Fernando Cortes and the conquest of Mexico, 1485-1547

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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN LIBRARIF

I

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r

Heroes of the Nations

A Series of Biographical Studies presenting the
lives and work of certain representative historic
cal characters, about whom have gathered the
traditions of the nations to which they belong,
and who have, in the majority of instances, been
accepted as types of the several national ideals.

la^, Illustratedt cloth, each, 5/-
tlalf Leather, gilt top* each, 6/-

VOR FULL UST 8KB BND OP THIS VOLUMX

l)croes of tbc Vlatfons

EDITED BY

D. Vn. C. S)avi0

FACTA DU048 VIVENT, OPEROSAQUI
GLORIA RERUM OVID, IN LIVIAM, 2SS.

THE HERO'S DEEDS AND HARD-WON
FAME SHALL LIVE.

FERNANDO CORTES

Fernando Cortes

AND THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO

1 48 5- 1 547

BY

FRANCIS AUGUSTUS MacNUTT

Translator AND Editor of the "Letters of Cortes," Author op
** Bartholomew ds Las Casas, His Life, His Apostolate, and

His Writings "

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

NEW YORK AND LONDON

Zbc ftnfclterboclier press

1909

_ I IKrartf

F
12.30

• Mil

Copyright, 1909

BY

FRANCIS A. MacNUTT

trbe Itnfclietbocliet press, l^ew fiork

ira/^>»tA -K^

^^.u.^.^..;..' c ., ^ <^wic^ :^-^^-^^

UndtrgradiMtt

J i

XLO

KENELM VAUGHAN

IN MEMORY OF OUR MANY HAPPY DAYS TOGETHER IN OLD AND
NEW SPAIN, THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTION-
ATELY DEDICATED

PREFACE

SPAIN held the dominant place amongst
European states in the first half of the
sixteenth century, and she was prolific in great
men, who governed at home or extended her
power abroad. Among the latter, Fernando
Cortes was easily the greatest, and the story
of his life is a chronicle of deeds of heroism
and sheep daring, to which history offers few
parallels. In the work of overturning the mili-
tary and religious despotism of Montezuma^
some terrible deeds were done. Similar acts
of severity and cruelty, however, blot the fame
of great leaders in most wars, ancient and
modern.

Some of the material used in the following
brief story of the conqueror's life has already
appeared in the biographical note to the Letters
of CorteSy the favourable reception of which by
students of American history, has encouraged me
to prepare the present work in a more popular
form.

I have essayed to portray the personal char-
acter of Cortes, as well as the events in which
he played the hero's part, and I have sought
to present to the consideration of my readers
the psychological, racial, and material influences
that made the man what he was: the circum-

vi Preface

stances that developed his latent powers, the
motives that directed his actions, and the means
he used to achieve his ends. In so doing, I am
not aware of having glossed over or condoned
either the regrettable flaws in his private
morals, or the several acts of duplicity and ex-
cessive cruelty which so seriously detract from
the admiration his great achievements would
otherwise unreservedly command. Both his
methods and his motives were vigorously at-
tacked by his contemporary adversaries, and
almost every known crime, from assassination
to high treason, was imputed to him. Un-
substantiated and mendacious for the most part,
the specific accusations of high crimes were,
and they may be dismissed. They were suc-
cessfully refuted during his life-time, and the
permanently beneficent results secured to hu-
manity by his conquests, remain forever beyond
the boundaries of the historically debatable.

Les grands desseins et notables entreprises
ne se verifient jamais autrement que par le
succes. The maxim is Cardinal Eichelieu's,
and its sense was more briefly expressed by
Napoleon: Je ne juge les hommes que par les
result ats.

Although the religious influences, prevalent
in Europe during the Middle Ages, began in the
sixteenth century to show signs of decline, gov-
ernments still assumed the guardianship of
religious unity in the State. Macchiavelli codi-

Preface vii

fied the political ethics of his age and^ though
condemned by the Church and repudiated by
moralists, his philosophy of crime was adopted
by statesmen whose personal characters com-
mand respect. II Principe and the Discorsi
exhibit the standards by which the conduct of
public men was governed, and the moral sense
of sovereigns and their counsellors had become
so perverted that, while still punishing indi-
vidual delinquents, they had worked out for their
own guidance, a complete system of government
by assassination.

Fernando Cortes was untainted by the cynical
paganism of the Italian Eenaissance and had
probably never read a line of Macchiavelli, nor
had he been trained in his school of political
ethics, but he was essentially a man of his times.
Orthodox and absolute as were his religious be-
liefs, the intermittent character of their in-
fluence on his moral conduct is but too obvious,
but, though he failed to live according to the
precepts of his religion, nobody can doubt that
he would have died in defence of it. Indifferent
to obstacles, he faced the dangers and con-
sequences of undertakings that could have
courted none save an imperial spirit. His am-
bition was restrained by a single fetter — his
loyalty; the unanswerable refutation of the oft-
repeated accusation that he aspired to inde-
pendence, is the fact that he did not assume
the independent sovereignty and royal crown

viii Preface

that were his to take in Mexico. There was,
as yet, no adequate comprehension in Spain of
the importance of the newly discovered coun-
try; its extent, its resources, and even its
whereabouts, were first reported by Cortes him-
self in his letters to Charles V., whose attention
was absorbed by pressing affairs in Germany
and Italy. The long Italian wars that ended
with the capture of Francis I. at Pavia were
followed by the campaign against Eome, in
which His Most Catholic Majesty employed
Lutheran Lanzknechts to sack the papal capital
in 1527, while during all this period, the rising
tide of the Reformation engrossed the Emperor's
attention to the exclusion of conquests in a
distant hemisphere, by an unknown soldier of
fortune.

Twenty-five years had elapsed since the dis-
covery of a group of islands in the Western
ocean had brought disillusion and disappoint-
ment to Spain ; it was the conquest of Mexico
by Cortes that first made known the importance
of the New World and brought America within
the sphere of European politics. His was the
original conception of a colonial empire, and
the plans and proposals for the extension of
Spanish supremacy, outlined in his letters to the
Emperor, were worthy of more attention than
they received.

After his thinly veiled defiance of Diego
Velasquez, the sailing of the fleet from Cuba

Preface ix

was a leap into the void. Montezuma's em-
bassy, bearing rich gifts, disclosed the possi-
bilities of the Hinterland and germinated in
the brain of Cortes the idea of conquest. One
revelation was confirmed by another and, as the
evidences of Aztec wealth multiplied, the proofs
of internal disaffection throughout the empire
stimulated the confidence of the brooding con-
queror. Disloyalty amongst the Totonacs,
treachery that only awaited an opportunity in
Texcoco, an ancient tradition of hate in Tlas-
cala, and the superstition that obscured the
judgment and paralysed the action of the des-
potic ruler — these were the materials from
which the astute invader evolved the machinery
for his conquest. Starting as the captain of
a trading expedition sent by the governor of
Cuba to barter Spanish beads for Indian gold,
Cortes transformed himself into a military
commander, self-endowed with the mission of
extending his sovereign's possessions and of
converting the heathen.

He played a dangerous game of diplomacy
with Montezuma and completely outwitted him,
tricking and deceiving that unfortunate ruler,
and finally dethroning him and sending him to
his death. He kept no faith with Quauhte-
motzin, but delivered him to torture, and,
finally, on paltry evidence, he hanged him in a
remote wilderness; but when the greatest kings
of Europe were no more bound by the articles

X "^ Preface

of a signed treaty than by the phrases of a
compliment, and when it was an accepted
maxim that no agreement hurtful to religion
or to the State was binding, how shall we con-
demn this soldier of fortune for conforming to
the accepted usage of his age?

Bearing in mind the complete divorce that
seemed to exist between morals and politics,
between the private belief and the public con-
duct of the men who ruled Europe in that cen-
tury, we may realise the injustice of measuring
the life and actions of Cortes by other standards
than those with which he was familiar.

Despite the casuistry that guided the policy
of governments, it must not be assumed that
the higher conscience of Christendom was either
dormant or voiceless. The Spanish sovereigns
displayed sincere and unfailing solicitude for
the spiritual and material welfare of the Ameri-
can Indians. Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros was
the first statesman to make the amelioration of
their condition a matter of government policy,
and the Flemish counsellors of the young king
rendered effective many of the provisions of
the deceased regent. Dominican monks, cap-
tained by the redoubtable Las Casas, who denied
the right of the Spaniards to invade American
territory, or to rule the natives without their
consent, led a vigorous crusade in defence of
the individual and collective liberty of the In-
dians, and in this they were sustained by the

Preface xi

universities of Salamanca and Alcald. The
Franciscan community in the city of Mexico
wrote to Charles V., declaring that it were
better if never an Indian were converted to
Christianity, and never a foot of American soil
were acquired for the Spanish crown, than that
these results should be accomplished by the in-
human methods then in operation. Popes, such
as Adrian VI. and Paul III., condemned the
systems of slavery established in the new colo-
nies, and an entire hierarchy of bishops and
priests excommunicated refractory colonists
who refused to release their illegally held and
cruelly treated serfs.

Cortes extended toleration rather than ap-
proval to the institution of slavery; yielding to
necessity, he recompensed his followers with
encomiendas of Indians in the absence of any
other provision by the crown to requite their
services, but, in his testament, he records his
grave doubts of the equity or wisdom of en-
slaving the Indians and enjoins his son to
liberate his slaves and to make them full res-
titution if justice so demands. The relentless
measures he employed or countenanced to effect
his conquest, were abandoned when the neces-
sity for using them ceased. The conquest
achieved, the qualities of Cortes as an organiser,
a legislator, and a ruler were called into play
and, though the story of the reconstruction
period may seem tame reading after the drama-

xii Preface

tic scenes of the great struggle, his sagacity, his
foresight, and his moderation have caused criti-
cal historians to rank him higher as a statesman
than as a soldier. In virtue of his pre-eminent
qualities both as statesman and general, as well
as because of the enduring importance of his con-
quest Fernando Cortes occupies an uncontested
place amongst the heroes of the nations.

F. A. McN.

ScHLOss Ratzotz, Tyrol,
June, 1908.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I PAGE

TO THE BEGINNING OP THE CONQUEST . . 1

Family — Early Years — First Voyage — Colonial
Life — Quarrel with Velasquez — Battle of
Ceutla — Palm Sunday.

CHAPTER II

MONTEZUMA AND HIS EMPIRE . . . . 43

The Aztec Empire — Origines — Civilisation — ^In-
stitutions— Montezuma — Quetzalcoatl.

CHAPTER III

ALLIES OF THE SPANIARDS 68

Arrival at San Juan de Ulua — Marina — Em-
bassies from Montezuma — Founding of Vera
Cruz — At Cempoalla — Missionary Methods.

CHAPTER IV

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE SHIPS . . . 104

Letters to Charles V. — The Velasquez Faction —
Destruction of the Ships — The March to Mex-
ico— The Republic of Tlascala.

CHAPTER V

THE SPANISH-TLASCALAN ALLIANCE . . . 127

The Senate of Tlascala — Spanish Victories —
Cruel Treatment of Spies — The Alliance — Ef-
fect on Montezuma — Cortes in Tlascala.

• • •
Xlll

xiv Contents

CHAPTER VI PAGE

THE CHOLULAN CONSPIRACY AND MASSACRE . 155

Events in Tlascala — The Cholulans — Their
Treachery — The Massacre — Justification of
Cortes — Description of Cholula — Popocatapetl.

