hernan cortes: from the second letter to charles v 1520
he arives 28 years after columbus'
14 year after his death
he says they were so happy he purified them
after he put rest to their protesting
"to my prince.... [i must declare] the truth in the clearest manner, without saying anything that would detract from it, or add to it."
does this mean he left out things?
he refers to their gods as idols
he connects all of their religious features to christian ones, referring to the men who upkeep the temple as "priest" and their temples as "chapels"
he writes this one year after he arrives in mexico
he describes his massacre of the aztec people much kinder then the aztecs do
after he describes them as savages he goes right back to describing them as ingenious people
he describes the courts and the princes gardens how they have birds of every kind fed with the food natural to them and a house full of men woman and children with white eyelashes, hair, and eyebrows from birth. (albino?)
he describes their trade systems and how easily they trade, how they are not materialistic yet their markets are rich, organized, and beautiful,
he desribes that they use the water ways like roads and that through each major street they have a river crossing through it, and that they are settled in two large lakes, one which is salt water the other which is fresh water.
he destroyed their temples god figurines (cast them down the steps) after he described the temples as unparalleled in architecture and the statues as great
he replaces them with christian saints and says the people were thankful to hm, for purifying their temples which were previously soaked in blood.
the first paragraph is full on simpering to the king
in this he describes the aztecs and wonderful, beautiful and advanced people (later he describes them as animals and barbarians)
mexico is
temixtitlan
