Tlaxcala
A city-state east of the Mexica, long their enemy, whose people allied with the Spaniards.
Today: Tlaxcala, Mexico
The Mexica Embassy and the Smallpox in Michoacán
Purépecha elders and a Franciscan friar, Relación de Michoacán (about 1539–1541), on the Mexica embassy of 1520 and the death of the cazonci Zuangua · compiled about 1539–1541 (events of 1520)
Díjoles el cazonci: “pues qué os dijo á la despedida?” Dijeron ellos, “señor, después que le dijimos lo que nos mandaste que fuésemos con sus mensajeros, y que habias enviado tu gente á cuatro partes, que veníamos nosotros delante mientras venia la gente de la guerra, dijimos que veníamos á ver qué gente es esta que es venida por certificarse mejor: díjonos, seáis bien venidos, descansad, mirad aquella sierra, detrás della están estas gentes que han venido en Taxcala: y lleváronnos en unas canoas, y tomamos puerto en Tezcuco, y sobimos encima un monte, y desde allí nos mostraron un campo largo y llano donde estaban,
The cazonci said to them, “And what did he say to you when you left?” They said, “Lord, we told him what you had ordered us: that we should go with his messengers, and that you had sent your people out in four directions. We said we had come ahead while the warriors were on their way, to see for ourselves what kind of people these newcomers were. He said to us, ‘Welcome. Rest. Look at that range of mountains. Behind it are these people who have come into Taxcala.’ Then they took us in canoes, and we landed at Tezcuco. We climbed to the top of a hill, and from there they showed us a long, level plain where the strangers were.
The Smallpox in Mexico, 1520
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), edited by Carlos María de Bustamante (1829) · compiled from the 1550s to the 1570s (events of 1520–1521)
Cuando los Españoles salieron de México, y fueron á Tlaxcalla era el mes que se llamaba Tecuilhuitentti que comienza á dos de junio, y llegado el mes siguiente ellos llamaban Hueytecuilhuitl, que comienza á veinte y dos de junio. Como ya estaban algo descansados de la guerra pasada hicieron muy gran fiesta á todos sus Dioses, y sacaron todas las estatuas de ellos, y ataviáronlas con sus ornamentos, y con muchos quetzales de pluma rica, y pusiéronlas sus carátulas de turquesas, hechas de mosaico: esto hicieron agradeciendo á sus Dioses porque los habían librado de sus enemigos.
When the Spaniards left Mexico and went to Tlaxcalla, it was the month called Tecuilhuitontli, which begins on June 2. The next month they called Hueytecuilhuitl, which begins on June 22. By then [the Mexica] had rested a little from the war just past, so they held a very great feast for all their gods. They brought out all the gods’ statues and dressed them in their ornaments, with many rich quetzal feathers, and put turquoise mosaic masks on them. They did this to thank their gods for freeing them from their enemies.
Antes que los Españoles que estaban en Tlaxcala viniesen á conquistar á México, dio una grande pestilencia de viruelas á todos los Indios en el mes que llamaban Tepeilhvitl que es al fin de setiembre.
Before the Spaniards who were in Tlaxcala came to conquer Mexico, a great pestilence of smallpox struck all the Indians, in the month they called Tepeilhuitl, which is at the end of September.