Aztecs, 114; Wood, Conquistadors, 56–64.
21. Cortés, Letters, 85; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 219.
22. Brundage, Rain of Darts, 266; Koch, Aztecs, 195; Thomas, Conquest, 279.
23. León-Portillo, Broken Spears, 64–65; Sahagún, War of Conquest, 68–69. The conversations between Cortés and Montezuma are the subject of much interpretation and controversy. Interestingly, even the Aztec versions record language that suggests that Montezuma alluded to the Quetzalcoatl myth. For further analyses, see Wood, Conquistadors, 56–64; Thomas, Conquest, 280–85; Brundage, Rain of Darts, 266–69; Nicholson, Topiltzin, 85–87. Also compelling is Baldwin, Legends, 96–112.
24. Gómara, Cortés, 168; Koch, Aztecs, 196.
25. León-Portilla, Broken Spears, 66; Wood, Conquistadors, 57.
26. Quoted in Wood, Conquistadors, 61; Sahagún, War of Conquest, 33. Other Aztec versions of this speech, very similar in tenor and detail, include León-Portilla, Broken Spears, 64; Florentine Codex, 16. Some modern scholars, including Francis J. Brooks, are highly skeptical of the accuracy of the conversation, pointing out the unlikelihood of such clean communication and translation, especially considering the multiple languages involved and the circumstances of formal speeches. See Francis J. Brooks, “Motecuzoma Xocoyotl, Hernán Cortés, and Bernal Díaz del Castillo: The Construction of an Arrest,” in Hispanic American Historical Review 75:2 (1995), 149–83.
27. Quoted in Wood, Conquistadors, 2. Similar version in Sahagún, War of Conquest, 34.
28. Thomas, Conquest, 285, Wood, Conquistadors, 64. The historically unprecedented meeting of the Spanish and Aztec empires and the various versions and interpretations of the initial discourse between Cortés and Montezuma are recorded in Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 220–26; Gómara, Cortés, 138–44; Tapia, in Fuentes, Conquistadors, 38–39; Prescott, History, 392–409; Berler, Conquest, 52–57; Innes, Conquistadors, 128–38; and Wood, Conquistadors, 56–62, 64. For Aztec accounts, see León-Portillo, 56–65. For interesting commentary on the Aztec calendar and this meeting, see Brundage, Rain of Darts, 133–35. Gillespie, Aztec Kings, discusses the possibility that Cortés’s references to Quetzalcoatl are apocryphal (179–185). Also compelling in dealing with the complexities of communication and miscommunication is Restall, Seven Myths, 77–82. Finally, for a fantastic and critical analysis of the rhetorical complexities of interpreting the discourse between Cortés and Montezuma, see Glen Carman, Rhetorical Conquests: Cortés, Gómara, and Renaissance Imperialism (West Lafayette, Ind., 2006), 113–71.
29. Quoted in Wood, Conquistadors, 64, and Thomas, Conquest, 285.
Chapter 8
1. Soustelle, Daily Life, 120–62. See also Smith, Aztecs, 135–4
6; Townsend, Aztecs, 156–91; Thomas, Conquest, 286.
2. Gómara, Cortés, 148–49; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 221; Thomas, Conquest, 294–95; Prescott, History, 404. The skilled craftsmanship is also outlined in Vaillant, Aztecs of Mexico, 139–54.
3. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 222; Prescott, History, 405–6.
4. Quoted in Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 223.
5. Smith, Aztecs, 220–21; Carrasco, City of Sacrifice, 66–87 and 196–97; Marks, Cortés, 131–33; Mann, 1491, 120; Collis, Cortés, 47–49.
6. Cortés, Letters, 109–10; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 225; Gómara, Cortés, 144, 148–49; Soustelle, Daily Life, 120–27; Mathilde Helly and Rémi Courgeon, Montezuma and the Aztecs (New York, 1996), 23; Van Tuerenhout, Aztecs, 247. The number of women ranges from 1,000 to 3, 000. Collis, Cortés, 130–33.
7. Gómara, Cortés, 150–53; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 228–29; Smith, Aztecs, 254–56.
8. Gómara, Cortés, 160–63; Prescott, History, 439–45; Thomas, Conquest, 297–98; Collis, Cortés, 131; Vaillant, Aztecs of Mexico, 234–38.
9. Cortés quoted in Gómara, Cortés, 162. The market is also described by Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 225–34. Also see Van Tuerenhout, Aztecs, 83–89; Smith, Aztecs, 106–110.