CHAPTER VII

IN THE AZTEC CAPITAL 174

Approach to Mexico — On the Causeway — Meet-
ing with Montezuma — Montezuma's Discourse —
The Marketplace — Temple of Tlatelolco —
Seizure of Montezuma — Perfidy of Cortes.

CHAPTER VIII

MONTEZUMA A PRISONER 204

Quauhpopoca — Acolhuacan — Vassalage of Mon-
tezuma— The Great Temple — The Idols Over-
thrown— Montezuma's Warning — The Arrival
of a Fleet.

CHAPTER IX

CORTES DEFEATS NARVAEZ 223

Arrival of the Envoys in Spain — ^Velasquez and
the Audiencia — Landing of Narvaez — His
Policy — Negotiations with Narvaez — Cortes
Leaves Mexico — The Attack — After the Vic-
tory.

CHAPTER X

REVOLT OF MEXICO 243

Ravages of Smallpox — News of the Revolt —
Feast of Toxcatl — Alvarado's Folly — Cortes

Contents xv

PAGE

Returns to Mexico — Release of Cuitlahuatzin —
Intervention of Montezuma — Hard Fighting —
Decision to Retreat — Death of Montezuma.

CHAPTER XI

THE SORROWFUL NIGHT 272

Saving the Treasure — The Retreat from Mexico
— The Survivors — Battle of Otumba — ^Arrival
in Tlascala.

CHAPTER XII

REINFORCEMENTS AND A NEW CAMPAIGN . . 292

Montezuma's Successor — Campaigning in Tepe-
aca — Founding of Segura de la Frontera —
Reinforcements — Second Letter of Relation —
Death of Maxixcatzin — The Brigantines — Or-
dinances— Headquarters at Texcoco.

CHAPTER XIII

BACK TO THE CAPITAL 312

Destruction of Iztapalapan — Quauhtemotzin —
First Expedition to Chalco — Arrival of the
Convoy — Fall of Tlacopan — Death of Fon-
seca — Second Expedition to Chalco — Capture
of Cuemavaca — Rescue of Cortes — Spanish
Losses.

CHAPTER XIV

THE SIEGE OF THE IMPERIAL CITY . . . 332

Action of the Audiencia — Conspiracy of Villa-
faiia — Launching the Brigantines — Division

xvi Contents

PAGE

of the Forces — Fate of Xicotencatl — The
Aqueduct — The Siege — First Naval Engage-
ment— First Assault.

CHAPTER XV

THE FALL OF THE AZTEC EMPIRE . . . 352

Progress of the Siege — Aztec Victories — Attack
on Tlatelolco — The Great Disaster — Sotelo's
Catapult — Last Days — Quauhtemotzin Cap-
tured and Tortured — The Victory and the
Losses — Fruits of Conquest.

CHAPTER XVI

RECONSTRUCTION 382

Position of Cortes — The Great Strait — Rebuild-
ing Mexico — Cristobal de Tapia, Francisco de
Garay and Sandoval in Panuco — The Silver
Cannon — Rebellion of Olid — Expedition to
Yucatan — Death of Quauhtemotzin — Return to
Mexico.

CHAPTER XVII

CLOSING SCENES — ^TRIUMPHS AND DISAPPOINT-
MENTS THE DEATH OF CORTES . . 418

The Home-Coming — Dignities and Privileges —
Second Marriage — Nunez de Guzman — Arrival
in Vera Cruz — Marquisate of Oaxaca — The
South Sea — Return to Spain — ^Voltaire's Le-
gend— Death of Cortes — Burial of Cortes —
Funeral in Mexico — Last Resting Place — The
Palermo Legend.

Contents xvii

CHAPTER XVIII PAGE

THE MAN 440

Appearance and Habits of Cortes — Comparison
with Caesar — His Piety — Alleged Cruelty — His
Morals — Judgment of Slavery — Conclusion.

INDBX • • 463

ILLUSTEATIONS

PAGB

PORTRAIT OF CORTES . . . Frofitispiece
From an engraving by Ferdin Selma after the
painting attributed to Titian.

CORTES vi

From the portrait in the Jesus Hospital in the
city of Mexico.

DIEGO VELASQUEZ 9

Facsimile of an engraving in Herrera, vol. i.,
p. 298.

CORTES^S VOYAGE TO MEXICO .... 28

Reproduced from Help's Spanish Conquest,

MEXICO BEFORE THE CONQUEST .... 50

From Cortes*s Letters, published in 1524.

MEXICAN CALENDAR STONE .... 56

MONTEZUMA 60

From an illustration in Montanius and Ogilby.

PLAN OF MEXICO TENOCHTITLAN ... 80

From Conquista de Mexico, by Orozco y Berra.

xix

XX Illustrations

PAGE

THE FLEET OF CORTES 104

From de Solis's Conquete du Mexique, vol. i., p.
44.

PORTRAIT OF CORTES 146

From a picture in the Mexican Historical So-
ciety's Gallery.

SACRIFICIAL STONE 212

From Bandelier's Archaeological Tour.

CHARLES V. — 1519 224

From an old painting.

DON PEDRO DE ALVARADO 244

From Herrera, vol. ii., p. 274.

PLAN OF MEXICO CITY 348

From The Conquest of Mexico, by Diaz del
Castillo. Translated by Maurice Keatinge.

SANDOVAL 394

From an engraving in Herrera, vol. ii., p. 32.

PORTRAIT OF CORTES 420

From a copper print of 1715.

CORTES AND HIS ARMS 441

From Vega's Cortes Valeroso (1588).

Illustrations xxi

PAGE

MAP OF THE SOUTH SEA AND THE GULP OF

CALIFORNIA 450

ARMOUR OF CORTES 460

After an engraving from the original in the
Museum at Madrid.

MAP OF MEXICO At End

FERNANDO CORTES

FERNANDO CORTES

CHAPTER I

TO THE BEGINNING OF THE CONQUEST

Family — Early Years — First Voyage — Colonial Life —
Quarrel with Velasquez — Battle of Ceutla — Palm
iSunday

FERNANDO CORTES was born in the un-
important town of Medellin in Estrama-
dura, in the year 1485. His father, Martin
Cortes y Monroy, had served as a captain of
fifty light cavalry, and both he and his wife,
Catalina Pizarro Altamirano, belonged to fam-
ilies which ranked among the provincial no-
bility.^ The efforts of Argensola and other
ingenious genealogists to trace for Cortes an
illustrious ancestry, reaching back even to the
kings of Lombard and Tuscany, are not very
convincing, nor do they seem important in the

1 The unknown author of the early chronicle De Rebus
Gestis thus describes Martin Cortes: **pietate tamen et
religione toto vitse tempore clarus" And to his wife
Caterina he pays the tribute : " Caterina namque pudi-
citia et in conjugem amove nulli sstatis suss feminse
ceasit" Las Casas, who was no admirer of the conqueror,
states that he had known his father who was a cristiano
vie jo and a gentleman, though poor (lib. iii., cap. xxvii.).

I

2 Fernando Cortes

case of one who rose from obscure, but reputable
beginnings, without the aid of family influence
or superior fortune.^ The house in which the
future conqueror of Mexico was born, stood in
the Calle de la Feria until it was destroyed
by the French during the campaign of 1809.^

The infancy of the man, whose powers of en-
durance carried him through a life of extra-
ordinary hardships and ceaseless activity, was
that of a puling, delicate child, whose parents
despaired of raising him to manhood. Lots
were cast to determine which one of the twelve
apostles should be his patron saint. ^ In this
manner St. Peter was chosen, and to his patron's
favour Cortes ascribed the preservation of his
life on several critical occasions, and the suc-
cess of his most hazardous undertakings. When
their son was fourteen years old, his parents
sent him to the University of Salamanca to
prepare himself for the practice of law, a pro-
fession that was held in high esteem, and one
that opened a promising career to a young man
of ability. During his two years at the Uni-
versity, he lodged in the house of his paternal
aunt, Inez de Paz, who was married to Fran-
cisco Nunez de Varela, a citizen of Salamanca.
Las Casas affirms that Cortes took his degree

^ Anales de Aragon (1630), pp. 621-625. Caro de
Torres, Historia de las Ordines Militares (1629) p. 103,

2 Alaman, Disertaciones, dissert, v.

3 Alaman, Disertadones sohre la Historia de la Republica
Mexicana, dissert, v.

To the Beginning of the Conquest 3

as bachelor of laws, and had a good knowledge
of Latin. ^ Doubtless a youth of his acquisitive
mind profited greatly by two years of life in
the University, but he discovered no aptitude
for the study of law, and but little inclination
to serious study of any kind. His taste was for
arms and a life of adventure. He caused his
parents the liveliest chagrin by abandoning
the career they had chosen for him, and, on
his return to Medellin, he • further increased
their anxieties by disorderly living. His ambi-
tion was tp take service under Gonzalvo de
Cordoba, the great captain amongst the mili-
tary leaders of the time, but, renouncing this
plan, he joined the expedition of Don Nicolas
de Ovando, the recently appointed governor of
Hispaniola, who was preparing to sail with an
important fleet of thirty ships to assume the
duties of his high office. Cortes was moved to
this decision by the fact that Ovando was a
friend of his family, and might be counted upon
to advance his interests in the colony.

Almost on the eve of sailing, Cortes fell from
a wall he was scaling to keep an amorous tryst
with a lady, and, but for the timely intervention
of an old woman, whose attention was attracted
by the noise of his fall almost at her very door,
this accident might have ended fatally. The
dame arrived, just in time to prevent her son-
in-law from running the prostrate youth through

1 Hist, General, lib. iii., cap. xxvii.

4 Fernando Cortes

the body with his sword. ^ As it was, he escaped
with bruises of sufficient gravity to keep him
in bed until after Ovando's fleet had sailed.

Upon his recovery he reverted to his original
project of enlisting in Italy, and, with that in-
tention, he set out for Valencia. What defeated
his purpose is not recorded, but after a year of
poverty and hardship in Valencia, he returned
to Medellin where his parents, rendered despe-
rate by the vagaries of their wayward son, were
doubtless glad to furnish him the necessary
money to enable him to follow Ovando to
Hispaniola.

He sailed from San Lucar de Barrameda in
1504, on board the trading vessel of Alonso Quin-
tero of Palos, bound with four others, laden
with merchandise for the Indies. The little
fleet followed the usual route by way of the
Canary Islands, touching first at Gomera.
Alonso Quintero twice sought to detach himself
from his fellow-captains in order to reach port
ahead of them, and dispose of his cargo at
greater advantage without their competition.
Both times he was thwarted by untoward
weather, and the second time his pilot, Fran-
cisco Nifio, lost his bearings, and the storm-
tossed ship, short of provisions and water, was
in imminent peril. On Good Friday, when hope
seemed vain, a dove was seen to perch in the

^ De Rebus Gestis Femandi Cortesi, in Icazbalceta,
torn. i.

To the Beginning of the Conquest s

f

ship's rigging, and, by following the flight of
this bird of good omen when it took wing, land
was sighted by Cristobal Zorro on Easter
day, and four days later the vessel reached the
port of Santo Domingo, where the other three
had long since arrived and disposed of their
cargoes.

