Mexica: A History Podcast
Mexica: A History Podcast
Along the Coast (Ep 3)
Episode Three – Along the Coast
Cortes departs Maya country and heads north, to Triple Alliance (Aztec) territory. A messenger spots the ships, and this begins a year long political dance between Moctezuma and Cortes. Despite Moctezuma's attempts to curtail the Spanish push inland, Cortes discovers divides among the people.
Part 1 – Closing out Business in Potonchan
Following his victory at the Battle of Cintla, Cortes spent two weeks in the regional capital Potonchan, which he had named Santa Maria de la Victoria. In that time he prepared to sail north to San Juan de Ulua, where Captain Grijalva had met with Aztec representatives the year before.
Part 2 – Aztec Territory
Cortes sails north from Maya country to San Juan de Ulua where the Aztec sentries are on guard for another Spanish expedition. The Aztec representatives Tentlil and Cuitlalpitoc are sent to greet the new arrivals and the beginning of a months-long negotiation between the Mexica and the Spanish begins.
Part 3 – Marina Reveals Herself
A slave girl given to Cortes by the Maya chief Tabscoob, reveals a hidden skill: her ability to speak both Nahuatl and Maya. Her given name, Malintzin, is changed to the Christianized Marina and she takes her place at the side of Cortes for the next two years as his chief translator, advisor and eventually the mother of his child.
Part 4 – Report to Moctezuma
Tentlil meets with Cortes in the dunes and offers the Spanish supplies. An Aztec messenger is sent to Tenochtitlan with the report of the meeting.
Part 5 – The Great Treasure
Commissioned the year before for Grijalva, the legendary Great Treasure of Moctezuma is sent to Cortes on the coast. This treasure would be sent on to Spain as property of Charles V. Included in this original shipment it is believed, was the now famous green feathered headdress now housed in Vienna.
Part 6 – Discontent and Political Maneuvering
Hunger, mosquitoes and boredom had eaten at morale and Cortes soon found a group of men in revolt. He would emerge from the political strife as the Chief Justice and Commanding General of the new town of Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz.
Episode 3 Breakdown – The Great Treasure of Moctezuma
One of the most famous parts of the “Conquest of Mexico” is the treasure sent by Moctezuma to Cortes while he was on the coast. Most of the European accounts, and some of the codices, mention the treasure and the golden sun disc and the silver moon disc. Visit the Episode webpage to read more.
Episode 3 - Along the Coast to Mexica Lands
Last time in Episode 2: we traced Cortes from his upbringing in Extremadura, Spain through his participation in genocide in Cuba and Hispaniola to the shores of Maya country where he decimated the armies of Chief Tabscoob.
March, 1519. Word of the Spanish victory over the Yokot'an Maya armies of Chief Tabscoob was spreading, with it fear as Hernan Cortes began to turn his gaze toward the Mexica and their gold.
The wide, clean avenues of Tenochtitlan were filled with the normal bustle of any day in the capital. But in the palace a unique and gripping terror held Moctezuma. Reports of a shattering blow to their Maya trading partners in the South had reached the Mexica king. The main force of the combined Yokot'an Maya, under the leadership of Tabscoob, had failed to slow the Spanish invaders. This was a catastrophic blow to the historic order of life in mesoamerica. A shift had occurred, a reordering of power and structure so massive that the course of history was already off on a wildly different tangent than any Maya or Mexica could have expected. Moctezuma kept the knowledge of this dramatic event to his counsel and leadership.
In the streets of Tenochtitlan life carried on. Neatly dressed young women, in their white cotton huipiles, their shiny, black hair tightly bound in buns still vied for the attention of the young men, who vied right back. Farmers pushed seeds into the moist ground of the man-made chinampas for the summer harvest. The flatboats moved goods and people about the city, their navigators stepping up onto bridges and back down to the boats as they passed under. On the lake fishermen continued to harvest fish and acociles, a local crayfish. Life in the sunny streets and canals carried on outside the royal palace.
