The Moor's Account

Mustafa is woken from a dream about his homeland by Dorantes’s wife, who is crying out as she labors with Dorantes’s child. As Dorantes waits with Mustafa, he lists the Spanish names he is thinking of giving the baby and reminisces about the day his brother Diego was born.

Oyomasot appears with the newborn, a girl. Both Mustafa and his wife feel envious. The child is given a Spanish name and fussed over, but she is sent to live in a convent outside the city when she is only a few months old.

In the spring, Viceroy Mendoza sends for Dorantes and Mustafa. He tells them that they should delay their plans to return to Seville and consider joining his mission to find the Seven Cities of Gold. After years of exploring, Mustafa considers the Seven Cities “nothing more than a legend, the kind of story that could be used to entertain children” (300). Mustafa is disgusted that Mendoza still wants more riches after plundering all of Tenochtitlán’s gold. He finds his greed “distasteful and destructive” (300).

Dorantes tells Mendoza he has no desire to explore new lands after the ordeal he’s been through.