Charles V, to know about them, and ordered three skilled painters of the
Aztecs to prepare a book to be sent to the Emperor. Each artist took a
different subject, so the book consists of three parts. The first gives a
picture-written story of the Aztecs from the time when they began their
wanderings; the second gives a list of the towns that paid tribute to the
city of Mexico and a statement of the kind and amount of tribute each
paid; the third shows how children were trained, how they were punished
when they were naughty, and what kind of work they were taught. Of course
the Emperor would not understand the meaning of all these queer pictures,
far different from anything he had ever seen; so Mendoza had an
explanation or translation written with all the pictures. This is as
fortunate for us as it was for the Emperor: in this way we can learn
something about the use and meaning of these characters.