Part 1: Closing Out Business in Potonchan
In the humid coastal lowlands of Tabasco the Maya people of Potonchan began to return from the forests, where they’d been hiding, to their scarred village. All the thatched roofs had been burned, furniture destroyed, statuary and pottery smashed and broken. Cortes had demanded the people return, that it was not his intent to destroy them. At first, cautious and weary, the men returned. They cleaned the town, swept out the ash, removed the burnt wood and began to collect new grass to weave new roofs. Women and children returned in the days that followed, with them returned the scents of home: hearth fires, cooked tortillas and maize cakes. Tabscoob sent caravans of turkeys, vegetables and gold to Cortes. In the sacred plaza the old gods were removed from the main temple, a modest 3-stepped pyramid. Crosses replaced them. When the Maya people fled Potonchan before the Spanish took the town, and before the Battle of Cintla, they were the Yokot’an Maya of Potonchan. When they returned they would have to become the Christians of Santa Maria de la Victoria.
Father Olmedo was ordered to explain the blessings of the Catholic faith, of the Virgin Mary, and her son Jesus Christ to the 20 slave women that had been gifted to Cortes. He then baptized the women, making them the first female converts in what would become mainland Mexico. Cortes then gifted the women to his captains and best men. One of the women, whose name was Malintzin, had been baptized with the Christian name Marina. She was given to Captain Alonso Puertocarrero, one of Cortes’s most loyal captains.
More than one man noted that she stood out for her physical beauty, but also she had a certain self-assured way about her. Marina’s eyes looked through words to see the truth in motivations. Perhaps as a bilingual Maya and Nahuatl speaker she had come to rely as much on the universal physical cues of conversation, which often speak more truthfully than words. Or perhaps as a woman from the upper castes of the Cotaxtla region she knew the politics of words. Malintzin, an Indigenous noblewoman from a small coastal town, would soon take her place at the side of Cortes, and at the top of the political hierarchy of the New World that was to come. For now she kept her vital skill hidden.
Several days after the battle, while Cortes’s men rested, Chief Tabscoob and a delegation of about 40 Maya leaders came to speak with Cortes. They were greeted respectfully. They had come to ask permission to collect their dead, and to end hostilities. The Maya men reported up to 800 missing men. Cortes granted them this dignity and moved on to more devout conversations about where the gold was. Tabscoob revealed the “Culuans” had much more gold than the Maya. Culua was their word for the people of the Valley of Mexico, whom they traded with on occasion. Cortes’s probing questions about the gold, where it came from and how much there was, found few answers from the Maya. Their porous geology didn’t hold much in precious minerals.
Cortes asked Tabscoob why he attacked them but the previous year had traded peacefully with the Spanish captain Juan de Grijalva. Tabscoob replied that his brother, Moch Couoh, Chief of the nearby town of Chompoton, had criticized him for not driving Grijalva away, when the people of Chompoton had fought valiantly against Cordoba in 1517 and Grijalva in 1518. Familial solidarity seemed a fair excuse for the hostility. War was like sport to Cortes, who could quickly move past the savagery of battle into strategic empathy for his enemy, like a football coach breaking down the opponent’s understandable attempt at defense and strategy.
On Palm Sunday, 1519, Cortes ordered Father Olmedo to hold mass, to put on a big show. Maya leaders attended, Father Olmedo and the Priest Juan Diaz led the holiest procession this troupe could muster. Olmedo had the vestments brought from the ship, and led the Spanish and Maya through the dusty streets of Santa Maria de la Victoria, up the main avenue to the small pyramid upon which sat the newly consecrated altar.
Maya leaders and head men from Chompoton, Potonchan, Cintla and other towns came with their families and gathered at the foot of the strange new altar and watched mass. The priest's sweat bled into the silks along his neck and mixed with the dust as he spoke. The recently freed Maya captive, a Spaniard named Aguilar, translated Olmedo’s sermon into Maya. A group of Maya men and women were baptized in front of the assembled villagers. The former priests of the Maya gods were taught how to care for the altars and symbols of their new faith and to keep fresh flowers around the altar.
Having saved souls and collected gold, Cortes ordered his men to depart for San Juan de Ulua the next day.
Part 2: Aztec Territory, San Juan de Ulua
It might seem like a dream appointment, sitting on a wooden tower overlooking an obscure bay on the tropical coast for days on end. But to this man, who had been sitting there day after day, it felt unproductive; a waste of his time. He had a farm near Cotaxtla and he’d prefer to be there but his governor, Tentlil, said that Moctezuma wanted to be on the lookout should another expedition of the foreigners show up. So he sat, day after day right up until March of 1519 when several small dots appeared along the southern coast. The sentry stood up. The dots grew bigger and soon the man could make out the sails and wooden hulls of 3, 5, 8 - 11 ships.