10. Gómara, Cortés, 161.
11. Ibid., 167. Arguments over the number of human sacrifice victims continue to this day, but there appears to be no doubt that the practice took place on a very large scale in Tenochtitlán. Recent and ongoing archaeological work in Tenochtitlán and nearby Teotihuacán continues to add to the evidence. For a fascinating study, see Carrasco, City of Sacrifice, 2–3, 81–85. Also see Mann, 1491, 120–21.
12. Carrasco, City of Sacrifice, 2–3. See also Roberta H. Markman and Peter T. Markman, The Flayed God: The Mesoamerican Mythological Tradition (San Francisco, 1992), 174–79, 206–7; Van Tuerenhout, Aztecs, 186–91.
13. Codex Mendoza (Fribourg, 1978), 113; Helly, and Courgeon, Montezuma, 45; S. Jeffery K. Wilkerson, “And Then They Were Sacrificed: The Ritual Ballgame of Northeastern Mesoamerica Through Time and Space,” in Vernon L. Scarborough and David R. Wilcox, eds., The Mesoamerican Ballgame (Tucson, Ariz., 1991), 45; Soustelle, Daily Life, 22–23, 159–60. Finally see Theodore Stern, The Rubber-Ball Games of the Americas (New York, 1948), 46–74.
14. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 234; Prescott, History, 445; Thomas, Conquest, 299–300.
15. Thomas, Conquest, 299. On ritual bloodletting and other autosacrifice of priests, see Carrasco, City of Sacrifice, 181, 185. Also see Cecilia Klein, “The Ideology of Autosacrifice at the Templo Mayor,” in The Aztec Templo Mayor, ed. Elizabeth Boone (Washington, D.C., 1987), 293–395.
16. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 234; Gómara, Cortés, 166–67. Duran quoted in Thomas, Conquest, 301; Prescott, History, 447–48.
17. Quoted in Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 237.
18. Quoted in Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 237; Miguel León-Portilla, Aztec Thought and Culture: A Story of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind (Norman, Okla., 1963), 162–63; Carrasco, City of Sacrifice, 3; Padden, Hummingbird and Hawk, 171–73.
Chapter 9
1. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 242; also quoted in Prescott, History, 452.
2. León-Portillo, Broken Spears, 68.
3. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 243–44; Prescott, History, 444–58; Gómara, Cortés, 176–78; Thomas, Conquest, 304–5.
4. Cortés, Letters, 88.
5. Quoted in Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 246.
6. Quoted in Thomas, Conquest, 306; Koch, Aztecs, 205; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 246; Prescott, History, 460.
7. Quoted in Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 246. Also quoted in Prescott, History, 460–61.
8. Brooks, “Motecuzoma,” 149–83. Brooks makes a concerted and fascinating (if at times far-reaching and highly speculative) case that the initial “arrest” of Montezuma by Cortés in November 1519 was more an elaborate “construction” than an actual arrest, arguing also that the actual imprisonment did not take place until April 1520. The entire sequence of the seizure is also recorded by Prescott, History, 456–68.
9. Brooks, “Motecuzoma,” 149–57.
10. Gómara, Cortés, 176–77; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 248.
11. Gómara, Cortés, 178–79; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 249; Prescott, History, 464–65.
12. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 249; Cortés, Letters, 90–91.
13. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 249; Cortés, Letters, 91.
Chapter 10
1. Cortés, Letters, 91; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 256–57; Prescott, History, 467–79.
2. Helly and Courgeon, Montezuma, 44; Scarborough and Wilcox, Mesoamerican Ballgame (Tucson, Ariz., 1991), vii; Smith, Aztecs, 232–33; Stern, Rubber-ball Games.
3. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 252–53; Helly and Courgeon, Montezuma, 44; Prescott, History, 471.
4. Gardiner, Naval Power, 62–72; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 251–52; Madariaga, Cortés, 264, 297; Innes, Conquistadors, 156.
5. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 254–57; Prescott, History, 473–75; Thomas, Conquest, 314–15.
6. Cortés, Letters, 91.
7. Gardiner, Naval Power, 71.
8. Prescott, History, 393; Thomas, Conquest, 315, 711n (86). See Oscar Apenes, “The Primitive Salt Production of Lake Texcoco,” Thenos 9, no. 1 (25–40), 1944. Also see Mark Kurlansky, Salt: A World History (New York, 2002), 202–4.
9. Cortés, Letters, 92–95; Gómara, Cortés, 179–82; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 265–69.
10. Quoted in Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 268.
11. Cortés, Letters, 92–96. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 265–69; Gómara, Cortés, 179–82; Thomas, Conquest, 318–20; Koch, Aztecs, 210.
12. Cortés, Letters, 96–98; Gómara, Cortés, 182–84; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 257–64; Pohl and Robinson, Aztecs, 121, 125; Prescott, History, 476–79; Hassig, Mexico, 105–107.
