The Tales Of Buried Treasure At Tenochtitlan

Hernan Cortes, with an army of Spanish conquistadors and their Native American allies, besieged and destroyed the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in 1521. The city was greatly damaged during the battle, and in the aftermath of Spain’s conquest of the Aztec Empire, Tenochtitlan was ultimately razed to the ground and rebuilt as Mexico City. Bernal Díaz del Castillo, one of the conquistadors who took part in the campaign, reminisced about the original city of Tenochtitlan, writing, “today all that I then saw is overthrown and destroyed; nothing is left standing” (Conquest of New Spain, chapter 87).

Once the gold-lusting Spaniards gained full control of Tenochtitlan, they were disappointed in the underwhelming amount of treasure that they found in the Aztec capital. Indeed, they tortured the captured Aztec Emperor, Cuauhtémoc (or Guatemoc), for leads on where to find hidden wealth. Cuauhtémoc and other tortured Aztec elites could do little but lead the Spaniards to personal hoards of treasure that they had buried underground or dropped into the marshy lake on which Tenochtitlan had been built. Yet, such sporadic and limited treasure troves did not provide enough loot for Hernan Cortes to divide satisfactorily among his troops.

When the Spaniards set about rebuilding Tenochtitlan as Mexico City, they unintendingly found a new source of buried treasure. The incident occurred while the Spaniards were grading and leveling the rubble at Tenochtitlan for new construction. Bernal Díaz described the scene:

“After we conquered that great and strong city and divided the ground we decided to build a church to our patron and guide St James in place of Huichilobos’ cue, and a great part of the site was taken for the purpose. When the ground was excavated to lay a foundation, gold and silver and chalchihuites, and pearls, and seed-pearls, and other precious stones were found in great quantities; and a settler in Mexico who built on another part of the site found the same” (Conquest of New Spain, chapter 92).

Upon the discovery of the treasure, a court battle ensued over who should take possession of it, with the church, the crown and the local settlers all hoping to get a piece. During the legal dispute, Spanish officials also investigated the origin of the treasure by asking (or interrogating) influential Aztecs about the hoard of wealth that was found under the cue. The aforementioned Bernal Díaz wrote of this, claiming that the captured Emperor Cuauhtémoc and other Aztec elites explained “all the inhabitants of Mexico had thrown jewels and other things into the foundations, as was recorded in their pictures and records of ancient times. The treasure was therefore preserved for the building of St James’s church” (Conquest of New Spain, chapter 92).

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Representation of Tenochtitlan by Diego Rivera, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Díaz, translated by J. M. Cohen. New York: Penguin Books, 1963.
• https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32474/32474-h/32474-h.htm#FNanchor_66_67 
• http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32475/32475-h/32475-h.htm 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cuauhtemoc 
• https://www.britannica.com/place/Tenochtitlan 
• https://www.britannica.com/place/Mexico-City

The Army Of Hernan Cortes Was Almost Drowned In An Engineered Flood

In the final days of December, 1520, Hernan Cortes began his second march toward the Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlan. Setting out from the land of his allies, the Tlaxcalans, Hernan Cortes crossed mountainous terrain to reach the city of Texcoco. There, he caused Aztec loyalists to flee the region and, in the power vacuum that occurred, the Spaniards propped up a new dissident faction in the city and recognized the faction’s chosen leader as the ruler of Texcoco. With the cooperative Texcocan leader on his side, Hernan Cortes began working on a makeshift port on the city’s lakeside shore from which he wished to launch a blockade against Tenochtitlan. The Spaniards spent a twelve-day span in the city, directing the locals to dredge the local canals and widen the channels to accommodate ships.

