170 UNIT 2 COLONIAL MESOAMERICA
Figure 4.5 The first meeting
between Motecuhzoma and
Cortés. The native artist
highlights the crucial role of
Malintzin, Cortés’s Nahua
interpreter. Florentine Codex,
Book 12, 26r.Some accounts say that Cortés soon took Motecuhzoma prisoner and held him
in the Spaniards’ quarters, while he pretended to reside there willingly. This treat-
ment may be untrue, but somehow the presence of the Spaniards and their allies,
something between invaders and guests, was tolerated for several months. In April
1520, the situation changed when it was learned that a fleet of eighteen ships sent by
Governor Velásquez had landed on the Gulf Coast. The leader, Pánfilo de Narváez,
had orders to arrest Cortés and bring him to Cuba to stand trial. Cortés’s response
was to try to win over Narváez and his men to his side through a combination of
bribery and armed attack. The latter was accomplished when a force, led by Cortés,
attacked Narváez’s men as they slept. Narváez was captured, and his men surren-
dered to Cortés, thus increasing the size of Cortés’s force.
Meanwhile, in Tenochtitlan, Pedro de Alvarado, whom Cortés had left in charge,
was losing control of the situation. Alvarado flew into a rage upon hearing of the cel-
ebration of a traditional Aztec festival in honor of Huitzilopochtli that was to include
human sacrifice, even though he had initially given permission for the ceremony toFlorence,
The Biblioteca Medicea
Laurenziana, Sahagun, 1979.tion by any means is prohibited.Reproduced with permission
of MiBACT. Further reproduc-