In 1517, Captain Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba made the first coastal exploration of what would be Mexico. He was mortally wounded by the Maya of Chompoton and fled back to Cuba, where he died of his wounds. He never made it to Aztec territory. The next year, in 1518, Captain Juan de Grijalva contacted Aztec representatives, including Tentlil and a man named Pinotl, at San Juan de Ulua. As a result Moctezuma commissioned a great number of gold, silver, jade pieces, feathered shields and other precious featherworks, which were just as highly valued as the precious stones and metals.
The best silversmiths in Atzcapotzalco were called upon to work on the many pieces commissioned. Goldsmiths in Tenochtitlan worked to craft pectorals, bracelets, ear plugs, statues and other works of art. Among the treasures was a large golden sun-disc with intricately crafted relief work displaying figures and animals. A similar moon-disc was also crafted by the silversmiths. Each disc was about the size of a wagon wheel. Cortes described them as 28 hands across. Writing after the fact, Gomara estimated their value at 20,000 ducats, a common gold coin currency at the time in Europe.
Grijalva left before the treasures were completed but they were kept for when and if these strangers appeared again. Moctezuma intended to send this treasure to them as a welcome gift, and if the gods were kind, a parting gift as well. Sentries had been posted along the Mexica-controlled coastline since Grijalva left for Cuba. Sentries were to report any sightings immediately. And then, the day before Good Friday, 1519, in the Aztec year of One Reed, they appeared again. Having spotted the ships the sentry took off to notify a chain of officials. First the sentry went to Cotaxtla, about 30 miles inland, where he notified the regional administrator, Tentlil, who was part of the envoy who had spoken to Juan de Grijalva the year before. Cotaxtla was culturally separate from the Maya or Mexica. However, its people were Nahuatl speakers and loyal allies to Moctezuma and the Triple Alliance in the Valley of Mexico.
Within a few hours of the Spanish arriving near the dunes of San Juan de Ulua canoes from the local Aztec outpost were in the water and offering to trade small, personal things or food. A group of Spanish had landed on the mainland where they began to trade with the coastal people. By the next day, Good Friday, Cortes had begun to offload his men, the horses and the artillery. The Taino slaves they had brought from Cuba immediately got to work cutting trees and building shelters and firepits in the windy and swampy dunes.
From Cotaxtla, in the lowland watershed of the Sierra Madre mountains, a runner carried the message of the Spanish arrival west toward Tenochtitlan, out of the farmland of the green foothills up into the desert highlands. Eventually, after two days the message passed south of the volcano Popocatepetl through the city of Cholula then north into the Valley of Mexico, past Chalco, and along the Ixtapalapa Causeway to the Mexica capital Tenochtitlan. The runner entered the palace of Moctezuma near the sacred precinct and asked to be admitted to see the emperor. After blessings and incense the messenger was admitted to the council chamber.
Moctezuma looked down on the messenger as he was escorted into the chamber, eyes cast to the ground. Very few people, in certain specific circumstances, were allowed to look at the face of the Tlatoani. Moctezuma, Lord of Tenochtitlan, Tlatoani of the Mexica people, Heuy Tlatoani of the Triple Alliance, exuded a calm dignity, but inside he was anxious. Reports of devastating conflict to the south had already reached his ears. But intelligence on the current location of the Spanish had gone dark.”What message do you have,” Moctezuma asked, although in his heart he already knew.
The messenger explained the men on the mountainous ships had returned. Some of the local people had been trading with them for their peculiar blue jewels. He went on to tell the Emperor that Tentlil, the regional governor from the area, had been informed and was preparing to officially receive the visitors. Without showing alarm, Moctezuma looked through the pillars of his palace, across Lake Texcoco, to the hills beyond which Cortes was waiting. He breathed in deeply, slowly. Then he called for the other two Triple Alliance leaders, Cacama of Texcoco and Totoquihuatzli of Tlacopan. His high military advisor, Quappiatl, was also there. These men all wore shabby cloaks over their normal fineries; a sign of humility before the tlatoani.
