Footnotes of Anthony Pagden: What Happened In Nautla

In a footnote, Anthony Pagden explains, the stated desire by Cortes for himself and Moctezuma to stay together, near each other, 'was a ruse to imprison Motecuzoma.' The difficult question of what to do about attacked members of his own party, Cortes took as reason to demand the proximity to, if not yet, control of the local King's person, according to his own Second Letter to his King and Emperor written before October 1520, some ten to twelve months after these events. What an enormous ruse this had to be.
But Pagden as voluminous researcher and translator also gives more evidence showing some of the variations.

One Juan Alvarez was said to testify, years later, that the captain Cortes said was mistreated or killed was named Escalante. He said, according to this Second Letter footnote 43:

"Escalante had gone to Nautla with a force of Spaniards and Totonaque to look for gold. The Indians refused to give them any, and a fight ensued in which the Spaniards were defeated, losing two of their men."

Nautla was the local name for Almeria, the town Cortes said was 'neighboring Vera Cruz.' The one destroyed and set fire to, but used as a landmark throughout these tales.

Diaz in his chp xciv, says there were six that were killed, as well as Escalante.

Pagden also mentions that Gomara, Cortes' secretary and later official biographer said,

"... that it was not Escalante but Pedro de Ircio who was killed. He also says that the expedition was sent to prevent Francisco de Garay from settling on the coast..."

And this is referenced from Wagner, pp 208-9, which must be the HR Wagner 1942 Berkeley Publication,  The Discovery of Yucatan, which included 'Documents and Narratives concerning the Discovery and Conquest of Latin America'.

 The local chief who was killed in the affair was called "Bright Eagle" or Cuauhpopoca and he may have been the chief for the entire north coast. Cortes called him Qualpopoca, Pagden also notes taht Eulalia Guzman disagrees and says that was a confusion of two different people. There is also evidence this leader was instead shot full of arrows, rather than as Cortes depicted him being burned alive.

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quoted footnote 43, p 469, 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