The appearance of the dove was afterwards
interpreted by some of the earlier biographers
of Cortes as a manifestation of the divine
guidance or as an augury for his future. There
were even some who at the time thought they
recognised an apparition of the Holy Ghost. ^
Don Nicolas de Ovando was absent from Santo
Domingo when Cortes arrived, but his secretary,
Medina, was an old friend of the latter's, and
gave him hospitality in his house, informing
him of the conditions of life in the colony, and
advising him to settle near the town. To
settle anywhere was no part of his plan,
and he explained to the friendly secretary that
he had come to obtain gold, not to till the soil.
He stayed but a short time in the settlement
and left in search of the coveted gold, but as
soon as the governor returned and learned of
his presence, he sent for him and showed him
much favour. Shortly afterwards, Cortes took
part in the subjugation of the provinces of

1 De Rebus Gestis : " Alius, Sanctum esse Spiritum,
qui in illius alitis specie, ut maestos et afflictos solaretur,
venire erat dignatus."

6 Fernando Cortes

Higuey, Aniguayagua, and Baoruca, where the
natives, goaded to desperation by the inhuman
cruelties practised upon them, had finally risen
under the Queen Anacoana. Diego Velasquez,
a native of Cuellar, who had seen seventeen
years of military service in Spain, was put in
command of the operations, which were brief
and successful, since the Indians possessed no
arms worthy of the name and were by nature
a timid people, entirely ignorant of warfare.^
Cortes received as his share of the spoils, a
repartimiento of Indians at Daiguao, and was
appointed notary of the recently founded town
of Azua. The ensuing five or six years of his
life were devoid of any salient event, though
Bernal Diaz del Castillo states that he was
several times involved in quarrels about women,
which led to duels, in one of which he received
a wound in the lip, which left a scar ever
afterwards.2 He was fortunately prevented by
an abscess or swelling on his knee, from join-
ing the disastrous expedition of Alonso de
Ojeda and Diego de Nicuesa to Darien. Don
Nicolas de Ovando had meanwhile been suc-
ceeded in office by Diego Columbus, son of the
Admiral, who, in 1511, fitted out an expedition
for the conquest of Cuba, which he placed under
the command of Diego Velasquez, and in which
Cortes volunteered. This expedition consisted

1 Gomara, Cronica, cap. ill.
^ Historia Verdadera, cap. civ.

To the Beginning of the Conquest 7

of three hundred men, but so weak was the
resistance of the pacific natives, that the con-
quest of the island was effected almost without
a struggle. Only one chief in the province of
Mayci attempted to dispute the landing of the
invaders, and he was quickly overcome and
captured. This man, Hatuey by name, was
sentenced to be burned as a "rebel," and when
the cruel sentence was about to be carried out,
a Franciscan friar approached him, exhorting
him to receive baptism and thus ensure his soul
going to heaven. The chief asked if there would
be Spaniards in heaven, to which the friar an-
swered that all hoped to go there. The chief
replied that then he would rather not. They
burned, but could not convert him,^ and thus
ended an inglorious campaign, prompted by
cupidity, conducted with revolting inhumanity,
and resulting in the speedy extermination of
the vanquished and the perpetual dishonour of
the victors. The conduct of Cortes, during this
campaign, advanced his interests in every
respect, for his genial manners and lively con-
versation made him a favourite among his com-
panions, while his bravery and address acquired
him a good reputation as a soldier and won the
friendship of his commander. Such expeditions
afforded but scanty opportunity to the men of
the invading force to display their prowess, for

1 Las Casas, Hist, de las Indias, lib. ill., cap. xxv. ;
Brevissima Relacion, p. 27.

8 Fernando Cortes

the several native tribes were subdued, after the
barest semblance of serious military operations.
Yet such mild warfare and the equally nerve-
less encounters with the natives in Hispaniola,
afforded Cortes the only military training he
ever received. The skill he afterwards displayed
as a tactician, and his masterly generalship,
were derived from his latent genius for com-
mand, which sprang, full-fledged, into con-
sciousness, in response to the first demand made
upon it.

In recognition of his services in Cuba, Cortes
received an encomienda of Indians at Manicaro
which he held in partnership with Juan Xuarez.
He became a citizen of Santiago de Baracoa,
and was successful, not only in his agricultural
ventures, but also in his search for gold, in
which he employed a number of his Indians.^
During the first years of the residence of
Cortes in Cuba, it may be assumed that he
attended to his interests and enjoyed consider-
able popularity among his fellow-colonists as
well as the favour of the Governor, Diego Velas-
quez, who extended a protecting friendship to
him, such as an older man of high rank might
naturally feel for one of the most promising
young men among his colonists. As the changes
which the relations between these two men un-
derwent, were far-reaching in their effects, and
worked powerfully upon the course of events

1 Gomara, Cronica, cap. iv. ; De Rebus Gestis.

To the Beginning of the Conquest 9

in the New World, it is necessary, before going
farther, to consider somewhat the character of
Diego Velasquez, and the causes which brought
about the breach of their friendship. Velasquez
was of noble family, and, though arriving in the
Indies poor, had there accumulated an ample
fortune. He had the habit of command, which, as
governor of Cuba, he exercised with the scarcely
restricted and arbitrary freedom his own tem-
perament dictated and the usage amongst
Spanish colonial governors sanctioned. With
all this he was amiable, accessible, and fond of
dispensing favours. Prescott estimates him as
one of these captious persons who " when things
do not go exactly to their taste, shift the re-
sponsibility from their shoulders, where it should
lie, to those of others,'' and Herrera describes
him as " ungenerous, credulous, and suspicious ! "
Fray Bartholomew de Las Casas, who knew him
personally in Cuba, gives more place to his vir-
tues in the description he has left of him, than
do some others ; while admitting that he was
quick to resent a liberty, jealous of his dignity,
too ready to take offence, he adds that he was
neither vindictive nor slow to forgive. As an
administrator of the affairs of the island, ha
showed himself active and capable, encouraging
immigration, assisting the colonists, and extend-
ing the zone of Spanish influence. It appears
therefore that his rather petty defects of char-
acter did not usually interfere with his public

lo Fernando Cortes

conduct, and that he discharged his official
duties satisfactorily to the colonists and as a
faithful representative of the crown. He was,
however, unquestionably avaricious, egotistical,
and ambitious, and withal no easy master to
serve. Commenting on the reproaches he after-
wards heaped upon Cortes for his ingratitude
towards him, Oviedo says that it was no whit
worse than his own had been towards his bene-
factor, Diego Columbus, and hence it was " meas-
ure for measure." His desire to explore by
deputy, and to win distinction vicariously, was
defeated by the impossibility of finding men pos-
sessed of the required ability to undertake succes-
fuUy such ventures, combined with sufficient do-
cility to surrender to him the glory and profits.
The two fundamental versions of the historic
quarrel between Cortes and Velasquez are con-
tradictory. One is furnished by Gomara, the
other by Las Casas, and, upon one or the other,
later historians have based their accounts. The
version of Las Casas is that of an eye-witness
while Gomara, on the other hand, only began his
Cronica de la Conquista some twenty-five years
or more after the events of which he wrote, and
•under the inspiration and direction of Cortes,
then Marques del Valle, whose chaplain he had
shortly before become.

Gomara's chronicle was somewhat of an apo-
logia, and it no sooner appeared than its
accuracy and veracity were impugned by partici-

To the Beginning of the Conquest 1 1

pants in the events he described; notably by
Bernal Diaz del Castillo, whose history was
undertaken for the declared purpose of correct-
ing Gomara, and was called with emphasis the
True History of the Conquest. Gomara's ac-
count is briefly as follows : Cortes at that time
paid court to Catalina Xuarez la Marcaida, one
of the poor but beautiful sisters of his partner
in Manicaro, Juan Xuarez, and won such favours
from the lady as entitled her to exact the fulfil-
ment of a promise of marriage, which she de-
clared he had made her, but with which he
refused to comply. The Xuarez family was from
Granada, and came originally in the suite of
Dona Maria de Toledo, wife of the viceroy, Don
Diego Columbus, to Hispaniola, where it was
hoped the four girls, whose dowry was their
beauty, might make good marriages among the
rich planters. This hope was not realised in
Santo Domingo, and they removed to Cuba.
Catalina, the eldest, was the most beautiful of
all, and had many admirers, amongst whom her
preference fell upon Cortes, who was ever ready
for gallant adventures. TJie matter was brought
before the governor, who summoned Cortes ad
audiendum verbum^ influenced in Catalina's
favour, it was said, by one of her sisters, to
whose charms he himself was not indifferent.
In spite of official pressure, Cortes refused to
make the reparation exacted of him. Such
high words followed that the governor ordered

12 Fernando Cortes

him to be imprisoned in the fortress under the
charge of the alcalde, Cristobal de Lagos. His
imprisonment was brief, for he managed to es-
cape, carrying ofE the sword and buckler of his
gaoler, and to take sanctuary in a church, from
which neither the promises nor the threats of
Velasquez could beguile him. One day, how-
ever, when he unwarily showed himself before
the church door, the alguacil, Juan Escudero,
seized him from behind and, aided by others,
carried him on board a ship lying in the
harbour. Cortes feared this foreshadowed trans-
portation and, setting his wits to work, he con-
trived to escape a second time, dressed in the
clothes of a servant, who attended him. He
let himself down into a small skifE and pulled
for the shore, but the strength of the current
at that point, where the waters of the Maca-
guanigua River flow into the sea, was such, that
his frail craft capsized, and he reached the
shore swimming, with certain valuable papers
tied in a packet on top of his head. He then
betook himself to Juan Xuarez, from whom
he procured clothes and arms, and again took
sanctuary in the church. These repeated es-
capes suggest sympathetic collusion on the part
of his gaolers.

Velasquez professed to be won over by such
bravery and resource, and sent mutual friends
to make peace. But Cortes, although he mar-
ried Catalina, refused the governor's overtures,

To the Beginning of the Conquest 13

and would not even speak to him, until, some
Indian troubles breaking out, and Velasquez
being at his headquarters outside the town, he
somewhat alarmed the governor by suddenly-
appearing before him late one night, fully
armed, saying that he had come to make peace
and to ofEer his services. They shook hands
and spent a long time in conversation to-
gether, and slept that night in the same
bed, where they were found next morning by
Diego de Orellana, who came to announce to
the governor that Cortes had fled from the
church.

Las Casas tells a different tale, in which no
mention is made of the refusal to marry Cata-
lina Xuarez as having any part in the quarrel,
but asserts rather, that Cortes was secretary
to Velasquez, and that the news of the arrival
of certain appellate judges in Hispaniola having
reached Cuba, all the malcontents in the colony,
and those disaffected towards Velasquez, began
secretly to collect material on which to base
accusations against him, and that Cortes, act-
ing with them, had been chosen to carry this
information to the judges. The governor was
informed of the plot, and arrested Cortes in the
act of embarking with the incriminating papers
in his possession, and would have ordered him
to be hanged on the spot but for the interven-
tion of his friends, who pleaded for him. Las
Casas scouts the idea of any such reconciliation

14 Fernando Cortes

as Gomara describes, and says that the governor,
although he pardoned him, would not have him
back as secretary, adding : " I saw Cortes in
tliose days so small and humble that he would
have craved the notice of the meanest servant
of Velasquez."

