SOURCE: An introduction to Hernándo Cortés: Five Letters 1519-1526, translated by J. Bayard Morris, George Routledge & Sons, Ltd., 1928, pp. ix-xlvii.

"Conquest" has always been held an ugly word: so much so that even conquerors themselves have been wary of it. The Norman William crossed the channel, as he announced, to assume a kingdom which was his by right of a rival's oath. Alaric the Goth led his barbarian mercenaries southward to the sack of Rome with the proclaimed intent of securing arrears of pay long overdue.

In like fashion the conquistadores of the New World might invent a hundred plausible reasons by which the white man was entitled to oust the native from the soil. They were bringing the benefits of a higher civilization: they were instituting orderly forms of government and administration of justice: above all they were spreading the true faith and guiding an erring flock into the fold. Such arguments have their weight, as they must always have: but they cannot obscure the main issue. The conquistadores were engaged primarily on the business of conquering. The war which Cortés waged in Mexico was essentially a war of conquest.

Between the Spaniards who conquered the New World and the buccaneering Englishmen of Elizabeth's reign who successfully robbed them of a large portion of its spoils there was indeed little to choose. The methods of Cortés in Mexico differed little from those adopted by the English in North America, in India and in New Zealand during the succeeding centuries. Moreover it would be untrue to suppose that sixteenth century Spain was entirely without its prophets to cry out upon the means taken to effect a conquest, which must appear to the more civilized minds of our day as iniquitous.

No voice was louder in denunciation than that of a Dominican Friar, Bartolomé de Las Casas. He had accompanied Ovando to Hayti in 1502, and spent the greater part of his life in the Islands and New Spain, refusing finally the wealthy archbishopric of Chiapa for the humble see of Cuzco where he died. His Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies was published at Seville in 1552. There is no hesitancy about the attack of this bishop militant.

"From that year of 1518," he says, "until today, which is now in the year 1542, has swelled up and come to a head all the wickedness, injustice, violence and tyranny which the Christians have done in the Indies…. I affirm it as very certain and approved that during these forty years (1502-1542) owing to the aforesaid tyrannies and infernal works of the Christians more than twelve million souls, men, women and children, have perished unjustly and tyrannically; and in truth I believe I should not be overstepping the mark in saying fifteen millions…."

In questions of numbers, places, motives even, Las Casas often errs. But there can be no doubt as to the truth of many of the atrocities perpetrated in the Islands, and on the Mainland. They form an indictment against the Conquistadores as a whole which cannot be denied.

It would be easy to assume from this that the army by which the Conquest of Mexico was effected was an undisciplined array of freebooters in which every man was playing for his own hand: but it would be wrong. Cruelties and brutalities to natives on the part of individuals there might be: but the discipline was strict. Witness a few of the rules which Cortés had proclaimed to his men before setting out from Tlascala on the reconquest of Mexico.

First: Inasmuch as experience has shown us and we see each day with what solicitude the natives of these parts venerate their idols by which Our Lord God is highly displeased and the Devil greatly served; and whereas by removing them from such error and idolatry and bringing them to a knowledge of the true catholic faith, we shall not only be laying up eternal glory to our souls but also ensuring the aid of God in things temporal; therefore, I, Hernán Cortés, Captain-General and Chief Justiciar in New Spain, exhort and command all Spaniards in my company to hold as their principal end that of rooting out the aforesaid idolatries from the natives and bringing them to a knowledge of God and the true Catholic Faith….

Item: Since by false swearing and blasphemies God is greatly displeased, … I order that no person of whatever condition shall dare to say "I don't believe in God," or "Damn it" (Pese!) or "God has no power": and the same to be understood of Our Lady and all the saints; under pain of the ordinary penalties and 15 pesos of gold.

Item: Since by gaming, blasphemies and many other indecencies are encouraged, I order that from now on no person play at cards or other games of chance, under penalty of losing all he has gained and twenty pesos of gold.

This rule to be relaxed on active service.

Item: No man to dare put hand to sword or dagger to strike another Spaniard, under penalty, for a gentleman of 100 pesos, and for a common soldier, 100 lashes.

