“Cortes then ordered an arm-chair, beautifully painted and adorned with inlaid work, to be brought, also some pieces of precious stones, wrapped in cotton cloth, perfumed with musk, a necklace of imitation pearls, a scarlet cap, with a medal, on which was represented the holy St. George on horseback, with lance in hand, killing the dragon. Cortes then addressed Teuthlille, and said that he presented the chair to his monarch, Montezuma, that he might sit in it when he should pay him a visit, and the string of pearls to wind around his head on the same occasion, all of which presents were from our sovereign, the emperor, who had sent them to Montezuma in token of friendship and as a proof of the esteem in which he held him. Cortes further remarked that Teuthlille should inform us where and when he, Cortes, could personally have an audience with the monarch. Teuthlille accepted the presents, and said in reply that his master, Montezuma, as he also was a great monarch, would in turn be equally delighted to learn something about our great emperor; that he would hasten to lay the presents before him, and to return with his answer.
“Teuthlille had with him very skillful painters, for there were such in Mexico, and he ordered them to paint the portrait and entire person of Cortes, with the dress he wore; also the pictures of all the other chief officers, the soldiers, our ships, horses, Doña Marina, and Aguilar, even our two dogs, the cannon, the balls, in short, every thing that they could see that belonged to us. The paintings they took along with them to show to their monarch.”
After an absence of about six or seven days, Teuthlille returned, as Diaz further observes, “with more than a hundred Indian porters, all heavily laden, accompanied by a great Mexican cacique, who, in countenance, stature, and deportment, greatly resembled Cortes, and on that account had been selected by his monarch to accompany the deputation. For, as it was related, when Teuthlille presented the picture representing Cortes, all the grandees who were present with their monarch, Montezuma, immediately observed that he resembled a person of distinction named Quintalbor. This was the same person who now accompanied Teuthlille. We therefore called one the Cortes of this place, and the other the Cortes of that place. We must now, however, tell what the embassadors did when they came into the presence of Cortes. First of all they touched the ground at his feet with their hands. They then perfumed him and all the Spaniards who were present, with pans made of clay. Cortes gave them a very cordial reception, and desired them to sit down at his side. Quintalbor, the cacique, was commissioned to discuss matters jointly with Teuthlille. The two, therefore, told Cortes that he was most welcome to visit their country, and after considerable talking on both sides, they produced the presents”[319] sent him by Montezuma. As is further related by the Spanish historian, Juan de Torquemada, a contemporary of Diaz, “the embassador of Montezuma ordered mats to be spread on the ground before Cortes, and over them some cotton cloth, on which he arranged the presents, comprising many cotton shirts, and great quantities of other cotton stuffs, beautifully manufactured, and interwoven with feathers of the most splendid colors. There were shields made of the purest white stuffs, decorated with feathers, gold, silver, and pearls, surpassing everything in beauty and skilled workmanship that ever was seen. There was also a helmet, tastefully carved out of wood, filled with grains of gold; also a casque, made of thin plates of gold, decorated with tassels, and with stones resembling the emerald. There were numerous large bunches of feathers of different colors, set in silver and gold; fans for keeping off flies, made of the rarest feathers; a thousand lockets of gold and silver of the most curious and beautiful workmanship; bracelets and military decorations of gold and silver, splendidly embossed with green and bright yellow feathers; leather made of deer skin, curried and colored in the best possible manner; shoes and sandals of the same leather, sewed with thin gold-wire, and the soles of beautiful white and blue stone. There were other kinds of shoes, very tastefully made of cotton; mirrors of marcasite, globular-shaped, of the size of one’s fist, and most ingeniously set in gold, the small frame itself being very valuable, and worthy of the acceptance of any crowned head; coverings and curtains to beds, manufactured of variously colored cotton, more glossy and of a finer texture than silk; a number of other gold and silver trinkets; a necklace of gold, decorated with more than a hundred emeralds, rubies, and various ornaments of gold; a second necklace of many large pearls and emeralds, all of the most exquisite workmanship; numerous gold trinkets in the shape of frogs and animals; jewels in the form of medals. The cases were even more valuable than the precious stones they contained. There was also a quantity of large and small grains of gold. The most valuable of these presents, however, were two round plates, one of gold, on which was a sun with rays and the zodiac. This weighed more than one hundred marks.[320] The other plate was of silver, which in a similar manner represented the moon. It weighed about fifty marks. The two disks were massive and of the thickness of the Spanish coin of four silver reals, and as large as carriage-wheels. Those who saw these splendid presents said that, without considering the beautiful workmanship, the value of the gold and silver alone amounted to twenty-five thousand castellanos de oro; so that the full value of all these presents may rightly be estimated at fifty thousand ducats.”[321]
“When Quintalbor, the great cacique, and Teuthlille, presented these gifts to Cortes,” as Diaz further relates, “they begged him to accept of them in the same spirit of friendship with which their monarch sent them, and to distribute them among his teules.[322] Thereupon they began to tell what their monarch had particularly commissioned them to say, which was as follows: ‘He, Montezuma, was delighted with the arrival of such courageous men in his provinces, for, according to the accounts he had received, and judging from the occurrence at Tabasco [where Cortes had had an engagement with the natives], we certainly must be brave men. He wished very much to see our great emperor who was so powerful, of whom, although residing at so great a distance, he had already gained some knowledge, and he would send him a present of some valuable stones. He was likewise ready to furnish us with every thing we might require during our stay. Respecting Cortes visiting him, the undertaking should not engage our thoughts, for it was not necessary, and would be attended with great difficulties.’
