Chapter IV: Introduction

One of the tragedies of the discovery of the New World was the abrupt and summary blotting out of the flourishing and still advancing civilization of the Aztec and other Mexican tribes. Had their complete conquest and subjection been delayed a few decades they in all probability would have developed a written phonetic language. Their intellectual abilities are evidenced by a study of the intricate calendar system, and the picture and hieroglyphic records which survive. The triumphs of their architectural attainments are well known, and may be investigated in the numerous monuments and buildings in the ruined cities scattered throughout Mexico. They had made notable strides toward civilization in certain of the minor fine arts. Ignorant of glass and of glazed pottery, they nevertheless developed the ceramic art to a high degree of excellence. Their inventive genius and technical skill were manifest in their goldsmith’s art.[1]

Without the knowledge of iron, in the working of hard precious and semi-precious stones into idols and personal ornaments, their craftsmanship was equal to that of the best lapidaries of Europe at the beginning of the sixteenth century. In the lapidarian art they had advanced so far as to fashion and adorn many objects with designs, both geometric and realistic, in stone mosaic, employing turquois chiefly for this purpose, but also making use of other stones--marcasite and shell. But the supreme esthetic achievement of the Aztecs was the production of a class of mosaics in which they used tiny bits of colored feathers instead of stones in making the designs. This unique art was employed in adorning objects for personal use, for warfare, or for priestly ceremonies. The patterns were produced by applying the tiny bits of feathers with glue either directly on wood or on wooden objects covered with skin or with native paper. From descriptions of feather mosaics in the writings of early chroniclers, and from a study of the handful of specimens which have escaped the ravages of time, it is evident that this art reached the highest artistic level attained by any of the aboriginal tribes of America.

We will not enter into a discussion of feather mosaics at this time, but will consider primarily the parallel art of turquois mosaic. Aside from the numerous historical notices contained in the early chronicles and in the inventories of the loot of the Aztecs sent to Europe by Cortés, there is little of this art upon which to base a careful study that has survived. It is one of the most interesting and highly developed arts of ancient America, but it was practised by only a few tribes. Apart from the Mexican region where turquois mosaic was most highly developed, excellent examples have been found with other ancient remains of the Pueblos of Arizona and New Mexico, and incrusted objects have also been found with ancient burials on the coast of Peru, indicating a somewhat similar technique though far less skill in application. The materials usually employed in Mexico were turquois, jadeite, malachite, quartz, beryl, garnet, obsidian, marcasite, gold, bits of red and other colored shell, and nacre. The base upon which the incrustation was laid was wood, stone, gold, shell, pottery, and possibly leather and native paper, the mosaic being held in place by means of a tenacious vegetal pitch or gum, or a kind of cement.

EARLIEST HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS OF TURQUOIS MOSAIC IN MEXICO

THE GRIJALVA EXPEDITION, 1518

The first knowledge received by Europeans of the existence of turquois mosaic objects among the Mexicans was by members of the expedition sent out from Cuba by the governor, Diego Velásquez, during the spring of 1518, under the command of Juan de Grijalva. After reaching the shores of Yucatan near the island of Cozumel, the party coasted the Yucatan peninsula, reaching the territory of the present State of Campeche, which had been discovered the previous year by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba. Proceeding westward along unknown lands, they reached a great river in the State of Tabasco, to which the name of the commandant was given, and it is still known as Rio de Grijalva. Here, according to some accounts, the expedition obtained the first specimens of turquois mosaic. We shall consider this point later. Leaving the Rio de Grijalva they went westward and arrived at the site of the present city of Vera Cruz, where they obtained by barter with the Indians a considerable treasure, including some objects of turquois mosaic, which Grijalva decided to send immediately to the governor in Cuba with a report of his discoveries up to that time. Consequently, on June 24, 1518, one of Grijalva’s captains, Pedro de Alvarado, set out on the return voyage to Fernandina (Cuba), while Grijalva himself continued the exploration of the eastern coast of Mexico.

The provenience of the treasure obtained by Grijalva on this first expedition of discovery to the coasts of Tabasco and Vera Cruz in 1518 is not at all clear from the accounts of this voyage in the writings both of the eye-witnesses themselves and of those who shortly afterward wrote of the conquest from the reports of the participants in the events. It has been generally assumed that Grijalva obtained mosaic objects from the Indians of Tabasco; this is specifically stated by both Oviedo and Gomara, who recorded detailed accounts of the Grijalva expedition. The account by Oviedo[2] is even more extended and valuable than the narrations of the eye-witnesses, namely, Juan Díaz[3] the chaplain, and the redoubtable Bernal Díaz. Oviedo states that his account is from the report forwarded to the King of Spain by the governor Velásquez, who sent out the expedition from Cuba. Gomara, who for a time was chaplain of Cortés in Spain, never visited the New World, but had access to the various reports sent to Spain regarding the conquest.

