MOTECUHZOMA
            Unpack your thoughts. Be free and frank with me.
            Pretend yourself my junior cabinetman,
            For my own court is often at a loss.
            What vague agenda does this fleet announce?

TEUHTLILLI
            They masquerade as peaceful legates sent
            To haggle wares and flaunt their god, no more.

MOTECUHZOMA
            Ridiculous!
      
TEUHTLILLI              My sentiments as well.

MOTECUHZOMA
            Then what’s your own misgivings of their aim?
            Don’t gild the pill for me. Who are these men?

TEUHTLILLI
            I’d bank they’re vigorous, new, cruel foes,
            Now swiftly winging from the Eastern Sea
            To spoil, maraud, shed sheathes and buccaneer.
            We’ve Mayan authority to warrant this,
            Hence their determination for the fray.

MOTECUHZOMA
            But I have poor rapport with Mayaland.
            What do my coastal subjects make of this?

TEUHTLILLI
            They call them minor, maverick deities,
            As yet unknown, yet fancied devilish.

MOTECUHZOMA
            And what if they will prove, as prophesied,            
            Our long-lost rulers coming home?

TEUHTLILLI                                                Perhaps.

TEUHTLILLI
            Then down to brass tacks: These wan wanderers
            Indeed match those who skimmed our shores last year.
            See- Here’s my schoolyard scribbling of their looks:

MOTECUHZOMA
            What are these? Iron pipes on lumbering wheels?

TEUHTLILLI
            A roaring, dragon-mouthed machine of war,
            Whose entrails discharge hails of shooting stars.
            When leveled at a mountain’s rocky crags,
            The cliff face cracked, disgorging its rich veins,
            Then, splintered into chips a knotted pine.
            Their porters picked their teeth with the remains,
            Like sullied spirits in a sulfurous haze.

MOTECUHZOMA
            What is this shambling menagerie?

TEUHTLILLI
            Some over-magnifying strain of hound,
            Whose *****-yellow eyes flash sparks of flame,
            And lolling tongues lob down to glut for blood.

MOTECUHZOMA
            And these? Some hybrid hash of man and stag?

TEUHTLILLI
            No, sire, but merely stilted, toothy does
            That suffer men to play at pick-a-back.
            Their plate-wide hooves dig wells at each impress,
            And lofty eyes peep over the city walls.

MOTECUHZOMA
            What is their destination?

TEUHTLILLI                                   Here, my lord.
            They’re full of inquiries, but send you gifts:
            These chokers of green glass- Quite lovely things.

MOTECUHZOMA
            What is the subject of their questions?

TEUHTLILLI                                                     You, my lord.

TEUHTLILLI
            My family looks for me. Why, then, do I,
            Here in this hideous House of Serpents, wait?
            A hellish bestiary of constrictors.
            But now, behold where, from the grisly gate,
            Our golden eagle lights like daybreak’s rays.
                                                                    Enter MOTECUHZOMA.
MOTECUHZOMA          
            Well met, bright steward. Rise, and meet me, sir.

TEUHTLILLI
            When might a mortal’s eye behold the sun?

MOTECUHZOMA
            When, sir? Why, when he dwindles in the west,
            When, blushing red and swollen full with care,
            A man might ogle with unwinking eyes
            Before his flickering orb of day winks out.
            Look up, my scout. I wish your sights were high,
            And eyed a brighter orbit for your liege.

TEUHTLILLI
            I do, your majesty.

MOTECUHZOMA                   Come, your report.

CORTÉS                            
            Friend, you must look upon our advent here
            Not with unease, but as a world of good.

AGUILAR     [simultaneously] . . . but as a world of good.
            My potent monarch rules beyond the seas,
            And rumors tease his ears of Mexico.
            I come to you as his ambassador,

MALINALLI      [simultaneously] . . . to you as his ambassador,
            With gifts I must in person grant your lord,
            And bring him tidings that will save his life.

TEUHTLILLI
            [aside] (Fresh off the boat, and asks for audience!)
            My ruler also is a busy king,
            Like yours, and he will send for his desires.

            MALINALLI     [simultaneously] . . . he will send for his desires.
            He’s locked in caucus from his island throne:
            The teeming, lacustrine metropolis
            Of Mexico, called also, “Cactus Rock,”

AGUILAR         [simultaneously] . . . called also, “Cactus Rock,”
            Whose minions by the millions stir with drive,
            And fructify the land on floating farms.

CORTÉS
            A land with gold in hand?

TEUHTLILLI                                  By heaps and mounds.

CORTÉS
            “Why ask?” you’ll ask. I ask because I know
            That precious metal heals an arrant heart.
            My men are languishing from that complaint.

TEUHTLILLI
            We have the cure to purge bad-hearted men.
            [aside] (By god, his helmet flashes on my mind:
            Dead ringer to the one our war god wears.)
            [to him] May I, sir, as a token of goodwill,
            Present my lord your brilliant helm?

CORTÉS                                                     You may,
            If you return it filled with grains of gold.
            We’ll test by trial if this New World’s veins
            Are worth the circulation of the Old.
            Come sir, we’ll further parley by the fire.
            Escort this minister to my retreat.
                                           Exit Alvarado, Sandoval, Teuhtlilli, and servant.
            Well now, young lady. What whelp have we here?

AGUILAR           Your name, child.

MALINALLI           Malinalli.

AGUILAR             Ah, Malina.

CORTÉS        Well! Marina, then.
            I’ll sponsor you, in my kind custody.
            Mellifluous and honey-throated dame,
            Your golden tongue must buy us a good name.                  *All exit.