The wrath of Velasquez was short-lived, for
he afterwards made Cortes alcalde, and stood
godfather to one of his children. During the
succeeding years, the fortunes of Cortes im-
proved, and he amassed a capital of some three
thousand castellanos of which Las Casas re-
marks : " God will have kept a better account
than I, of the lives it cost." Though married
reluctantly, he seems to have been contented,
and he described himself to the bishop as just
as happy with Catalina as though she were the
daughter of a duchess.^

Gold was the magnet which drew the Spanish
adventurers to the New World, and, though it
had nowhere been found either so easily or so
plentifully as they expected, enough had been
discovered to whet their appetites for more.
They lived in the midst of a world of mysterious
possibilities which might any day, by a lucky
discovery, become realities. The Spanish settle-
ments in the New World were, at that time, lim-
ited to the islands of Hispaniola (Hayti), Cuba,
Puerto Rico, and Jamaica, which were called

1 Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. iii., cap. xxvii.

To the Beginning of the Conquest 15

the " Indies " ^ by the discoverers and con-
querors, because they were firmly persuaded
they had encircled half the globe and reached
the Orient. Besides these four islands, there
was the colony of Darien. Serious projects
for colonisation were not yet conceived, and
what settlements there were, had been 'made
by disillusioned immigrants, who, when they
found that gold and pearls, instead of lying
at their feet, had to be sought as elsewhere,
with hard labour, enslaved the natives for
the exploitation of the natural resources of the
islands. Thus the slave trade sprang up, and,
as the Indians, unaccustomed to hard work
and harsh treatment died off in such numbers
as to rapidly depopulate the neighbourhoods of
the Spanish settlements, expeditions were con-
stantly organised to the neighbouring islands
for the purpose of capturing the natives. The
system of repartimientos and encomiendas
was begun under Columbus and, in spite of
the denunciation of the Church and repeated
edicts of the home government, the slave trade
flourished and the island population rapidly
dwindled.

In 1517 Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba, a
rich planter of Cuba, organised and equipped
a fleet of three vessels manned in part by some

1 Commonly referred to by early writers as the Islands,
in contradistinction to the settlements established later
on the mainland.

1 6 Fernando Cortes

of the survivors of the first colony at Darien,
and of which he himself took command. The
principal object of this expedition was to cap-
ture Indians to be sold as slaves in Cuba, and
the governor furnished one ship on condition
that he should be reimbursed in slaves.^ The
first lind discovered was a small island to which
was given the name of Las Mugeres (Women's
Island), because of the images of female deities ^
they found in the temple there. This island
lies ofE the extreme point of Yucatan, and
from it, the Spaniards saw, what seemed to
them, a large and important city, with many
towers and lofty buildings, to which they gave
the fanciful name of Grand Cairo. In a battle
with the Indians at Catoche, they captured two
natives, who afterwards became Christians, bap-
tised under the names of Julian and Melchor,
and rendered valuable services as interpreters.
Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba died a few
days after his arrival in Cuba from the wounds
he had received at Catoche, and the other mem-
bers of the expedition made their way back to
Santiago where the spoils taken from the tem-
ples, the specimens of gold, the two strange
Indians, and most of all, the marvellous tales
of the men, served to excite the eager cupidity
of the colonists, ever ready to believe that El
Dorado was found.

1 Bernal Diaz, cap. i.

2 Statues of the goddesses Xchel, Ixchebeliax, and others.

To the Beginning of thq Conquest 17

Diego Velasquez promptly organised an ex-
pedition to follow up these discoveries and
to establish trading relations with the natives,
which he placed under the command of his
kinsman, Juan de Grijalba.^ It was composed
of four ships, the San Sebastian^ La Trinidad^
Santiago, and Santa Maria. The captains
under Grijalba were Francisco de Avila, Pedro
de Alvarado, and Francisco de Montejo.^ This
fleet set sail on May 1, 1518, and after a fair voy-
age, reached the island of Cozumel on May 3d.^
Grijalba visited several points along the coast,

^He was a native of Cuellar who came as a lad to
Cuba.

^Bemal Diaz, cap. viii.; Oviedo, lib. xviii., cap. viii.;
Orozco y Berra, vol. iv., cap. i.

^Itinerdrio de larmata del Rey Cattolico, in Icaz-
balceta's Documentoa Ineditoa, vol. i.

Cozumel, also sometimes called Acuzamil (ah-Cuzamil
meaning the " Swallows ") was discovered on the feast
of the Invention of the Holy Cross and hence named by
him, Santa Cruz. He took possession in the name of the
Spanish sovereigns and of Diego Velasquez, under whose
commission the expedition had sailed. There was a stone
building on the island, having a square tower with a door
in each of its four sides. Inside this were idols, palm
branches, and bones, which the Indians said were those of
a great chief. (Oviedo, lib. xvii., cap. ix.) The tower was
surmounted by a smaller square turret which was reached
by an outside staircase. Grijalba hoisted the Spanish flag
on this turret and named the place San Juan de Puerta
Latina. The chaplain. Fray Juan Diaz said mass. The
inhabitants seemed poor, and what gold they produced was
mostly an alloy with copper, of little value, which the In-
dians called guanin and prized highly. (Las Casas, lib.
vii., cap. Ixvii.)

1 8 Fernando Cortes

giving Spanish names to various bays, islands,
rivers, and towns. The Tabasco River, of which
the correct Indian name seems to have been
Tabzcoob, received the name of Grijalba. On
arriving at the river which they named Banderas,
because of the numerous Indians carrying white
flags, whom they saw along the coast, they first
heard of the existence of Montezuma, of whom
these people were vassals, and by whom they had
been ordered to keep a look out for the possible
return of the white men, whose former visit had
been reported to the emperor. On the 17th of
June, a landing was made on the small island,
where the Spaniards first discovered the proofs
that human sacrifices and cannibalism were
practised by the natives, for they found there
a blood-stained idol, human heads, members,
and whole bodies with the breasts cut open and
the hearts gone.^ Grijalba named the island Isla
de los Sacrificios,

Cozumel was a place of pilgrimage, and in one of the

great temples there stood a hollow terra-cotta statue,

called Teel-Cuzam (The Swallow's Feet), in which a priest

placed himself to give oracular answers to the pilgrims.

(Cogolludo, Hist, de Yucatan, lib. iv., cap. vii.)

1 This practice is traced, by some historians, to the tribe
of the Mexi, which descended from Tenoch, son of Iztacmix-
coatl, the progenitor of the Nahoa family, but, with what
justice, does not clearly appear, as this people may have
received it from some tribe or race preceding, or allied,
to them. Prisoners taken in war were the most highly
prized victims, but failing these, or for the celebration

To the Beginning of the Conquest 1 9

From the island which they named San Juan
de Ulua^ (from the word Culua which they im-
perfectly caught from the natives), Grijalba
sent Pedro de Alvarado, on June 24th, with the
San Sebastian^ to carry the results of his trad-

of minor festivals, slaves were easily bought, or were
offered by their owners for the purpose. Small infants
were also commonly sold by their mothers, and instances
of free-bom men offering themselves as victims, for one
motive or another, were not unknown. The victims were
frequently drugged, in such wise that they went un-
consciously, or even willingly to the altar. If a great
festival, requiring many, and choice victims, fell in a
time of peace, war would be undertaken upon any frivo-
lous pretext, in order to procure the desired offerings.

The warrior who had captured the victim in battle
would not eat of the latter*s flesh, as a sort of spiritual
relationship was held to exist between them, not dis-
similar to that of a sponsor and his god-child in Chris-
tian baptism, or even closer, for the flesh of the victim
was considered also as the very flesh of the captor. The
eating of this human body was not an act of gluttonous
cannibalism alone, but was believed to have mystic signi-
ficance, the flesh having undergone some mysterious trans-
mutation, by virtue of the sacrificial rite, and to be really
consecrated; it was spoken of also, as the "true body" of
the deity, to whom it was offered, and, also, as the " food
of soul." None but chiefs, and distinguished persons, spe-
cially designated, were permitted to partake of the sacra-
mental feast, which was celebrated with much ceremony
and gravity. If the victim were a slave, the rites were
similar, but simpler.

1 A small island in the harbour of Vera Cruz, on which
the Spaniards afterwards built their greatest fortress in
America. It was the last stronghold over which the
Spanish flag floated in Mexico.

20 Fernando Cortes

ing operations and an account of his discoveries
to Diego Velasquez, and to ask for an authorisa-
tion to colonise, which had not been given in
his original instructions, but which the members
of the expedition exacted should now be done.^
Diego Velasquez had meanwhile felt some im-
patience, which gradually became alarm, at
hearing nothing from the expedition, so he sent
Cristobal de Olid, with a ship, to look for it.
Olid landed also at Cozumel, and took formal
possession by right, as he supposed, of discov-
ery. After coasting about for some time, and
finding no traces of Grijalba, and having been
obliged to cut his cables in a storm which had
lost him his anchors, he returned to Cuba to
augment the uneasiness of the governor. At
this juncture, however, Alvarado arrived with
the treasure and Grijalba's report and, without
waiting for more news, Velasquez set about pre-
paring another expedition. He sent Juan de
Saucedo to Hispaniola to solicit from the Jerony-
mite fathers 2 the necessary authority for his

iLas Casas, Hist, de las Indias, lib. iii., cap. cxii.

2 Las Casas had succeeded by the moving picture he
drew of the cruelties practised, by the colonists on the
Indians, in interesting Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros in
their welfare. The Cardinal, being then regent of Spain,
pending the arrival of the young King Charles from
Flanders, appointed a commission composed of three
Jeronymite friars to reside in Hispaniola and see that
the recently enacted laws for the protection of the natives
were observed. These friars were not governors as has

To the Beginning of the Conquest 2 1

undertaking, whose objects, it was stated, were
to look for Grijalba's lost armada, which might
be in danger, to seek for Cristobal de Olid (not-
withstanding he was already safely returned),
and to rescue six Spanish captives who were said
to be prisoners of a cacique in Yucatan. On
October the 5th, Grijalba arrived in Cuba, where
he was coldly received by the governor, who
professed himself much disappointed at the
meagre results of the voyage, and criticised the
captain severely for not having yielded to the
wishes of his companions to found a settlement
on the newly discovered coast, despite his own
instructions to the contrary.

Several names were under consideration for
the commandership of the new armada, but for
different reasons one after the other was ex-
cluded, and the governor's final choice fixed
upon Fernando Cortes.^ This selection was at-
tributed to the influence of Amador de Lares,
a royal official of astute character who exercised
a certain ascendency over Velasquez, and of
Andres de Duero, the governor's private secre-
tary, both of whom Cortes had induced by
promises of a generous share of the treasures
that might be discovered, to present his name

been stated by some writers, though they exercised large
powers of control over the dealings of the Spanish colo-
nists with the Indians. Their mission was only partially
successful and their residence in the Indies was brief.
^ Las CasaSy lib. iii., cap. civ. ; Bernal Diaz, cap. xix.

22 Fernando Cortes

and secure his appointment. Since both Gri-
jalba and Olid were safely back in Cuba, the
only one of the three reasons first advanced for
this expedition which remained, was the rescue
of the Christian captives in Yucatan, and, al-
though Velasquez had severely censured Gri-
jalba for not establishing a colony or trading
post somewhere, he also omitted this authori-
sation in his instructions to Cortes.