Unfortunately in the writings of the eye-witnesses no detailed descriptive lists are to be found relating just what pieces of mosaic-work were obtained by Grijalva from the Mayan Indians of Tabasco and the people of the coast of the present State of Vera Cruz. The extended account given by Oviedo recites the voyage from day to day and the character of various objects received from the Tabasco Indians, followed by the list of specimens obtained from the Mexican Indians near the Isla de Sacrificios, Vera Cruz. We will quote from these lists later. Gomara’s list is quite extended. In the first part of his _Historia de las Indias_ he describes various articles procured by Grijalva from the Indians at the mouth of the river in Tabasco, to which his name was applied, followed in turn by the inventory of objects obtained at San Juan de Ulua, Vera Cruz. In the second part of his history, the _Conquista de Mexico_, he gives only a single long inventory of the barter obtained, as he says, “from the Indians of Potonchan [Tabasco], San Juan de Ulua, and other places of that coast.” It seems highly probable, however, that such interesting and valuable loot must have been accompanied with an inventory when it was sent to Spain late in 1518 or early in 1519 by Governor Velásquez. Oviedo mentions seeing the things, apparently in Barcelona, in May 1519. It is possible that both Oviedo and Gomara may have had access to such an inventory, or if not, they wrote their own descriptions of the objects after seeing them.

Bernal Díaz, who accompanied both Grijalva and Cortés to Mexico, wrote his history nearly fifty years after the stirring events of the discovery and conquest. He was a prejudiced writer, and seems to have been largely animated in his old age to tell the story of the conquest primarily to refute many of the statements of Gomara. Bernal Díaz writes bluntly at the very outset of his invaluable history, which he calls the “True History,” that he speaks “here in reply to all that has been said and written by persons who themselves knowing nothing, have received no true account from others of what really took place, but who nevertheless now put forward any statements that happen to suit their fancy.” While not describing the treasure obtained by Grijalva, he mentions “some gold jewels some (of which) were diadems and others were in the shape of ducks like those of Castile, and other jewels like lizards, and three necklaces of hollow beads, and other articles of gold not of much value, for they were not worth more than two hundred pesos.”[4] These he states were obtained from the Indians of Potonchan. For some reason he apparently was not greatly impressed either by the technical excellence or by the esthetic beauty of the objects procured by barter from the vicinity of the present city of Vera Cruz; he simply writes that the Spaniards were engaged for six days in trading with the Indians and got more than sixteen thousand dollars’ worth of jewelry of low-grade gold worked into various forms. He then says: “This must be the gold which the historians Gomara, Yllescas, and Jovio say was given by the natives of Tabasco, and they have written it down as though it were true, although it is well known to eye-witnesses that there is no gold in the province of the Rio de Grijalva or anywhere near it, and very few jewels.”[5] Torquemada wrote in later years to the same effect.

In none of the accounts by the participants of this expedition are mosaic pieces specifically mentioned. The chaplain of Grijalva’s fleet, Juan Díaz, states merely that they were given “a mask of gold beautifully wrought, and a little figure of a man with a little mask of gold, and a crown of gold beads with other jewels and stone of various colors.” This report was first printed in Venice, March 3, 1520, appearing in Italian as an appendix to the _Itinerario_ of Ludovico de Varthema.

An anonymous independent relation in Italian of this voyage seems to have been printed at Venice in the same year under the title _Littera Mãdata della Insula de Cuba_, etc., the copy in the Marciana Library, Venice, being the only one known. From a photostat copy of the Italian we are able to present a translation of the mention of these objects, somewhat similar to that given by Juan Díaz. The _Littera Mãdata_ states that the Spaniards obtained “a mask of gold, and the figure of a man all of gold, seemingly of the age of twelve, and a fan of gold, and other jewels of divers colors.”[6]

Another anonymous early printed report, in Latin, without date or place of printing, affords practically the same information as that contained in the _Itinerario_ of Juan Díaz and in the _Littera Mãdata_.[7]

