Relatively little gold had actually been
discovered and sent to Spain from the
New World by 1519. Sensing that the
jewelry for which Juan de Grijalva bartered in
the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico might prom-
ise an opportunity, Cuba’s governor, Diego
Velásquez, acted quickly. Instead of retaining
Grijalva as commander, Velásquez commis-
sioned a former subordinate named Hernán
Cortés to make an entrada,or exploratory
expedition. In an age when exploration and
desire for wealth and power were intertwined,
the ambitious Cortés would exceed his narrow
authority merely to report his discoveries to
Velásquez. Cortés would be the first to conquer
a vast and powerful empire in the New World,
but in so doing he would also reveal unfamiliar
lands and people to his fellow Europeans.
Europe first learned about Aztec civiliza-
tion, the geography of Mexico, and the Span-
ish conquest through detailed letters Cortés
wrote to Charles V (the Holy Roman Emperor
and Charles I of Spain). The journey into Mex-
ico, from the scuttling of Cortés’s ships
through the Spanish retreat from the Aztec
capital, Tenochtitlán, was described in one
report. Another letter described the siege of

the Aztec capital and subsequent maneuvers

to enlarge Spanish control over Mexico. After

their release to the public by the Spanish

Crown, these letters were quickly translated,

reprinted, and circulated in Spain, Germany,

and Italy. Cortés’s letters to his king were later

collected and known as the Cartas de

Relación. Although Cortés was motivated by a

desire to impress the king so as to advance his

own standing, his letters provided precise and

contemporary descriptions of the many dis-

coveries he made in the New World. Bernal

Díaz del Castillo, amember of the Córdoba,

Grijalva, and Cortés expeditions, wrote True

History of the Conquest of New Spain;it

remained unpublished until 1632, but it

quickly became and has remained a major

source of information about precolonial Mex-

ico. Years after the conquest, a Franciscan

friar, Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, collected

descriptions of the Spanish arrival from Aztec

oral historians. So unflattering were the por-

traits of the conquistadores and so intense

was the Spanish desire to eradicate all

remains of the Aztec culture that Sahagún’s

General History of the Things of New Spainwas

suppressed until 1829. Today the first-person

53

Cortés the Explorer

5

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