Hello, and welcome to Western Sieve episode two hundred and forty. Montezuma and Cortez. Last time, Cortes and his band of conquistadors plus lots of Native American allies, made it from the coast to the heart of Tinoshti Clan itself. In doing so, Cortes directly violated the orders given to him by Governor of Alasquez. In order to stave off any reckoning, Cortes sent his own mission directly to Spain with instructions to get post facto recognition for his efforts.
The problem was what exactly had he done so far? Sure he had made it all the way to the Mexica capital, that alone was quite the accomplishmant. He had reapportioned, I guess a not insignificant amount of gold and silver. He had allied himself with several powerful Mesoamerican allies, but the Mexica Empire was very much independent and intact. If Montezuma chose to kill Cortes, now be a minor footnote to history. Quartz truly becomes the Cortez we all know
from history because of what is going to happen in today's episode. Today Cortez really starts gambling. If the night of November the eighth was unusually quiet and technosht Clan, the morning was business as usual, an early riser might have noticed young boys hurrying to the Great Pyramid with coals for the braziers, or girls carrying tortillas for the priests eat. Merchants from far away would have been slowly arriving to the markets in their canoes. For the moment, the citizens
of ten Nusheti Klan met all the Kunquistador's needs. This wasn't a small thing. There were hundreds of conquistadors plus a few thousand men from Plascala. For a pre modern society, feeding that number of people was not simple, but they did it. The Europeans feasted on tortillas, turkeys, and fresh eggs. Their horses were fed and bedded down. Even their dogs were taken care
of. For the moment, the Mexica did this without resentment. For the moment, Cortes and his followers meant the next several days, resting and seeing the sights, Cortes didn't know what his next step should be. Quote unquote, take Montezuma dead or alive. Sounds all well and good. While he and his followers had been safe and sound on the coast, suddenly surrounded by Mexica, and the knowledge that Mountezuma might at any moment order the drawbridges raised,
Quartees was suddenly a lot less sure. Cortez soon found out how large the city was, how it was divided into four quarters, how large avenues meeting in the central square separated these districts, how each quarter had its own main temple the headquarters of the district governors, and how these districts themselves divided into smaller zones. But Quartes was slower to discover the size of the full
Montezuma's empire. He knew that it had reached the Gulf of Mexico, but he took some time to appreciate that it extended to what they thought of his quote unquote, the southern Sea. He thought that the territory was nearly as big as Spain, a calculation which overestimated the enterprise for the Empire of Mexico was about one hundred and twenty five thousand square miles in comparison with spain size of three hundred thousand, but the total area with a culture comparable to that
of old Mexico, that is, including places like Tuscala and the Yucatan, would have given this new world half a million square miles. That next day, Montezuma received Cortez in his palace. He treated Quartez with deference, kind of like one might expect for a foreign dignitary. Quartez, through his translator, Marina, obviously, then gave the usual speech about the values of Christianity. Montezuma listened through the finer points of Christianity, though they were probably a
bit lost on him. At the end of the first meeting, the two men just took their leave of one another. It's probably hard to say who left the room more perplexed. Now it's worth noting briefly here just how crucial Marina was to Cortes. That to him, this was a bad thing. Cortes did not like how dependent he wasn't as female interpreter, and a female part is important in that sentence. The fact that Cortes was dependent on anyone
irked him. That he was dependent on a teenage girl drove him absolutely nuts. Without Marina, however, Cortes never could have succeeded. In fact, it soon became clear that Marina had what we would call a gift for language, as she soon began to learn Spanish as well. Now, after the amazement of seeing the city for the first time, were off the captains, and several of those from the slots Khans, many of whom seemed to have
been in Tenoshti Klan, came to see Cortez. They told him that he would never be able to escape the city and carry off all the jewels and gold of which they already been given. They further warned that the Mexica were most likely planning to kill him. Several Spaniards began to talk of being caught in a spider's web. One of the men, a certain Ordas, said that he had seen from the roof how easily the Mexican could cut off their
retreat simply by raising the drawbridges. In fact, looking south from the roof of the palace, Cortes would have noted that the Mexica had already raised one or two of the bridges on the causeway. All the same, Cortez was probably still mulling over a direct attack on Montezuma when some bad news arrived from the coast. While he had been gone. The normal Mexica envoys showed up