Cortes threw himself, heart and soul, into the
new enterprise, which offered him exactly the
opportunity, in search of which he had come to
the Indies fourteen years before. The mutual
recriminations afterwards indulged in, so ob-
scure the facts that it is difficult to discover
exactly what share of the expense of the equip-
ment was borne by each, but of Cortes it must
be said that he staked everything he possessed
or could procure on the venture, even raising
loans by mortgages on his property. His ap-
pointment to such an important command did
not fail to arouse jealousies on the part of
some, and the increased consequence he gave
himself in his dress, manners, and way of living
served to so aggravate these sentiments that,
hardly had the work of organisation got fairly
under way, when his enemies adroitly began to
excite the suspicious spirit of Velasquez. A
dwarf, who played the court jester in the gov-
ernor's household, was inspired to make oracular
jokes, in which thinly veiled warnings of what

To the Beginning of the Conquest 23

was to be expected of Cortes's masterful spirit,
once he was free from control and in command
of such an armada, were conveyed to Velasquez,
and these barbed jests did not fail of their pur-
pose. The governor's distrust finally pushed
him to the incredible folly of deciding to revoke
his appointment as commander, and to sub-
stitute one Vasco Porcallo, a native of Ca-
ceres. This decision he made known to Lares
and Duero, the very men through whom Cortes
had negotiated to obtain his place, and they
hastened to warn their protege of the governor's
intention.

To accept the humiliation, the public ridicule,
to say nothing of the financial ruin, into which
the revocation of his appointment, almost on the
eve of sailing, would have plunged him, was an
alternative which never could have been for a
moment considered by Cortes, who immediately
hastened his preparations, got his provisions
and men on board that same day, and stood
down the bay with all his ships during the
night. He even seized the entire meat supply
of the town, for which he paid with a gold
chain he wore.^ The accounts of the manner
of the departure of the fleet conflict, and it has
been represented as a veritable flight, but Ber-
nal Diaz asserts that, although he got every-
thing ready very quickly and hastened the date

1 Las Casas, Historia de las Indias, cap. cxiv. ; Gomara,
Cronica de la Qonquista, cap, yii.

24 Fernando Cortes

of sailing, Cortes went with a number of
others, and took formal leave of the governor
with embraces and mutual good wishes;
and that after he had heard mass, Diego
Velasquez came down to the port to see the
armada off.

This simple and natural version is in con-
sonance with the character of Cortes, and he
doubtless exercised scrupulous care to avoid
provoking the testy governor. Aware of the in-
trigues against him, and of the uncertainty of
his position, his safety lay in pushing forward
his preparations with unostentatious haste,
masking his determination under an astute
display of increased deference towards his sus-
picious superior. Although he had evidently
secured his captains, and could count on his
crews, the moment for an act of open defiance
was not yet, nor did Velasquez, in a letter to
the licenciate Figueroa, dated November 17,
1519, which was to be delivered to Charles V.,
allege any such, though he would hardly have
failed to make the most of each item in his
arraignment of his rebellious lieutenant. Stop-
ping at Macaca, Trinidad, and Havana he for-
cibly seized stores at these places, and from
ships which he stopped, sometimes paying for
them, and sometimes giving receipts and prom-
ises. Everywhere he increased his armament,
and enlisted more men. ^

The governor's uneasy suspicions augmented

To the Beginning of the Conquest 25

after the sailing of the fleet, being aggravated
by the members of his household, who were
jealous of the sudden rise in Cortes's fortunes,
and, possibly, honestly distrustful of the signs
of independence he had already manifested. In
the work of fretting Velasquez, a half foolish
astrologer was called in, who foretold disaster
and imputed to Cortes, schemes of revenge for
past wrongs, referring to his former imprison-
ment by the governor's orders, and forecasting
treachery. These representations harmonised
but too well with Velasquez's own fears, and
easily prevailed upon him to send decisive
orders to his brother-in-law, Francisco Verdugo,
alcalde mayor of Trinidad, to assume command
of the fleet until Vasco Porcallo, who had been
appointed successor to Cortes, should arrive.
For greater security he repeated these instruc-
tions to Diego de Ordaz, Francisco de Morla,
and others on whose loyalty he thought he
could count. Nobody, however, undertook to
carry out the orders to displace and imprison
Cortes, whose faculty for making friends was
such, that he had already won over all those
on whom Velasquez relied, especially Ordaz and
Verdugo.^ The very messengers who brought
the oflB.cial orders to degrade and imprison him
joined the expedition. Public sympathy was

^ Gomara, Cronica, cap. viii. ; Las Casas, Hist, Gen,, cap.
cxiv., cxv.; De Rebus Gestis in Icazbalceta, Documentos
Ineditos, torn* i>

26 Fernando Cortes

entirely with him, for he had rallied some of
the best men in Cuba to his standard, who thus
had a stake . in the success of the enterprise
which depended primarily on the ability of the
commander. They had full confidence in their
leader, and it suited neither their temper nor
their interest to see him superseded. It
was Cortes himself who replied to the
governor's letters, seeking to reassure him
with protestations of loyalty and affection,
counselling him meanwhile to silence the ma-
licious tongues of the mischief-makers in
Santiago.

The governor was in no way tranquillised by
such a communication ; on the contrary, the sup-
pression of his orders by Verdugo enraged him
beyond measure. The fleet had meanwhile gone
to Havana whither a confidential messenger,
one Garnica, was sent with fresh, and more
stringent orders to the lieutenant-governor,
Pedro Barba who resided there, positively for-
bidding the fleet to sail, and ordering the im-
mediate imprisonment of Cortes. Diego Velas-
quez was seldom happy in his choice of men,
and, in this instance, his " confidential " mes-
senger not only brought these ofl&cial orders to
the lieutenant-governor, but he likewise delivered
to Fray Bartolom6 de Olmedo, a Mercedarian
friar who accompanied the expedition, a certain
letter from another priest, resident in the execu-
tive household, warning Cortes of the sense of the

To the Beginning of the Conquest 27

governor's orders.^ Failure attended all Velas-
quez's efforts, for Don Pedro Barba replied,
telling him plainly that it was not in his power
to stop Cortes, who was popular, not only with
his troops, but also with the townspeople; and
that any attempt to interfere with him would
result in a general rising in his favour. Bernal
Diaz declares that they would have died for
him, to a man.

During these days he played, as he himself
afterwards described it to Las Casas, the part
of " the gentle corsair." ^ Parting in this
manner from the royal governor of Cuba, joint
owner of the ships and their contents, it is
obvious that there was no turning back for
Cortes; he was henceforth driven forward by
the knowledge that sure disgrace, very likely
death was behind him, and drawn on by tlie
enticing prospect of achieving such complete
success as should vindicate his lawless courses.

The entire fleet ^ sailed for the island of

1 Las Casas comments severely on the want of judg-
ment displayed by Velasquez in his attempts to recall
Cortes. " Never have I seen so little knowledge of affairs
shown, as in this letter of Diego Velasquez — ^that he should
have imagined that one who had but recently so affronted
him, would delay his departure at his bidding! " {Hist.
Gen., cap. cxv.)

^ HisL Gen., cap. cxv.

^Authorities do not agree in regard to the force com-
manded by Cortes. Bernal Diaz states that the number
of mariners was one hundred and ten, while of soldiers, in-
cluding thirty-two crossbowmen and thirteen arquebusiers,

28 Fernando Cortes

Cozumel on February 18, 1519, and the first
A^essel to reach land was the one commanded
by Pedro de Alvarado who began his career by
an act of disobedience to orders, characteristic
of his headstrong and cruel temperament. When
the commander arrived two days later, he
found that the Indians had all been frightened
away by the Spaniards' violence in plundering
their town, and taking some of them prisoners.^
Cortes clearly defined his policy in dealing with
the natives at the very outset. After ordering
the pilot Camacho, who had brought the vessel
to land before the others, to be clapped into
irons, for disobeying his orders, he severely
rebuked Alvarado, explaining to him that his
measures were fatal to the success of the ex-
pedition. The prisoners were not only released,
but each received gifts, and all were assured
through the interpreters, Melchor and Julian,

there were five hundred and fifty-three; two hundred In-
dians, men and women, went along as porters, cooks, and
camp-servants. There were sixteen horses, which proved
to be his most valuable asset, being of greater use even
than the ten cannon and four small falconets he carried.

The Letter of Relation from Vera Cruz gives the total
number of soldiers as four hundred, while Diego Velas-
quez himself wrote to the licenciate Figueroa, chief judge
in Hispaniola that they numbered six hundred men. The
supply of ammunition was plentiful. The flag-ship was
a vessel of one hundred tons burden, three others were
of eighty tons, and the remainder were small brigantines
without decks, — in all eleven vessels.

1 Bemal Diaz, cap. xxv.

• To the Beginning of the Conquest 29

that they should suffer no further harm, and
that they should therefore go and call back the
others who had fled. Everything that had been
stolen from the town was restored, and the
fowls and o.ther provisions that had been eaten,
were all paid for liberally. Discipline was en-
forced, also, among the Spaniards, and seven
sailors, who were found guilty of stealing some
bacon from a soldier, were sentenced to be
publicly whipped.

The head chief of the island came to visit
Cortes, who received him with every demon-
stration of friendship, assuring him that the
persons and the property of all his people would
be respected. This diplomacy was highly suc-
cessful, and Spaniards and Indians mingled
together in perfect amity.^ Cortes learned from
the caciques that there were some white prison-
ers in Yucatan about two days" march distant
from there, and that some traders who were
there present had seen them only a few days
before. A messenger was despatched in search
of the captives, bearing a letter tied in his hair.^

^ First Letter of Relation to Charles V.: Las Casas, lib.
iii., cap. cxvii.; Bemal Diaz, cap. xxv., xxvi.; Gomara,
Cronica, cap. x.

2 Noble Sirs, I left Cuba with a fleet of eleven ships
and five hundred Spaniards and have arrived at Cozumel,
whence I write you this letter.

The people of this island assure me that there are five
or six bearded white men in this country, who greatly
resemble us, and I conjecture, though they can give me

30 Fernando Cortes

Three days after the departure of this mes-
senger, Cortes took the further precaution of
despatching Diego de Ordaz, with the two
smallest brigantines to Cape Catoche, where
other messengers were landed with instructions
to find the captives or return with some in-
formation within eight days. During this inter-
val of waiting, Cortes undertook the conversion
of the natives, employing the interpreters Julian
and Melchor to explain the doctrines of Chris-
tianity, and to exhort them to abandon their
superstitions and idolatry. The Indians af-
firmed that their gods were beneficent, bring-
ing them health, harvests, and victory over their
enemies, and that they would under no circum-
stances abandon them. The zeal of Cortes being
of the impetuous order that ill-brooked resist-
ance, he had the idols overthrowTi and rolled
down the steps of the temple ; he ordered the in-
terior to be thoroughly cleansed, after which an
altar was improvised, a statue of Our Lady set up,
and two carpenters constructed a large cross of
wood above the altar. The chaplain of the ex-
no other indications, that you are Spaniards. I, and the
gentlemen who have come with me to explore and take
possession of these countries, earnestly beg you to come
to us within five or six days after you receive this, without
further delay or excuse.

If 'you will come, all of us will recognise, and thank
you, for the assistance this armada shall receive from
you. I send a brigantine to bring you, with two ships
as escort. Hernan Cortes.

