Cover photo: Portrait of Bernal Díaz del Castillo generated in Midjourney, using in the input an original portrait of Bernal Díaz del Castillo located in Guatemala.

The perception that all Conquistadors became wealthy from the conquest of the New World is completely wrong.

Text by Ilias Anagnostakis.

A characteristic example is the situation described by our well-known eyewitness, Bernard Diaz (Bernal Díaz del Castillo), immediately after the Conquest of Mexico on August 13, 1521: Out of the approximately 1,000,000 pesos worth of gold (jewelry, plaques, earrings, gold disks, gold parrots, containers with gold dust, necklaces, golden shields, golden weapons) that was melted down on the spot and turned into gold bars, which the Spaniards managed to snatch from Montezuma’s treasury, they managed to save only 380,000 pesos (200,000 of them during the “Noche Triste” on June 30, 1520 – which went directly in favor of the Crown) and only 180,000 pesos to Cortez and the remaining 840 men who survived the savage and five-month-long siege of Tenochtitlan.

And if the Spaniards hadn’t blocked all the exits of the city immediately after the surrender of the Aztecs, at 17:00 on August 13, 1521, to thorougly search for all the desperate civilians who were leaving the city in thousands (there were cases where Spanish soldiers searched Mexican women even in their underwear), it is highly doubtful whether even the 180,000 pesos would have been reached.

Five days later, and after searching everything possible, it was a common belief among the ranks of the 780 surviving “Soldados” and 60 “Caballeros” that the bulk of the gold had flown away, and indeed a year earlier, on the “cursed night” of June 30, 1520. All suspicions fell on the unfortunate Emperor of the Aztecs, Cuahtemoc, who in the eyes of the Spaniards was the only one who would know where the missing gold was.

Despite Cortez’s initial objections, the pressure from the Royal Treasurers as well as several ordinary soldiers was so great that Chuahtemoc, along with his young cousin Tetlepanquetzal, the King of Tacuba, were tied up and tortured by the Spaniards to confess where the gold was. In vain did the unfortunate Emperor tell them that he knew nothing, but finally, after four continuous days of torture with hot oil and after his feet were completely useless, he told them that “four days after the departure of the Spaniards, he had thrown all the cannons, guns, and gold into Lake Texcoco.”

The Spaniards believed the throwing of cannons and guns into the lake, since the Aztecs did not know how to use them, but they did not buy the story of the gold.
After much beating and even more hot oil, Chuactemoc pointed out a spot in one of his lakeside palaces where he had thrown the gold. The Spaniards threw divers and retrieved a large disc of pure gold, 2.20 meters in diameter, as well as some gold jewelry, and other objects of no value. It was now clear that the bulk of Montezuma’s gold had been lost.

However, with the 180,000 pesos remaining, Cortez had to pay his countless creditors for the weapons he had bought in Jamaica and Puerto Rico, gunpowder, bullets, cannons, muskets, crossbows, strings for crossbows, bullets for crossbows, pork paste, oil, wine, vinegar, “Cassava” bread, cannons, bullets, as well as the expensive horses, from his friends and estate owners. All this was valued at 104,675 pesos, while some more went into the pockets of some “intermediaries” and individuals friendly to Cortez.

Each of Cortez’s main men received 3,000 pesos, those who had been truly through hell and back, namely Pedro de Alvarado, Cristóbal de Olid, Gonzalo de Sandoval, and the first Spanishman to set up the flag of Castile in the Temple of Huitzilipotlii, Gutierre de Badajoz, received one hundred pesos (he would die as a blind beggar 80(!) years later, in 1601, at the age of 102(!), 1499-1601 – the last survivor of the conquest).

Objectively, not even Cortez’s lieutenants were well paid, but it was a common secret that they had made good profits from looting on the outskirts of Tenochtitlan, far from the annoying eyes of the Royal Treasurers, who demanded 20% no matter what. Cortez himself made 29,600 pesos, a relatively good amount, but the crafty lawyer knew that the feat he had accomplished was worth much more, as he had turned Spain to an Empire in one night.