demanding tribute. This was nothing out of the ordinary. Juan de Escalante, however, the man Cortez had left in charge, refused to pay the tribute on behalf of his touton allies. Perplexed, the envoys left. Frankly, the whole affair probably should have ended right there, but as Galante decided he would try to push the issue. He sallied forth and met the envoys with
their troops outside town, demanding gold, sort of flipping the scripts. The representative said they didn't have any gold, which, for the record, they didn't. Still, Ascalante decided to make an example of these men an attacked. During the fighting, Ascalante's allies deserted him. He managed to retreat and burn a nearby town for good measure, but was mortally wounded and died shortly thereafter. While this was certainly bad news for Cortes, he decided to take
these lemons and make lemonade. He would use the incident as a pretext for demanding a crucial audience with Montezuma. Coutez went to see Montezuma on November the fourteenth, fifteen nineteen. He took several captains with him and about thirty other armed men. On arrival in the throne room, Cortes began to banter with Montezumez he usually did. The emperor, who didn't sense anything out of the ordinary, offered Cortes some jewels and even one of his daughters. In fact,
he proposed several noblemen's daughters for Cortez' men. Cortez turned these down, and he always turned down these offers by the way, claiming that he couldn't take a consort who wasn't baptized. Cortes then changed the subject sharply, and so that he was astonished that Montezuma would even send captains against the garrison which he, Cortez had left at Vera Cruz. He Cortes had done everything possible to help Montezuma, but now the opposite of what he had desired had transpired.
Precisely the same chain of events had occurred at Cholula, he observed icily remember by the way he slaughtered all the leaders at Cholula. Cortez said that he was willing to forgive everything if Montezuma would accompany him without making a scene to the European lodgings, but if you were to cry out or make any noise at all, that his captains would immediately kill him. Montezuma was terrified at this point. He was caught between a rock and a hard place.
Certainly, he didn't want to be killed right then and there, but he recognized that him being a prisoner was problematic. He said, quote, my person is not such that I could be made a prisoner of even if I would like it, my people would not suffer it. End quote. An argument ensued that actually lasted most of the day and why somebody doesn't bust in and help Montezuma at this point, I'm not really sure, but at some
point the various European captains and the records murky is to who. But they start to get nervous that something's going to happen, and they realize that they've got to get Montezuma out right now and back to their own lodgings, which they can barricade, or they're going to be badly outnumbered. Where they were now, Montezuma was still trying to get out of this. He proposed his son and two daughters as hostages. I mean what would his counselors say if
he was taken away as a prisoner, But Cortez was insistent. He said that there was no alternative. The emperor had to come with them. Montezuma would have to stay with the Europeans until they could get to the bottom of what had happened in Phara Cruz. In the meantime, Cortez told him Montezuma would be able to carry out the administration of his empire from the lodgings of the European at the Palace of Ashatal. Montezuma ultimately agreed to go with Cortez.
He told his men to stand down, that he had consulted with the gods and decided for his health to spend a few days with Cortez. Now, the guards outright asked Montezuma if they just wanted them to kill Cortes and his men right then and there. He told them no, Cortes had just
taken captive the most important man in the Mexico world. He was an enormous coup for Cortez, and his actions were very much in keeping with the Renaissance notion that great men could accomplish great things if they were willing to rest a lot. Now, Montezuma quickly became accustomed to his jailers. I suppose today we would probably diagnose him with Stockholm syndrome, though certainly no one thought that
at the time. I should point out from the records that we have, and most of them are Spanish records, but from what we do have, Montezuma did genuinely seem to like Cortez. Cortez and many of the other Europeans made him laugh. He especially liked the young page named Ortegia, who new
Spanish and had learned a little natal. In addition to all the jokes, Cortez would lecture Montezuma daily and probably endlessly, about the nature of Christian theology, especially the relationship between the Trinity. One has to imagine that part of Montezuma's day was a lot less humorous jokes and lectures aside, Montezuma's capture was a huge crisis for the Mexica Empire. The emperor was essential to the direction of Mexican society. He was supposed to speak directly on behalf of the gods.