With his council convened, the lords of the Triple Alliance together discussed the situation. The burdened king confided that these visitors had him worried. The other lords tried to soothe Moctezuma, to calm his worries. Different options were discussed, from financial tribute to all out war. For now, Moctezuma’s pacifist approach of friendship would be the strategy. It was decided Cuitlalpitoc, a high ranking attendant, would take the great treasures made for Grijalva and go to Cotaxtla to meet Tentlil. From Cotaxtla the envoy would go to meet the Spanish, present the treasure and ask them to leave in friendship. But Moctezuma did not understand Cortes, nor the hunger in his heart.
Part 3 - Marina Reveals Herself
On Good Friday, 1519, boats continued making runs from the ships to the beach to move supplies and people to the camp. Cortes had offloaded most of his supplies, men, horses and the artillery. Crates of food, barrels of salt pork, tents, a few tables and chairs and other supplies were carefully loaded into the boats, rowed across the water and carried above the surf onto the beach.
The beach was alive with activity as captains shouted orders on where things went, soldiers wandered the perimeter as curious about the landscape as the threats it may hide. Marina found herself mingling amidst some of the local Mexica traders. They spoke Nahuatl, a new and different language to most of the Spanish. A few of the men had been with Grijalva and had seen Pinotl and Tentlil. The Aztec language was not new to Marina, who was raised in a Nahua household. As a captive of the Maya she had learned to speak their language, making her bilingual. She began to converse with the Nahua men in camp. She was the only person in the Cortes expedition force that could speak Nahuatl, the language of the Aztec Triple Alliance. Some of the men noticed her talking but did not quite connect the dots.
Easter Sunday, 1519 - Tentlil and Cortes Meet
Tentlil arrived in the dunes outside a small village called Chalchihueyecan and greeted Cortes with the customary bow, incense blessing and a presentation of straws dipped in blood drawn from his forearm. He was a middle-aged man, thin with salt and pepper hair and he wore the clean cloak of a lord, tied over one shoulder. He had brought a few hundred porters with food and gifts, including a small box of gold from his own treasury. Cortes greeted him kindly and exchanged some small gifts, including a finely woven Flemish hat, a pair of capes and a steel knife. It was immediately clear that communication was a barrier. Jeronimo de Aguilar, the former Maya prisoner, only spoke Maya. He was struggling to communicate, using more hand gestures than words.
“I saw the girl speaking to them,” said a Spanish soldier.
The soldier pointed to her and immediately Marina was brought to Cortes and Aguilar.
“Do you speak their language?” Aguilar asked her in Maya.
“Yes, it’s my language,” she replied.
She would not be away from Cortes again throughout the next year. The fortuitousness of the Spanish to receive such a valuable gift is remarkable. In all the reckless courage and courageous foolishness that Cortes summoned in 1519, a healthy dose of luck seems to have followed him. As if his Patron Saint Peter was, in fact, looking out for him. There are other bilingual people recorded in mesoamerica but for Cortes she was a living Rosetta Stone, the key to unlocking communication with his target people, the Nahuatl speaking people of the Triple Alliance. With his translators in place, Cortes began his negotiation with Tentlil.
It being Easter Sunday, Cortes arranged for Tentlil and the other captains to see the full show, starting with Catholic mass. Friar Olmedo chanted mass, backed by Father Juan Diaz from a small makeshift altar. Diaz waved incense, not unlike the Aztec custom. Taking their cues from the Latin verse the Spanish soldiers kneeled in the sand, and stood, and kneeled, and prayed, and stood up, and kneeled throughout the service. Tentlil and his captains observed and quietly commented to each other on occasion, when some aspect of this new faith piqued their interest.
Tables were set up in camp and a fine dinner, made from the turkey and fruit, brought by Tentlil’s caravan, was served for all the men. Wine was poured for the captain’s table, including for Tentlil. Cortes explained about the glory of King Charles and Castile. He also plied Tentlil for information about the politics of this land. The Aztec regional governor said each town had a chief or governor, but that all of them in this land reported to one of the three heads of the Triple Alliance. Ultimately, all were subject to the Mexica Tlatoani of Tenochtitlan, Moctezuma.
