Hernando Cortes was a womanizer, a drunk, an opportunist, a scoundrel, a fortune hunter, and deceitful. He was also fervently religious, personally courageous, diplomatically astute, persuasive, and an effective leader of men. In other words, he was the archetypal conquistador. Born in 1485 in a tough peasant province of Spain, Cortes was distantly related to the conqueror of Peru, Francisco Pizarro (who was also a member of the expedition to Mexico). A brief period at the University of Salamanca was unsuccessful, but gave him enough education to be considered a man of letters. In 1504, at the age of 19, he sailed to the colony of Hispaniola and became a notary in a small village there. In 1511 he abandoned that post to join Diego Velasquez' expedition to conquer Cuba. He made himself prominent during that operation and was soon appointed King's Treasurer at Santiago. Contemporary reports indicate Cortes was unable to conquer his "compulsive" womanizing, and his position soon grew precarious in the new colony. An opportunity to escape presented itself in 1518, when an expedition was organized to investigate more fully the indications of Aztec wealth first provided by Juan de Grijalva's expedition. The new venture comprised 11 ships, 500 soldiers, 100 sailors, 16 horses, and a number of guns. Though initially organized by Governor Velasquez, Cortes was able to secure command of the expedition for himself by investing all his savings, along with every peso he could borrow. Velasquez, however, soon became wary of the over-eager Cortes and prepared to replace him. But Cortes caught wind of that plan, provisioned the ships and sailed the same night. The fleet coasted along Cuba, stopping at several places for more supplies and volunteers. Despite the governor's issuance of an order for Cortes' arrest, no one tried to stop him. The ships left Cuba on 10 February 1519, heading for the Yucatan Peninsula. At Cozumel, two persons, one a shipwrecked Spaniard and the other a disinherited Indian princess, joined the expedition. The Spaniard, Jeronimo de Aguilar, had been shipwrecked eight years earlier and had learned to speak Cozumel. The woman, named Malintzin, was fluent in Cozumel and Aztec. Through that interpretive triangle, Cortes was able to communicate with the natives he came across. Malintzin, who was soon Christianized and given the name Dona Marina, became a powerful and important member of the expedition. She served as Cortes' advisor and occasional bedmate, bearing him a son and possibly also a daughter. Her standing among her own people was one of awe, and her significance in the events of the conquest is best attested by the fact Cortes was addressed as "Malinche" (the male form of her name) by Montezuma and the other natives. The Landing: Man or God? The Spanish fleet reached port at San Juan de Ulua, near present day Vera Cruz, on Holy Thursday in 1519. With the royal pennants flying from the flagship, they waited at anchor. Ambassadors arrived the next day from both the local cacique (chief), Tendile, and the Governor, Pitalpitoque. On Easter Sunday, the two Indians met with Cortes. After an exchange of gifts, the Spaniard asked for a meeting with the Emperor Montezuma himself. The emissaries did not respond immediately, but ordered a message prepared for the Emperor. Paintings were made of Cortes, his captains, and their vessels, the cannons, Dona Marina, the horses, and even two Greyhounds. The paintings served two purposes—they were both a message and a kind of intelligence-gathering device. During their preparation, Cortes attempted to impress his guests with the firing of guns and the galloping of horses, neither of which had ever been seen before thereabouts. He succeeded to an extent, but Tendile was more fascinated by a helmet belonging to one of Cortes' soldiers. The chief asked if he could have it to send to Montezuma. Cortes, always the opportunist, quickly gave it to him, asking that it be "returned full of gold as a gift for our king." Tendile's notice of the helmet was not based on its usage as an instrument of personal protection in war. He had seen in it a striking resemblance to the helmet worn by a god of the Aztecs feared more than any other—Quetzalcoatl. Quetzalcoatl The legend was a simple one. Quetzalcoatl had come among the Toltecs (the Aztecs' predecessors in Mexico) in the distant past as a chief of a strange group of men who had white skin and blond hair. He taught the Indians how to paint and work metal, developed their calendar, and was a source of beneficence until he was driven away. The legend went on that he would one day return, messiah-like, to lead all peoples out of bondage. The Aztecs had adopted and extended the legend, fixing the year of the projected return as "Ce Acatl," which was indeed the year Cortes had arrived. For the Aztecs, particularly Montezuma, the immediate question was whether these divine resemblances were merely coincidental, or Cortes was the god returned. It was a question that would trouble Montezuma all during the initial phases of the encounter. When the helmet arrived at his palace, the emperor refused to touch it, and sent it to the priests. His fear the conquistador was actually a god pushed Montezuma into a kind of panicked inertia and indecision. An Aztec prince, Quinatlbor, returned to Cortes' camp with Tendile a week later, bearing with him gifts from Montezuma. Among them was the soldier's helmet, full of gold. The message from Montezuma was flowery. He was pleased such valiant men had come to visit and would be very happy to meet the emperor of these men, but as that was not possible he was sending a gift of precious stones for him. As a meeting with Charles V was not to be, it would also be unnecessary for Cortes to advance any farther. Cortes was, of course, disappointed by the reply, and became more concerned when promised supplies dwindled and then stopped entirely. Fear swept through the camp along with a rumor this was a prelude to an attack, the goal of which was to capture the Spaniards and "breed them for sacrifice." In actuality, it appears to have been nothing more than an attempt by Montezuma to signal the Spaniards their stay was over. Governor Velasquez's partisans in the expedition began to complain about the heat, mosquitoes, sand fleas, and lack of provisions. They further charged the expedition had changed from one aimed at adding territory to the holdings of the king to one aimed at enriching Cortes. They called for a return to Cuba. To abort such a move, some of Cortes' captains (secretly encouraged by him) argued they had come to settle a new land, not loot it. They also argued against a return to Cuba, claiming Velasquez would then surely seize what little had been gained. They persuaded the men to go to Cortes and formally invest him with the title of "Captain General." In front of those men, Cortes put on a charade of uncharacteristic modesty. It was, as the chronicler Bernal Diaz recorded, "A case of 'Press me harder, but I am very willing."' Cortes drove a hard bargain, demanding the men make him Chief Justice, as well as Captain General, and that he be granted one-fifth of all gold taken—the same proportion as the law required be set aside for the king himself. Further, the election of Cortes as Captain General created a legal fiction. That is, as the head of a new settlement, he was now free of his previous obligations to Velasquez. Thereafter Cortes could argue, as he often did, that all he did was for Charles V, and not for the man who had commissioned the expedition. Cortes! The Conquest of the Aztecs by David W. Tschanz. Introduction The Captain General: Cortes Vera Cruz, Cempoala, Tlaxcala, and Cholula Tenochtitlan Breakout, Siege, and Capture Back to Cry Havoc #38 Table of Contents Back to Cry Havoc List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by David W. Tschanz. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com