Horse of Cortez and his conquistadors - Tenochtitlan 4

 Salvete Omnes,

a short entry - continuing with the horses of Conquest - the English translation of the 16 horse list as presented by  Bernal Diaz del Castillo:

the first translation in this series comes from the 1844 British translation by John Ingram Lockhart - 

the following one from the XX century,   published in the land of the Mexica

Alfred Percival Maudslay's 1908 translation published in Mexico City, USofMexico- 

nota bene Alfred P. Maudslay was a famous Maya archaeology pioneer 

there are  more translations that could be of interest, so I will copy some of them in my future posting 

Valete

Los Caballos de Cortes et consortos - Tenochtitlan 3

 Salvete Omnes,

so in the last post - Tenochtitlan 2 - about the conquest of Mexico I already landed the horses brought by the Cortes expeditionary armada on the banks or beaches of the Tabasco coast.

I am going to list these horses, thanks to Benral Diaz del Castillo (or Cortes himself and one French researcher proposes) and his famous account of the 1519-1521 conqueest.

The list today will be in Spanish, followed by posts with translation into English (there are two or three good ones) and finally one in Polish(which should be fun to translate).

Spanish original -from the  capitulo XXIII (23) from the Spanish edition AD 1862 (Madrid) and I checked it against Miguel Leon-Portilla 's digital edition (all available on archive.org) :

so we have:

1. un caballo castano zaino

2. una yegua castana muy buena

3. una yegua rucia de buena carrera

4. la rabona, yegua rucia de bunea carrera, muy revuelta y de bunea carrera

5. un caballo castano oscuro, harto beno

6. un caballo alazan tostado, no fue para cosa de guerra

7. un caballo castano oscuro, gran corredor y revuelto

8 . un caballo castano claro, tresalvo, no fue bueno

9. una yegua rucia, machorra, pasadera aunque corria poco

10. un caballo castano oscuro muy bueno y gran corredor 

11.  un caballo castano, perfecto castano, que corria muy bien.

12. un caballo overo, labrado de las manos y era bien revuelto

13. un caballo overo algo sobre morcillo, no salio bueno

14. un caballo muy bueno, de color castano, algo claro y buen corredor

15. un muy buen caballo oscuro que decian 'el Arriero'. este fue un de los buenos caballos que pasamos en la armada

16. una yegua castana - pario en el navio.

Valete

Maize and hay - Tenochtitlan 2

 Salvete Omnes,

so here the 2nd post in the theme of the 500 years anniversary of the conquest of the Mexica (Aztecs) and coming of horses to the Americas:

Soldier and chronicler Bernal Diaz del Castillo is our primary authority on the  horses collected, bought,  gathered and embarked in Cuba prior to Cortes' armada sailing of into the western Caribbean sea.

In all large Caribbean Island -  Cuba,  Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo, and Jamaica the Spanish horses brought from the Spanish realms (Castilian Andalusian ports in the southern Kingdom of Castile) found a veritable paradise, meadows and pastures to grow, procreate and prosper towards a much better conformation than the stock they originated from. 

In his Cuban base of Havana(San Cristobal de la Habana) Hernan Cortes,(native of Medellin, Spain) acting under the governor Velazquez of Cuba orders and instructions, had gathered men (over 600 including sailors, 200 Indians from Cuba), bought equipment of war (especially the quilted cotton jackets against the natives' sling stones, clubs,  arrows and spears), foodstuffs (like casava bread, maize, pork ), 11 ships (of various sizes) and 16 horses and mares from the limited adult stock available on the island (Cuba was taken and consequently conquered in 1511AD).  Presumably the island was rather poor in horses available for war that were on the market. 
Horse fodder was to consist of  maize (Indian Corn) and hay, presumably gathered in Cuba.

It was to be the third expedition to the mainland ordered and sent by governor Velazquez (1517 and 1518 respectively). 
Already rebellious from his good governor Velasquez  don Hernan Cortez ordered the expeditionary fleet to sail of on February 10, 1519AD. They landed their longboats, as the ships stayed anochred on the sea, near the town of Ponchan on the Tabasco river coast on March 12, 1519AD. And started disembarking horses - the next day they fought first battle, that is on the continent of North America these Spanish horses were used for the first time against the natives of Mexico. With the horses rested, saddled and riders armed the mortal combat was about to enjoin between the native defenders and Spanish invading conquistadors. 

