Near Iztaccihuatl: Mexica Meet Spaniards and their Allies: October 1519

In their versions of the European approach to Tenochtitlan, upon leaving Cholula, the Mexica and other locals set down a number of stories. Some were told to the friar Sahagun, and are now found in what is called the Codex Florentinus, and some were later collected and set down still later by Diego Munoz Camargos for the City and governor of Tlaxcala. Another source, the Codex Ramirez details stories of locals and Europeans in Texcoco (compiled probably before 1580 by Fray Diego Duran), that other chronicles do not mention.

The Mexica of friar Sahagun gave a very visual, pictorial narrative.

"When the massacre at Cholula was complete, the strangers set out again toward the City of Mexico. They came in battle array, as conquerors, and the dust rose in whirlwinds on the roads. Their spears glinted in the sun, and their pennons fluttered like bats. They made a loud clamor as they marched, for their coats of mail and their weapons clashed and rattled. Some of them were dressed in glistening iron from head to foot; they terrified everyone who saw them.

Their dogs came with them, running ahead of the column. They raised their muzzles high; they lifted their muzzles to the wind. They raced on before with saliva dripping from their jaws." [page forty-one]

The Europeans, then passing amongst the volcanoes of Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl ...

"... Motecuhzoma dispatched various chiefs. Tzihuacpopocatzin was at their head, and he took with him a great many representatives. They went out to meet the Spaniards ... there in the Eagle Pass. They gave the "gods" ensigns of golds, and ensigns of quetzal feathers, and golden necklaces. And when they were given these presents, the Spaniards burst into smiles; their eyes shone with pleasure; they were delighted by them. They picked up the gold and fingered it like monkeys; they seemed to be transported by joy, as if their hearts were illumined and made new.

The truth is that they longed and lusted for gold. Their bodies swelled with greed, and their hunger was ravenous; they hungered like pigs for that gold. They snatched at the golden ensigns, waved them from side to side and examined every inch of them. They were like one who speaks a barbarous tongue: everything they said was in a barbarous tongue." [pages fifty-one to fifty-two]

Like the old saying, with the shoe on the other foot, the actions of the Spaniards, even at this relatively early stage, seem revealed as pure, naked forms of aggression. Marching as conquerors, lusting after gold, babbling incomprehensibly, showing no tact or sense of decorum, certainly not knowing the local traditions. The viewpoint of the Mexica seems clearly expressed, but also the great hostility the other non-Mexica held is given vent.
Met by another Mexica ambassador sent by Motecuhzoma, the Spaniards show their loyalty to their allies already made and scepticism toward this new ambassador. Though not mentioned specifically, it is very likely that Malintzin translated here and repeated all these things back and forth.

"When they saw Tzihuacpopocatzin, they asked: "Is this Motecuhzoma, by any chance?" They asked this of their allies, the liars from Tlaxcala and Cempoala, their shrewd and deceitful confederates.

They replied: "He is not Motecuhzoma, our lords. He is his envoy Tzihuacpopocatzin."

The Spaniards asked him: "Are you Motecuhzoma, by any chance?"

"Yes," he said, "I am your servant. I am Motecuhzoma."

But the allies said: "You fool! Why try to deceive us? Who do you think we are?" And they said: 

      "You cannot deceive us; you cannot make fools of us.                                                                You cannot frighten us; you cannot blind our eyes.                                                                    You cannot stare us down; we will not look away.                                                                    You cannot bewitch our eyes or turn them aside.                                                                      You cannot dim our eyes or make them swoon.                                                                        You cannot fill them with dust or shut them with slime.                                                              You are not Motecuhzoma; he is there in his city.                                                                      He cannot hide from us. Where can he go?                                                                              Can he fly away like a bird? Can he tunnel the earth?                                                                Can he burrow into a mountain, to hide inside it?                                                                      We are coming to see him, to meet him face to face.                                                                  We are coming to hear his words from his own lips."" [page fifty-two]

The ambassador seems to have decided to give the Spaniards what they wanted: some gold and an assurance he was whom they sought. But these allies, it can be said, were beginning to achieve some measure of vengeance after years of persecution with their new advantageous allies and would not be dissuaded from their new goal.
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all quotes 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.