Hernán Cortés Quotes (1485-1547)

“The city of Temixtitan [Tenochtitlán] is itself is as big as Seville or Córdoba.… This city has many squares where trading is done and markets are held continuously.… There are, in all districts of this great city, many temples or houses for their idols.… Among these temples there is one, the principal one, whose great size and magnificence no human tongue could describe, for it is so large that within the precincts … a town of some five hundred inhabitants could easily be built.”

“[W]e had more trouble in preventing our allies from killing with such cruelty than we had in fighting the enemy. For no race, however savage, has ever practiced such fierce and unnatural cruelty as the natives of these parts. Our allies also took many spoils that day, which we were unable to prevent, as they numbered more than 150,000 and we Spaniards were only some nine hundred. Neither our precautions nor our warnings could stop their looting, though we did all we could ... I had posted Spaniards in every street, so that when the people began to come out [to surrender] they might prevent our allies from killing those wretched people, whose number was uncountable. I also told the captains of our allies that on no account should any of those people be slain; but there were so many that we could not prevent more than fifteen thousand being killed and sacrificed [by the Tlaxcalans] that day.”

“Hernan Cortés was a conquistador, one of the murderous and avaricious conquerors who brought so much of the New World under the harsh rule of Spain. Arriving in Mexico at the head of a mercenary army, he slaughtered the innocent and pillaged the land, destroying the civilization of the Aztecs and enriching himself beyond his wildest dreams.”

“He was avaricious, yet liberal; bold to desperation, yet cautious and calculating in his plans; magnanimous, yet very cunning; courteous and affable in his deportment, yet inexorably stern; lax in his notions of morality, yet (not uncommon) a sad bigot. The great feature in his character was constancy of purpose; a constancy not to be daunted by danger, nor baffled by disappointment, nor wearied out by impediments and delays.”

“The subject of Cortés' religious beliefs baffles all but the fortunately simple who, like the first historian of the Mexican church, Fr. Mendieta, believe that Cortés was chosen by God to carry out His purposes. The evidence is a conflicting as that relating to the colour of his hair. "Even though he was a sinner, he had faith and did the work of a good Christian," wrote the Franciscan priest Motolina, who knew him well (being his confessor) in later life, adding that "he confessed with many tears and placed his soul and treasure in the hands of his confessor". His favourite oath was "by my conscience". Yet Diego de Ordaz, who saw him most days for the next eighteen months, would write in 1519 that Cortés had "no more conscience than a dog". He was "addicted to women in excess", greedy, and loved the "worldly pomp" of which he would speak disdainfully in his will; yet he preached well, prayed often, and usually wore a gold chain with a picture of the Virgin on one side and John the Baptist on the other.”