To the Beginning of the Conquest 3 1

pedition, Juan Diaz, then said mass. What
impression these acts made upon the Indians,
we have no means of knowing. Cortes reported
to the emperor that he had succeeded in making
them understand perfectly their obligations as
Christians, and that he left them contented with
their new religion. This optimistic view can
hardly be accepted unreservedly. Julian and
Melchor doubtless possessed but an indifferent
knowledge of Spanish, and their comprehension
of the mysteries of the Catholic religion was
probably imperfect, while there was nothing in
the daily conduct of the Spaniards to favourably
illustrate Christian morals. The emblem of the
cross was no doubt perfectly acceptable to the
Indians, as it was the sign of their own rain-god
and hence a familiar symbol of worship.

At the end of the eight days Diego de Ordaz
returned from Catoche, and reported that the
Indian messengers had not appeared, and that
owing to rough weather and the dangerous char-
acter of the coast, he had been obliged to return
to save his ships from foundering. Cortes
showed some vexation at this result.

On March 5th ^ the fleet sailed for Isla
de las Mugeres where the people landed and
heard mass. An accident to the ship com-
manded by Juan de Escalante delayed the others
until the twelfth of the month, while his vessel

1 Gomara, cap. xii.

32 Fernando Cortes

was lightened of her cargo and repaired. A
violent storm of wind and rain occasioned still
further delay in leaving port, and on March
13th an Indian log canoe was seen approaching,
in which were three naked men, armed with
bows and arrows. One of these men advanced
and called out in Spanish, " Are you Christians,
and of what sovereign are you vassals? " ^ This
was Geronimo de Aguilar, a native of Encija,
a man in holy orders, who had been captured
with some twenty others, while crossing from
Darien to Hispaniola. Their caravel, under
command of Valdivia, was wrecked on the treach-
erous reefs called Las Viboras, situated fifteen
leagues to the south of Jamaica, and extending
a distance of forty-five leagues. Twenty of the
crew were saved in an open boat, without sails,
food, or water, and after drifting hopelessly for
fourteen days, during which time seven or eight
died, their boat was cast on the coast of Yuca-
tan. Valdivia and five others were at once
sacrificed and eaten by the Mayas who had cap-
tured them, and the survivors were confined in
cages to fatten for the same miserable end.
Geronimo de Aguilar and Alonso Guerrero suc-
ceeded in escaping and, after wandering some
time in the forests, were captured by another,
but less blood-thirsty, cacique, who treated them
kindly. Guerrero adopted the ways and cus-

1 Andres de Tapia, Reladon in Icazbalceta, p. 556.

To the Beginning of the Conquest 33

toms of the Indians; learned their language;
tattooed his face; married an Indian wife; and
became, in all respects, one of them. He rose
to a position of some influence in the tribe, and
it was even alleged that he shared in their
idolatry and cannibalism.

When Cortes's letter was delivered to Aguilar,
he procured permission to go to the white men,
but his companion, Guerrero, refused to go, for
he was ashamed to show himself, naked and
tattooed.^ Moreover he was fond of his wife
and his three sons, and enjoyed a position of
authority in the country, whereas to go back
to Spain meant for him a return to poverty and
hardship. Aguilar was taken before Cortes,
who failed to distinguish him from the Indians,
and asked Andres de Tapia, which was the
Spaniard. The finding of Geronimo de Aguilar
fulfilled one of the original purposes of the ex-
pedition.

The fleet set sail from Cozumel on March
13th, and after experiencing some rough
weather which separated the ships from one an-
other, again united at the island of Las Mugeres
the following day. One of the captains, Esco-
bar, was sent in a brigantine to explore the
Boca de Terminos and returned bringing a
quantity of hare and rabbit skins. He had been
welcomed with great effusion by a greyhound

1 Bemal Diaz, cap. xxvii.
3

34 Fernando Cortes

that had been left behind by Grijalba's men,
and had evidently prospered on the fat of the
land. From Boca de Terminos, the ships con-
tinued to the Tabasco River, which, as before
stated, the Spaniards had christened Rio de Gri-
jalva. As the larger vessels could not ascend
the river, Cortes landed his people in small
barques at a point some half a league dis-
tant from the town of Tabasco, where Gri-
jalba had had a friendly reception from the
natives.

The Indians were found to have changed their
sentiments towards the white men and Geronimo
de Aguilar, who acted as interpreter, announced
that the chiefs were defiant, and the town full
of armed men prepared to fight. Cortes estab-
lished his camp as well as possible, and sent out
three scouts to find a road leading into the town.
The following day (March 23d,) several canoes
appeared, bringing a few provisions for the
Spaniards, but the Indians insisted that they
should leave the country without entering their
town. Cortes replied by causing the pompous
requerimiento or summons, that he had in read-
iness, to he read to them, which invited and
admonished the Indians as vassals of the Spanish
sovereign to yield obedience. This document
was invented and drawn up, for the use of
Pedrarius de Avila by Dr. Palacios Rubio,
a jurisconsult and member of the Royal
Council, and was afterwards employed in

To the Beginning of the Conquest 35

the other colonies.^ The requirement began
thus:

On the part of the King Fernando and of the
Queen Dofia Juana, his daughter, Queen of Cas-
tile, Leon, &c., &c. : Rulers of the barbarous na-
tives, we their servants notify and make it known
to you, as best we can, that the living and eternal
God, Our Lord, created the heavens and the earth
and a man and a woman, of whom you and we
and all men in the world are descendants, as well
as all who shall come after us. However, because
of the multitude of generations issuing from these,
in the five thousand years since the creation of
the world, it was necessary that some should go
one way, and some another, and that they should
be divided into many kingdoms and many pro-
vinces, as they could not maintain themselves in
one. God, Our Lord, gave the charge of all these
people to one called St. Peter, that he should be
lord and superior over all men in the world and
that all should obey him, and that he should be
the head of all the human race and should love
all men, of whatsoever land, religion and belief;
and He gave him the world for his kingdom, order-
ing his seat to be placed in Rome, as the place
best suited for ruling the world; but he was per-
mitted also to establish his seat in any other part
of the world and to judge and govern all peoples.

1 The full text of this document is reprinted in Orozco y
Berra, torn, iv., p. 86.

36 Fernando Cortes

Christians, Moors, Jews, Gentiles, and of whatso-
ever other sect or creed they might be, &c.^

The provisions of the papal bull giving the do-
minion over America to the Spanish sovereigns
then followed.

The notary, or clerk, who accompanied the
expedition, read this unique document, indif-
ferent to the fact that, the Indians could not
comprehend a word, even were they near enough
to hear; and sometimes the reading of it would
take place with no Indians at all present. All
scruples were satisfied by this formality, and,
if submission did not follow, the commander
dealt with the natives as with obdurate rebels
against the royal authority.

The Indians at Tabasco neither comprehended
nor heeded the reading of this singular claim
on their obedience, and there ensued a fiercely
contested battle, in which they vainly disputed
the landing of the Spaniards. Cortes took for-
mal possession of the country for his sovereign,
striking the trunk of a great ceiba tree that
grew in the court of the principal temple, three
times with his sword, and announcing that he
would defend his king's prerogative against all
comers. The Indian interpreter, Melchor, de-
serted the Spaniards during this fight, and en-
couraged his countrymen to keep up a continuous

1 Orozco y Berra, torn, iv., p. 86.

To the Beginning of the Conquest 37

attack, telling them the white men were few
in number and mortal like themselves. Three
prisoners were taken by the Spaniards, who
furnished this information to Aguilar, adding
that a combined attack by all the Indian forces
would be made on the morrow.

The next morning, at dawn, Cortes took com-
mand of twelve of his best horsemen, and,
having divided his forces into three divisions of
one hundred men, each under command of a
captain, and provided a rear-guard of one hun-
dred more, he marched his men out towards the
village of Ceutla, where a multitude of war-
riors, well armed and wearing their martial
paint and feathers, were awaiting them. The
Indians rushed courageously to the fray and,
by sheer force of numbers, overwhelmed the in-
vaders in such wise that it was hardly possible
to distinguish friend from foe, and the battle
became a hand to hand fight at the closest
possible quarters.

Though under fire for the first time, the war-
riors showed little fear of the strange weapons
that dealt death amongst them, partly because
it was difficult for them to observe the deadly
effects of the muskets, and partly because the
din of their drums and trumpets drowned the
sound of the firing. Cortes, who had held his
horsemen concealed in a wood, from whence he
observed the course of the battle, suddenly fell
upon the rear-guard of the enemy. The ap-

38 Fernando Cortes.

pearance of the horses, which the Indians be-
held for the first time, their quick movements
and the glancing armour of the cavaliers, struck
terror and amazement among the warriors. The
horse and his rider seemed to them one resistless
creature. This spirited attack on the enemy's
rear, scattered the Indians, and enabled the
Spanish infantry to collect and re-form their
lines. The retreat soon became a rout, the
horsemen pursuing the fugitives across the open
country, killing many, and capturing some, until
the survivors disappeared into the impenetrable
forests.

This decisive battle, which took place on
March 25th, became known as the battle of
Ceutla, and in Gomara's Gronica, as well as in
Tapia's Relacion and the accounts of others, the
victory was attributed to the miraculous inter-
vention of St. James, the patron of Spain, or of
St. Peter, the patron of Cortes. Bernal Diaz says
it may have been as Gomara describes, and that
the glorious apostles, Senor Santiago and Senor
San Pedro, did appear, but that he, miserable
sinner, was not worthy to behold the apparition.^

1 The first recorded apparition of St. James on the field
of battle was at the great victory of Clavijo, A.D. 844, in
which 70,000 Moslems perished; from thenceforth the
Saint became the military patron of Spain and his name
" Santiago," the popular battle-cry. Spanish soldiers were
so familiar with the idea of the apostle's apparition that its
recurrence in Mexico was simply a proof to them of the
justice of their cause and a celestial assurance of victory.

To the Beginning of the Conquest 39

In the First Letter of Relation, Cortes re-
ported to the emperor that twenty Spaniards
were wounded in this engagement, of whom
none died. The number of Indian warriors was
fixed at forty thousand, increased by Andres
de Tapia in his Relacion to forty-eight thousand,
but these figures can hardly be accurate, and,
as Orozco y Berra properly observes, must be
taken to represent the idea of multitude rather
than an actual counting.^

The immediate result of the battle of Ceutla
was the submission of the entire province to
the pretensions of the Spaniards. One cacique
after another came to Cortes, bringing presents
of gold, stuffs, provisions, and slaves, and offer-
ing his allegiance to the King of Spain. It was
part of Cortes's policy to receive the humbled
chieftains kindly, and to declare that their past
rebellion was forgotton and forgiven. In re-
ply to enquiries as to whence came the gold,
the Indians answered, " from Colhua," the latter
word being one which had no significance as yet
for the Spaniards, but which they took to mean
some place farther inland. It appeared from
what the interpreters could gather, that the
deserter, Melchor, had been sacrificed by the

1 Great discrepancy prevails in regard to the numbers
engaged and the number slain or wounded. Las Casas
sarcasticaUy describes this battle, in which he declares
30,000 natives fell, as the " first preaching of the gospel by
Cortes in New Spain ! " — Hist Gen.y cap. cxix.

