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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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