But Cortes spent very little time talking about how they actually apprehended or contained the person who was Montezuma. It probably happened some time after they had been there awhile, and not the six days that Cortes implies, as Moctezuma, by other testimony, was to have a great deal of freedom to direct others and move around his city. Even so there is, as a consequence this relative lack of first hand information of these months where such a monumental change in the current realm occurred there. Questions of all kinds arise. But this is what Cortes had to say, addressing Charles V.
"Most Invincible Lord, ... I decided from what I had seen that it would benefit Your Royal service and our safety if Mutezuma were in my power and not in complete liberty, in order that he should not retreat from the willingness he showed to serve Your Majesty, but chiefly because we Spaniards are rather obstinate and persistent, and should we annoy him he might, as he is so powerful, obliterate all memory of us. Furthermore, by having him with me, all those other lands which were subject to him would come more swiftly to the recognition and service of Your Majesty, as later happened. I resolved, therefore, to take him and keep him in the quarters where I was, which were very strong.
Thinking of all the ways and means to capture him without causing a disturbance, I remembered what the captain I left in Vera Cruz had written to me about the events in the city of Almeria, and how all that had happened there had been by order of Mutezuma." [p. 88]Cortes had heard that a cacique of a town neighboring Vera Cruz had asked for an escort of Spaniards to protect him as he prepared to visit with the Spaniards. When this escort arrived, the cacique, Cortes tells it, had two of them killed yet covered it up and the others escaped. When that captain heard of this he marched on this town Almeria with 'fifty Spaniards, two horsemen, two guns and eight or ten thousand of our Indian allies', and captured it, killing many of the inhabitants. This cacique, it was deduced and reported back to Cortes, had acted in this way on orders of Moctezuma. [p. 87]
When Cortes had a moment, he went to speak with Moctezuma, and after exchanging pleasantries and gifts told him he knew what had happened in Nautecal, the local name of what the Spaniards called Almeria. At once Moctezuma sent his people to bring this cacique and the others implicated back to have them questioned. Cortes priased him for handling it so well but then made a request. Moctezuma should stay in the same place with Cortes, anywhere he liked, but near each other, "... until the truth were known and he [Moctezuma] was shown to be blameless." [p.89] Implied threats of the wrath of the far away King Charles were given as reason for this request.
"I begged him not to take any of this ill, for he was not to be imprisoned but given all his freedom, and I would not impede the service and command of his domains, and he should choose a room in those quarters where I was, whichever he wished. There he would be very much at his ease and would certainly be given no cause for annoyance or discomfort, because as well as those of his service my own men would serve him in all he commanded. In this we spent much time reasoning and discussing, all of which is too lengthy to write down and too tedious and too little pertinent to the issue to give Your Highness an account; so I will say only that at last he said he would agree to go with me. Then he ordered the room where he wished to stay to be prepared, and it was very well prepared. When this was done many chiefs came, and removing their garments they placed them under their arms, and walking barefoot they brought a simple litter, and weeping carried him in it in great silence. Thus we proceeded to my quarters with no disturbance in the city, although there was some agitation which, as soon as Mutezuma knew of it, he ordered to cease; and all was quiet and remained so all the time I held Mutezuma prisoner, for he was very much at his ease and kept all his household." [pp. 89-90]The locals remembered the story differently, as did Bernal Diaz. Our translator of Cortes, Anthony Pagden has some additional notes that can be given while relating the longer version of this story told by Bernal Diaz.
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quotes and pagination 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
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