For one thing, as Diaz said, they later found out he and Pitalpitoque were governors of "... Cotastan, Tustepeque, Guazpaltepeque, Tatalteco, and other towns they had recently subjugated." The Editor helpfully corrects 'Cotaxtla' for 'Cotastan' and there is a town by that name upriver from modern-day Vera Cruz. Díaz also remembers the story of Cortés asking this Teudilli to take the specially-made chair to Montezuma and ask him when they could meet. "Tendile accepted the gift and said that his lord Montezuma was such a great lord that he would be pleased to know our great king and that he would take him that present quickly [the chair] and would return with a response." [p. 59]
"With Tendile gone, we came to understand that, besides being an Indian of great importance, he was the fastest runner his master Montezuma had. He went quickly and told the entire story to his lord, showing him all the painted sketches he had brought and the present Cortés had sent him. It is said that when the great Montezuma saw it, he was amazed, and, on the other hand, he was very happy, and when he saw the helmet, and the one his Huichilobos had, he was sure that we were those people his ancestors said would come to rule over this land. Here is where the chronicler Gomara says many things that are not accurate." [p. 60]
One chapter ends and another begins with Díaz mentioning that while Teudilli left, the other governor Cuitlalpitoc stayed in camp for several days, as more chieftains came and offered gifts, giving a snapshot of this pattern occurring over several days.
All quotes from from Bernal Díaz de Castillo: The True History of the Conquest of New Spain translated with an introduction and notes by Janet Burke and Ted Humphrey, Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Co, Inc. 2012
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The messengers of Montezuma according to the tale remembered by the locals, as it was set down in the Florentine Codex kept at a fast pace on the trip back to Tenochtitlan.
"They arrived in great haste at Xicalanco, took a hurried meal there, and then pressed on until they came to Tecpantlayacac. From there they rushed ahead and arrived in Cuetlaxtlan. As on the previous journey, they stopped there to rest. When the were about to depart, the village official said to them: "Rest for at least a day! At least catch your breath!"
They said: "No, we must keep on! We must report to our king, Motecuhzoma. We will tell him what we have seen, and it is a terrifying thing. Nothing like it has ever been seen before!" They left in great haste and continued to the City of Mexico. They entered the city at night, in the middle of the night.
While the messengers were away, Motecuhzoma could neither sleep nor eat, and no one could speak with him. He thought that everything he did was in vain, and he sighed almost every moment. He was lost in despair, in the deepest gloom and sorrow. Nothing could comfort him, nothing could calm him, nothing could give him any pleasure.
He said: "What will happen to us? Who will outlive it? Ah, in other times I was contented, but now I have death in my heart! My heart burns and suffers, as if it were drowned in spices...! But will our lord come here?" " [pp. twenty-eight - twenty-nine]quoted from The Broken Spears: the Aztec account of the conquest of Mexico, translated, edited with an introduction by Miguel León-Portilla, expanded and with a postscript, Boston, Beacon Press, 2006.
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