Questions Refer to the Passage Below

question 68

Multiple Choice

Questions refer to the passage below.
Spanish king Charles V appointed Hernán Cortés governor of Mexico. The king also appointed several royal officials to constrain his power.
"It happened, however, that a Spaniard saw an Indian of Temixtitan eating a piece of flesh taken from the body of an Indian who had been killed when they entered Iztapan, and he told me this; so in the presence of that chief I had the culprit burned, explaining that the cause was his having killed that Indian and eaten him which was prohibited by Your Majesty, and by me in Your Royal name. . . . I wished that none should be killed, but that, on the contrary, I came by order of Your Majesty to protect their lives as well as their property and to teach them that they were to adore but one God, who is in the heavens, Creator and Maker of all things . . . ; and that they must turn from their idols, and the rites they had practised until then . . . I, likewise, had come to teach them that Your Majesty, by the will of Divine Providence, rules the universe, and that they also must submit themselves to the imperial yoke, and do all that we who are Your Majesty's ministers here might order them in Your Royal name; for, acting thus, they would be favoured and maintained in justice, and their lives and properties protected, but that, acting otherwise, they would be proceeded against and punished according to justice."
Fifth Letter of Hernán Cortés to Emperor Charles V, September 1526.
-Which of the following best explains the point of view of this passage?

• A) Cortés, as a devout Christian, was appalled by the taking of a human life and cannibalism.
• B) Cortés was trying to reassure the chief that he had come to protect their lives and property.
• C) Cortés was trying to justify his governance of Mexico to the emperor by using flattery.
• D) Cortés needed the chief's cooperation to help him conquer Tenochtitlán.

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