Moctezuma Comes Out to Meet the Strangers

Bernardino de Sahagún and his Nahua informants, History of the Conquest of Mexico (Book XII of the General History of the Things of New Spain), chapters 15–16, edited by Carlos María de Bustamante (1829)

Written: compiled from the 1550s to the 1570s (events of November 1519)
Place: Mexico-Tenochtitlan (Huitzillan)
Language: Spanish (from Nahuatl)
Kind of source: history
Reading time: 4 minutes
Difficulty: Moderate
Intensity: Low

Mesoamerica First contact in the Americas Conquest and resistance in the Americas Rulers and courts Speeches and edicts Translation and interpreters

Moctezuma came out to meet the Spaniards with strings of flowers piled on great painted gourd dishes. He hung a collar of gold and precious stones on Cortés. Then, face to face, he told him that he had only been keeping the throne for him.

The Spaniards entered Tenochtitlan, the Mexica capital, on November 8, 1519, along the southern causeway from Itztapalapan. This account comes from the twelfth book of the General History of the Things of New Spain, compiled by the Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún. Nahua elders, many from Tlatelolco, told the story of the conquest in Nahuatl, and Nahua scholars trained by Sahagún wrote it down, a generation after the events. Sahagún also made a Spanish version, and that is what is translated here. Bustamante printed it in 1829. He believed he had Sahagún's revised version of 1585, but this speech follows the Spanish of the General History; Sahagún's revision of 1585 leaves out the speech, giving only a one-line summary.

The elders could know what Mexica nobles saw and repeated: the gifts, the names of the lords, how the lords behaved later. No one outside the small party at the meeting heard the speech itself. It passed through Malintzin's interpreting, through memory, and through Sahagún's Spanish, which sometimes summarizes: the march in chapter 15 is cut short in a single sentence.

Historians read the speech in different ways. Cortés, writing to Charles V in 1520, put a longer speech in Moctezuma's mouth, in which he promises to obey Cortés in place of the king. Miguel Pastrana Flores reads the Nahua greeting as a traditional Nahua formula of welcome. He finds nothing in it that ties Cortés to the god Quetzalcoatl, though the words about the throne do suggest some subordination. Matthew Restall has argued that Moctezuma never surrendered and that Cortés misread or misrepresented Nahua courtesy as consent. Camilla Townsend, as Andrea Martínez Baracs summarizes her, has argued that the old story of Spaniards taken for gods rests on assumptions of Spanish superiority. Other scholars, following Miguel León-Portilla, point to Nahua sources that do link the newcomers to Quetzalcoatl's return. The claim that the god Quetzalcoatl was coming appears in print first in Francisco López de Gómara's history of the conquest.

Watch the gifts and gestures on both sides, and who speaks for whom. Notice the last line, about what the lords did when Moctezuma was seized.

The edited translation, in simplified modern English. Bracketed words were added for clarity; [...] marks a cut. Tap a note number to read the note.

The March from Itztapalapan

The Spaniards set out from Itztapalapan¹ all ready for war, marching in order by squadrons. Some horsemen went ahead to see whether there was an ambush. They also took two greyhounds in front. In the rearguard came Don Hernando Cortés with many other Spaniards, all armed and in their ranks. Behind them came the baggage and the artillery on its carts. Many Indian warriors came too, with all their weapons, many Tlaxcaltecas and Huexotzincas.² In this order they entered Mexico.³ The rest of this chapter says nothing else except the order in which the Spaniards and their Indian allies marched when they entered Mexico.⁴

Moctezuma Comes Out with Flowers

As the Spaniards reached the stream called Xoluco, beside the houses of Alvarado,⁵ Mocthecuzoma⁶ made ready to go out and receive them. With him went many lords, chief men, and nobles, to receive Don Hernando Cortés and the other captains in peace and with honor. They took many beautiful, sweet-smelling flowers, made into strings and garlands and arranged to be held in the hand. They set them on great gourd dishes, brightly painted. They also brought collars of gold and precious stones.

Mocthecuzoma met the Spaniards at the place called Vitzillan, beside the hospital of the Conception.⁷ There Mocthecuzoma himself put a collar of gold and precious stones on Captain Don Hernando Cortés, and gave flowers and garlands to all the other captains. When he had given this gift, as was their custom, Don Hernando Cortés asked him [who he was], and he answered, “I am Mocthecuzoma.” Then he drew himself up before the captain and bowed deeply to him. He drew himself up again, face to face with the captain and close to him, and began to speak to him like this.