“Cortes thanked them most sincerely for their kindness, gave each several shirts made of Holland linen, some blue beads, and other trifles, and requested them when they returned to their great monarch to tell him that our emperor and master would deem it very unkind, after we had come from such distant countries and crossed such vast seas, solely with the intention of paying our respects to Montezuma, if we returned without accomplishing this object. He wished, therefore, to proceed to his residence, and to receive personally his commands. The embassadors answered that they would convey these messages to their monarch, and that a visit to him was unnecessary. Cortes thereupon gave them out of our poverty a cup of Florentine workmanship, gilded and ornamented with wreaths of leaves in relief, and the shirts made of Holland linen, and other things, all of which were to be presented to Montezuma, together with Cortes’s message. The two emissaries then departed, while Quitlalpitoc alone remained behind in our camp, commissioned, as it appeared, by the two other officials of Montezuma, to provide provisions for us from the neighboring districts.
“After the Mexican embassadors had taken their departure, Cortes ordered two vessels to sail farther northward and explore the coast. The command of these was given to Francisco de Montejo, with orders to follow the same course taken by Grijalva.... Montejo departed, and sailed to the Rio Grande, near Panuco, as far as we had gone with Grijalva. On account of the strong currents he could not proceed any farther. He therefore returned to San Juan de Ulua....
“One morning the Indians, who had dwelt near us in huts, and had furnished us with provisions and brought gold to barter, secretly departed with Quitlalpitoc. This, we subsequently learned, was done by the orders of Montezuma. He had forbidden all intercourse with Cortes, believing that he was obeying the commands of his idol-gods. These were named Tetzcatlipuca and Huitzilopochtli; the former being the god of hell, and the latter the god of war, to whom Montezuma daily sacrificed a number of children in order that the gods might disclose to him what he should do with us. He intended to take us prisoners should we not re-embark—employing some to educate children, and sacrificing the others. His idol-gods, as we afterward learned, advised him not to listen to Cortes, and to pay no attention to the message that we had sent him respecting the cross and the image of the Blessed Virgin. This was what caused his men to go away so secretly.
“This being the condition of affairs, we daily expected that hostilities would begin, and we were therefore the more vigilant. It happened one day, while I was standing sentinel on the sand-hills with another soldier, that we espied five Indians coming along the shore. Not to alarm the camp with so trifling a matter, we allowed them to advance. They all appeared very good-humored, made their obeisance to us after their fashion, and requested us, by signs, to conduct them to the camp. Thereupon I said to my companion: ‘I will take them there, while you remain where you are,’ for at that time my legs were not so infirm as they are now, in my old age. When I presented them to Cortes, they manifested the utmost reverence, and continually repeated the word Lopelucio, Lopelucio, which in the Totonac language means lord, great god. In dress and language these people differed entirely from the Mexicans whom Montezuma had sent to our camp. They had large holes bored in their under-lips, in which they wore pieces of a speckled, blue stone, or thin plates of gold. The holes in their ears were quite large, from which depended similar ornaments. Neither Aguilar nor Doña Marina understood their language. The latter asked them whether there were any naëyavatos or interpreters with them. Thereupon two of them answered that they understood the Mexican language. Then the talking began. They bid us welcome, and said that their ruler had sent them to inquire who we were, and that he would be delighted to be of any use to such powerful men as we were. They said that they would have waited on us earlier, if they had not shunned the people of Culhua, namely, the Mexicans (meaning as much as villains), who had been with us. It is likely that these people had heard of our battles at Tabasco and Potonchan. They at least knew that the Mexicans had secretly departed from us three days before this time. Cortes learned many things from them which were of the greatest importance to him, particularly the information respecting the enemies and opponents of Montezuma. Cortes, therefore, was very friendly to these people. He gave them a number of presents, and desired them to return to their ruler and to tell him that he would in person shortly visit him.”
The indomitable commander now advanced northward along the coast as far as Chiahuitzla, near the roadstead where his ships were anchored. A short distance from this place Cortes began to build the city to which he gave the name Villa Rica de Vera Cruz (the Rich Town of the True Cross). From the port of the new city, Cortes, on the twenty-sixth of July, 1519, dispatched a ship to Spain, under the command of Alonso Puertocarrero and Francisco de Montejo, carrying letters to the emperor, Charles V., with accounts of the invasion of New Spain. With these communications were sent some of the presents that Cortes had received, besides several cotton and agave-scrolls of Mexican hieroglyphics. “Our agents took charge of the letters,” Diaz remarks, “and were bound by a promise not to touch at the Havannah under any pretext whatever, or to enter the harbor of El Marien, where Francisco de Montejo had possessions. This was done in order that Diego Velasquez might not receive any intelligence of our movements.”