After enjoying the new year in Texcoco and spending several days overseeing canal modifications, Hernan Cortes decided to move on from the city in order to relieve his army’s burden on the farmlands of his newfound allies, and to further consolidate power in the cities surrounding Tenochtitlan. Cortes mobilized his army and marched for Iztapalapa, a city still loyal to Tenochtitlan in the Aztec sphere of influence. Hernan Cortes’ movements were not overlooked by the Aztec intelligence network, which had eyes and ears throughout the lakeside cities that surrounded Tenochtitlan. Due to these spies, the Aztecs were able to send thousands of reinforcements to Iztapalapa before the Spaniards arrived. Together, the local city garrison and the reinforcements took to the field to challenge Hernan Cortes’ army in battle—it was a poor decision, for in a fair fight on the open ground, Cortes’ cavalry, crossbows, firearms and artillery gave him an overwhelming advantage. The Aztecs, after their forces were torn apart by such firepower, soon ended their attack and decided to retreat to Iztapalapa. As the day was late and night was beginning to fall, the Spaniards decided not to pursue. Instead, Cortes’ troops settled down in some vacated houses near the lake.

Hernan Cortes and his conquistadors suspected that a night attack was possibly incoming and took precautions by setting up watchmen and sentinels. Forces from Iztapalapa were indeed planning an attack, but it was not spears and arrows that they planned to use in their assault. Instead, with their knowledge of the canals and causeways that crisscrossed the region, the locals decided to let Mother Nature take her own swipe at the Spaniards. During the night, saboteurs from Iztapalapa went to work, and might have ended Hernan Cortes’ meteoric campaign against the Aztecs then and there had it not been for the presence of the Spanish-allied Tlaxcalans and Texcocans, who were wise to Aztec tactics. The vital role of these native allies in detecting and warning the Spaniards of the watery surprise that occurred that night near Iztapalapa was described by Bernal Díaz del Castillo (c. 1492-1580), one of Cortes’ conquistadors. He wrote:

“We placed our sentinels and watchmen, we sent out patrols and scouts. But when we were off our guard, such a flood of water swept through the town that if the chiefs we had brought from Texcoco had not shouted to us to get out of the houses as quickly as we could and make for dry land, we should have all been drowned. For the enemy had emptied the fresh- and salt-water canals, and cut through a causeway, which caused the level of the water to rise suddenly” (Conquest of New Spain, volume 2, chapter 138).

Thanks to the attentiveness of the Texcocans, Hernan Cortes’ army was saved, although the water rolled in so quickly that a few people did indeed die. In addition to the loss of life, the water ruined provisions being hauled along by Cortes’ army and it wetted much of the gunpowder that powered the Spanish firearms and artillery. Furthermore, the flood made many of Cortes’ troops uncomfortable and cold, impairing their sleep and mood. Hoping all of these contributing factors would give them an advantage, the Aztecs launched a powerful attack on Hernan Cortes as soon as dawn arrived. The Spaniards, with their soaked gunpowder, had trouble fending off the attack. Nevertheless, they managed an orderly retreat and fought their way back to Texcoco. Both sides were disappointed in the battle—the Spaniards were embarrassed and humiliated over being forced to retreat, whereas the Aztecs were distraught over their inability to inflict more damage on the conquistadors during their vulnerable state after the engineered flood.

Picture Attribution: (Flood in the Darling by WC Piguenit (1836 - 1914), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Díaz, translated by J. M. Cohen. New York: Penguin Books, 1963.
• http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32475/32475-h/32475-h.htm
   

Hernán Cortés Reportedly Burned 17 Aztec Military Leaders To Death During Montezuma’s Captivity

On November 8, 1519, Hernán Cortés and his band of conquistadors entered the Aztec capital city, Tenochtitlan, where they met Montezuma II, the leader of the Aztecs at that time. Cortés and Montezuma were able to maintain a cordial relationship for a while, as the Aztec ruler invited the Spaniards to his feasts, allowed them to build a chapel, and let the conquistadors tour the city’s markets and temples in peace. Yet, both sides were naturally suspicious of the other, and while Cortés and Montezuma were acting amiably in public, both were secretly plotting ways to gain an advantage over their rival.

Cortés and the Spaniards especially feared that Montezuma would one day withdraw his protection and order an attack, leaving the conquistadors surrounded by foes in a hostile labyrinth of a city. Such paranoia caused the Spaniards to start brainstorming ways to gain leverage over the Aztecs. They eventually decided upon a bold plan to take Montezuma hostage, yet they hesitated in carrying out their mission, presumably waiting for some affront to occur which would justify their action.

