Acapulco and Cortes Journeys To The Southern

The capital of the Aztec Nation was conquered and destroyed in 1521. That same year Cortes became aware of the strategic and commercial importance of the southern coast of this vanquished empire. The conquistador decided to extend his domain to the maximum, in addition to distributing his forces through the interior of the country he took care to cover the Gulf coast, while at the same time he prepared to occupy the western shoreline. This gave him an opportunity to explore the mysterious ocean, discovered eight years before by Nuñez de Balboa, and to claim islands which legend had endowed with an incalculable but as yet unspecified wealth. To this venture he devoted his riches and his health, but in vain.

By the time he returned to Spain, in 1527, having established a Royal Audience in Mexico, Bernal was able to write: “He made an agreement with Her Serene Highness, the Empress Dona Isabella, and with the Council of the Indies, to send the fleets via the Southern Seas in order to discover new lands farther on, and, at his own expense, began to build ships in a port in the area of his then marquisate, which was called Teguantepeque (Tehuantepec), and in other ports in Zacatula and Acapulco.” The marquisate referred to covered the Valley of Guajaca (Oaxaca) and, apart from this vast zone -which included the seat, with four villas and twenty towns- consisted in Jalapa del Marques and Teguantepeque, Santiago Tuxtla in the present-day state of Veracruz, three towns in Michoacan, Cuernavaca and forty-five neighboring villages, Toluca and surroundings, San Agustin de las Cuevas (present-day Tlalpan outside Mexico City) as well as Coyoacan and San Angel. On Empedradillo Street, in Mexico City, one can still view the Marques’ residence, except that now it houses the National Pawn Shop.

Bernal concludes on a bitter note: “And the fleets that were sent never gave unto his hands greater gifts than thorns ...”
Charles V himself, wishing Cortes withdrawn from the scene, having by this time taken full advantage of the conquest of Mexico, led him on. Cortes responded by biting the royal bait, positive that his new discoveries would make of “His Majesty master of so many kingdoms that he might consider himself the ruler of all the World.”