Source 13.2: The Meeting of Cortés and Moctezuma: An Aztec Account

Another account of this initial encounter comes from The Florentine Codex, a compilation of text and images, compiled under the leadership of Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, a Franciscan missionary who believed that an understanding of Aztec culture was essential to the task of conversion. Because Sahagún relied on Aztec informants and artists, many scholars believe that The Florentine Codex and other codices represent indigenous understandings of the conquest. However, they require a critical reading. They date from several decades after the events they describe. Many contributors to the codices had been influenced by the Christian and European culture of their missionary mentors, and they were writing or painting in a society thoroughly dominated by Spanish colonial rule. Furthermore, the codices reflect the ethnic and regional diversity of Mesoamerica rather than a single Aztec perspective. Despite such limitations, these codices represent a unique window into Mesoamerican understandings of the conquest.

Questions to consider as you examine the source:

Fray Bernardino de Sahagún

The Florentine Codex, Mid-Sixteenth Century

Then they [the Spaniards] set out in this direction, about to enter Mexico [the city of Tenochtitlán] here. Then they all dressed and equipped themselves for war. They girded themselves, tying their battle gear lightly on themselves and then on their horses. Then they arranged themselves in rows, files, ranks. . . . They kept turning about as they went, facing people, looking this way and that, looking sideways, gazing everywhere between the houses, examining things, looking up at the roofs.

By himself came marching ahead, all alone, the one who bore the standard [flag] on his shoulder. . . . Following him came those with iron swords. Their iron swords came bare and gleaming.

The second contingent and file were horses carrying people, each with his cotton cuirass [armor], his leather shield, his iron lance, and his iron sword hanging down from the horse’s neck. They came with bells on, jingling or rattling. The deer [horses] neighed, there was much neighing. . . . Their hooves made holes, they dug holes in the ground wherever they placed them. . . .

The third file were those with iron crossbows. As they came, the iron crossbows lay in their arms. They came along testing them out, brandishing them, (aiming them). . . .

The fourth file were likewise [horsemen].

The fifth group were those with harquebuses [crude guns]. . . . And when they went into the great palace, the residence of the ruler, they repeatedly shot off their harquebuses. They exploded, sputtered, discharged, thundered. Smoke spread. . . . The fetid smell made people dizzy and faint.

And last, bringing up the rear, went the war leader, thought to be the ruler and director in battle. . . . Gathered and massed about him, going at his side, accompanying him, enclosing him were his warriors, the strong and valiant ones of the altepetl [a region or city].

Then all those from the various altepetl on the other side of the mountains, the Tlaxcalans, the people of Tliliuhquitepec, of Huexotzinco, came following behind. They came outfitted for war. . . . Some bore burdens and provisions on their backs. . . . Some dragged the large cannons, which went resting on wooden wheels, making a clamor as they came.

And when they [the Spaniards] had come as far as Xoloco, when they had stopped there, Moctezuma dressed and prepared himself for a meeting, along with other great rulers and high nobles, his rulers and nobles. Then they went to the meeting. On gourd bases they set out different precious flowers. . . . And they carried golden necklaces, necklaces with pendants, wide necklaces.

And when Moctezuma went out to meet them, thereupon he gave various things to the war leader [Cortés]; he gave him flowers, he put necklaces on him, he put flower necklaces on him, he girded him with flowers, he put flower wreaths on his head. Then he laid before him the golden necklaces, all the different things for greeting people

Then [Cortés] said in reply to Moctezuma “Is it not you? Is it not you then? Moctezuma?”

Moctezuma said, “Yes, it is me.” Thereupon he stood up straight, he stood up with their faces meeting. He bowed down deeply to him. He stretched as far as he could, standing stiffly. Addressing him, he said to him:

“O our lord, be doubly welcomed on your arrival in this land; you have come to satisfy your curiosity about your altepetl of Mexico, you have come to sit on your seat of authority, which I have kept a while for you. . . . For a time I have been concerned, looking toward the mysterious place from which you have come, among clouds and mist. It is so that the [former] rulers on departing said that you would come in order to acquaint yourself with your altepetl and sit upon your seat of authority. And now it has come true, you have come.”

[Then Cortés responded:] “Let Moctezuma be at ease, let him not be afraid, for we greatly esteem him. Now we are truly satisfied to see him in person and hear him, for until now we have greatly desired to see him and look upon his face. Well, now we have seen him, we have come to his homeland of Mexico. Bit by bit he will hear what we have to say.”

Thereupon [the Spaniards] took [Moctezuma ] by the hand. They came along with him, stroking his hair to show their good feeling. And the Spaniards looked at him, each of them giving him a close look. They would start along walking, then mount, then dismount again in order to see him.

Source: James Lockhart, ed. and trans., We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993), 108–18. Copyright 1993 by the Regents of the University of California. Reprinted by permission.