But for Diaz and his comrades, who had literally “seen hell” with their own eyes, who had seen their companions gutted like lambs on the altars of bloodletting Mexico, who had survived countless battles, who had countless wounds (Diaz alone had eight), the reward was laughable:

At the gathering finally held on the morning of August 19, 1521, and with all spoiling for a fight, it was finally decided that: “The knights will receive 80 pesos, the arquebuziers and crossbowmen 60, and the other infantry (Rodeleros-shield bearers/swordsmen) …50.” Indicatively, 50 pesos cost the purchase of a good…sword. Meaning..nothing.

The 840 survivors of the conquest were furious, starting to curse “everyone”, while among them many, like Diaz, refused even to be paid, shouting about “disgrace.” Cortes, with his usual cunning, “turned around” quite a few, while also distributed 4,000 out of his own 29,600 pesos. It was a fact, however, that there was much tension among the 850 Spaniards who found themselves in a ruined metropolis, in the middle of an Empire of 15,000,000 inhabitants, and that this tension needed to be channelled before chaos ensued.

Things worsened on August 23, when in a palace in Cojióacan, ordered by Cortes, some enraged Spanish soldiers wrote graffiti on the whitewashed walls of the sort: “Cortes, you are a scoundrel”, or: “You cheated the King’s share” or: “We are not the victors of the ‘New Spain’ (Mexico) but Cortes’ victims”, while even secret supporters of… Velazquez from Cuba appeared.

In any case, the cunning and eternal lawyer Cortes fooled them again, paying off some of their debts to gunsmiths and doctors (especially the surgeon Juan Manestre, who charged exorbitant prices even for…bandages) and sending them to the four corners of the horizon, with prospects for new conquests, as the Spaniards were truly “invincible” and the spirit of Conquista was alive:

Gonzalo de Sandoval with 200 infantry and 46 horses was ordered to go to Tuxtepec, “the land of the cannibals”, and beat them after fierce clashes. Pedro de Alvarado with 350 infantry, 190 horses, and three cannons with plenty of ammunition, was ordered to go to Guatemala, which he passed “through fire and steel”. The Castañeda and Vicente López with 300 infantry and 76 horses were to go to Panuco, to the land of the “mad” Huaxtecs, with orders to “pacify” them in the…Spanish way. Juan Alvarez with 180 infantry and 18 horses was to invade the land of the Tarascans and seize their capital, Colima, which he did. Villa Fuerte with 220 infantry and 28 horses was to invade the land of the Zacatecs, where he fully achieved his objectives and Cristóbal de Olid, “who was nervous”, was ordered to invade with 250 men and 50 horses in Mizquiacan, “where there were large silver deposits.”

The experienced Bernard Diaz, after “45 years in the army and 119(!) battles” in Panama, Yucatan, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, he retired “very tired” in Antigua of Nicaragua, where he wrote “his precious History” and “saw things that no one had ever seen before”.

Postscripts:

-The numbers given far exceed the 840 survivors, but Cortes was now receiving continuous reinforcements from the Caribbean and Spain even when the Conquest was learned, while keeping close to him “a hundred and fifty trusted men.”
-The gold found in Mexico was relatively little compared to the tremendous haul made by Cortes’ cousin, Francisco Pizarro, in Peru (10,000,000 pesos), but the Spaniards had found in Montezuma’s archives all the tax lists related to gold mines, silver, cocoa plantations, and textiles, and accordingly sent the appropriate people for this job.
-The few hundred Spaniards were accompanied by 2-5,000 Indians (as subjects), such as the ever-present Tlaxcalans, the vassal Totonacs, and the surviving Mexicas.

Sources:

Bernal Díaz del Castillo, «Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España (transl. The True History of the Conquest of New Spain)».