The spark that the Spaniards were waiting for did not occur in Tenochtitlan, but back at the Spanish colony of Veracruz. Hernán Cortés had founded the settlement before marching off to Tenochtitlan, and a certain Juan Escalante was deputized as the constable of the colony during Cortés’ absence.  While Cortés was doing his part in Tenochtitlan, Escalante was seeing to Spanish interests at the colony, which brought him into contact with a leader named Qualpopoca, who led an Aztec-aligned city that the Spaniards called Almeria. In the so-called Second Letter that Hernán Cortés sent back to his liege, Charles V, it was reported that Qualpopoca deceived Escalante into thinking that Almeria wanted to submit to Spanish rule. Four Spaniards from Veracruz were sent to Almeria to negotiate with Qualpopoca, but upon their arrival, the Veracruz diplomats were ambushed and two were killed. The surviving two fled back to Escalante, who immediately gathered forces to seek revenge. According to Cortés’ Second Letter, Escalante marched with a force of 40 or 50 conquistadors (aided by thousands of allied natives) against Almeria.

Escalante’s battle at Almeria is a difficult event to gauge. Hernán Cortés, in his Second Letter, downplayed the battle to his liege, telling Charles V that the campaign against Almeria was a straight-forward success, in which Escalante crushed Qualpopoca’s army, forced the enemy to abandon the city, and then burned Almeria to the ground. Bernal Díaz del Castillo, one of Cortés’ conquistadors, had a vastly different view of the battle, which he presented in his Conquest of New Spain. In total disagreement with Cortés, Bernal Díaz claimed that the battle at Almeria was a defeat and disaster suffered by the Spaniards. Far from a steamrolling of Qualpopoca’s forces, the clash at Almeria was apparently a brutal battle. According to Bernal Díaz, a great number of Escalante’s native allies died in the attack, and around 8 of the 40-50 Spaniards who participated in the attack died from wounds sustained at Almeria—Escalante, himself, was one of those who would succumb to his wounds. Furthermore, the conquistadors’ poor showing at the battle reportedly boosted morale of the Aztecs and demoralized the communities that had been working with Veracruz. To conclude his summary of the Battle at Almeria, Bernal Díaz wrote, “It was the first defeat we had suffered in New Spain, and misfortunes, as the reader will see, were now descending upon us” (Conquest of New Spain, chapter 93-94).

Although Cortés downplayed the events of Almeria in his letter to Charles V, his actions in Tenochtitlan when he learned of the battle show that his true impression of the attack was much more aligned with Bernal Díaz than the letter let on. News of Almeria and Escalante’s death spurred Cortés and the conquistadors in Tenochtitlan to launch their plot to take Montezuma hostage. They successfully kidnapped the Aztec leader, and one of the first demands they made of their royal captive was for Montezuma to summon to Tenochtitlan Qualpopoca and other chiefs involved in the Almeria incident. According to Cortés’ Second Letter, 17 chieftains answered Montezuma’s summons, including Qualpopoca and one of his sons. They apparently did not suspect that anything was amiss, for Qualpopoca entered the city leisurely, carried on a lordly litter. Their ignorance, however, did not last long—under pressure from his conquistador captors, Montezuma had the 17 military leaders arrested and handed them over to Cortés.

According to both Hernán Cortés and Bernal Díaz, the imprisoned chieftains were interrogated (and probably tortured), and the questions of the interrogators pried for information as to how involved Montezuma was in Qualpopoca’s hostile actions. The chieftains started out by acknowledging that they were loyal to the Aztec ruler, but also insisted that Montezuma was not directly involved in the Almeria attack. As the interrogation persisted, however, the chieftains began to change their story to implicate Montezuma more and more. Satisfied with their answers, Hernán Cortés was ready to pronounce the punishment for the leaders who had killed his friend, Escalante—it would be brutal.

