In the second letter from Hernan Cortes to Emperor Charles V, how does Cortes describe Aztec King Montezuma? What is the purpose of the letter?

In this
letter, Cortes portrays Moctezuma as a
powerful, dazzlingly wealthy monarchone who commands
extraordinary wealth. He
describes how Moctezuma greets him flanked by noble attendants who kiss
the
ground before him and how the king made gifts to him of gold and silver. But he
also
recounts a speech that Moctezuma made in which he offers the
conquistador his fealty and
acknowledges that Charles V is their "natural
sovereign." Cortes emphasizes the
efforts he made to convert the people of
Tenochtitlan to Christianity by appealing to the king,
stressing the bloody
human sacrifices they made after successful battles.

In

short, Cortes wants to emphasize the power and majesty of the Aztec monarch at the time
when the
conquistador was staking his claim to the riches of the city. The
letter was written in 1520,
and less than a year after it reached Spain,
Moctezuma was dead, having been killed in a civil
war involving various Aztec
factions as well as many of the surrounding peoples that had long
resented
their rule.

This letter, written from a conquistador to
his
sovereign, is intended to promote Cortes himself, to stake his claim to
sole leadership of
Mexico, and to make him accountable to nobody but the
Spanish king.

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