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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Guardian staff and agencies

FBI returns stolen document signed by conquistador Hernán Cortés to Mexico

An old faded manuscript with text
A manuscript signed by Hernán Cortés in 1527 has been recovered and returned to the Mexican government in this image from 2022. Photograph: FBI Boston/Reuters

Nearly five centuries after Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés signed it and decades after someone swiped it from national archives, a priceless manuscript page has been returned by the FBI to Mexico.

The document contains a detailed accounting of the logistics related to Cortés’s journey to what eventually became New Spain – a territory that stretched from Central America to modern-day Washington state.

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