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Townsend includes those, but also draws upon Nahuatl accounts written shortly after the conquest. Those sources haven't been paid enough attention.

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Including is not the same as reading the whole source. Authors love cherry pick. Better to read the whole thing from the actors who were there: Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Orellana, etc.

Bernal Diaz' account is definitely recommended reading. But you'll have to read between the lines when he's talking about Cortez (there's a bit of "good Czar, bad boyars" going on).

What's interesting is how highly he speaks of his indigenous allies and even opponents, there's not a hint of disrespect (well, minus the Aztec practice of human sacrifices of course), he praises the skill, courage and discipline of the warriors, the craftmanship of their weapons and armor, and he's full of awe and wonder when they first arrive in Tenochtitlan:

"Among us were soldiers who had been in many parts of the world, including Constantinople, all over Italy, and Rome, and they said that they had never seen a plaza so well laid out, so orderly, so large, and so full of people."

The good thing about the accounts, it's their biased views about Spain were clear. That's why I like them. There was no unified feeling, and they were enemies in many cases. That's why the accounts offer a better view.

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