The Tlaxcaltecas wanted these gifts to be accepted as 'showing goodwill as something from friends and servants'. Cortes was delighted. The elder Xicotencatl then offered 'among their daughters and nieces, the most beautiful'. He wanted to cement their alliance. All the rest of the cieftains said they, too, would bring their daughters the next day. Cortes thought this 'a good time to get these chiefs to give up their idols and not to sacrifice'. The Mercedarian friar with them replied, according to Diaz:
"Sir, that's all very well, but let's leave it until they bring the daughters, and then we'll have an occasion to talk about it. You'll say that you don't want to accept the women until they promise not to sacrifice any longer; if that works, good; if not, we'll do what we're obliged to do." [ch. lxxvi]The next day, Diaz says, the chiefs brought five beautiful young maidens, each with their own servant, all daughters of chiefs. Xicotencatl offered his own daughter to Cortes. He accepted them, 'pleasantly', but said they should stay with their parents, for now. They asked why he would not 'take them now'. This is what Diaz says Cortes told them:
"Because I want first to do what is ordered by Our Lord God, in whom we believe and whom we worship, and what the king our lord sent us to do"--..."and believe in what we believe, which is one true God alone...."Here Diaz explains that many other good things were said by the interpreters as 'they were already so expert with it', saying they should 'first leave their idols and believe in and worship Our Lord God'.
"Their reply to this was to say: "Malinche, we have already understood you before now ... look, you have only just now come to these our houses; as time goes on we will understand more clearly your beliefs, and we will see how they are and we will do what is best. How can you want us to leave our teules, whom our ancestors have considered as gods for many years and have worshipped and sacrificed to them?"They wondered out loud what would their children or their allies in neighboring provinces think if they abandoned their way of life and idols now? They had already said they would 'destroy this whole province'. This response, Diaz says this was given 'in earnest and without fear'. The Mercaderian friar 'a learned man and a theologian', stepped forward and spoke to Cortes.
"Sir, don't try to press them hard on this any more, because it's not right for us to make them Christians by force, and I wouldn't want you to do what we did in Cempoala, throwing down their idols, until they have knowledge of our holy faith.... It's better that they continue hearing our admonitions, which are holy and good, so that they recognize going forward the good advice we give them."Three captains of Cortes also came forward and told him the friar was right, that Cortes had fulfilled his duty and not to 'touch on this matter with these chieftains anymore'. But the Tlaxcala agreed that a cross and imge of Mary could be erected there where baptisms occurred. The daughter of Xicotencatl was one baptized and then Cortes gave her to Pedro de Alvarado. And there were many others, Diaz says.[ch. lxxvii]
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all quotes from chapter lxxvi-vii of 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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