When it came to punishing the leaders of the Almeria incident, Hernán Cortés did not simply want recompense or apology; instead, he wanted to take the opportunity to display his power and to instill terror on the city of Tenochtitlan. What Cortés did next apparently even caught Montezuma completely off guard, and he would react worse to this decision than he had to being kidnapped by the Spaniards. Bernal Díaz vividly described the fate of the 17 chieftains in his Conquest of New Spain:

 “Cortés sentenced the captains [of Almeria] to be burned to death before the royal palace. This sentence was immediately carried out and, to prevent any interference, Cortes had Montezuma put in chains while they were being burned. The prince roared with anger at this indignity, and became even more alarmed than before” (Conquest of New Spain, chapter 95).

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (The Torture of Cuahutemoc, painted in the late 19th-century by Leandro Izaguirre, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Díaz, translated by J. M. Cohen. New York: Penguin Books, 1963.
• https://archive.org/details/lettersofcorts01cortuoft/page/240 
• https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32474/32474-h/32474-h.htm 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Montezuma-II 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hernan-Cortes 
• https://www.ancient.eu/Montezuma/  

Golden Gambling Between Montezuma And Cortes

To the delight of Hernan Cortes and his Spanish conquistadors, Montezuma II of the Aztec Empire was an extremely generous gift-giver. He handed over treasures to the Spaniards nearly every time they interacted, be it delivered by messenger or bestowed in person. Whenever Montezuma, himself, hosted a meeting with the Spaniards, multiple golden or gilded objects almost always were handed over to the conquistadors at one point or another. Yet, sometimes Montezuma II made the Spaniards work harder than usual for their gilt gifts.

Hernan Cortes and his conquistadors entered Montezuma’s capital city of Tenochtitlan in late 1519 and stayed there for the opening months of 1520. During their stay in the Aztec capital, the Spaniards came to feel increasingly paranoid that Montezuma’s hospitality would one day cease and that he would have them arrested and executed. In order to save their skins from this potential danger, and to apply more leverage against the Aztec Empire, the Spaniards captured Montezuma and detained him in their Spanish quarters in Tenochtitlan. At first, they held the Aztec emperor on a short leash, but they eventually loosened their grip, letting Montezuma hold court and visit temples—all, however, under Spanish surveillance.

Early on in his captivity, Montezuma and Cortes were forced to live in the same compound together, and Montezuma apparently decided to kill time by playing games with Cortes and the Spaniards. Montezuma’s game of choice was variously called totoloque or totoloc, and in Montezuma’s typical fashion, the Aztec leader’s personal equipment set for this game was golden or gilded. It seemed to have been a gambling game, where the participants made bets and then each player had a certain number of turns to throw a ball or pellet at a designated target. Bernal Díaz del Castillo, one of Hernan Cortes’ conquistadors, described the game: “it is played with small round glossy balls, which here were made of gold, and are pitched at a certain mark, also of the same metal: five throws finished the game, and the stakes were for valuable gold trinkets and jewels” (Conquest of New Spain, chapter 97). Even if the Aztec leader won the game, Montezuma—either because of his generosity (or his being under arrest)—was said to have always given away his gambling winnings to the Spaniards. Despite this, Bernal Díaz claimed that Hernan Cortes’ score-keeper tried to pad Cortes’ stats, and Montezuma eventually called the man out for cheating.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Sketch of Cortes and Montezuma in the Historia de la Conquista de Méjico, c. 1851, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Díaz, translated by J. M. Cohen. New York: Penguin Books, 1963.
• https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32474/32474-h/32474-h.htm 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Montezuma-II 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hernan-Cortes  

Hernán Cortés’ Awkward Hug

On November 8, 1519, Hernán Cortés entered the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, a populous and bustling city, dominated by broad causeways and canoe-filled canals. The Aztec ruler, Montezuma II, managed his domain from the city, and various chieftains of the Aztec Empire gravitated there to attend the emperor’s court. As such, Tenochtitlan was a place of fashion, pageantry and courtly etiquette. Observing this political environment, Cortés wrote that the people of Tenochtitlan were “marked by as great an attention to the proprieties of life as in Spain, and good order is equally well observed” (Cortés’ Second Letter to Charles V).

