But Teudilli brought a big load of treasure, and that load most resembles the group that was supposedly constructed and gathered for the occasion in Tenochtitlan. That similar group that the Aztec account says, was taken aboard ship, and given before the westerners set foot on land. So famous is this bunch of treasure that the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has a webpage for it but doesn't have any of the items for display. But in those days that same group was taken back and given to the king whose offices had it displayed to the public the following spring (1520) in Brussels. Of course news of this traveled quickly. Albrecht Dürer saw it and wrote about it in his journal. Included in this treasury, one Julie Jones has a list on that Met website:
"... a gold disk the size of a cartwheel; a silver disk of the same size; diadems, earrings, and figures of gold and mosaic; armbands of silver; multi-strand necklaces with hundreds of gold beads and red and green stone; hollow gold ornaments cast in complex shapes; shields and helmets covered in turquoise mosaic; brilliant feather fans and headpieces; elaborate garments and costumes...."But it might be a mistake to describe such a gift as tribute as she does there. It has been suggested that Mexica and other mesoamerican groups used gifting as a complex form of displaying hierarchy. Even among Moctezuma and his peers. Barter was how trade occurred with the populace, it seems. Wagers, games of chance and gifts were ways the leaders dealt with each other and were what the people enthused in too. Keeping in mind the idea that whoever gave the biggest gift became the more dominant in any exchange, even if Moctezuma did think Cortés and his companions were possibly gods, then, the biggest present should in such a case redound or come back to him. So no expense should have been spared in the offerings to these new arrivals on the coast. But, if as may be expected and the king of the Mexica suspected that they were just men with other beasts and other technologies, then, perhaps, in his experience, they could be shamed into silence with a too-rich gift. It's a logical interpretation, but the Spaniards and Cortés had a different way of understanding the situation.
In fact, according to Díaz when Teudilli returned, as he said he would, he brought with him another governor, one that Díaz called Quintalbor. This man was sent back to speak to the Spaniards since Moctezuma's advisors had told him the portrait of Cortés looked like Quintalbor. So even Díaz could have surmised that the locals knew they were men just like them. After the initial offerings of bowings and incense and greetings, it was this new governor who gave the order for the rich treasures to be brought out and given to the Westerners. The great wheels, the helmet full of fine gold, twenty gold ducks, gold dogs, jaguars, monkeys, deer. Great staffs, gold and silver crests with feathers, many pieces of jade, many rolls of embroidered cloth and so on. [pp. 61-2]
And he told them, Díaz reports:
"After he had presented it all, the great cacique, Quintalbor, and Tendile, said to Cortés that he should accept that present with the great goodwill with which their lord sent it and that he should share it with the teules and men he brings with him. "
The Editor/translator for Díaz says in a footnote that this term is usually used to denote an idol or god and that is how Díaz wants us to think of them. But the very next thing, again, that Díaz has these ambassadors say to Cortés is that they wanted to say all that their lord, Moctezuma, wanted them to hear.
"... and the first thing they said to him was that their lord rejoiced that such strong men, as they have seen we are, have come to this land because he knew about the incident at Tobasco. He also said that Moctezuma would very much like to see our great emperor, for he is a great lord ... and he will send him a present, and while we were there in that port, if he might serve us in some way, he would do so with great goodwill. As far as the meetings [with the Spaniards, presently] ... there was no reason to have them, and he gave many objections to them." [p 62]
So here, Díaz seems to contradict himself, or, possibly, just reported what he remembered and maintained a different opinion. It may well be that the Aztec leader saw battles like what may have been reported to him from Tobasco, thru a different lens than Cortés and his men did. The idea of tribute though was one of long recognized practice in Europe. Buying peace, in modern parlance. But this is not explicitly what Moctezuma or his ambassadors were doing. Neither is it, in effect, what Cortés and his men did in response, nor does such a notion explain their understanding of what was happening. I will return to this notion again when I talk about the language of that 'First Letter' of Cortés sent in July.
Cortés pressed the ambassadors for a time when he could meet Moctezuma in person. They said it was impossible but they would return and ask again. Cortés sent back with them three shirts of 'Holland cloth' and a 'cup of Florentine glass' etched with hunting scenes and animals on it. Food then came to the Spaniards from the neighboring towns, for awhile. [p.63]
Next, beginning the fortieth chapter, Díaz has the ambassadors gone and 'Cortés immediately ordering two ships to sail' up the coast with Francisco de Montejo as captain since he had gone that route the year before with Juan de Grijalva. They were to go ten days distant and see if they could find a better place to camp with fewer mosquitoes and closer to some larger settlement of locals. [p. 63]
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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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