The horse had be be embarked and disembarked into and from the ships - but then carrying horse on the naval transports was nothing new in the Old World. The Spanish, starting with  the famous Portuguese(most likely) in Spanish service aka  Cristobal Colon, brought  horses, cows, goats, swine to the Caribbean islands and their war horses took part in the conquests of  the Arawak and Carib native islands in the Caribbean.

Already  3000 years before,  pharaoh Thutmose III of Egypt's 18th Dynasty( of New Kingdom) had special naval transports built to ship his chariots and horses up the Levantine coast into Syria.

 In the later periods the Persians (eg Marathon expedition), then the Greeks(eg Athenian invasion of Sicily), Romans (eg invasion of Britain), Byzantines( eg reconquest of the Holy Land and Syria in 10th century), and later Medieval Europeans(eg reconquest of Sicily, the Crusades XI-XIVc)) and Islamic invaders(eg conquest of Sicily VIII-Xc) shipped war horses over the sea.

In the XVI century Spanish and Portuguese vessels sailing the oceans and seas had the horses on board  suspended in a system of slings, pulleys and hobbles, and for this occasion we have a  page from Trachtenbuch des Christoph Weiditz, an album of Spanish Empire costumes drawn and painted in Spain  by a Geman artist Weiditz circa 1530-40AD.

Now, the painting by Hans Memling - Seven Joys of the Virgin - shows horses unsaddled, embarked on a rowing longboats, and from these boats loaded onto a ship anchored at sea (my maritime and marine vocabulary is rather weak and wanting, so pardon my ignorance of the ship etc terminology).

to be continued

Valete

1521-2021 -Tenochtitlan - 1

 Salvete Omnes,

 

the last month of this 2021 Ad has started - 

 

and I think time has come to spend some time with the very round anniversary that we had this year, i.e., the Spanish-Tlaxcaltecan conquest of the Triple Alliance of  Mexicas (in popular parlance known as the Aztec Empire) and their vast and rich empire.. Awesome murals on the Tlaxcaltecan history in the city of Tlaxcala, Mexico.
 

I could start with the horses Cortes' 'legion' brought from Cuba landing in the American continent near present day Vera Cruz, Mexico(properly la Villa Rica de Vera Cruz). Yep, Cuba's green meadows and spaces were the true motherlands of the American horse in the XVI century Western Hemisphere.

But let us start,(and there will be lots of links in this thread,a s Spanish and Mexican and other scholars mad plenty of most interesting presentations on the conquest of Mexica ),  with a link to a presentation by a historian Carlos Martinez Shaw, via Fundacion Juan March, titled The True story of Herman Cortes (in Spanish with subtitles).
why starting with Cortes, well, without Hernan and later his lover and companion La Malinche aka dona Marina there would be a different story, and with don Hernan, somewhat a student of Latin and law from the Valladolid and Salamanca Universities begins the most epic conquest in the last 500 years, done from horseback and with a lance and sword, firearms and crossbows, and other meas of war. Cortes was one the most talented and astute military commanders in the history of the art of war, and only because of the political correctness and other shenanigans he is presented as odious, hateful, racist and despicable  amoral character etc... 

It would be an injustice to not to provide a link to the story, complex as it may be, of the most famous or infamous woman in the history of indigenous Americas  la Malinche, Malintzin, as presented by  Dr Margo Glantz,  In English, hmm., I can suggest this presentation from the heartland of the Olmec/Popolucan native Veracruzans, a bit different but interesting.

Also, I will link other presentations and lectures from  the CEHM Fundación Carlos Slim - perhaps adding a link on La Malinche with the presentation by dr Andrea Martínez Baracs about the Tlaxcaltecas and their relationship with Cortes.

Note that already a 100 years ago one researcher and horseman Cunninghame Graham wrote profusely about the Age of Conquest, including his fine work  titled the Horses of Conquest - dedicated to the horses of this military conquest. And I will using this work and quoting from it too.

on Academia there various works available,so enjoy browsing various subjects.

 also note, that the  great Spanish painter Augusto Ferrer Dalmau has been painting various aspects of the Conquista - on Facebook you can look for his page and enjoy the artworks etc or directly on his webpage here.

well,  I have started

Valete