Upon Cortés’ entry into the city, Montezuma II and his large entourage came out to greet the Spaniards. The Aztec emperor was carried to the spot on an ornate litter. When the litter came to a halt, a mobile canopy (decorated with feathers and precious metals) was prepared to shade Montezuma as he trekked on foot.  In addition to the elegant canopy, Montezuma’s every sandaled step was preempted by a cloak being ceremoniously laid before his path, so that the Aztec emperor’s footwear would not be dirtied by the earth.

As Cortés watched this pageantry, he must have known there would be—as with most monarchs—unspoken rules about how to act (or not act) when meeting with Montezuma. Unsurprisingly, these rules were still quite vague to Cortés and his fellow Spaniards when they had their first in-person meeting with Montezuma on November 8, 1519. Consequently, Hernán Cortés had a bit of a bumbling start in his navigation of Aztec pleasantries. Fortunately for him, Montezuma was apparently in a patient and forgiving mood, willing to overlook, or subtly correct, Cortés’ breaches of etiquette.

Hernán Cortés began with a safe bet—a deep and respectful bow. Montezuma approved this opener, and returned the bow in one way or another. Through interpreters, the two then exchanged greetings and wished each other good health. Next, Cortés reportedly made a slight misstep (or a bit of political gamesmanship) by taking the initiative to extend his hand to Montezuma. The Aztec emperor corrected the ceremony by waving off Cortés’ hand and then, more in keeping with propriety, held out his own hand for the Spaniard. Cortés soon presented a gift to Montezuma. It was a necklace of multi-colored elaborate beads, strung on a perfumed gold chain. The Aztec emperor graciously accepted the gift, and even let Cortés do the honor of placing the jewelry around the emperor’s royal neck.

Hernán Cortés succeeded in placing the necklace on Montezuma’s shoulders without causing any offense. Yet, right after bestowing this gift on the emperor, Cortés apparently tried to pull Montezuma into some kind of embrace. This move was too shocking a divergence from protocol for Montezuma’s relatives and guards to let occur, so they immediately sprang into action to save their liege from a perceived disgrace or embarrassment by blocking the Spaniard’s path and grasping hold of Cortés’ arms. With the hug thwarted, the ceremony returned to surer footing. The two leaders exchanged complimentary speeches, and, finally, Montezuma had the Spaniards shown to their lodgings.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Scene of Hernan Cortes and the Emperor of Mexico, painted by Carlos Esquivel y Rivas (1830–1867), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Díaz, translated by J. M. Cohen. New York: Penguin Books, 1963.
• https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1520cortes.asp 
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/cortes_hernan.shtml 
• https://www.history.com/topics/exploration/hernan-cortes 
•   https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hernan-Cortes 
• https://www.biography.com/explorer/hernan-cortes

The Lavish Feasts Of Montezuma

Like any other emperor or king, Montezuma II of the Aztec Empire relished any chance to throw a great banquet. When Hernán Cortés and his Spanish explorers arrived in Montezuma’s capital city of Tenochtitlan, they witnessed a few of these feasts and they later described the experience in their letters and memoirs. In particular, Cortés made note of Montezuma’s banquets in a letter to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (r. 1519-1556), and the conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo (c. 1492-1580) also recounted Montezuma’s mealtime festivities in his own memoir-history, The Conquest of New Spain.

According to Hernán Cortés, Montezuma’s feasts could be an all-day affair, lasting from morning until nightfall. Around 600 prominent Aztec nobles could be expected to attend such banquets, and each noble had servants or attendants that also came along. The nobles were admitted into the interior of the palace or villa where the main feast was held, but the servants were restricted to adjacent courtyards. Both master and servant, however, would be fed from the emperor’s larder during the course of the event.

Produce and game from all over the Aztec empire was apparently showcased at the emperor’s banquets. Hernán Cortés did not dare to attempt a list of the great variety of foods he witnessed on Montezuma’s tables, but he did state that anything that was able to be hunted, fished or grown in the Aztec territory was served during the event. Bernal Díaz, for his part, did attempt to list some of the foods served at the feasts, but he restricted himself to only commenting on the variety of meat: “every day they cooked fowls, turkeys, local partridges, quail, tame and wild duck, venison, boar, marsh birds, pigeons, hares and rabbits, also many other kinds of birds and beasts native to their country, so numerous that I cannot quickly name them all” (The Conquest of New Spain, chapter 91).