The earliest printed information regarding the Grijalva voyage in which mosaic objects are specifically noted is in Peter Martyr’s _De Nvper Sub D. Carolo Repertis Insulis_, printed in Basle in 1521. In speaking of the valuable objects obtained by Grijalva in Coluacan (Vera Cruz), and sent to Spain, he mentions that “the cacique brought a small golden statue of a man, also a gold fan, and a mask beautifully wrought and decorated with stones.”[8] It will be observed that these objects correspond with those mentioned in the reports noted above, only that Peter Martyr speaks of the decoration of the mask with stones. With the exception of this note by Peter Martyr, who saw the objects in Spain, there is, as we have said, no special statement regarding mosaic-work to be found in the earliest known printed accounts of the Grijalva voyage. In 1535 the great work of Oviedo was first published, and here we find the following itemized description of pieces of mosaic-work, said to have been obtained from the Indians of Potonchan, Tabasco.[9]

Another mask covered from the nostrils upward with well set mosaic-work of stones resembling turquoises, and from the nostrils downward with a thin plate of hammered gold.

Another mask resembling the first, but the stones were placed from the eyes upward, and below them there were thin plates of beaten gold over wood, the ears being of turquois mosaic-work.

Another mask made with bands or rods of wood, two of the strips being covered with mosaic-work, and the remaining other three with thin beaten gold.

A thin disc with a figure of a cemi or devil, covered above with beaten gold-leaf, and in other parts were scattered some stones.

A tablet of wood like the headstall of a horse in armor, covered over with thin gold-leaf, with some strips of black stones well set between the gold.

The head of a dog covered with stones, and very well made.

From Ulua in Vera Cruz these mosaic pieces are noted:

Two masks of small stones like turquois set over wood like mosaic, with some spangles of gold in the ears.

Two guariques of blue stones set in gold, each having eight pendants of the same.

A mask of stone mosaic-work.

In the work of Gomara, printed in 1553, appears also an extended account of this barter.[10]

Seler[11] and Lehmann[12] believe that most of the mosaic objects “apparently came from the eastern provinces, i.e., Tabasco.” Relying on the authority of both Oviedo and Gomara, Lehmann further uses in his discussion the original Nahuatl text of Sahagun in the Florentine manuscript copied and translated by Seler. In this section of Sahagun’s work relating to the attributes of the Mexican deities occurs the paragraph, “_In jtlatquj Quetzalcoatl coa-xaiacatl xiuhticatl achivalli, quetzalapanecaiotl_,” which Lehmann renders, “The Quetzalcoatl dress, the snake-mask with turquois work, the feather ornament of the people of Quetzalapan (Tabasco).”[13] But there is no mention in early chronicles or on early maps of any town _in this region_ bearing the name Quetzalapan, and Torquemada in giving an account of some of the wars of Montezuma writes that “during the twelfth year of his reign (which was in 1514), his armies set out for the land of the Chichimecas, and entered the Huaxteca, subduing those of Quetzalapan.”[14] Other places bearing the name Quetzalapan were in the present states of Morelos, Guerrero, and Colima.[15] In recounting the episode of the conquest of this town, Clavijero writes explicitly that “Montezuma sent out an army in 1512 to the north against the Quetzalapanecas and conquered them with but little loss.”[16] Hence the place mentioned by Sahagun would seem to have been in Vera Cruz, and probably the region of Huaxteca or Cuexteca, for the Aztecs had considerable communication with this territory.

LOOT OBTAINED BY CORTÉS, 1519-1525

But the treasures of native art secured by the Grijalva expedition were insignificant by comparison with the enormously valuable loot obtained the next year (1519) by Cortés. It is not necessary in this study of Mexican mosaics to enter into the details of the expedition which set out from Cuba to follow the discoveries of Grijalva and which resulted in the conquest of Mexico. This has been done many times, but in the main most weight is given to the writings of the Spanish participants and to the early chroniclers. We have already studied in considerable detail the accounts of the art objects sent to Spain by Cortés, as contained in these early writings, and especially the inventories which accompanied the shipments of objects sent to Europe by the conqueror. Let us quote here merely what we wrote in presenting a summary of the events that occurred when Cortés first landed on the coast of Vera Cruz.

After the arrival of the Spaniards on the coast of Vera Cruz, the Indians were not long in ignorance of the consuming thirst of the conquerors for gold. In order to placate the formidable strangers with childlike confidence that by giving them their wish the invasion of his dominions would be averted, Montezuma sent rich presents to Cortés through Tendile (Teuhtlile), governor of Cuetlaxtla (the modern Cotastla), which was then subject to the Aztecs. When all this treasure thus brought together was ready to be sent to Spain, with the report of the voyage, an inventory or list of the objects was drawn up and despatched with two special messengers, Alonso Portocarrero and Francisco de Montejo, who were charged to deliver the treasure to the King. These valuable gifts have been briefly described by several members of the expedition who saw them before they left Mexico, and on their receipt in Spain they were described by various other chroniclers.