Moctezuma's Speech

“O our lord, you are most welcome! You have come to your land, to your town, to your house, Mexico. You have come to sit on your throne, on your seat, which I have held for some days in your name. Other lords, who are now dead, held it before me: Itzcoatl, Mocthecuzoma the Elder, Axayacatl, Tizoc, and Ahuitzotl.⁸ I, the last of all, have come to take charge of this town of yours, Mexico, and to rule it. All of us have carried your realm and your vassals on our backs. The dead can no longer see or know what is happening now. If only he by whom we live⁹ had willed that one of them were alive, and that what is happening in my presence had happened in his! But they are gone, our lord. I am not asleep or dreaming. With my own eyes I see your face and your person. For a long time I have been waiting for this. For a long time my heart has been looking toward the lands you have come from. You have come out from among the clouds and the mists, a place hidden from everyone. This is surely what the kings who went before us told us: that you would return to reign in these kingdoms, and sit on your throne, on your seat.¹⁰ Now I see that what they told us is true. You are most welcome. You must have suffered hardships on such long roads. Rest now. Here is your house, and here are your palaces. Take them and rest in them with all your captains and companions who have come with you.”

Cortés Answers

Mocthecuzoma finished his speech, and Marina¹¹ interpreted it for Don Hernando Cortés. When Cortés had understood what Mocthecuzoma had said, he said to Marina, “Tell Mocthecuzoma to take comfort and be glad and have no fear. I love him dearly, and so do all who come with me, and no one will do him harm. We are very glad to see him and to know him, which we have wished for many days, and now our wish has come true. We have come to his house, Mexico. We will see each other and talk at our leisure.” Then Don Hernando Cortés took Mocthecuzoma by the hand, and the two of them walked together, side by side, to the royal houses.

The Lords Who Were There

The lords who were there with Mocthecuzoma were these. The first was the lord of Texcoco, called Cacamatzin.¹² The second was the lord of Tlacupan, called Tetlepanquetzatzin. The third was the governor of Tlatilulco, called Itzquauhtzin. The fourth was Mocthecuzoma's steward, whom he had placed in Tlatilulco, called Topantèmoctzin. These were the most important. Many other Mexicans of lesser rank were also there. One was called Atlixcatzintlacateccatl, another Tepeoatzintlaeochculcatl, another Quetzalaztatzinticociaoacatl, another Totomochtzinhecatempatiltzin, and another Quappiatzin.¹³ When Mocthecuzoma was taken prisoner, all of these men abandoned him and went into hiding.

Notes

Iztapalapa, a town on the point of land south of the city, at the start of the causeway to Tenochtitlan. The chapter before this one says it lay two leagues (about six miles) from Mexico. back
The people of Tlaxcala and Huexotzinco, Nahua city-states east of the Valley of Mexico, long at war with the Mexica. Their warriors marched with the Spaniards. back
The city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, the Mexica capital on an island in the lake, where Mexico City stands today. back
This sentence is Sahagún's own: his Spanish sums up the rest of the chapter instead of translating it. back
Xoluco was a canal (the chapter heading calls it an acequia) at the southern edge of the city. Sahagún places it by landmarks of his own time, such as the houses of Alvarado, probably Pedro de Alvarado, one of Cortés's captains. back
Moctezuma II, son of Axayacatl, ruler of the Mexica from 1502 or 1503. The edition spells the name Mocthecuzoma. back
Huitzillan (the edition's Vitzillan), in the southern part of the city, on the way in from the causeway. The hospital of the Conception was founded by Cortés after the conquest; it was later called the Hospital of Jesus. back
The rulers of Tenochtitlan before Moctezuma, from Itzcoatl, who came to power about 1428, to Ahuitzotl, who died about 1503. Moctezuma the Elder ruled from 1440 to 1469. back
The words match a Nahuatl title for the divine, Ipalnemoani, “he by whom we live.” back
So the Spanish reads. How to read this “return” is much debated; the introduction gives the main views. back
The Spaniards' name for Malintzin, a Nahuatl-speaking woman given to Cortés on the Gulf coast in 1519, who became his interpreter. back
Cacama, Moctezuma's nephew. The ending -tzin on this and the other names is a Nahuatl mark of respect. back
The edition runs each man's name together with his title. Atlixcatzin was tlacateccatl and Tepeoatzin tlacochcalcatl, both high military ranks. back

Shorter and simpler than our Simplified English, and written to be read aloud. Short explanations are worked into the text; [...] marks a cut.