Now he was someone's captive. What did this mean for the proper order of things. What did it mean for the functioning of Mexican society and their government. Certainly there would have been many anxious people in Technoshticlan that fall. Adding to the anxiety, the Mexican official who had engaged in battle with Escalante and several men who fought with him were brought to technosht Clan as prisoners.
Montezuma weakly handed these men over to Cortes. At first, the official denied that Montezuma had anything to do with the incident, but then under torture, he changed his tune. Still, Cortes told Montezuma, while he was within his rights to have Montezuma put to death and in there, he was so fond of him that he would never dream of having anyone harm him. Then he turned around and had the official from Verta Cruz and all his sons burned
at the stake before the Great Pyramid. This technique of varying supposed kindness with naked brutality kept Montezuma off balance and secured his continued cooperation. Shortly thereafter, Cortez removed the iron shackles keeping the Mexican emperor in place. He told Montezuma. He was free to go, but, perhaps afraid of how his people now perceived him, Montezuma chose to stay with Cortez for some weeks. Yet Montezuma at least seemed to rule. The city returned to something like normality.
Nightly dancing and singing continued in the temples, the law courts issued judgments. The regular ordinary life of the Mexicans continued. Montezuma also continued making sacrifices. Cortez wrote in his journal about how much he hated this, but he couldn't do anything about it for the moment, so he just pretended not to notice. I'd have to imagine that's horri I've never been to a human sacrifice, and I hope never to be, but I'd have to think it's hard to
pretend not to notice one going on. Despite outward appearances, Montezuma's own character had changed. It was no longer the proud and ruthless Mexican empire. He was now pliable, undecided, and subservient, if perhaps underneath subtle and trustworthy. He passed the days with Cortes as a young boy might pass the days with a doting grandfather. Cortes played Mexican games with Montezuma, which as an aside, Cortes seems to have really enjoyed. Cortez tried to teach Montezuma as
much as he could about Spanish customs. He even showed him how to use a crossbow, something that delighted Montezuma endlessly. In his journal, Cortes wrote about Montezuma in fawn terms. Montezuma returned the gesture, describing how he quote loved Cortez like a brother. Around the same time, Cortez decided he would have a series of boats constructed to be able to take quote three hundred men and horses to the mainland end quote. Remember, the Mexicans could always pull
up the drawbridges on the causeway and trap the Spaniards on the island. Cortez wanted to take away this trump card, so in November he decided to have several boats built to ameliorate this disadvantage. The Mexican Empire during most of this period continued to function normally. Tribute flowed, long distance trade continued. As Cortez himself put it, quote harmony and order was maintained, but all good
things must come to an end. I should put good in air quotes there I guess, in this case the cause of the conflict that would lead to significant bloodshed in the streets of Tenoshti Klan were two tales as old as time, religion and gold. The fight over religion derived, as you probably expected, from the issue of sacrifice. Cortes wanted to bring the practice to an
end, but to this point he hadn't been successful. He also wanted to put a crucifix in a picture of the Virgin Mary at the summit of the Great Temple. This hadn't happened either. As for the gold, Cortes continued to press Montezuma at to the location of his gold mines. The emperor did allow Cortes access to some of the tribute books, showing which parts of the
empire paid their taxes in gold. Quote. In Montezuma's income books, we looked up which were the provinces from which he drew gold as tribute, and where there were mines cacao and cotton cloaks. Then quote, it's of course worth noting that gold meant a lot less to the Mexica than it did to the Spanish. That being said, Montezuma was no fool. He certainly did not disclose to the Europeans the location of all of his gold mines. Some
he kept secret, so the regions Montezuma did disclose. Cortes sent expeditions of men to determine the value of the minds. If he was going to steal the wealth of old Mexico, he might as well do a full accounting first. Well this was going on, Cortes continued working to consolidate his power. In early January fifteen twenty, Cortes had Montezuma's summoned all the great Mexican lords
to te Nocht Klan for an audience. Now, what happened at this meeting is all according to Cortez, so we need to take it with a grain of salt. But with that being said, here's what, according to him, happened. Cortez gave a lengthy speech in which he detailed how lucky everyone was to have lived at a time when they could all come under the glorious sovereignty of the King of Castile, Charles the fifth, and luckily they could