Cortes tried to segway back to his mission, that he sought friendship and wanted to go to the land of Mexico to see their king, Moctezuma, in person. Tentlil found this request to be a bit presumptuous on the part of a captain. He smiled, chuckled a bit to himself, then pushed back saying it was unlikely Moctezuma would see him, but that he would take the message to him. All this time scribes were capturing these moments in drawings to report back to Moctezuma.
Cortes had one more display of power for Tentlil. A message, of sorts. After the meal and talk, they left the camp and headed out to the beach where Cortes had ordered the cavalry and artillery assembled. The horses were fully dressed with their armor and bells. The falconets and cannons were lined on the dune above the beach by the artilleryman Mesa. As the party strolled toward the sea, Marina translated from Nahuatl to Maya and Jeronimo de Aguilar from Maya to Spanish. An atmosphere shattering boom sounded above them. A cannon ball ripped across nearby treetops, splintering several large branches with great noise. The shot dropped Tentlil and the rest of his entourage to their knees. Never in their lives had they seen or heard such a thing. Smoke had clouded the beach, the sulphur smell reminding some of the volcanoes. Through the smoke Pedro de Alvarado charged the horses in formation up the beach toward the group, the noise of their armor, snorting and hoof falls matching the thunderous roar of the cannons. The horse’s eyes and armor glinted in the sun. It was the singular most powerful military display the Aztecs had ever seen.
Seeing the Spaniards standing firm, Tentlil realized there was no danger and he began to inquire about the powerful scene. Tentlil examined a soldier’s metal helmet, holding it in his hands, turning it and knocking on the metal. Cortes told him he could have it if he returned it full of gold. He asked about the men and the horses. But Cortes shifted the conversation back to gold and Mexico. The sickly and constant need to always return to gold irked Tentlil. There seemed more to discuss at this momentous occasion but he had seen enough and promised to report Cortes’s request to Moctezuma. With that, Tentlil departed. He left the camp and many porters, women and ranking officials there to support the Spanish with wood, tortillas, corncakes, melon, beans, turkey and water.
Part 4 - Report to Moctezuma
Behaving with calm and collected communication Tentlil dutifully walked the 30 miles back to Cotaxtla. From there he sent a message, along with the drawings done by the scribes, to Moctezuma. The message arrived at the palace and Moctezuma, nervous for the news, asked for the messenger to be purified before he received the message. The man was blessed with incense, a sacrifice performed and blood spattered upon him. After the ceremony Moctezuma moved to his great hall to hear the message. The messenger entered with several men behind him holding amate paper sheets with the drawings made in San Juan de Ulua.
“Great Huey Tlatoani Moctezuma Xocoyotzin, we have met with these new foreigners. They are very different from us, with hairy faces and messy hair of many colors. Their leader is called Captain Cortes, different from the last Captain Grijalva,” the messenger explained. He gestured toward the drawings behind him, and said “The men wear armor of shining metal, and their weapons expel thunder and smoke with great noise, and anyone in front of these weapons is stricken to the ground as if by lightning. With them they have a set of great, giant deer upon which they ride. They can control the animals, and tell them where they want to go. The animals are as tall as a house, and also armored for battle.” he continued.
“Their dogs are enormous, as well. Far larger than our dogs, with large teeth, long shaggy hair, and burning yellow eyes. They hunt men alongside these foreigners and their deer. As if the sacred dog Xolotl, of the underworld, was running alongside them.”
The messenger continued, uninterrupted, pointing at a scribe’s rendering of Marina, “And with them is a woman who speaks for them. She sits at the side of their Captain Cortes and speaks with the Mexica, the Maya and foreigners. They say she is a princess from Cotaxtla who was traded into slavery. She was gifted to Cortes by Tabscoob, of the Yokot'an Maya after his armies were massacred at Cintla. It is as if she was fated to be at his side. She informs him and speaks for him,” the man said.
Moctezuma listened to the man’s words intently, hearing every detail, as he continued, “Lord Tentlil has ensured they are pleased and cared for with good food, water and fires. What this Captain Cortes wants, Great Tlatoani, is… to come here. To speak with you.”