Strings of flowers piled on painted dishes, and a collar of gold and precious stones. This is how Moctezuma, the ruler of the Mexica (Aztec) people, came out to meet the Spaniards in November 1519. Nahua elders told the story in their own language, Nahuatl, more than thirty years later. Nahua scholars wrote it down, and a Spanish friar, Bernardino de Sahagún, made a Spanish version. Listen to what Moctezuma says about his throne. Historians still argue about what his words meant, and how well they were remembered.

The March from Iztapalapa

The Spaniards set out from Iztapalapa, ready for war, marching in groups. Some horsemen rode ahead to look for an ambush. Two hunting dogs went in front too. At the back came Cortés with many other armed Spaniards. Behind them came the baggage and the cannons on carts. Many warriors from Tlaxcala and Huexotzinco marched with them. In this order they entered Mexico. [...]

Moctezuma Comes Out with Flowers

The Spaniards reached a canal called Xoluco, on the edge of the city. Moctezuma¹ got ready to go and meet them. Many lords and nobles went with him, to welcome Cortés and his captains in peace and with honor. They brought sweet-smelling flowers, made into strings and garlands. They set them on great painted dishes made from gourds. They also brought collars of gold and precious stones.

Moctezuma met the Spaniards at a place called Huitzillan. He gave gifts, as was their custom. He himself put a collar of gold and precious stones on Cortés. He gave flowers to all the other captains. Then Cortés asked him who he was, and he answered, “I am Moctezuma.” He stood tall and bowed deeply. Then, face to face with Cortés, he began to speak.

Moctezuma's Speech

“O our lord, welcome! You have come to your land, your town, your house, Mexico. You have come to sit on your throne, which I have kept for a while in your name. Other lords held it before me. They are dead now. I am the last of these lords. I have come to rule this town of yours, Mexico. We have all carried your people on our backs. The dead cannot see what is happening now. If only the one by whom we live had let one of them live! Then this would happen in front of him, as it is happening in front of me. “But they are gone, our lord. I am not asleep or dreaming. With my own eyes I see your face. For a long time I have waited for this. For a long time my heart has looked toward the lands you came from. You have come out of the clouds and the mists, a place hidden from everyone. The kings before us told us this. They said you would come back to rule these lands and sit on your throne.² Now I see that it is true. Welcome! You must be tired from such long roads. Rest now. Here is your house, and here are your palaces. Rest in them with all your captains and friends.”

Cortés Answers

When Moctezuma had finished, Marina, Cortés's interpreter, told Cortés what he had said. Then Cortés said to Marina, “Tell Moctezuma to be glad and not to be afraid. I love him dearly, and so do all my men. No one will harm him. We are very happy to meet him. We have wished for this for many days. We have come to his house, Mexico. We will see each other and talk later, at our ease.” Then Cortés took Moctezuma by the hand, and the two of them walked side by side to the royal houses.

The Lords Who Were There

These lords were with Moctezuma. The first was Cacama, lord of Texcoco. The second was the lord of Tlacopan. The third was the governor of Tlatelolco. The fourth was Moctezuma's steward in Tlatelolco. Many other Mexica lords of lower rank were there too. [...] When Moctezuma was taken prisoner, all of these men left him and went into hiding.

Notes

The edition spells his name Mocthecuzoma. back
Sahagún wrote the Spanish. The elders' own words in Nahuatl may have said this differently. Historians argue about what this coming back means. back

Who and what this source names, in the original. Each name links to every source in the library that mentions it. Not yet checked.

Ideas

“he by whom we live” (Ipalnemoani) A Nahuatl title of the highest divine power, Ipalnemoani, “he by whom we live.” Nineteenth-century writers read it as the name of a supreme god. Sections 16.3.
Flowers as gifts Among the Nahuas, garlands and hand-held bunches of flowers were given to honored guests, along with collars and other gifts, at a formal welcome. Sections 16.1, 16.2.
Gold and silver The metals European explorers hoped above all to find in the Americas, and asked about by signs from the first meetings. Sections 16.1.
The return of a lord from the east The story, found in Cortés's second letter and in later Spanish and Nahua accounts, that the Mexica expected a former lord to come back and reign, and took Cortés for him or for his envoy. Historians disagree about how far it reflects Mexica belief before the conquest. Sections 16.4.