all become Christians in time to save their souls. How fortunate for them. According to Cortez, their response to all this was nothing less than complete adulation and subjugation. Evidently, the assembled nobles immediately understood how everything Cortes said was correct, and there was no point in arguing haste clothes. My guess is that this is how Cortes choose to interpret what he saw. In any event, the nobility was not about to question Montezuma to his face, at least
not yet. So the Emperor and the nobility turned over children, sons, and daughters, as I suppose, hostages. The upshot of all this for Cortez was that he could claim Montezuma had now formally accepted Charles the Fifth as his lord and emperor. What this meant was that Cortes could interpret any new expedition Velasquez might send against him as against the king himself. Since Montezuma was now a lawful vassal, it gave Cortes a stronger moral position, and,
at least, in theory, a stronger legal one. But the religious disputes remained. Montezuma offered up the idea of a kind of compromise. Perhaps he suggested they put the Mexican gods on one side of the shrine and the Christian God and the other. Evidently, Montezuma had not listened to my episodes on the Reformation. Had he, he would have known that the sixteenth century was
not known for being an era of religious compromise. No, Cortez stood firm the idols had to go, So several days later the Mexican priests put together ropes, pulleys, and other traptions to get the Mexican gods out of the shrine and safely down to the ground. Took old day, but it worked. After the Mexican idols were gone, Cortez had the shrines cleaned and the effigies of the Virgin Mary and Saint Christopher installed atop the Great Pyramid of technosoty
Klan. Saint Christopher was a major patron center in the Middle Ages, so that's why he ended up up there. Then, finally, per Cortez's order, the sacrifices stopped. He would report later of this time quote, in all the time that I remained in the city, I did not see a single living creature killed were sacrificed. I should note the obvious qualification that he put on that I did not see what went on outside his realm of vision. Well, I guess we'll never know. One thing Cortez certainly did see
was gold, lots of gold. In the early part of fifteen twenty, Cortes and the expedition as a whole held basically a financial accounting a stocking. The gold, which had been gained both from the presence and from items seized, was valued at one hundred and sixty thousand pacos. The royal fifth therefore was named as thirty two thousand pasos. This was exclusive of gold and silver jewelry, which must have been worth at least seventy five thousand pacos or more
so. Then A fifth of the remainder of the first amount of gold one hundred and twenty eight thousand pacos which Cortez took for himself would have been about twenty five thousand, six hundred. That left one hundred and two thousand, four hundred pacos worth of gold to distribute, but Cortes claimed he had to reimburse himself for his expenses, including sailor's wages, the ships, the food,
the horses. Money also had to be allocated to the two priests on the expedition to Cortes's agents in Spain and seventy men left behind Vera Cruz. These subtractions left little to be divided. Some money, in fact, was distributed one or two soldiers seemed to have been satisfied. Ordinary soldiers got about one hundred pasos, and most of them looked at this as an insult. Cortes was able to smooth it over with a lot of them a few secret
sort of under the table payments. All the estimates were arrived at after the gold, by the way, including most of the jewelry, had been melted down in according to practice. It's crucial to understand that by comparison to other
explorers and conquistadors, this was a huge haul. Just considered Ponce da Leon, for example, in his property in Puerto Rico, he accumulated in thirteen years from fifteen o nine to fifteen twenty one, just under twenty two thousand paceos worth of gold, four thousand of which he sent to the king in less than one year. Cortez was going to send the king thirty two thousand
paceos, eight times that amount. If Cortez needed to buy himself back into the King's good graces, he was sure as heck going to do it now. Sometime in March fifteen twenty, Montezuma's favorite little page or Taguia, went to see Cortez. He told him that Montezuma needed to talk to him right away. Or Taghia added that he had noticed several secret discussions between Montezuma and his lords which suggested that a plot might be at foot. Cortez went with
four other captains as well as the two interpreters to see the Emperor. Montezuma that day seemed be a new man. His gods, so long silent, had now apparently told him to declare war on the Europeans on the ground that they had stolen gold in other things. Montezumas said that since he had become fond of the Europeans, he wanted them to leave before his people attacked them.