40 Fernando Cortes

people of Tabasco when they saw the evil re-
sults that followed on their acceptance of his
counsel to resist the Spaniards. Cortes exacted
as a gage of the caciques' good faith, that the
inhabitants of the towns should return to
their dwellings and to their usual occupations.
When life had somewhat resumed its normal
trend, his missionary zeal once more became
active, and Fray Bartolom6 de Olmedo was di-
rected to instruct the Indians in the Catholic
faith and to exhort them to renounce idolatry.
Geronimo de Aguilar doubtless proved a surer
interpreter than his predecessor; in any case
the people of Tabasco showed no reluctance to
receive the friar's instructions and to acknow-
ledge the power of the Christian God. A tem-
ple was cleansed and provided with an altar,
surmounted by a statue of the Blessed Virgin and
Child, above which stood a large cross of wood.
Fray Bartolome said mass and delivered a ser-
mon, which was interpreted by Aguilar. The
name of the town was changed to Santa Maria
de la Victoria.

Twenty female slaves who had been presented,
by the caciques, to Cortes, were instructed by
Fray Bartolom6, and solemnly baptised, partly,
if not chiefly, it would seem, to render them
worthy of the embraces of the Christian Span-
iards. Amongst these slave women, was Mar-
ina of Painalla, the interpreter, whose part in

To the Beginning of the Conquest 41

the conquest will unfold itself in the course of
this narrative, and who will be duly introduced
in a later chapter. Cortes took his departure
from Santa Maria on Palm Sunday, — the first
Palm Sunday celebration ever witnessed on
the American continent. The caciques were
invited to be present at the religious ceremonies,
and at an early hour all were assembled in the
temple court where the altar with its cross and
madonna had been erected. The Mercedarian
friar, Bartolome de Olmedo, and the chaplain,
Juan Diaz, celebrated the beautiful office of the
day, with all the solemnity and whatever pomp
their resources afforded. Cortes, with his offi-
cers and men formed in procession, each carry-
ing a blessed palm, and performing the adoration
and kissing of the cross.^ The Indians, who
viewed with silent wonder these imposing and
mysterious rites, afterwards accompanied the
Spaniards to their ships, where they took leave
of them with many protestations of friendship
and promises to observe the Catholic teachings
imparted to them, and to venerate the cross and
holy images left in their temple.

The men crowded into the barques and some
canoes furnished by the Indians and, still carry-

1 This ceremony properly belongs to the Good Friday
function and precedes the Mass of the Pre-Sanctified, but
was probably inserted here the better to impress the
Indians with the sanctity of the sacred emblem.

42 Fernando Cortes

ing the blessed palms, they passed down the
stream to where the vessels rode at anchor,
awaiting them.^

1 Bemal Diaz, caps, xxi-xxxvi. Andres de tapia, Re-
lacion. Gomara, cap. xxviii. First Letter of Relation.
Peter Martyr, De Inaulia nuper inventis, p. 351.

CHAPTER II

MONTEZUMA AND HIS EMPIRE

The Aztec Empire — Origines — Civilisation — Institutions
— Montezuma — Quetzalcoatl

IT is important at this point of our narrative
to review the political organization of the
Mexican empire; its moral, intellectual, and
material conditions, as well as the character
of the sovereign himself and the relations in
which lie ^tood to the neighbouring states, not
subject to his rule.

The Aztec empire at the time of the Spanish
conquest, comprised about sixteen thousand
square leagues, and Humboldt states in one
passage of his Essai Politique sur le Royaume
de Nouvelle Espagne, that its greatest extent
covered an area of from eighteen to twenty
thousand leagues, but these figures included the
neighbouring kingdom of Mechoacan, which was
not subject to Montezuma. The boundaries of
the empire were estimated by historians of the
conquest, who based their calculations on the
tribute rolls in picture-writings but its limits
cannot be fixed with certainty. Sefior Alaman
states that it extended from one ocean to the
other and was bounded on the south by the

43

44 Fernando Cortes

Zacatula River and that its western frontier did
not extend beyond Tula, while the mountain
chain of Pachuca formed its northern limit.^
The central valley of Mexico, at an altitude of
more than seven thousand feet above the sea-
level, has a circumference, according to Hum-
boldt, of about sixty-seven leagues, shut in by
stupendous mountain ranges whose principal
peaks are the now extinct volcanoes of Popo-
catepetl and Ixtaccihuatl. One tenth of its
extent was covered by five lakes of which the
largest was the salt-water lake of Tezcoco.

The different tribes or nations of Anahuac
came, according to their several traditions, from
the north-west, in a series of migrations, but of
their original starting point, they preserved no
clear record. M. de Guigne presents proofs
tending to show that the Chinese visited Mexico
as early as 458 a.d., Hom,^ Scherer,^ Humboldt*
and other authorities, assign an Asiatic origin
to the Toltecs and other Mexican peoples. That
Mexico received settlers from other parts of the
world, seems also certain. Aristotle^ relates
that Carthaginian sailors passed the Pillars of
Hercules and, after sailing sixty days to the
west, reached a beautiful and ftrtile country,

\

1 Disertaciones, i. \

^ De originibus Americanis, 1699. \

3 Recherches Historiques. \

^ Essai Politique. \

5 De admirandis in natura. \

\

i

Montezuma and His Empire 45

and that so many began to go thither that the
Senate of Carthage passed a law suppressing
such emigration, to prevent the depopulation of
the city.

The efforts to graft Mexican civilisation onto
an Asiatic or African stock have not been en-
tirely successful, for, while there undoubtedly
exist points of striking similarity, these seem to
be counterbalanced by still more important
divergencies. The paucity of positive data or
even coherent traditions, has left a wide field
open to speculation, of which many learned and
ingenious seekers have availed themselves to the
fullest extent, but without achieving results
commensurate with their labours. Without at-
tempting a thorough search into the racial
origin of the tribes, which Cortes found in the
valley of Mexico, it may be briefly stated that
the best evidence before us points to Yucatan as
the culminating centre of American civilisatioUy
from whence a knowledge of law, arts, and
manufactures, and the influence of an organised
religious system spread northwards.

The splendid ruins of Yucatan and Central
America attest the existence of a race of people,
which, whatever its origin, was isolated from
European and Asiatic influence alike, since an
epoch which it is impossible to fix, but which
was certainly very remote. This race — the
Maya — possessed a civilisation, sui generis^ and
entirely unique on the North American con-

46 Fernando Cortes

tinent, the focus of which had already shifted
to the high valley of Mexico, long before the
Spaniards first visited the country in the six-
teenth century, leaving the towns of Uxmal,
Palenque, Utatlan, and the others in the south-
ern region, in ruins. What devastating influ-
ences produced this movement of an entire
people, is not known, and the length of time
occupied by it, is problematical, though it must
have extended over centuries, ebbing and flow-
ing intermittently. The conflicting traditions
as to the direction from which tribes, law-givers,
and priests arrived in Anahuac are doubtless
owing to distinct movements, at different times,
of the southern peoples, in their wandering
search for a new and permanent abiding place.
The^e early migrations from south to north,
were succeeded, during the period, commonly
termed the Middle Ages, by a counter-movement,
and the northern tribes began to return south-
wards, conquering the different peoples they
encountered. Although some of the peoples had
preserved much of the culture bequeathed them
by their forefathers, there was no uniform
civilisation existing among them, save in the
case of the Toltecs.

The Toltecs left their country called Hue-
huetlapallan, in the vague north-west, in the
year 554 a.d. and, after one hundred and four
years of migratory life, founded the city of
Tollantzinco in 658, whence they again moved

Montezuma and His Empire 47

in 667 to Tula, or ToUan; it is from this date
that their monarchy which lasted three hundred
and eighty-four years, is reckoned.^ According
to Torquemada, the Chichimecas followed within
nine years after the extinction of the Toltec
sovereignty, but Clavigero's calculation shows
the improbability of this, for several reasons,
the most convincing of which is the incredible
chronology of their kings. Torquemada says
that Xolotl reigned 113 years, his son lived to be
170 and his grandson 104 years old, while another
king, Tezozomoc reigned 180 years! It is ob-
vious that the Chichimeca period must either be
shortened or the number of kings increased.
After the Chichimecas, came the six tribes of
Tlascala, Xochimilco, Acolhua (Texcoco) Tepa-
nec, Chalco, and Tlahuichco, closely followed by
the Colhuas or Mexicans, who first arrived at
Tula in 1196 and, after several shorter migra-
tions, founded Mexico-Tenochtitlan in 1325.
The last tribe to come was that of the Ottomies,
in 1420. Boturini believed that the tribes of
Xicalango and the Olemchs antedated the Tol-
tecs, but says that no records or picture-writings
explaining their origin were discoverable in his
time. From the foundation of Mexico, the form
of government was aristocratic till 1352, when,
according to Torquemada's interpretation of
their picture-writings, the first king, Acama-

^Clavigero, Storia del Messico, vol. iv.

4S Fernando Cortes

patzin, eighth predecessor of Monteznma IL was
elected and reigned for thirty-seven years.

The Aztec civilisation which attained its high-
est development in Tenochtitlan and Texcoco,
never readied the level of the Maya culture,
nor did its cities contain any such admirable
buildings as those of which the ruins still delight
and mystify the traveller in Yucatan and Central
America. Outside its few centres of learning
and luxury, the numerous tribes under Monte-
zuma's rule were dwellers in caves, living by the
chase and in no way sharing the benefits of
the Aztec polity. In morals and manners, the
Aztecs were inferior to the Toltecs and, though
they adopted and continued the civilisation of
their predecessors, they were devoid of their
intellectual and artistic qualities and turned
their attention more to war and commerce, as
the surest means for riveting their supremacy
on their neighbours. When Ck)rtes arrived,
Texcoco and Tlacopan, though still calling
themselves independent and ruled by sovereigns
who claimed equality with Montezuma, were
rapidly sinking into a condition of vassalage.
The Aztec religion was likewise of a militant
order; it was polytheistic and readily admitted
the gods of conquered or allied nations into
its pantheon. Upon the milder cult of the older
religious systems they had adopted, these de-
votees of the war-god speedily grafted their own
horrible practices of human sacrifices, which

Montezuma and His Empire 49

*

augmented in number and ferocity until the
temples became veritable charnel houses. With
such a barbarous religious system draining their
very life's blood and a relentless despotism
daily encroaching on their liberties, it is small
wonder that Cortes was hailed as a liberator
by the subject peoples of Mexico.

The name of Mexico signifies habitation of
the god of war, Mexitli — otherwise known as
Huitzilopochtli. The name Tenochtitlan sig-
nifies a cactus on a rock ^ and was given to the
new city because the choice of the site was de-
cided by the augurs beholding an eagle perched
upon a cactus that grew on a rock, and holding
a serpent in its talons. The emblem of the
cactus and the eagle holding a serpent became
the national standard of Mexico and is dis-
played in the coat of arms of the present
Republic.

The two islands of Tenochtitlan and Tlate-
lolco stood in the salt waters of the lake of
Texcoco, separated from one another by a
narrow channel of water, and in the beginning
Tlatelolco had its separate chief; but in the
reign of Axayacatl, the last king of Tlatelolco,

1 Both Fernando Ramirez and Eufemio Mendoza have
pronounced against this etymology of the word: another
derivation is from Tenoch, the chief of the founders, and
tetl, meaning a stone. I have followed Clavigero {Storia
del Messico, tom. i., p. 168), and Prescott (Conquest of
Mexico, tom. i., cap. i).