People

Ahuitzotl Ruler of the Mexica after Tizoc, until his death in 1502 or 1503. Moctezuma II succeeded him. Sections 16.3.
Axayacatl Ruler of the Mexica from 1469 until his death in 1481, and father of Moctezuma II. The Spaniards were lodged in his palace in 1519. Sections 16.3.
Cacama (Cacamatzin) Lord of Texcoco and nephew of Moctezuma II, who was with him when he met Cortés in November 1519. He later tried to raise a league against the Spaniards and was seized. Sections 16.6.
Hernán Cortés Leader of the Spanish expedition that landed in Mexico in 1519, entered Tenochtitlan that November and took it by siege in 1521, with allies from Tlaxcala. Sections 15.1, 16.1, 16.2, 16.5.
Itzcoatl Ruler of the Mexica from about 1428 to 1440, who with Texcoco overthrew the Tepanec city of Azcapotzalco. Moctezuma names him first among the rulers who held the throne before him. Sections 16.3.
Malintzin (Marina) A Nahuatl-speaking woman given to Cortés by the lords of Tabasco in 1519. The Spaniards called her Marina. She interpreted for Cortés, first through Gerónimo de Aguilar and later directly in Spanish. Sections 16.5.
Moctezuma I (Ilhuicamina) Ruler of the Mexica from 1440 to 1469, ally of Nezahualcoyotl of Texcoco. The “Montesuma” of the Teotihuacan elders' story of the conquest of their town is probably this ruler rather than the Moctezuma the Spaniards met. Sections 16.3.
Moctezuma II Ruler of the Mexica at Tenochtitlan when Cortés arrived. The Spaniards seized him and held the city through him; he died in June 1520. Sections 16.1, 16.2, 16.5, 16.6.
Tizoc Ruler of the Mexica after his brother Axayacatl, from 1481 until about 1486. Sections 16.3.

Peoples

Huexotzinca The people of Huexotzinco, a Nahua city-state east of the volcanoes, often at war with the Mexica. Their warriors marched with Cortés into Tenochtitlan in 1519. Sections 15.1.
Mexica The Nahuatl-speaking people of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, often called Aztecs, who ruled much of central Mexico when the Spaniards arrived in 1519. Spanish writers called them Mexicans. Sections 16.6.
Spaniards The people of Spain, as the writers name them: conquerors, settlers, traders and rivals in the Americas and elsewhere. Sections 15.1, 16.1.
Tlaxcalans The people of Tlaxcala, east of the Valley of Mexico, long at war with the Mexica. They allied with Cortés in 1519 and fought beside the Spaniards in the siege of Tenochtitlan. Sections 15.1.

Places

Huitzillan A place in the southern part of Tenochtitlan, on the way in from the Iztapalapa causeway, where Moctezuma met Cortés in November 1519. Sahagún says it was by the hospital Cortés later founded. Sections 16.2.
Iztapalapa A town on the point of land between the salt lake and the freshwater lakes south of Tenochtitlan, at the start of the southern causeway. Cortés sacked it in January 1521, and Spanish forces attacked it again when his brigantines entered the lake that spring. Sections 15.1.
Mexico-Tenochtitlan The Mexica capital, built on an island in a lake in the Valley of Mexico. Cortés entered it in November 1519, was driven out in June 1520, and took it by siege in 1521; Mexico City was built on its site. Sections 15.1, 16.3, 16.5.
Texcoco A city on the eastern shore of the lake around Mexico-Tenochtitlan. Sections 16.6.
Tlacopan A town on the western shore of the lake, joined to the island city by a causeway, where the Spaniards divided their forces in 1521. Sections 16.6.
Tlatelolco The twin city just north of Tenochtitlan on the same island, with the great market Cortés described. Sahagún's Nahua informants came largely from there. Sections 16.6.
Xoluco A canal at the southern edge of Tenochtitlan, near where the causeway from Iztapalapa entered the city. Sahagún places the first meeting of Moctezuma and Cortés there. Sections 16.1.

New translation from the Spanish text of Bernardino de Sahagún's Historia de la conquista de México, edited by Carlos María de Bustamante (Mexico, 1829), pages 22–25. Chapters 15 and 16 are complete.

The account was given in Nahuatl by Nahua elders and written down by Nahua scholars. Sahagún's Spanish is his version of it, made for Spanish readers, not a word-for-word translation, and in places it summarizes. The Nahuatl of book 12 could not be found in a public-domain printing, so it has not been compared, and this translation is from the Spanish only.