He offered Cortez himself two loads of gold and one for each of his men, sort of as a parting gift, of course, and his statement he made no mention at all of the lost God or lost leader who Cortez supposedly was, who disappeared in the past, nor the legend that he would return to rule the empire, nor did he speak of the oath that Cortez insisted that he took. He didn't even mention the King of Spain. Poof all of that seems to have begotten, forgotten. But why the change in
Montezuma. We would have expected him to react when Cortez went to remove the idols, but he didn't. It seems that Montezuma's own people helped him find his backbone again. The Mexican people were insisting that Montezuma either expel or kill the Europeans, so I suppose he didn't so much his act as just bow to the public will. Montezuma now became insistent that Cortez leaved to Nushti klan
At. One of the ironies of this whole year long period is that both men, Cortez and Montezuma recognize how it's in their best interest to resolve all this without bloodshed, Yet in the end neither man is able to make that happen. Cortez responded to Montezuma that he would love to leave, but he had no ships. Montezuma countered by saying he would lend Cortez all his carpenters to build the ships. Cortez came back with something like, oh, sure,
we'll go, but you're coming with us. The notion of traveling to Spain forced Montezuma to once more pump the brakes. Whatever Cortez's plans were, they were abruptly upended. Early in April fifteen twenty, word reached Cortez and Montezuma that a Spanish ship had arrived off the coast of Vera Cruz. Some men in the expedition believed that this was aid come from Spain as a result of the efforts by the men Cortes sent to argue his case before the king,
But Cortez was more shrewd than that. He recognized that these reinforcements were just as if not more, likely to have come from Governor Velasquez in Cuba, in which case he warn't a pleasant surprise at all. The appearance of Maniflos de Navarrez's fleet off the coast of Mexico in April fifteen twenty was the consequence of the departure from there nine months before of the two men Cortes had
sent back to Spain. Now those two conquistadors left for home on the Santa Marie de Concepcion, just out of the newly founded town of Vera Cruz. Their mission was to go back to Spain and persuade the young King Charles to recognize Cortes as governor and the captain general of the new territory, a territory which he had, of course, now he had conquered. They had been told by Cortes to go directly to Spain. Speed was essential. They had
therefore determined to travel north of Cuba and then along the Gulf Stream. This route had been discovered six years ago during Ponce da Leone's voyage to Florida. The plan was then to turn northeast and set sail across the ocean. This actually very soon would become the invention a way of traveling from Spain to Cuba and hence Mexico. But one of the two men on board, who had
property in Cuba, convinced everyone else to stop. I mean, this wasn't totally out of the question, it was kind of more or less on the way. They stayed there for three days, having anchored on August the twenty third. During this stay, one of the servants caught a glimpse of the treasure which they were taking home to Spain. He exclaimed later that he had never seen such riches. Now, the gentleman in question was sworn to secrecy, But the idea that that was going to happen, no, never.
It wasn't before long that word of the treasure trove of riches Cortez had accomplished and found in Mexico had reached Governor Velasquez. Governor Vlasquez had just passed the first six months after Cortez had left Cuba really without complaint. Life had gone on. A few operations had found some deposits of gold to the west of Havana. Then a modest sugar harvest came in. More tobacco grew, The court at Santiago survived. The world and other worlds just kept on spinnen.
But then word reached Velasquez that Cortez had truly found something in Mexico. The amount of gold he was sending back to Spain put anything Velasquez was doing in Cuba to shame. Suddenly, Velasquez cared a lot about Cortez. He was angry here. He had given this man everything he needed to launch a voyage of discovery in his name, and he took it all for himself. Ridiculous.
