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When considered alongside the previously quoted excerpt from Grande Insulaire, this passage seems to refer not only to the Codex Mendoza, but also to at least one more Mexican manuscript in his possession. It is both more important and baffling that both texts were written in the 1580s, which indicates that Thevet planned to publish the Mexican manuscripts he owned in the near future. Nevertheless, by 1587, as is suggested by the English inscription in the flyleaf immediately before folio 1r which reads “d. yourselfe in gold rydinge to londen ye 7th of september 1587/v,” it seems clear that the Codex Mendoza was no longer in Thevet’s possession. It had found a new owner, English geographer Richard Hakluyt.

A notably capable man, Richard Hakluyt remained in Paris between 1583 and 1588. A cleric by training, Hakluyt’s wide range of activities encompassed everything from the secretaryship to Sir Edward Strafford to translation, chaplaincy, authorship of political texts, and, probably, espionage. As a matter of fact, we know that during his mission to France, he had been deputed by Sir Francis Walshingham and Sir Robert Cecil to procure as much information as he could concerning the Spanish and French courts and their ultramarine enterprises. The goal of this information gathering was to ascertain whether an English colonization of the New World was possible (Hakluyt 1850, sec. Introduction).