Before Tenochtitlan and Popocatepetl: Cortes Could Still Tell Tall-Tales

Hernan Cortes on the way to meet Motecuhzoma passed near two mountains, Iztaccihuatl and Popocatepetl.  During the few days remaining before reaching Tenochtitlan, they also passed through a number of cities and towns and were met by the nephew of the great ruler. Cortes said that this man was the one who told him after long explanations that they would rather 'bar the road' than let him and his men go to see Motecuhzoma. This is told in the context of Cortes being encouraged to go a route that his scouts had said was dangerous and easy for ambushes. The constant drum of deception and potential trickery threads through the whole narrative by this point, in Cortes' Second Letter to his King and Emperor Carlos V. This excerpt about the volcano is a brief respite from that.

"Eight leagues from the city of Churultecal [Cholula] are two very high and very remarkable mountains; for at the end of August there is so much snow on top of them that nothing else can be seen, and from one of them, which is the higher, there appears often both by day and by night a great cloud of smoke as big as a house which goes straight as an arrow up into the clouds, and seems to come out with such force that even though there are very strong winds on top of the mountain they cannot turn it. Because I have always wished to render Your Highness a very particular account of all the things of this land, I wished to know the explanation of this which seemed to me something of a miracle, so I sent ten of my companions, such as were qualified for such an undertaking, with some natives to guide them; and I urged them to attempt to climb the mountain and discover the secret of the smoke, whence it came, and how. These men went and made every effort to climb the mountain but were not able to on account of the very great quantity of snow that is there and the whirlwinds of ash which comes out of the mountain, and also because they could not endure the great cold which they encountered there.... while they were there the smoke started to come out, with such force and noise, they said, it seemed the whole mountain was falling down, so they descended and brought much snow and icicles for us to see, for this seemed to be something very rare in these parts... because of the climate." [pp 77-78]

It was these scouts, however, who had seen and reported back to Cortes about a clear, shorter road that led to Tenochtitlan. He asked the ambassadors from Motecuhzoma about this shorter route who explained they preferred he take another route because that way led to Acatzingo who were at present enemies of the Mexica. They told Cortes that they would have to bear supplies 'from another road' if they were to continue that way. Implying a greater hardship on themselves. [p. 78]
But Cortes forged onward down the route he had decided on despite their entreaties. As it turned out the people of Acatzingo, Cortes spells it 'Guasucingo', welcomed all of them with open arms, gave them girls and gold and they were all given new quarters, built and ready for them there: "... although I brought with me more than four thousand ... natives..." of Tlaxcala, Cholula, Cempoal, there was "... plenty to eat for all, and in all the rooms very great fires and plenty of firewood, for it was very cold... very close to those two mountains...". They were, he said, allies with the Tlaxcalans. [p. 79]

There, a dignitary, 'he said he was' the brother of Motecuhzoma who came and asked him, begged him to turn back and not to proceed, giving him "three thousand  pesos de oro" saying the road forward was bad and there was no provisions that way, etc. Cortes said that,

"... were it in my power to return I would do so to please Mutezuma, but that I had come to this land by Your Majesty's commands, and the principle thing of which I had been ordered to give an account of was of Mutezuma and his great city, of which and of whom Your Highness had known for many years." [p.79]

If there is a truthful statement there, I can't seem to find it. And he is writing this to the King that he is saying that he is lying to this dignitary and doing it in that same king's name. On His order supposedly that the king knew he had not given. Cortes is saying, in paraphrase, 'I lied to this guy in your name and told him I was doing this on your orders, which we know you didn't do.'

Though they were well quartered there, another night-time secret attack was discovered. The next day a new place, Ayotzinco gave Cortes forty girls and plenty of food. But at night there was another 'attack' and 'fifteen or twenty spies' were taken or killed by his men.

The next day, another dignitary from Motecuhzoma, this time a young seemingly revered nephew made entreaties for him not to go further. In Ayotzinco:

"On the following morning, as I was preparing to leave the town, ten or twelve lords, of great importance, as I later discovered, came to see me, and among them there was one great chief, a young man of about twenty-five to whom they all showed great reverence, so much so that after he stepped down from the litter in which he came all the others began to clear the stones and straw from the ground in front of him. When they came to where I was they told me they had come on behalf of Mutezuma, their lord... I answered and appeased them ... that no harm could ensue from my coming, but rather much profit. I then gave them some of the things I had with me and they departed." [p.81]

Much harm would come and little profit for them.
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from The Second Letter 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