Velasquez was going to put a stop to it, a sap. Initially, he sent out several ships to waylay Cortez's Spanish bound messengers on the high seas, but they missed the mark. So Velasquez went straight to the source. He dispatched a man to Spain with letters to Bishop Fonseca, the man who had for years run the Spanish enterprises in the West Indies. Velasquez begged Fonseca to do whatever he could to thwart Cortes's designs. Velasquez also planned an
expedition to destroy Cortes's little colony, but fate got in the way. In October, smallpox reached Cuba. It was the first real epidemic in the New World. By May fifteen, nineteen nearly all the indigenous tie Anos on Santo Domingo were dead. By the end of that year, they were totally wiped out by November. Smallpox reached Cuba. Year to the population collapsed, as
did the sugar production, which was dependent on Indian slave labor. All of this both slowed the initial creation of an expedition to stop Cortez, and then it supercharged it. How's that? Well? You see? Suddenly in late fifteen nineteen, everyone was desperate to get out of Cuba. Men were more than willing to risk everything to chase down Cortez. I mean, what did they have to lose? They were going to die in Cuba anyway. So Velasquez had his pick of captains, and he chose a man named Panphilio de
Nevades. Nevades was a good choice. Just this past January Nevades had gone to what is today Panama and executed the then errant governor. Nevades had lopped off Balboa's head and not bought twice about it. He was the perfect man for the job. Meanwhile, Porto Carreo and Mondejo, Cortes's two agents, had reached Spain. They arrived in October fifteen nineteen and were in Seville on November the fifth of that same year. They did not get the heroes welcome
they expected. The treasure they brought was immediately confiscated. This time, Velasquez was two steps ahead Diego. Velasquez sent word to his personal chaplain in Spain to hold up Cortes's men and prevent their success, and he did just that, luckily for Cortes and his men. Though Spain that winter was on the
verge of rebellion. We talked about this in previous episodes, but this is during that period when the Spanish nobility, and especially the municipalities, the cities and the towns, were badly trying to extract major compromises from Charles the Fifth, who for his part, just wanted to get out of Spain and back on to Germany. As a result of all this, Bishop Fonseca had been able to control Spanish policy in the New World, much as he had done
under Ferdinand. By March fifteen nineteen, he had put together a department within the all powerful Council of cast Stile to deal with the West Indies. Fonseca, of course would be in charge. But the flip side to the rebellion coin was that while the crown wanted consolidation, the towns or procuradores were seeking to influence royal policy more and more, and just as that was sort of holding back Fonseca's power, Cortez's men got a lucky break. It turned out
that Hannanan, Cortes's father had a connection to Charles the Fifth. He knew his prior Almoner, the person that he went to to make absolution. So Cortes's men teamed up with his father to see if they could find a way around Bishop Fonseca. It helped, of course, that they had mountains of treasure to smooth over any rough edges. Now, by the time that Porto, Carrero and Monteo, now with Cortes's father, reached bars Salona, the
court had left for Bruches. The Emperor had, however, performed some important businesses relating to the Indies. He had, for example, heard Las Casas's account of the evils of the Spanish treatment of the natives in the Caribbean, which, even if it was a tenth as violent as La Casa said it
was, must have made a strong impression on him. Charles also issued a decree asking that the treasure which Ponto, Carrero and Montello had brought from the New World to be handed over to the Casa de la Contracion in Seville. Casa de la Contracion was the sort of department that was in charge of any
and all expeditions and what they got from the New world. More importantly, still even sent a friendly message to Cortes's emissaries, saying he was pleased to hear of their arrival, ordering them to go to court the place where I shall be, and asked them to bring with them the Choltenock Indians and to treat them well. Charles's moderate tone was a clear indication that Fonseca's power was
waning. Cortez's men finally caught up with the Royal court if Valadelid. They asked for the release of the funds they had brought from Veracruz, as well as their ship. Crucially, they also asked that Cortes be granted the title of governor and Chief Magistrate of this new territory Ie Mexico, until Cortes could finish conquering it. For really the first time, Cortes was giving an indication of the crown that he intended to conquer all of Mexico, not just settle
the coast. While there is no definitive proof that Cortez's men or his father saw Charles the Fifth personally, it seems probable that they did. That's because in the end, the Royal council haunted on the issue, and that was a very good thing for her non Cortez. They didn't give Cortes the titles he sought, but they did give him back his money to use as his
emissary soft it in Spain. The Royal Council decided the wisest course of action was to wait until it could hear from both Cortes and Governor of Alasquez. This was a huge win for Cortez, as it suggested he was on an even footing with the governor. It was as close to an outright victory for Cortes's friends as they were going to get. As for Charles, he probably
never read the letters Cortes sent him. He did take them with him as he left Spain, along with all the treasure that constituted his royal fifth. As we know, he was going to need Mexico's wealth to buy the Imperial crown in Germany. In Seville, Cortes's father would sell his son's recently returned ship, which was technically against Cortes's express orders, but it proved to be for the best. The money he got from the sale was enough to ship
back significant and crucial supplies. Now back in Cuba, Velasquez was not about to sit around and wait for permission to deal with Cortez, as far as he was concerned. His man Nevades could now do that since Cortes had violated his express order. So Nevades sailed from Cuba in March fifteen twenty. He set off as usual for the Yucatan and then followed the coast in Cortez's footsteps.
