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... holy after the fleet set out they encountered a hurricane, which sent them far south of their destination to the island of Cozumel. Cortez's ship was the last to land on the island and when he arrived he learned that one of his ships captains had raided a Cozumel temple and stolen gold articles from it. Cortez did not want to start any trouble so he publicly reprimanded the captain and explained the people of Cozumel that he was there only in peace. This allowed him to set up a trading relation with the people and this allowed him to trade a few trinkets for some of their gold ornaments. While on Cozumel Cortez tried to convert the natives to Christianity.
This plan however did not work out. He constructed a new alter in their temples with a statue of the Virgin and the Child on it, but they were too stubborn and still refused to convert. The army then decided to move to the mainland where they were hoping to find the real riches of the continent. While there they encountered the Tabascans. This tribe was reluctant to welcome Cortez and his men openly. They began to have a battle.
The only problem was that the Indians outnumbered the Spanish with 40, 000 men. They also seemed not to fear the cannons at all and continued to charge the new visitors. It wasnt until the soldiers on the horses began to ride over the Indians and kill them al will that the Spanish army gained an opening to charge the Indians all at once. As this began the Indians began to realize that they were no match for the artillery and the weaponry of the Spanish that they began to retreat. It was now that Cortez released two captured Chiefs and told the Cozumel's that he was willing to forget the past if they were willing to enter into trade with him and his men.
It was here that Cortez came across his Mistress Marina. She was a Mayan who also spoke Aztec. She also quickly picked up Castilian so she became a valuable asset to Cortez and his army because they now had an interpreter. It was from his new mistress Marina that Cortez first learned of the Aztec King Montezuma and all of his wealth. When the ships fleet landed near the Aztecs they were met by a liaison who traded lavish gifts of gold and silver with the new arrives. At the same time as the trade agreements Montezuma forbade the Spanish from coming any further towards their city.
The Aztecs were scared of many omen that they had heard and were afraid that the Spanish were there only to do them harm and take their riches. The two sides began to talk a little, but no advances had been made between the King and Cortez. Because of this Cortez moved north were he encountered some of the other tribes and exchanged battles with them. Still Cortez had not been as successful with his journey as he had wanted to.
After hearing that some of his men had planned to desert and go back to Cuba, Cortez had all but one of the ships sunk. Still discouraged Cortez again decided to try the meetings with Montezuma. On his arrival Montezuma met him at the gates and welcomed the Spanish in and allowed them to stay in the old army barracks. Because the tension between the two sides were so great Cortez took Montezuma hostage and kept him in the barracks with him and his men in order to keep the 30, 000 Aztec troops from attacking them. Cortez then decided that it was time for him to go back to Cuba to regroup and figure out what to do with Montezuma. Upon his return he realized that one of his Captains had gone on a rampage and cleaned out one of the Aztec temples and killed many of their men.
This upset Cortez and he tried to urge Montezuma to stop the fighting. This did not work however and Cortez was then forced to retreat at night and t reassess the citation. When Cortez saw that he possessed such a goodly store of muskets and powder and crossbows and realized the strong desire of all of us, both Captains and Soldiers, again to attach the Great City of Mexico (Diaz P 338). Cortez, realizing that the Aztecs were not going to compromise with the peace, decided that he was going back to attack the city and take it over along with all of the gold and silver that he knew Montezuma had in his possession. It was still going to be a win for the Spanish because even if they were not able to convert the Aztecs, they were still going to take their riches back to Spain with them. The Spanish moved in with thunder and unbelievably defeated the Aztecs with little to no problem.
It was actually the diseases that the Spanish had brought with them that killed most of the Aztec soldiers. The Aztecs also seemed to be no match for the horses that were brought and the Spanish took an easy victory. Along with the victory came all the gold and the silver that Cortez was able to claim as his to bring back with him to his homeland of Spain. The story of the Conquest that has just been told is readily available for you in both the Prescott and the Diaz books.
Both tales of the conquest seemed to be remarkably accurate. I suppose that would be the case considering it happened hundreds of years ago and many people know the tale. There was however some differences in the two books. The Diaz book was a great book because it gave a full description of the conquest while still staying interesting to the reader.
As many history books are this one was not as dull. The books seemed to cover all the aspects of the Cortez conquest as well as the explorations of both Cordova and Grijalva. This was very interesting because it gave the book a little preamble to the main conquest. On the other hand, the Prescott book had separate chapters set up that dealt specifically with the lives of the Aztecs. Prescott did a wonderful job on his book because instead of just telling of the Conquest of Mexico by Cortez, he took time aside to tell about the Aztecs. There was separate chapters set aside that I did not include because they did not pertain to the conquest.
These chapters were used to give the reader some added information on the lives of those that were being taken over. I though this was great because it gave some background information on the religion on the Aztecs and many of their other customs. As a whole I thoroughly loved reviewing these two books because I feel that they are both excellent sources for the Conquest of Mexico. Both of these books were well written and fairly easy to read and follow along with as they told the story. I would highly recommend them both to anyone who wishes to study the Mexican Conquest. Works Cited Diaz del Castillo, Bernal.
The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico. Farrar, Straus, and Cudahy. New York. 1956. Prescott, William H. The Conquest of Mexico.
The Modern Library. New York. 1843.
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