Moctezuma speaks to Cortés with the formal vos, rendered as plain “you”. Sahagún's pueblo is rendered “town”, his república “realm”. Names are kept as the edition spells them (Mocthecuzoma for Moctezuma); the notes give the usual forms. The writer's “Indians” and “Mexicans” are kept. Bustamante's notes are not translated.

Easy English made from the original and our Simplified English. Three-quarters as long, with long lists shortened and short explanations worked into the text.

Original: Text as printed in the named edition or on the object, read from page images. Edition: Bernardino de Sahagún, Historia de la conquista de México, edited by Carlos María de Bustamante (Mexico: Imprenta de Galván, a cargo de Mariano Arévalo, 1829), chapters 15–16, pp. 22–25. Digital text: Internet Archive item historiadelaconq00sahaiala (Getty Research Institute copy), OCR text, extracted by code and read against the page images. Sahagún's text only; Bustamante's notes and note marks are not copied.
Transliterated: Not needed: the original is in the Latin alphabet
Close English: Close translation, kept as a working draft
Simplified English: Made by Hearth from the original and checked unit by unit against the original in a separate review, then compared with earlier translations and tested for borrowed wording.
Easy English: Made by Hearth and checked in a separate review.
Editor’s review: Not yet.
Rights: Original: public domain. Edition: public domain. Our translations and notes: CC BY-SA 4.0; credit “Hearth Library, hearthinteractive.com” with a link.

Sources for the notes

Sahagún, Bernardino de. Historia de la conquista de México. Edited by Carlos María de Bustamante. Mexico: Imprenta de Galván, 1829. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/historiadelaconq00sahaiala. Title page; the editor's preface, pp. iii–v; chapters 14–17, pp. 21–25; the editor's notes 9–12, pp. 63–64 (read, not copied).
Cortés, Hernán. Cartas y relaciones de Hernán Cortés al emperador Carlos V. Edited by Pascual de Gayangos. Paris: Imprenta Central de los Ferro-Carriles, 1866. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/cartasyrelacione00cort. Second letter, Moctezuma's speech, p. 86.
Pastrana Flores, Miguel. “Motecuhzoma ante la conquista.” In Historias de la conquista: Aspectos de la historiografía de tradición náhuatl. Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas, 2009 (first reprint). https://historicas.unam.mx/publicaciones/publicadigital/libros/historias_conquista/438a_04_04_MotecuhzomaConquista.pdf. Pp. 145–149, on the speech in book 12, the greeting as a formula of welcome, and the speech missing from the 1585 version.
Martínez Baracs, Andrea. Review of Stefan Heep, How Did the “White” God Come to Mexico? Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 62 (2021): 384–396. https://nahuatl.historicas.unam.mx/index.php/ecn/article/download/78077/69085/229673. Pp. 387–391 (Cortés's second letter, Gómara, León-Portilla, and the views of Townsend 2003 and Restall 2018).
Grunberg, Bernard. Review of Matthew Restall, Cuando Moctezuma conoció a Cortés (2019). Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 63 (2022): 226–232. https://nahuatl.historicas.unam.mx/index.php/ecn/article/download/78082/69095/230070. Pp. 229–230.
Prescott, William H. History of the Conquest of Mexico. 3 vols. Vol. 1 (1843), Internet Archive historyconquest10unkngoog: Marina, pp. 295–297. Vols. 2–3 (New York: Harper, 1848), Internet Archive historyofconques02presuoft and historyofconques03presuoft: vol. 2, the entry into the city, November 8, 1519, pp. 68–72 (with Prescott's quotation of Sahagún on Xoluco), the palace of Axayacatl, p. 79, the lords of Tezcuco and Tlacopan, p. 109, and Cacama, pp. 187–189; vol. 3, the hospital of the Conception, p. 349.
Bancroft, Hubert Howe. The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America. Vol. 2 (1875), Internet Archive nativeracesofpac02banc, pp. 201 and 448 (the tlacochcalcatl and tlacatecatl); vol. 3 (1875), nativeracesofpac03banc, pp. 183, 189 (Ipalnemoani) and 733 (reverential endings in -tzin); vol. 5 (San Francisco, 1883), nativeracesofpac05banc, pp. 389, 408, 424, 435 and 455–456 (the reigns of Itzcoatl, Moctezuma I, Axayacatl, Tizoc and Ahuitzotl, and the accession of Moctezuma II).

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