Every group of natives he encountered were hostile, which, as Nevades himself correctly pointed out, was probably as the result of the way in which Cortez had treated them. Nevades made every effort to be kind at the Totonacs and others that he met. As he traveled. Montezuma found out Navarez had reached Vera Cruz long before Cortez, and did not immediately tell him. However, in the end he found it impossible to keep Cortes from the secret of Navarez's
arrival. Now why did he keep it secret? Well, perhaps he thought Cortes would punish him if he discovered the news independently. Montezuma showed Cortes the painted cloths illustrating the new ships that had arrived, and urged him to leave to mosht Klan. He said to Cortes that he could see that the Spaniards were not all united and did not hell have the same lord. He pointed out now that there were many ships, so quote, you have no need
to build ships. You can return together to Castile, and there need be no further excuses end quote. Now Cortez nonpulsed replied that Castilians did have the same lord, but that the new people who arrived were probably bad people. They might be brigands, they might be robbers, They might be people who would bring bad luck to the land because they would steal whatever there was.
Now, of course, Cortes knew very well who these people were. He immediately realized that the newcomers were much more likely agents of Governor vel Esquez than people directly from Spain. Back in Veracruz, the man Cortes left in charge, Sandoval took decisive action. He called together all the men and made them swear an oath to support no governor other than had Ann Cortez. Then he sent away all the sick and old men. In other words, he was
preparing for a siege. Now, that is, for his part, sent a small party with letters addressed to the various members of Cortes's party in Betacruz, seeking to lure them away from the Conquistador. Sandoval ordered this party arrested and sent directly to Technoshti Klan. When these men reached the capital, Cortes ordered them released, blaming the whole thing on Sandoval so that he could, as usual, look like the good guy. On top of that, he
gave them a substantial quantity of gold as an enticement to change sides. It is an indication of the wealth that could be had in Mexico. Navarez might have some nice sounding letters from Governor Velasquez, but Cortes he had gold. Who turned out the latter was much more effective at buying affections. Navarez, in the meantime, sent one of his ships back to Cuba with an update for the governor. It seems that Cortes had indeed found a wealthy civilization.
Their capital, he wrote, was in the interior of the island or continent, or whatever the heck this was. The man he talked to said it sounded like a modern venice, which he couldn't believe, but he would see for himself. Soon enough. Now, back in Technoshti Klan, Cortes debated what should be done about Navarez. Given that Navarez seemed uninterested in compromise, and based on his prior reputation of chopping people's heads off, the course seemed
straightforward. Cortes declared, quote death to Navarez and to anyone who argues about the matter. End quote now. As the calendar turned to fifteen twenty head non, Cortes seemed to be in a weak position. He had a small force to begin with when he arrived in Mexico, and since then he had divided that force into four He had only around two hundred men in technos Declane True, Montezuma and a few other major Mexican lords were his prisoners, but
how long could that last? Easter Sunday, April eighth, fifteen twenty came and went. It was time to take decisive action, so Cortez set out for the coast in early May. Unwilling to lose what he had gained a technost Klan, he left one hundred and twenty men under the command of one Alvarado to keep order and keep Montezuma captive. Thus he was only taking eighty conquistadors at a number of talas collins with him. This was a huge gamble.