13. Quoted in Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 264.
14. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 264. The speech is also variously recorded in Gómara, Cortés, 184–86; Cortés, Letters, 98–99; Prescott, History, 480–82. Thomas, Conquest, 324–25, points out that though the precise wording of the speech has been questioned, there were at least six other conquistadors present who confirmed, under oath, the nature, tenor, and content of Montezuma’s speech that day.
15. Cortés, Letters, 99–101; Gómara, Cortés, 186–87; Prescott, History, 482–84; Koch, Aztecs, 210–11.
16. Cortés, Letters, 99–101, 108–9. Also quoted in Thomas, Conquest, 303; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 271–73; Prescott, History, 482–83; Innes, Conquistadors, 151–53; White, Cortés, 210–212.
17. Cortés, Letters, 100; Gómara, Cortés, 187; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 272–73 (Díaz mentions the bribes or secret payments); Prescott, History, 484–88; Marks, Cortés, 148; Koch, Aztecs, 211.
18. Pohl and Robinson, Aztecs, 125; Thomas, Conquest, 327–28.
19. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 276–77; Pohl and Robinson, Aztecs, 125–26; Thomas, Conquest, 328–29.
20. Pohl and Robinson, Aztecs, 126; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 278–79.
21. Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 281; Gómara, Cortés, 192–93; Thomas, Conquest, 332–34; Prescott, History, 492–94; Pohl and Robinson, Aztecs, 126; Koch, Aztecs, 212–13.
Chapter 11
1. Díaz quoted in Thomas, Conquest, 358.
2. Hassig, Mexico, 107. See also Gardiner, Naval Power, 76–79.
3. Cortés quoted in Thomas, Conquest, 368, 723n; Kelly, Alvarado, 62–64.
4. Thomas, Conquest, 360–62; Innes, Conquistadors, 158. Marks, Cortés, 153–54; Kelly, Alvarado, 63–66.
5. Cortés, Letters, 118–22; Gómara, Cortés, 192–98; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 281–83; Prescott, History, 494–503; C. Harvey Gardiner, The Constant Captain: Gonzalo de Sandoval (Carbondale, Ill., 1961), 37–42.<
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6. Gardiner, Constant Captain, 40–41; Thomas, Conquest, 366–67.
7. Gómara, Cortés, 196–97; Prescott, History, 501–2; Díaz, New Spain, trans. Cohen, 282; Collis, Cortés, 167; Innes, Conquistadors, 156–58.
8. Cortés, Letters, 114–16, 473n; Gardiner, Constant Captain, 41–44.
9. Paul Schneider, Brutal Journey (New York, 2006), 7–8.
10. Prescott, History, 509; Thomas, Conquest, 370.
11. Cortés, Letters, 122; Thomas, Conquest, 371; Díaz, Discovery, 366; Prescott, History, 510–11.
12. Prescott, History, 512.
13. Ibid., 510–15.
14. Cortés quoted ibid., 514. Also Cortés, Letters, 123–24.
15. Gómara, Cortés, 194–96; Cortés, Letters, 124–25; Díaz, Discovery, 375–76.
16. Quoted in Schneider, Brutal, 7.
17. Ibid., 8–9; Díaz, Discovery, 388 (citing the number as three thousand pesos); Gardiner, Constant Captain, 45.
18. Díaz, Discovery, 388–89; Gómara, Cortés, 198–200; Prescott, History, 516–18; Madariaga, Cortés, 316–18.
19. Quoted in Prescott, History, 518 and footnote 11.
20. Cortés, Letters, 125; Prescott, History, 518–19; Thomas, Conquest, 376–77.
21. Cortés, Letters, 125–26; Prescott, History, 519.
22. Díaz, Discovery, 390; Prescott, History, 519; Madariaga, Cortés, 317–18.
23. Gómara, Cortés, 203.
24. Díaz, Discovery, 391.
25. Schneider, Brutal, 10; Thomas, Conquest, 379.
26. Schneider, Brutal, 10–11; Thomas, Conquest, 379.
27. Díaz, Discovery, 390–93; Gómara, Cortés, 203–4; Cortés, Letters, 26–27; Prescott, History, 522–24.
28. Tapia, in Fuentes, Conquistadors, 47.
29. Thomas, Conquest, 381.
30. Díaz, Discovery, 392.
31. See Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca’s chronicle of the Narváez expedition in the following: Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, Chronicle of the Narváez Expedition, trans. Fanny Bandelier, rev. Horold Augenbraum (New York, 2002); John Upton Terrell, Journey into Darkness (New York, 1962); David A. Howard, Conquistador in Chains: Cabeza de Vaca and the Indians of the Americas (Tuscaloosa and London, 1997). Also see Schneider, Brutal.
