After Tobasco, Cortés Sails On: April 18, 1519

On the Monday following Palm Sunday in 1519, April 18, Cortés and his fleet left Tobasco and sailed west. Bernal Díaz tells this at the end to his ch xxxvi, that those who went before pointed out places they remembered from the previous voyages.

"Sailing along in good weather, those of us who knew the course said to Cortés , "Sir, there's the Rambla," which in the Indians' language is called Ayagualulco [translator's  footnote: "where the water goes around."]. When we arrived at the site of Tonala, which is called San Antón, we pointed it out. Further on, we showed him the great Río de Guazacualco [translator's  footnote: "place of the serpent pyramid"]. He saw the very high snowy mountains and, later, the mountain range of San Martín. Farther on we showed him the split rock, which is made up of some large rocks that jut out into the sea, and they had a landmark on top, something like a seat. Farther on, we showed him the Río de Alvarado, which is where Pedro de Alvarado entered during Grijalva's expedition [the year before in 1518]. Then we showed him the Río de Banderas, which was where we had bartered for the sixteen thousand pesos [translator's footnote: "pesos worth of low-grade gold items of diverse craftsmanship"; the year before], and then we showed him the Isla Blanca, and we told him also where the Isla de Verde lay. Close to land he saw the Isla de Sacrificios, where we had found the altars during Grijalva's expedition and the sacrificed Indians. Then with good fortune, we arrived at San Juan de Ulúa on Holy Thursday, after midday." [pp 51-3]*

It was on this short trip as they passed by these different points and beach sections along the coast that Díaz tells the story that Puertocarrero came and said to Cortés,

"It seems ...these gentlemen who have come two other times to these lands are saying to you, "Behold France, Montesinos;/ Behold Paris, the city;/ Behold the waters of the Duero / where they go down to the sea." And I tell you now to look at the rich lands around you, and know how to conduct yourself." [p 53]*

He assured them he would know what to do if God gave them the good fortune of  Roland, the legendary Frankish hero who called for aid from the emperor with his oliphant horn. J H Elliott in the essay I quoted from the other day expands on this reference to the lines of poetry above as a reminder that what they were doing would need the sanction of a king.

"The lines came from the ballad of Montesinos, who was exiled from court because of a false accusation by his mortal enemy, Tomillas. Montesinos, the innocent exile, was seeking permission from his father to return to court in disguise and take service with the king, in order to avenge his wrong. If Montesinos were Cortés, then Tomillas, his enemy, was Velázquez; and Cortés could hope to resolve his difficulties, as Montesinos resolved his, by taking service under the king. "He who take the king's pay," continued the ballad, "can avenge himself of everything." Cortés promptly responded in kind, with a quotation from another ballad about another exile: "God give us the same good fortune in fighting as he gave to the Paladin Roland."

Success in arms, and resort to the highest authority of all, that of the king himself -- these were the aims of Cortés, and his fellow conspirators as they prepared in April, 1519, to compound their defiance of  Velázquez, by a landing which would mark the real beginning of their attempt to conquer an empire." [p xvi] †

This Puertocarrero would return to Spain in July carrying gold items made by Moctezuma's order and a fifth of booty acquired so far, to present to the new king, in the name of the new municipality of Vera Cruz, and what is now called the First Letter of Cortés, in hopes of persuading the king to grant license for further colonization.
And meanwhile, Moctezuma fretted about what would happen next, what to do, what it might mean.
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* All quotes from The Conquest of New Spain translated with an introduction and notes by Janet Burke and Ted Humphrey, Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Co, Inc. 2012

† All quotes from the Introductory Essay of J.H. Elliott, ""Cortés, Velázquez and Charles V", printed in Hernán  Cortés: Letters From Mexico, translated, edited and with a new intro by Anthony Pagden, as a Yale Nota Bene book, Yale University Press, USA 2001