The men he was going to have to face absolutely understood fire arms and horses. They were going to outnumber him, and they weren't going to be easily spooked. Cortes warmly embraced Montezuma before he left. The latter begged Cortes to let him help. He said he could send an army of one hundred
thousand plus thirty thousand porters. Surely with those numbers Cortes would prevail. Cortes told him all needed was God. Still, as he left, Montezuma reminded Cortez that all he needed to do was send word and Montezuma would send a massive force to aid him. Now, of course, this was the last thing Cortez wanted. Who knew what the Mexicans might realize they could do with a large army at hand. It wouldn't take long for someone to figure out
they could just wipe out Cortes as well and be done with it. It was a risk Cortez couldn't take. Cortes set out to the sea over the same land route he took in getting to technosh declan. As he marched and met with various Indian allies overland, Cortes realized that Montezuma knew about Navare's long long before he told him. Cortes was furious, and this would change his attitude towards the Mexican emperor after his return. As he marched, Cortes also
distributed a significant amount of gold to his men. The goal was clear, keep everyone happy and loyal. Upon reaching the coast, Cortes sent an emissary demanding that Navarrez laid down his arms and submit to Cortes's authority. It was an imperious demand that had absolutely no chance of success. Cortes certainly knew this. He only sent the message to give himself legal justification for the military action he had already settled on. For a few days after Cortez reached the coast,
messages went back and forth between the two camps. Cortes did everything he could to purchase the loyalty of Navarrez's men. According to one historian quote, the camp of Navarez was soon awash with gold, believed to have come from Cortes. Now neither sided in the interesting compromise, all of these negotiations were merely maneuvering for a superior moral and legal position. All of this came to an end on May twenty eighth, fifteen twenty. That day, Cortes arranged
his men into five companies for the battle to come. His plan was really simple, attack in the darkness and overwhelmed Navadez before he had a chance to respond. For his part, navades knew what was coming, having declared open war on Quartz several days earlier. Still, Navarez seems to have totally misjudged how far away Cortes was the evening going into the battle, and I mean that physically, like he didn't understand how closed Cortes's army was to him.
He expected the attack to come around dawn, but Cortes and his army were much much closer than he realized. Even when his aid burst into Navarez's tent and informed him Cortes was on the move, he didn't spring into action. Navarez expected Cortes to pause before he attacked, and he was wrong. Navarez had built his headquarters on top of the pyramid outside caplan. Cortes's men moved in the darkness, silently dispatched the sentries at the base of the pyramid and
were practically overrunning the camp itself Before anyone knew what was going on. Sandoval led the chart argent to Navarez's tent. After a vicious struggle, resulting in several deaths and many more maimings, they captured Navarez. Navarez, who had lost an eye in the battle, begged for a doctor, but Cortes told him quote, traitor, troublemaker, you have received better than your desserts and quote then he sent him a doctor. They were both gentlemen after all.
The moment Navarez surrendered, all his captains likewise capitulated, Cortes seized all kinds of booty, and the casualties were actually pretty high for the numbers involved. Navarez lost fifteen men, Cortes two. Cortes then went on to dismantle Navarez's nearby town of San Salvador, which hadn't even really started to grow yet. For once, Cortez could exhale Velasquez had sent a significant expedition against him, and he had fended it off with relative ease. He didn't know it yet,
but everything in Spain was also going according to plan. He had gambled and he had won, or so it would seem. Just as the dust settled in Veracruz, word reached Cortez from Tenochticulan. The message was from Montezuma. Cortez needed to return to the capitol at once. Alvarado, whom Cortez had left in charge, had killed and wounded many Indians at a festival which Cortez himself had given permission for. The city was in full blown rebellion.
If you've enjoyed the episode and would like additional content, as always, check out the links in the show notes. There's links there to the website, teaching materials, add free versions of the show and Western CIV. Two point zero full in the Peloponnesian Wars. At this point, if you'd like to hear the whole thing over again,