Moctezuma leaned back in his seat, breathing in slowly, then out again. Deep dread set into Moctezuma’s mind. He knew what the Spanish had done to Tabscoob in Tabasco. Now his own men confirmed the power of their weapons, their beasts and informed him of Marina, the bilingual woman. Moctezuma’s stomach dropped as he had visions of these men entering Tenochtitlan; a native of this land at their side, guiding them. Glancing at the faces around him, Moctezuma perceived concern. Beams of sunlight caught the tobacco smoke lingering in the diplomatic chamber where Moctezuma normally heard the pleas and complaints of his people. His counselors spoke words of encouragement but the anxious tone in their voices belied their message. Some were scared and spoke of caution, others were angered and leaning toward war. Something unprecedented was happening. Cuitlahuac, lord of Ixtapalapa and Moctezuma’s younger brother, urged him not to let these foreigners into his house.
“I thank you for your message, although I wish you brought news of their departure,” Moctezuma said pensively.
Part 6 - The Great Treasure
Moctezuma dispatched a group of officials to deliver the great treasure that had been commissioned after Grijalva’s visit. The Lords of the Triple Alliance had all agreed to provide the treasure and ask the men to take it to their king as a sign of their new friendship. And so the envoy was dispatched under the command of Cuitlalpitoc. Among the caravan members were magicians, who were to meet with, spy on and cast spells upon Cortes. The men brought with them what seemed like thousands of porters, carrying supplies, food and the great treasure. They passed through the hot lands of Chalco, through high altitude pine forests, down around the volcanoes into the lush lowlands to Cotaxtla where Tentlil joined them. Within four days the Aztec caravan spotted the Spanish fleet anchored near an island-outpost they called Tecpan Tlayacac, and that the Spanish now called San Juan de Ulua. Today, among the industrial ports of Vera Cruz there is a colonial-era star fortress called Fuerte de San Juan de Ulua, founded in 1535, a legacy of Cortes’ explorations.
Tentlil and Cuitlalpitoc entered the camp with the hundreds of porters in tow. He found Cortes and approached, bowing and burning incense in the Mexica custom. Cuitlalpitoc and a line of other ranking men did the same. Cortes summoned Marina to translate with Aguilar and she took her place at his side, dressed neatly in her poncho-like huipil and long black hair. The two men greeted each other, some pleasantries were exchanged.
Tentlil nodded to Cuitlalpitoc who ordered that petates, or woven mats, be placed on the ground. In a stunning show of wealth, Tentlil presented Cortes with the great treasure Moctezuma had commissioned for Grijalva. One by one the porters placed each gold piece, each jade sculpture, carefully on the petates. The men were astonished at the amount of treasure. It kept coming. Tentlil placed around Cortes’s neck a gold necklace. There was gold and silver jewelry, pectoral chest pieces, scepters and statues of all kinds, turquoise masks, many feather shields and hundreds of bundles of cotton robes like they wore. When the Europeans saw the enormous solid gold sun disc, as large as a wagon wheel, Bernal Diaz thought it was not real and could not believe it. The silver moon disc was similar in size. In addition to the wealth of treasures, Tentlil had arranged for more food to be delivered to the Spanish. All this time Moctezuma’s men were taking note of the camp and the mannerisms of the Spanish and their horses. The magicians wandered about and cast spells and curses, but mostly their observations were the more valuable effort..
Tentlil finally delivered Moctezuma’s message. The great speaker of Tenochtitlan was flattered that such noble men had come from such a distant and great kingdom, but that he would not be able to meet with them. To take the gifts presented today and return to their king with promise of a new friendship. That was his final message. This did not sit well with Cortes who began politicking immediately, thanking the Aztec men, giving them gifts and urging that they reconsider and report back to Moctezuma that he would not accept this response. After some back and forth Tentlil agreed to return to Tenochtitlan and request another visit of Moctezuma. He had agreed as much to get out of the situation as anything else. With that, Tentlil left for Cotaxtla where he would report to Moctezuma and await instruction.
In the days after Tentlil had delivered this great treasure the food deliveries to the Spanish began to wane and growing hunger began to take over the Spanish. Their complaints to the ranking man, Cuitlalpitoc, were nodded to and heard but less and less food arrived each day. Surely the appetite of a small European army began to drain the local surpluses, plus even the Aztec courtesies were straining under the helplessness of these hungry invaders.
