After announcing their arrival on Holy Thursday and dropping anchor, giving gifts to the locals but not going ashore, Bernal Díaz then speaks of making camp, continuing in this way.
"The next day, Good Friday, we disembarked our horses and artillery in some hills and dunes of sand that were there, very high, because there was no flat land, only sand beaches. They pointed the cannons as seemed best to Mesa the artilleryman, and we made an altar where mass was then said. They made huts and bowers for Cortés and the captains, and some three hundred soldiers transported wood, from which we made our huts, and the horses were put where they would be safe; this is how we passed that Good Friday." [pp. 56-7 *]
On the other hand, the so called First Letter of Cortés, ostensibly written by the council of Vera Cruz and addressed to the King of Spain, the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, speaks only of giving gifts and instruction to the locals on this day.
"On the following day the captain, with a great part of his men, went ashore, and found there two chieftains to whom he made certain gifts of his own garments; and he spoke with them through his interpreters, giving them to understand that he had come to these parts by Your Royal Highnesses' command to tell them what they must do in Your Service, and to this end he asked them to return to their village and call forth the chieftain or chieftains who were there to come and speak with him. And so they might more surely come, he gave them for the chieftains two shirts, gold belts and two doublets, one of satin, the other of velvet, and for each a scarlet bonnet and a pair of breeches, and thus they departed with these gifts." [p.23†]
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For the next day, Díaz continues with a nearly cheerful patter.
"The next day, Saturday, the eve of Easter, many Indians arrived, sent by a chieftain, a governor under Moctezuma, whose name was Pitalpitoque [Editor's footnote: "Cuitlalpitoc."], whom we called Obandillo. They brought axes and worked on the huts of the captain Cortés and the others nearby, and they put large coarse cloths on top of them to keep out the sun, for it was the Lenten season and very hot. They brought hens, maize bread, and plums, which were in season, and it seems to me they brought some gold jewels then, all of which they presented to Cortés, and they said that the next day a governor would come to bring more provisions. Cortés thanked them very much for it, and he ordered that they be given certain things as barter, with which they were delighted." [p. 57 *]
The account in the 'First Letter' mentions the encounter with a local chief but does not have him bearing gifts. Instead it is Cortés who does the gifting.
"A little before noon on the following day a chieftain arrived with those from the town and spoke to the captain, who made him understand through the interpreters that he had come to do them no harm but to make know to them how they were to be Your Majesties' vassals and must henceforth serve and give of what they had in their land, as do all who are such. He replied that he was very content to be so and obey, and it pleased him to serve them and to have such high princes for sovereigns, as the captain had made them understand Your Royal Highnesses were. Then the captain told him that as he had shown such good will toward his king and lord he would soon see the favors which henceforth Your Majesties would bestow on him. So saying, he had him dressed in a shirt of fine Dutch linen, a coat of velvet and a gold belt, with which the chieftain was very happy and contented. He told the captain to wait there while he returned to his land, for on the following day he would bring things of his own that we might more fully appreciate his will to serve Your Royal Highnesses; and so he took his leave and went." [p.24 †]
From this vantage it looked liked Cortés was making promises he couldn't keep. A 'brilliant piece of special pleading', indeed.
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* from Bernal Diaz 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
† from 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
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