Item: No captain to lodge in any other place than that assigned to him by the officer in command.

Item: No booty to be taken until the enemy is completely defeated.

Item: All booty to be brought immediately to me at the common store, under penalty of death and loss of all his goods.

It is plain that this was no rabble army, whose rank and file could not be kept in hand, and whose atrocities were therefore those of the nameless and irresponsible common soldiery. The atrocities were real enough and they were in general ordered by the leaders. But the impulse behind them was not so much one of terrorism (as Las Casas suggests): it was one of fear.

Fear, as it is probably the most primitive of all emotions, so it is the most potent to reduce men to the level of beasts.

The Aztec natives whom Cortés men had to contend against in New Spain were of very different stock from those whom they had hunted with greyhounds in Cuba. These "gentlesheep" (as Las Casas was pleased to call them) indulged in cannibalism and human sacrifices. Thousands upon thousands of native victims had thus met their deaths on the altars of Mexico and Yucatán: later, during the siege of the capital the Christians themselves were to see the naked bodies of their comrades, white amid the dusky hordes which surrounded them, being borne up for sacrifice to the high idol towers. That Spanish brutalities were dictated in large measure by fear becomes plain in many passages of the Letters.

The massacre of Cholula was obviously the work of men who were badly scared, and had good reason to be so. Albarado left in the capital while Cortés rides to oppose the further advance of Narváez acts not only as the coward but the bully. Very various reasons were given at the court-martial both by himself and those who were with him: "the priests in disobedience to Cortés's strict orders were preparing to make human sacrifices again." "Some of the natives had shouted that it would be the turn of the white men next." "An insurrection was being plotted," and so on. Through all his defence there shows plainly the figure of a man naturally headstrong and brutal whose nerves were very badly on edge.

Whatever deeds Cortés himself must finally be judged guilty of there is no doubt that he was habitually both more resolute and more cool-headed than any of his subordinates. A crowning example of this is given in an account of the spasmodic fighting with neighbouring tribes which followed the retreat from Mexico to Tlascala….

The city of Huaquechula has sent in chiefs with messages of submission. Moreover they brought the request that a small Spanish force should be sent there to assist them in capturing and putting to death a body of Mexican chieftains who had established themselves within the city and who were in communication with some thirty thousand of the enemy without. But the Spaniards, heard in a neighbouring town that the natives of Huaquechula were banded together with the Mexicans to entice them upon that pretext into the aforesaid city and there set upon them and kill them all. And as they were not wholly recovered from the fear that the natives of the capital had inspired in them, this news spread panic among them, and the Captain whom I had sent in command made such investigations as he thought proper, and placed under arrest all those chieftains from Huaquechula who were accompanying them: and so returned with them to Cholula, which is but four leagues from here, whence he sent them all back to me under a strong guard, together with the proofs which he had obtained. He wrote me, moreover, to say that his men were terror-stricken, and regarded the enterprise as one of extraordinary difficulty. I questioned the prisoners by means of the interpreters I had with me: and having used all diligence to discover the truth, it seemed to me that the Captain had not understood them aright. Thereupon, I ordered them to be freed, and satisfied them as to my trust in them as loyal vassals of your majesty.

Cortés accordingly set out and successfully concluded the expedition in person; "desiring," as he says, "to show no weakness nor fear before the natives, whether friends or enemies." Such were the actual difficulties of the Conqueror.

It is easy to see that had Cortés been anything less than himself, such blots on the history of the conquest as the massacre of Cholula and the torturing and final execution of Guatimucin, might well have been normal occurrences rather than isolated instances.

THE LETTERS

Cortés's letters to the Emperor from Mexico are termed in Spanish cartas-relaciones—half letters, half despatches. They are not literary masterpieces. The vocabulary is very small. The same expressions, of time, place, action, are continually used, as in most documents of the official kind. Yet with a small vocabulary, his style is wordy and often involved. The one artistic effect of which he is a master is that of understatement: and it is a device which he employs unconsciously.

