CHAPTER 4 MESOAMERICA AND SPAIN: THE CONQUEST 167Figure 4.3 Motecuhzoma’s
emissaries present gifts to
Cortés. To Cortés’s left
stands his Nahua interpreter,
Malintzin. Florentine Codex,
Book 12, folio 8v. Florence,Quetzalcoatl: Rather than reciprocating with rich gifts of his own, Cortés had the
messengers shackled and then demonstrated the power of the Spanish guns.
When the emissaries returned to Motecuhzoma, they described the Spaniards’
weapons, armor, horses, and personal appearance:
... the guns went off at [the Spaniards’] command, sounding like thunder, causing peo-
ple actually to swoon, blocking the ears. And when it went off, something like a ball came
out from inside, and fire went showering and spitting out. And the smoke that came from
it had a very foul stench, striking one in the face. And if they shot at a hill, it seemed to
crumble and come apart. And it turned a tree to dust; it seemed to make it vanish, as
though someone had conjured it away.
Their war gear was all iron. They clothed their bodies in iron, they put iron on their
heads, their swords were iron, their bows were iron, and their shields and lances were iron.
And their deer that carried them were as tall as the roof. And they wrapped their bod-
ies all over; only their faces could be seen, very white. Their faces were the color of lime-
stone and their hair yellow-reddish, though some had black hair. They had long beards,
also yellow-reddish (Lockhart 1993:80).
Motecuhzoma sent more emissaries, and wizards found that their magical spells had
no effect upon the strangers.
The Biblioteca Medicea
Laurenziana, Sahagun, 1979.tion by any means is prohibited.Reproduced with permission
of MiBACT. Further reproduc-