Before meals were served, servants would reportedly bring out basins of water, so that the emperor and his guests could wash their hands. According to Hernán Cortés there were between 300 and 400 youthful waiters in charge of distributing food and drink. Bernal Díaz, in his own description of the servants, observed that almost all of Montezuma’s personal waiters were beautiful women. After hands had been washed, the food and drink were served—all presented (at least to Montezuma) on red and black pottery from the city of Cholula. At each banquet, Montezuma was reportedly served 30 personal dishes, which were heated to specific temperatures by means of coals. Bernal Díaz further alleged that Montezuma would personally drink from around 50 jugs of frothy hot chocolate brought to him during the course of one of his feasts, and that he would smoke from three tubes filled with a tobacco mixture. As for what was served to the emperor’s guests, the beleaguered kitchen staff was reportedly expected to produce a staggering 1,000 dishes of food and 2,000 jugs of chocolate, or other such drinks.

When it came time to dine, a screen was brought out to give the emperor some privacy. Only the most trusted of the emperor’s kinsmen (and the beautiful servant women) could be with the emperor behind the screen. While the emperor enjoyed his momentary solace, the rest of the guests were left in good hands—Montezuma’s feasts were livened by professional entertainers of all sorts. Singers, dancers, musicians, jesters, comedians, acrobats, stilt-walkers and side-show attractions were actively brought to live in Tenochtitlan, and the emperor had these entertainers perform during the feasts.

When the revelers were finished with their meals, servants once more brought out basins of water so that everyone could wash up. As the guests left, they likely yearned eagerly for their next invitation to one of the emperor’s feasts, which, no doubt to the horror of the kitchen staff, apparently occurred frequently.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Print depicting Montezuma II greeting Hernan Cortes, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Díaz, translated by J. M. Cohen. New York: Penguin Books, 1963.
• https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32474/32474-h/32474-h.htm 
• https://www.historywiz.com/primarysources/cortesletter.html  

Montezuma II’s Apartments Of Amusing Persons

In its heyday, the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) was a huge and beautiful place, featuring wide causeways, bustling markets and navigable canals. For the Aztec rulers, the city was also a land of many amusements. Montezuma II, the first Aztec emperor who had the misfortune of meeting Europeans, devoted great amounts of resources to collecting and maintaining items, creatures and people that he found entertaining. Several villas and palaces, located both in and outside of Tenochtitlan, were reportedly used to house the Aztec emperor’s collection of oddities. From birds, to snakes, or weapons and armors, the emperor had space set aside for all sorts of animate and inanimate interests—including certain kinds of humans.

Hernán Cortés, in a letter to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1520, mentioned a “palace that contained a number of men and women of monstrous size, and also dwarfs, and crooked and ill-formed persons, each of which had their separate apartments” (Second Letter to Charles V, 1520). Each apartment had its own care team, tasked with seeing to the needs of those who were housed in the building. The residents of the apartments were brought out as entertainers when Hernán Cortés arrived in Tenochtitlan. The Spaniards likened the role these people played in Montezuma’s feasts as something akin to the jesters back in Europe.

In a different palace, where Montezuma kept his huge collection of birds, the Aztec emperor also housed another type of people who caught his interest—albinos. At that bird-adjacent apartment, wrote Cortés, “are men, women and children, whose faces, bodies, hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes are white from their birth” (Second Letter to Charles V, 1520). In his letter, Cortés was not explicit about the care given to these people, but the birds, alone, had a crew of reportedly over 300 Aztec keepers.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Map of Tenochtitlan, printed 1524 in Nuremberg, Germany, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Díaz, translated by J. M. Cohen. New York: Penguin Books, 1963.
• https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1520cortes.asp (Cortes’ Second Letter) 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Montezuma-II 
• https://www.biography.com/political-figure/montezuma-ii