On the whole his prose is solid, never pedantic, controlled and forceful. Through it one perceives a man who of the two tools preferred the sword; yet on occasion could wield the pen in a fashion that was at least eminently workmanlike.

These five letters were all written from various cities in New Spain between the years 1519 and 1526. They vary greatly in length, the second, third and fourth being the longest, each containing in the original some 40,000 words, while the first and fourth run to 10,000 and 20,000 words respectively.

"First Letter"

Cortés's first letter to the Emperor written in June or July 1519 has never been recovered. There is, however, little doubt about its contents. The Rica Villa of Vera Cruz had just been founded; and its Justiciary and Council lost no time in despatching a letter to Spain, to give, as they said, "a certain and true account of all that had been discovered in the two preceding years." The writer of this letter, it is clear, saw and perhaps copied in large part what Cortés himself was writing. It was this letter from Vera Cruz which was discovered in the Imperial Archives of Vienna during the last century.

The search revealed in addition what is now the "Fifth Letter," which had previously been unknown.

In this "First Letter" the earliest discoveries of the mainland from 1517 onwards are sketched in a somewhat lengthy passage which has been abridged.

Diego de Velázquez, a year later … was obviously dissatisfied with what had been accomplished. He now set to work to fit out another expedition which should prove more advantageous to himself. It was for this expedition that he chose Cortés as leader.

The new Captain of men obviously showed a very different front to fortune than Grijalba, whose chances of success had been as rosy as his own. It is the man who makes the occasion.

At the end of the letter, the worthy Justiciary and Council of Vera Cruz endeavour at some length to justify their illegal proceeding in founding a settlement. It is not difficult to perceive the hand of Cortés here.

It will be noted that to commend further their action the citizens decided with Cortés to send the whole of the treasure (not merely the royal fifth) to the Emperor.

"Second Letter"

"The first letter is the weakest, the second the most interesting; the third, the most dramatic," writes a French critic—M. Désiré Charnay. Actually the word "dramatic" may just as properly be applied to the second. There are passages of wonder and horror in this letter which might well belong to the Arabian Nights. The drama opens with the breaking-up of the boats; there follow the cautious but perilous advance into the heart of a hostile country, and the audacious capture of its monarch: the sky seems to have cleared, but suddenly the natives who have hitherto accepted the strangers as immortals to whom they owe allegiance, are violently disturbed by the arrival of rival "gods" in the shape of Pánfilo de Narváez with reinforcements from Velázquez. Open resistance succeeds and the climax is reached with the frenzied scenes of the noche triste, "the sorrowful night"—and the days of retreat that follow. Finally the remnants of the army arrive in Tlascala, and to their keen relief are well received by the natives.

The indomitable Cortés waits hardly till his wounds are healed before he is again in the field attacking neighbouring tribes who have been stirred up to rebel by the victorious Culuans. Despite all the fears of his men he is determined on reconquest: and already he embarks upon the task.

The Reconquest proper belongs to the "Third Letter," and the account of certain preliminary operations which occurs at the end of the "Second Letter" has consequently been omitted.

"Third Letter"

This letter may be split up into three portions: (a) the advance of Cortés into Culua and the capture and destruction of the various towns surrounding the great lakes; (b) the assault on the capital itself and its final submission: (c) various enterprises undertaken by the Conqueror to extend his power throughout Mexico, and the arrival of Cristóbal de Tapia from Spain, as agent of the Crown to examine the details of conquest.

The second portion describing the taking of Tenochtitlan is given in its entirely. The two other portions have been somewhat abridged.

Both this and the second letter were made public very soon after their arrival in Spain. A little German printer in Seville published the second on November 8th 1522 and the third on March 30 of the following year. They were almost immediately translated into Latin and Italian and sold in Germany and Italy.

"Fourth Letter"

This letter is mainly concerned with affairs of organization. The visit of Garay, causing rebellion in Pánuco, and concluding with the Frenchman's death, is the most important incident. Elsewhere certain abbreviations have been made, particularly at the beginning where Cortés reports the progress of various expeditions.