From the inventory, which we translated, we select the items relating to objects ornamented with stone mosaic.

Item: two collars of gold and stone mosaic-work (precious stones)....

Another item: a box of a large piece of feather-work lined with leather, the colors seeming like martens, and fastened and placed in the said piece, and in the center (is) a large disc of gold, which weighed sixty ounces of gold, and a piece of blue stone mosaic-work a little reddish, and at the end of the piece another piece of colored feather-work that hangs from it.

Item: a miter of blue stone mosaic-work with the figure of monsters in the center of it, and lined with leather which seems in its colors to be that of martens, with a small (piece) of feather-work which is, as the one mentioned above, of this said miter.

Item: ... a scepter of stone mosaic-work with two rings of gold, and the rest of feather-work.

Item: an armlet of stone mosaic-work....

Item: a mirror placed in a piece of blue and red stone mosaic-work, with feather-work stuck to it, and two strips of leather stuck to it....

Item: some leggings of blue stone mosaic-work, lined with leather, of which the colors seem like martens; on each one of them (there are) fifteen gold bells.

Item: two colored (pieces of) feather-work which are for two (pieces of) head armor of stone mosaic-work....

More: two guariques (ear ornaments) of blue stone mosaic-work, which are to be put in the head of the big crocodile.

More: another head armor of blue stone mosaic-work with twenty gold bells which hang pendent at the border, with two strings of beads which are above each bell, and two guariques of wood with two plates of gold.

Item: another head armor of blue stone mosaic-work with twenty-five gold bells, and two beads of gold above each bell, that hang around it with some guariques of wood with plates of gold, and a bird of green plumage with the feet, beak, and eyes of gold.

Moreover: sixteen shields of stone mosaic-work with their colored feather-work hanging from the edge of them, and wide-angled slab with stone mosaic-work with its colored feather-work, and in the center of the said slab, made of stone mosaic-work, a cross of a wheel which is lined with leather, which has the color of martens.

Again: a scepter of red stone mosaic-work, made like a snake, with its head, teeth, and eyes (made) from what appears to be mother-of-pearl, and the hilt is adorned with the skin of a spotted animal, and below the said hilt hang six pieces of small feather-work.

Item: a piece of colored feather-work which the lords of this land are wont to put on their heads, and from it hang two ear-ornaments of stone mosaic-work with two bells and two beads of gold, and above a feather-work of wide green feathers, and below hang some white, long hairs.[17]

Peter Martyr, who saw the specimens in Spain shortly after they arrived, speaks of “certain miters beset with precious stones of divers colors, among which some are blue, like unto sapphires.” Also “two helmets garnished with precious stones of a whitish blue color: one of these is edged with bells and plates of gold, and under every bell two knobs of gold. The other, beside the stones wherewith it is covered, is likewise edged with XXV golden bells and knobs: and hath on the crest, a green bird with the feet, bill, and eyes of gold.”[18]

Las Casas describes “a helmet of plates of gold, and little bells hanging (from it), and on it stones like emeralds.” Also “many shields made of certain thin and very white rods, intermingled with feathers and discs of gold and silver, and some very small pearls, like misshapen pearls.”[19]

These are some of the statements of early Spaniards. Let us now consider what the Indians have said about the treasure given by Montezuma to Cortés at that time. Our best source of information is the great _Historia_ composed by Fray Bernardino de Sahagun, who spent many years in the valley of Mexico gathering information at first-hand from intelligent Indians. This was shortly after the conquest when the natives still retained vivid recollections of the fall of their country. Without this work the history of ancient Mexico, and of the customs and traditions of the Indians, could not be written.

We must not lose sight of the fact that Montezuma, for a number of reasons which we need not relate here, expected the “second coming” of the culture-hero Quetzalcoatl, the great beneficent god of the Aztecs. This myth was one of the several causes that led to the comparatively easy conquest of a numerous and warlike people by the Spaniards. We have translated several chapters of Sahagun’s _Historia_ relating to the first coming of the Christians to the coast of Mexico, which contain a description of some of the gifts sent by Montezuma to Cortés, while he still believed the Spanish conqueror to be the great god Quetzalcoatl. It is really a report transmitted to us from the Aztecs, and is a most fascinating chapter of the history of the conquest of Mexico.[20]