TEUHTLILLI [aside]
            The unknown guests which call me to the east
            Are such a hoax-like sighting as may lend
            To superstition credence; rumors, weight.
            I fear some rash infection has arrived.
            Reports pour in of towers on the waves,
            Maneuvered by a spectral race of men,
            The truth of which I must submit to test.
            And so it goes: The fleet of hueless troops
            Approaches from the seashore as I speak.
            Now, after weeks of waiting in the sticks,
            At last, my first glimpse of these lily-skins.
            Gods grant that they behave.

                          Enter CORTÉS, ALVARADO, SANDOVAL, AGUILAR.

AGUILAR                                              Be­hold, Cortés,
            Your foremost model of a Mexican.

TEUHTLILLI
            Hail, friends of Mexico! Which is your chief?

                                         Enter MALINALLI.

CORTÉS
            Well, Aguilar?

AGUILAR                        He speaks a nonsense tongue.
            We’re too far north. I can no longer help.

TEUHTLILLI
            I ask again: Where is your leader, friends?

MALINALLI [aside]
            (Now, silly girl, or never.) [indicating Cortés] This is he.

TEUHTLILLI
            What’s this? A mediating concubine?

AGUILAR
            You speak his language, girl, as well as mine?

CORTÉS
            What, will this slave girl double-cross us all?

MALINALLI
            Our humble chieftain greets your emperor
            And many times does kiss those regal hands.

TEUHTLILLI
            That’s well.

AGUILAR                That’s well!

CORTÉS                                   This all seems to be well.

AGUILAR
            Rejoice, Cortés! This maid is double-tongued.
            She’ll translate his words into my Chontal-
            From him to her, from her to me, to you.

CORTÉS
            Then let us test these true but tedious links.

MALINALLI      You were saying, sir?

TEUHTLILLI      How many braves trail in your train?

MALINALLI       How many warriors tread in your wake?

AGUILAR          How many soldiers shadow you?

CORTÉS           Five thousand.

AGUILAR          Uh, five thousand.

MALINALLI       They’ve a thousand, sir.

TEUHTLILLI
            I’ll see your thousand and I’ll raise you two.
            [to a servant] Deploy two thousand men to build them huts,
            [aside] But crammed with warlocks, witch doctors, and spies.
                                                          ­                                          Exit a servant.
AGUILAR
            This works well.

CORTÉS                           Thus the fragile chain is forged.
            Friend, you must look upon our advent here
            Not with unease, but as a world of good.

MARÍA DE ESTRADA
            Freeze, *****! It’s your mistress bids you halt.
            Let’s see what trulls the latest nets have trawled.
            Not bad, sad slave. You’ll fit your new career:
            A teenage tartlet to refresh their tents.
            Don Alvarado keeps a natty ring
            Pranked up with goads, whose stingers top its face,
            To spur reluctant steeds through rocky rides.
            You’ll buckle underneath such battery.
            I hope your yelps won’t stir my husband’s sleep.
            María de Estrada, at your service, serf.
            I reign sole victrix of this manly camp,
            For I’m not fit to mince and kiss my hand,
            Like all those gingerbread girls back in Spain.
            No, Cuba was a rowdy, lax frontier
            Where I was raised to tussle with the boys,
            And now stand champion in these warlike ranks-
            For boundaries built up by prejudice
            Are not reformed by mediocrities.
            Once I have overmatched your Amazons,
            I’ll force those tomboy squaws to nurse my brats-
            If but a single, over-muscled pap
            Can fortify the husky chaps I’ll breed.

                Enter GARRIDO with baggage, and passes over the stage.

            Look to your maidhood, miss, or be dismayed.
[to Garrido]
           Hold, boy! You’ve got my bag of needments there.     Exit.

MALINALLI
            What gibberish! So much chin-music to me,
            But something of her drift I comprehend.
            I must assert my merit here. But how?
            My ***? A trump card every girl here holds.
            But what my prodigy at languages?
            I’ll trail their chieftain, and my gift of tongues
            Shall lift his veil unto this ****** world.                          *Exit.

OLMEDO
            Cortés, I have a new, but nagging, fear.
            I sense the premonition of a time
            When you might be corrupted by the taint
            Of evils lying latent in our task,
            That vice, which our assignment permeates,
            Will tempt resolve to heinous compromise.

CORTÉS
            Our mission is implicit in its vice,
            In evils ineradicably steeped,
            And our grand charge requires that we submit
            To its contamination and decay.
            A man who would embrace the human lot,
            To do so, must consent to be a sinner.

OLMEDO
            Blood has been shed- For what? Lives squandered- Why?
            You, having tripped in sin’s attractive trap,
            To thus, in fragrant snares so feebly flail,
            Through frail and flagrant failings such a way,
            How can you say to me you are contrite?

CORTÉS
            But father, mercy with my malice mingles.
            These dicey circumstances find me now
            In both a ruthless and reluctant role.
            What seems intolerable of this plight
            Is that it simply will not be reduced
            To trite antitheses of right and wrong.
            My conscience both opposes and demands
            A rouse to action.

           Enter AGUILAR, ALVARADO, MALINALLI, and a Mayan Girl.

AGUILAR                              Captain, by your will,
            These endless battles have despoiled your foe,
            Who offer you these slave girls as a bribe.
            The terrorized Chontal surrender now.
            They will be baptized, and befriend our king,
            Provided that we leave their country soon.
            
CORTÉS
            Easy to break that promise once we’re gone.
            Tell them we shall release all Mayan soil,
            And nomadize into the unknown North.                             Exit Aguilar.
            Here, Alvarado, [indicates girl] guide her to your tent.
            We’ll see what use for this one we can find.
                                                                                           Exit all but Malinalli.
MALINALLI
            Now, silly Malinalli, drop your sights,
            You pretty poppet for these bearded frights.