According to John Sorenson, when the famous historian Fr. Diego Duran arrived in New Spain in 1542, only twenty-one years after the Conquest, he saw for himself a way of life changed only in part since Cortez arrived. Duran lived amidst Indians who acted as detailed informants, he had access to and utilized many native manuscripts, and he read reams of Spanish reports of visits and administration. From these he synthesized a history of the Aztecs colored with fascinating ethnography; it was completed in 1581.
Motecuzoma (popularly known as Montezuma in English) and his spokesman told the Mexican army while they were en route to Chalco, "on this plain [where they were stopped] are many straw houses and huts ('casas pajizas y chozas') where we are staying until this business is finished."
The combined armies of the Mexicans prepared for an expedition against the city of Tepaeaca by getting their encampment set up, "pitching their tents and huts ('armando sus tiendas y jacales')--that is what they call their war tents--very nicely ordered and arranged, placing the squadron or unit of the Mexica by themselves, [that of] the Tezcocans by themselves, the Chalcas by themselves, the Xochimilcas by themselves, and the Tepanecs by themselves."
Preparation for a campaign involved ordering barrio leaders in the capital city to furnish supplies, including "many tents and huts ('tiendas y jacales') for the war, with much other apparatus and munitions of war."
"And when morning came, they left there, and they did the same thing in whatever place they reached. And one day's journey before they arrived (at their destination), they sent ahead those charged with logistics to the place where they were going to set up the camp, and they pitched the tents ('tiendas') for all the lords of the provinces, so that when they arrived they had nothing more to do than each one to go to his place that the advance party had got ready, and they did the same thing along the road when night was coming on." [John L. Sorenson, "Viva Zapato! Hurray for the Shoe! in Review of Books on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 6, Num. 1, pp. 333-335] [See the commentary on 2 Nephi 5:7; Mosiah 2:6; Mosiah 18:34; Alma 2:20; Mormon 6:4]