Cortes & Malintzin Rush Back To Coast; May 1520

It could be no later than mid-May of 1520 that Cortes went to the coast to confront Panfilo de Narvaez. Sent with 800 men by Diego de Velasquez the Governor of Cuba, Narvaez was his 2nd in command and came bearing a permit from the king to conquer the mainland. They were coming to do this the correct, and imperially sanctioned way. Camilla Townshend tells us that Cortes probably got word of this in April - and that through Moctezuma's messengers - and began planning what to do next. By the end of a month or maybe two, Cortes would ensure Moctezuma's compliance and protection in the city, race off to the coast, and then deal with Narvaez completely, one way or the other.

As Townshend tells it in her lively fashion, activities were already frequent and complex. The translator Malintzin would remain at the center of it all. That winter and early spring were full.

"For now, the Spanish continued their project of gathering information about Moctezuma's territories and resources. Cortes had his host send for mapmakers so that they could give him a report on all possible ports, and he soon learned that the River Coatzacoalcos was the only waterway with the length and depth he was looking for. Though they had never seen it..." [p. 96]

they knew just where to find it and even came back with glowing reports, though what they had found was swampland and would never make a good port. This was where Malintzin was from and she may have been the one that directed them in that direction. Townshend also tells how all three, Cortes, Diaz and Andres de Tapias had said that the report of the additional Spaniards on the coast first came from Mexican messengers. In a footnote (4,21) she adds that it was de Tapias' later Chronicle that said these new ships were depicted by painted signs and hand delivered to Tenochtitlan.

Townshend also concludes that the timing of finding out about Narvaez and, the actual physical capture of Moctezuma, probably happened within the same short number of days. [p.99] Then, some of Narvaez' men arrived, escorted to the great city, sent by Gonzalo de Sandoval. This new captain that Cortes had sent to command Villa Rica, when the old one had grown lax, was doing his job well.  First capturing the Narvaez scouts, he then bundled them off inland to the trek over the mountains to the city.

Once there, Cortes drew them aside and wined and dined them, hoping to learn more about these new arrivals on the coast. He gave them gifts and promised more. He gave orders for men there in the city, to keep Moctezuma under guard and then, quickly assembled a team to go back over the mountains and confront the governor's second in command. Malintzin would go as well. He rode on horseback. She did not. [p. 100]
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quotes and pagination from Malintzin's Choices: an Indian Woman In The Conquest of Mexico, Camilla Townshend, University of New Mexico Press, as part of the series Dialogos, 2006