Peter Martyr's Account of the First Contacts with Mexico

Abstract

"Peter Martyr's Account of the First Contacts with Mexico." Peter Martyr's De nuper repertis insulis (On the islands recently discovered) is the first printed account (1521) of the first three expeditions to Mexico, which led to the discovery of the Mayan and Aztec civilizations. It is a carefully structured account despite the miscellaneous appearance of its reports, and a fascinating political document because of the clash of personalities and policies in the years when Spain found itself on the threshold of a new expansion. The literary genre of the account is difficult to place. It was called an enchiridion, or handbook, and the work does serve as a handbook to what Martyr regarded as the. distinguishing features of Central American civilizations. These were the first urban civilizations encountered in the New World, and they offered a different kind of challenge to European values from the societies of the Caribbean islands. Martyr was interested in the materials of native civilizations, their towns and temples, but also the treasures of Montezuma, which he himself saw, and above all the native books. A major topic is Indian religion, including human sacrifice and circumcision. Martyr appreciated the native peoples' desire to be free, and also the fact that relations between European and native could have taken a different and better course. Major episodes in the De nuper repertis insulis concern those themes. The "handbook" contains important information on the destruction of the Indian population of Hispaniola. It is also an indicator of the attitudes which would lead to the symbiosis of European and native civilizations in what is modern Mexico.