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Herman J. Viola, Carolyn Margolis, eds., Seeds of change: a quincentennial commemoration, (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991), pp34-39:

"As the Spaniards made their way toward the fabled city of Tenochtitlán [from the Gulf Coast] over the high mountains surrounding the Valley of Mexico, traversing a path between the towering volcanos called Popocatépetl and lztaccíhuatl, their first view of the great city startled and amazed them. Their astonishment was eloquently recorded by the soldier Bernal Diaz some forty years after the event. ‘During the morning, we arrived at a broad Causeway and continued our march towards lztapalapa, and when we saw so many cities and villages built in the water and other great towns on dry land and that straight and level Causeway going towards Mexico, we were amazed and said that it was like the enchantments they tell of in the legend of Amadis, on account of the great towers and cues [temples] and buildings rising from the water, and all built of masonry. And some of our soldiers asked whether the things that we saw were not a dream.'

The Chinampas of Tenochtitlán

"This seeming mirage, Tenochtitlán, which covered an area of some ten square miles, several times larger than sixteenth-century London, was one of the wonders of the world. The high towers and painted buildings sparkled in the sunlight. The city was situated on an island in the center of a lake, connected to the mainland by a series of broad causeways, supplied with fresh water by means of a huge aqueduct and surrounded by chinampas [that appeared to be “floating gardens”] in a valley teeming with wildlife. In these extraordinarily productive chinampas, the Aztecs cultivated an enormous variety of vegetables and flowers. They only appeared to float, however. The Aztecs formed their gardens artificially by digging ditches in the marshy lakeshore to drain the water and piling up the fertile mud to form the field. Some archaeological evidence indicates that this highly productive agricultural technique may have originated at a much earlier time, but it was during the Aztec reign that the chinampa system became the principal source of their food supply. It is thus easy to understand that the production of chinampas was carefully planned and controlled by the central government. In addition to the chinampas, the surrounding mountains were covered with agricultural terraces, which were irrigated by fresh water brought by the aqueduct. They supplied the city with other varieties of fruits and vegetables.

"‘Let us return to our entry to Mexico,’ wrote Bernal Díaz. Tenochtitlán was situated on one of two islands, the other was occupied by its sister city Tlatelolco, with causeways connecting the two cities to the mainland and other surrounding towns like Tláhuac, Texcoco, and Xochimilco. A huge dike, constructed during the rule of Montezuma I, under the guidance of Netzahualcoyotl, the poet-king of Texcoco, separated the brackish water of the largest lake from those surrounding the islands. The writer Francisco de Garáy described in detail the effect of the masterfully engineered dike. ‘As the lakes of fresh water to the south poured their surplus water into the lake of Mexico through the narrows of Culhuacan and Mexicaltzingo, those waters spread through the western lake, the Lake of Mexico, and completely filled it ... . In this way the basin of fresh water was converted into a fish pond and a home for all sorts of aquatic fowl. Chinampas covered its surface, separated by limpid spaces which were furrowed by swift canoes, and all the suburbs of this enchanting capital became flowery orchards.’

"The central sacred precinct of Tenochtitlán was larger and more grandiose than that of Tlatelolco. The square was the religious and administrative center of the empire. It was dominated by the enormous pyramid with twin temples dedicated to Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, with smaller pyramids to Quetzalcoatl and his rival Tezcatlipoca. A series of wooden racks filled with the skulls of sacrificial victims stood to one side of the round pyramid to the god of wind, Ejecatl. In all there were more than seventy buildings within the enormous court. In the second letter written to the king of Spain, Cortés described the central plaza, ‘the principal one, whose great size and magnificence no human tongue could describe, for it is so large that within the precincts, which are surrounded by a very high wall, a town of some five hundred inhabitants could easily be built. All round inside this wall there are very elegant quarters with very large rooms and corridors where men priests live. There are as many as forty towers, all of which are so high that in the case of the largest there are fifty steps leading up to the main part of it; and the most important of these towers is higher than that of the cathedral of Seville’ (Pagden 1986).