Cortes knew he could not stay in these mosquito-infested dunes, and with Aztec support fading he would have to find a more permanent settlement with a good port. With that in mind he sent Francisco de Montejo and two ships piloted by veterans Alaminos and Juan Alvarez, North up the coast. They came upon a large rock overlooking the sea, upon its slope was a town called Quiahuitzlan. The ships continued north, coming close to the Panuco River before turning back. Cortes was not thrilled at the report.
After four or five days Tentlil arrived back in the dunes of San Juan de Ulua with some porters and a bit more food. He presented Cortes with a small tribute of gold and other valuables but this time pleaded with him to go, that Moctezuma would not meet with him. Cortes argued, and demanded, but Tentlil stood firm.
The next morning the mixed Cotaxtla and Mexica camp was gone. Cuitlalpitoc and his people had pulled up stakes in the dark of night and left. The camp was quieter, darker and colder now that the comforting smells of corncakes and tortillas were gone, some of the women they’d been using had left. The porters were gone, too. Cortes took this as a hostile act and told his men to be on alert, to sleep with their weapons ready.
Part 7 - Discontent and Political Maneuvering
With the local Cotaxtlan support gone, the never ending mosquitoes picking the men to pieces and hunger nipping at their mental and physical wellbeing tempers had flared in the Spanish camp. A group of men loyal to Cuba’s governor, Diego Velazquez, had formed a faction that advocated for returning to Cuba. Arguments had broken out about staying or going, and about trading with locals for gold. The Velazquez faction thought all gold should be collected, the Royal Fifth deducted, and the rest distributed evenly according to the agreements. Others thought the harsh journey and risk had earned the men a little freedom to trade for personal gold. Partisans of both Cortes and Velazquez spent nights creeping around whispering propaganda in each other’s ears. Cortes' side argued for the glory of conquest, settlement and Mexica gold or else crawl back to Velazquez with a report and a handful of gold. The Velazquez men spoke of departing for Cuba sticking to a narrow interpretation of the order they were sent with. At one point different men demanded to see the order, as if it were a founding document or Biblical verse to be interpreted.
Amidst this tumultuous political situation and with the poor spirit in these miserable dunes Cortes ordered the men to march for the town on the rock Montejo had spotted on his expedition North. The Velazquez men refused to advance, citing low supplies, numerous casualties and overwhelming native numbers. The treasure already delivered from Moctezuma was enough, they argued, and that it was time to return to Cuba.
It was not enough for Cortes, who knew there was more to be had. Cortes had cooked up a scheme with his captains Puertocarrero, Pedro de Alvarado and his five brothers, plus a few others. Through his cunning deceipts Cortes proposed that he would begrudgingly agree with the Velasquez men while his partisans, who were more numerous, would loudly protest and coax him back to founding a settlement. This little feign allowed Cortes to appear neutral. Next, with his trademark maneuvering and a similar manipulation, Cortes managed to have himself elected Commander and Chief Justice of a new settlement called Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz. Immediately they began electing officials for the new, as-yet to be built town. Pedro de Alvarado was elected Commander of Expeditions, Olid for quartermaster. Juan de Escalante as High Constable and so on.
When news emerged of their shadowy election the Velazquez men erupted in shouting, finger pointing and scuffles. Cortes agreed to let any who wanted to return to Cuba to go, which settled some of the dissidents. Those who kept up their raucous disobedience were put in irons and held for several days under guard. In the end no ship was allowed to sail to Cuba. The insurgency was no longer tolerated by Cortes. However, these disagreements were no chasm too wide for the emotionally skilled Cortes, who sent the bulk of the opposing faction on an expedition to find food, which they did. When they returned and bellies had been fed the mood shifted and Cortes was able to appease the dissidents. He released all but two of the men from chains. Juan Velazquez de Leon and Diego de Ordaz spent a couple extra days aboard the ship in irons, but even they came around. By the end of the disputes Cortes had managed to put himself atop a new Spanish colony as the Chief Justice and military commander. It was the equivalent of a political Ponzi scheme, the illusion of power built upon more illusion of power, designed to elevate Cortes around Diego Velazquez and make him a direct report to King Charles. The first report from Cortes, the new Chief Justice, to the king would be a powerful argument for his cause: and it would include the great treasures Moctezuma had given to Cortes.
Next time, in Episode 4: Cortes begins work on the town of Villa Rica, and destroys his own ships while Moctezuma strategizes against the Spanish.
