Third Letter of Hernán Cortés Sent May 15, 1522

Three years after first arriving in Mexico, Cortés was sending another letter detailing the taking of Motecuzoma and his City, and following events, back to Emperor Charles V in Spain.  Other letters were sent along with those going back and it would take another six months before they could return there and find response. This was another example of how the physical distances in their world created great temporal delays in the reception of news, which often, in turn, created disastrous effects of unintended consequences.

It is in this letter that Cortés asks his 'Most High And Powerful Prince' for an encomienda system to be set up in Mexico. The request was 'ill-received' at  the court, according to Anthony Pagden who, in the last century, offers another point of view, as related by Bernal Diaz. But it's noted that these letters of Hernán Cortés remain at the imperial library unlike the others. Cortés himself seems to have made sure to  propogate them with instructions for his father to publish the letters. In the age of spreading print presses certainly, also, may have helped in establishing their longevity. These too would later be famously banned by the Crown.

In any event, Cortés had his reasons for writing and sending them, as he remained in 'New Spain' contiuing to claim his own sovereignty there by ungranted permission of the emperor. A year later, June 1523, Charles would send back explicit instruction for Cortés or anyone else not to set up things in an encomienda system and that there were Catholic reasons for this. Cortés would continue to complain and in time, brought to trial over a number of suits. He would establish his own encomienda system anyway.

Anthony Pagden in his edition tells us in a note [letter 3, n. 99] comparing this letter with the others sent (and that are no longer extant but summarized elsewhere) that Bernal Diaz might explain how Cortés and his men actually felt about the business end of things.

"And we all spoke of the many good and loyal services which Cortés and all the conquistadores had performed ... and we besought His Majesty to send us bishops and clerics from every order that were of good life and sound doctrine ... and we besought Him as one, that He grant the government of this New Spain to Cortés ... And that all the official posts such as treasurer, ... notary public and the command of fortresses, should not be granted to others but remain with us. We also besought him not to send us lawyers because by coming to this land they would put it in turmoil with their books and there would be lawsuits and contentions." [ch. 159]

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quoted footnote 99, p 499, from The Third 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