Sandoval was sent east and succeeded in reaching the river Guasacualco and there founding the town of Espíritu Santo four miles from its mouth. Meanwhile messengers arrived from the ruler of Michoacan with presents and an offer to become a vassal of the great white Emperor. An officer proceeded to the province, and thence without orders further west to Coliman, where in spite of his forty horsemen and some hundred Spanish foot he suffered a defeat from the natives.

Albarado was sent south-east to Tututepec, where he succeeded in subduing the natives, holding the ruler of the province and his son captive. The inhabitants of Segura de la Frontera were ordered to proceed thither and found a new town of the same name. Albarado then returned to the capital. In his absence the town revolted and new alcaldes were set up. Cortés immediately despatched an officer, who returned with the ringleaders in chains.

The letter was published in Spain both at Toledo and Zaragoza in the year 1526.

"Fifth Letter"

The expedition to Honduras started out with a long train of servants, butler, majordomo, treasurer, the keeper of the gold and silver plate, surgeon, numerous pages, falconers, even jugglers and tumblers, relates Bernardo Díaz del Castillo. A huge herd of swine accompanied the triumphant procession to provide fresh meat for the travellers.

But it was soon apparent that the journey was to be no picnic. At times the marshy ground rendered any advance at all impossible. Detours had to be made; bridges built; horses supported by bundles of rushes. Cortés was perhaps physically not quite the man that he had been. "I saw that he was much stouter," says Díaz de Castillo, "when we returned from the Higueras." Moreover, he relates, "he now formed a habit (which he had not had in Mexico) of always taking a short nap after the midday meal (failing which his food disagreed with him), and so no matter whether it rained or shone he would lie down under a tree … and would always sleep a little before recontinuing the march."

But the old spirit is there. He passes through the various river-villages and towns, most of whose inhabitants have fled, endures the bitterest extremes of hunger and toil, climbs the sierras on the eastern side, and finally arrives at Naco. There he finds remnants of treachery and desertion such as were but too common among the early settlers. The wretched survivors are rescued. Cortés conducts that singularly daring expedition up the river to obtain maize for his starving companions. He then proceeds further east and founds a successful settlement on the northern coast of Honduras.

Meanwhile he was being given out for dead in Mexico. He says little in the Letter of what happened in his absence. Two accounts were sent to the Emperor and the Council of the Indies respectively. The truth may be culled from both.

Cortés had left Alonso de Estrada (tesorero) and Rodrigo de Albórnoz (contador) in charge of the government. Hearing rumours of insurrection and misdemeanour he sent back two other officials from Tabasco with extensive powers. These were Gonzalo de Salazar (factor) and Per Almíndez Chirinos (veedor). They proved far more successful in securing obedience and were no less dishonest. Months passed and no news came from Cortés. Salazar and Chirinos, who now had the government in their own hands, proclaimed the Governor dead, and proceeded to raid his house and property. Rodrigo de Paz, whom Cortés had left as his steward and Chief Sheriff in New Spain, was arrested, accused of hoarding gold for his master which rightly belonged to the Emperor, twice put to the torture, and finally hanged after a trial farcical in its injustice. All Cortés's possessions, including slaves and cattle, were seized, and the two despots proceeded to govern Mexico unrestrained. The procurators of the various towns and country districts were required to subscribe to a document, drawn up of course by Salazar and Chirinos, begging the Emperor to confirm them in their offices.

Despotism, however, was not allowed to remain a monopoly of the two rulers. Ill-treatment of the native population grew rife, and Indian risings took place in all parts. On January 29th 1527 a courier at last arrived in Mexico with letters from the Governor.

At the news that he was still alive adherents hastened to rally to his cause. Estrada and Albórnoz were encouraged to make a stand. Within a few days Salazar was taken prisoner after an hour's fighting, and Chirinos was skulking in sanctuary.

Cortés returned at the beginning of June in 1526 to find the country more or less at peace. His triumphant route from Vera Cruz to the capital was lined with eager throngs of natives: they cried out "Malinche, Malinche": tears of joy streamed from their eyes. There could have been no more eloquent testimony to the misgovernment of the country during his long absence.