"The profound admiration of Mexico’s conqueror is apparent in his lengthy descriptions of the culture he had encountered. ‘These people live almost like those in Spain. and in as much harmony and order as there, and considering that they are barbarous and so far from the knowledge of God and cut off from all civilized nations, it is truly remarkable to see what they have achieved in all things.’

The Market of Tlatelolco

"Cortés and his men were greeted with kind if guarded hospitality, treated to great riches, and escorted on many royal tours throughout the island cities, which they compared to Venice. Bernal Díaz could not contain his amazement when he described Tenochtitlán’s sister city, Tlatelolco. Here he was especially impressed by the great market. ‘We were astounded at the number of people and the quantity of merchandise that it contained, and at the good order and control that was maintained, for we had never seen such a thing before. The chieftains who accompanied us acted as guides. Each kind of merchandise was kept by itself and had its fixed place marked out. Let us begin with the dealers in gold, silver, and precious stones, feathers, mantles, and embroidered goods. Then there were other wares consisting of Indian slaves both men and women.... Next there were other traders who sold great pieces of cloth and cotton, and articles of twisted thread and there were cacahuateros who sold cacao.’ He goes on to list the merchandise: ropes and sandals, skins of wild animals, vegetables and herbs, fowls, rabbits, deer and young dogs, ‘every sort of pottery made in a thousand different forms from great water jars to little jugs, these also had a place to themselves.’ He also remarked upon the honey, lumber, blocks and benches, firewood, amatl (bark) paper, tobacco, ointments, dyes, salt and stone knives, axes of copper, brass, and tin, and gourds and painted jars. ‘I could wish that I had finished telling of all the things which are sold there, but they are so numerous and of such different quality and the great marketplace with its surrounding arcades was so crowded with people, that one would not have been able to see and inquire about it all in two days.’

"The market with its carefully marked divisions, its ‘fixed places,’ speaks volumes about Aztec society, its complexity, sophistication, centralized polity, the enormous variety of craft specialists it produced, and the division of the society into classes of nobility, commoners, and slaves. The market was in a sense an Aztec discourse, the means by which this society defined and talked about itself. The variety of goods sold in the market also reflects the many and diverse regions with which Tenochtitlán traded. Trade networks had been established throughout the empire for many years, and long-distance trade sent merchants far outside the imperial domain. They traveled as far south as Central America and as far north as the Pueblos of the American Southwest. The son of an Aztec feather merchant, who had accompanied his father on journeys, was the first to tell the Spaniards tales of the seven cities of Cíbola. Aztec trade was carried out by a hereditary class of merchants, called pochteca, who often traveled in long caravans protected by soldiers and the power of the emperor. During Montezuma’s reign the pochteca had become rich and powerful. Some trade was state supported and, therefore, had definite political overtones, since pochteca often served as spies, ambassadors, and agents of the emperor. Apparently pochteca always traded at market places within towns. Because they often traveled great distances they usually dealt in high-value, low-bulk items. Many historians believe that trade preceded tribute in the formation of this empire. Traders in search of more varied merchandise traveled farther and farther afield. They were often followed by conquering armies.

Sunset

The great lord Montezuma, by then fearful that the end of the Fifth Sun was upon him, was described by Bernal Díaz as ‘about forty years old, of good height and well proportioned.… He had good eyes and showed in his appearance and manner both tenderness and, when necessary, gravity. He was very neat and clean and bathed once every day in the afternoon. He had many women as mistresses, daughters of Chieftains, and he had two great Cacicas as his legitimate wives.… The clothes that he wore one day, he did not put on again until four days later.’ Cortés wrote, “Touching Mutezuma’s [sic] service and all that was remarkable in his magnificence and power, … I have not yet been able to discover the extent of the domain of Mutezuma, but in the two hundred leagues which his messengers traveled to the north and to the south of this city his orders were obeyed … that his kingdom is almost as big as Spain’-(Pagden 1986). Bernal Díaz also wrote many pages describing Montezuma’s zoo, the buildings that housed birds and animals, and their frightening cries in the night. He was amazed at the number and variety of people who inhabited Montezuma’s homes—the weavers, gold and silversmiths, feather artisans, dancers, jugglers, and other entertainers in the court of the Aztec emperor.

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