50 Fernando Cortes

called Moquihuix, was overthrown, and the
islands afterwards became united and formed
one city with a single ruler. The city was
joined to the mainland by three great causeways,
so solidly built of earth and stone and having
draw-bridges to span the canals which crossed
them, as to excite the admiration of the Span-
iards. The northern causeway, from the Tlate-
lolco quarter, extended for three miles to Tepeac,
where stands the present shrine of Guadelupe;
the causeway reaching to Tlacopan (Tacuba)
was two miles long and the southern road, by
which the Spaniards entered, extended for seven
miles to Itztapalapan, with a division at the small
fortress of Xoloc, where one branch diverged to
Coyohuacan and hence caused Cortes to men-
tion four causeways, which, strictly speaking,
was correct.^ While the width of these splen-
did roads varied, Clavigero says that all were
wide enough for ten horsemen to ride abreast.^
All the earlier authorities practically agree
in numbering the city's population at sixty thou-
sand households, — by an obvious error the Anon-
ymous Conqueror speaks of sixty thousand
people which should, of course, be families.
Zuazo, Gomara, Motolinia, Peter Martyr, Clavi-
gero, and others give this estimate, hence it may
be safely stated that the city's population was

1 Robertson erroneously speaks of a causeway leading
to Texcoco.

^ Storia del Messico, vol. iii., lib. ix.

Montezuma and His Empire s^

not less than three hundred thousand souls.
Very contradictory appreciations of the beauty
of the Aztec capital, the grandeur of its build-
ings and the merits of its architecture have been
given by different writers. Prescott's marvel-
lous picture of the ancient city is familiar to
all readers of American history, and hardly less
well known and rivalling the American his-
torian's delightful pages, are the chapters of
Sir Arthur Helps, praised by Ruskin for their
"beautiful quiet English," in which he com-
pares Mexico to Thebes, Nineveh, and Babylon,
among the great cities of antiquity and to Con-
stantinople, Venice, and Granada among those
of modem times, not hesitating to declare that
it was " at that time the fairest in the world
and has never since been equalled.^

The distinguished Mexican scholar, Senor
Alaman,^ expresses his conviction that the city
of Mexico contained no buildings of beauty or
merit; that, aside from the royal palaces, the
rest of the houses were adobe huts, among which
rose the squat, truncated pyramids of the tem-
ples, unlovely to behold, decorated with rude
sculptures of serpents and other horrible figures,
and having heaps of human skulls piled up in
their courtyards. He sustains this dreary appre-
ciation by the argument that there would other-
wise have remained some fragments of former

^Heman Cortes , p. 108.

^ Diaertadones, torn, i., p. 184.

52 Fernando Cortes

arcLitectural magnificence, whereas, there is ab-
solutely nothing. These eminent writers seem
unwilling to admit that Tenochtitlan may have
been a wonderfully beautiful city and^ at the
same time, have possessed few imposing buildings
and no remarkable architecture. The descrip-
tions of Mr. Prescott and Sir Arthur Helps are
masterpieces of word-painting that charm us,
but they are based upon early descriptions, in
which undue importance is given to architect-
ural features of the city. It is, as Senor
Alaman remarks, impossible that not a fragment
of column or capital, statue or architrave, should
have been saved to attest the existence of great
architectural monuments, even though one hun-
dred and fifty thousand men were diligently en-
gaged for two months in destroying the build-
ings, filling up canals with the debris, and that
finally, when the city came to be rebuilt, many
idols and other large fragments of temples,
were used in the foundations of the cathedral,
which rose on the site of the great teocalli.

Palaces, such as Montezuma's was described
by the Spaniards, may be vast in extent, with
beautiful courts, gardens, and audience halls;
they may be luxurious, and flUed with curious
and beautiful objects, but they add little to the
picturesque or imposing appearance of a capital.
The temples were sufficiently numerous, but
none seem to have been lofty, and even the
principal teocalli had but one hundred and

Montezuma and His Empire 53

fourteen steps, so that its height was only re-
markable by comparison with the great stretch
of low, flat-roofed houses about it. Cortes
describes to Charles V. the destruction of the
city day by day, which he sincerely deplored as
necessary to subdue it, but he does not mention
any one building which he sought to save or
whose destruction caused him special regret, as
he must infallibly have done had he been burn-
ing an Alhambra or a Doge's palace, or been
forced to blow up a Santa Sophia. It seems
impossible that any one should seriously pre-
tend that the waters of Texcoco's lake mirrored
such fagades as are reflected in the canals of
Venice, or that there was a Rialto among the
bridges, so hotly contested by the Spaniards.
Orozco y Berra wisely reproves the comparison
which Alaman draws between Mexico and Rome,
as notoriously unjust. But between the daz-
zling word-pictures of Prescott and Helps on
the one hand, and on the other, Alaman's de-
pressing sketch of a squalid town of hovels,
inhabited by bloodthirsty cannibals, there is still
room for a beautiful city in which dwelt a
sovereign, amidst surroundings of interesting
splendour.^

^An entire school of present day investigators rejects
the descriptions of Mexico, given by the early writers as
entirely fanciful, and asserts that the city presented few
points of superiority to an ordinary Indian pueblo of New
Mexico or Arizona. Repudiation of what has come down

54 Fernando Cortes

Even without conscious intention to mislead^
it was inevitable that the Spaniards should fall
into exaggeration in describing the city of Mex-
ico: first, because they necessarily used the
same terms to portray what they saw, as they
would have used in describing Rome, Paris, or
Constantinople; second, because the contrast
between such Indian towns as they had seen
and the capital was undoubtedly very great,
and their long years of rough life, perilous voy-
ages, and the absence, at times, even of shelter
from the elements, made any large town where
some system of order reigned and where there
were houses having court-yards, gardens, and
embroidered hangings, seem worthy to be com-
pared with great cities, elsewhere seen, and
dimly remembered; and, lastly, because Mexico
was unquestionably a very beautiful city. It
could hardly be otherwise in such a situation,
and the Spaniards, not stopping to analyse
wherein its charms lay, fell into the easy error
of attributing them to architectural excellence
and grandeur, which were really wanting.

The very ignorance and naivety of the con-
querors are good warrants for the truth of much

to us from numerous observers, who contradicted one an-
other about almost everything else but were in general
accord concerning the aspect of the capital, its arts and
degree of civilisation, assumes the existence of something
resembling a conspiracy of misrepresentation among the
early Spanish writers.

Montezuma and His Empire 55

that they wrote, for, as they were illiterate
men (even Cortes had but a scanty store of
learning gathered during his brief course of
two careless years at Salamanca) devoid of suffi-
cient knowledge to invent and describe the
Mexican laws, customs, religion, and institu-
tions, the facts they state and in which they
agree, are indubitable. The Aztec Empire pos-
sessed some highly developed institutions; to
mention but one, there was the system of couri-
ers or the post, which kept up daily and rapid
communications between the capital and the
provinces, and that, at a time, when no country
in Europe possessed anything equalling it.
Their religion was established with a regular
hierarchy, and a calendar of festivals, which
were observed with a really admirable ritual,
marred only by the barbarity of certain rites.
Their deities were gloomy and ferocious; fear
was the motive of worship, human sacrifice the
only means of placating the gods, and thus relig-
ion, which should soften and humanise manners
and elevate character, was engulfed in a dread-
ful superstition that held the nation in a state
of permanent degradation, with the result that
the most civilised amongst the Indians of North
America were, at the same time, the most bar-
barous. The perfect ordering of this system
impressed the Spaniards, while its awful rites
horrified them.

The state was well ordered, and in many

56 Fernando Cortes

respects was governed according to wise and
enlightened standards. The rights of private
property were recognised and respected, its
transfer being effected by sale or inheritance.
All free men were land-owners, either by ab-
solute possession or by usufruct derived from
holding some public oflSlce in the state, and these
composed the nobility; others held land in com-
munity, parcels being allotted to a given number
of families whose members worked them in
common and shared their produce equitably.
Taxes were levied according to an established
system and were paid in kind, thus filling the
government store-houses with vast accumula-
tions of all the products of the empire. Justice
was administered by regularly appointed judges,
who interpreted the laws and exercised juris-
diction in their respective districts.

The city possessed two large market-places,
where all the natural and manufactured pro-
ducts of the country were brought for exchange.
Cortes's description of the regulations govern-
ing these markets contained in his Second Letter
of Eolation to Charles V. reads not unlike an
account of the great fair of Nishni-Novgorod,
even in our times. The streets were regularly
cleaned, lighted by fires at night and patrolled
by police; public sanitary arrangements were
provided and the city was probably more spa-
cious, cleaner, and healthier than any European
town of that time. Public charity provided

Montezuma and His Empire 57

hospitals for the sick and aged and these, insti-
tutions were in charge of the same clergy who
murdered and devoured their fellow-men!

Separate arts and trades flourished, and the
metal-workers, lapidaries, weavers, and others
perfected themselves by a regular system of
instruction and apprenticeship pretty much as
in the guilds of Europe. The great public
works, such as the causeways, aqueducts, canals
with locks and bridges, were admirably con-
structed and, in the neighbourhood of the
capital, were numerous. There was a fair know-
ledge of the medicinal and curative properties
of herbs, barks, roots, and plants though, if the
medicine men were skilled in the, use of poisons,
it seems strange that they did not rid themselves
of the hungry invaders of their country at some
of the feasts that were constantly offered them.

In the arts, the lapidaries, feather workers,
and silversmits produced the best work. Mex-
ican paintings, judged as works of art, are crude
and primitive enough, but their real value and
interest lie in the fact that they are chronicles
in picture-writing, of which, unfortunately, too
few have been preserved; ideas were rarely and
imperfectly represented by this method, which
was only serviceable for recording material facts.
Music was the least developed of all the arts.
Their solar system was more correct than that
of the Greeks and Eomans. The year was di-
vided into eighteen months, of twenty days each,

58 Fernando Cortes

with five complementary days added, which were
holidays, but were considered unlucky, especially
as birthdays.^ There were regularly graduated
social classes, the lowest being composed of
peasant-serfs, called mayeques^ who were bound
to the land; above them came ascending grades
until we reach the emperor at the top of all.
Three features characteristic of the feudal sys-
tem everywhere, were found. An overlord su-
preme in the central government, whose standard
all followed in war and whose authority and
person were regarded as semi-divine. Prac-
tically independent nobles or chiefs of tribes,
levying their own taxes, holding peoples and
cities in subjection, transmitting their titles by
right of inheritance and ready to contend with
the emperor himself on questions of etiquette
and precedence. Many of them were his kins-
men and all were allied amongst themselves,
thus forming an aristocracy of rank and power.
Finally, a people reduced to practical serfage.
Sumptuary laws prescribed the dress of the
different orders, and the regulations governing
court-dress for different occasions were rigidly
enforced; all removed their sandals in the em-
peror's presence, and even the greatest nobles
covered their ornaments with a plain mantle
when they appeared before him. The Aztec
language was extremely polite and contained,

^ Orozco y Berra, Hist. Antigua, lib. iv.

Montezuma and His Empire 59

not only titles, but many ceremonious phrases
of respect, and expressions of courtesy and de-
ference. The crown descended in the same fam-
ily, but a council of six electors, chosen during
the life-time of the sovereign, met immediately
after his death and elected a successor from
among the eligible princes of the royal family.

Alongside these indications of an advanced
civilisation are found several others which show
a nation still in its infancy. They did not
know the use of wax or oil for lighting purposes
and they used no milk. They had no coinage;
cacao nuts were commonly used as a standard
of value and also gold dust, put up in quills,
but usually commodities were exchanged. Saha-
gun mentions a sort of coin which the Mexicans
called quahtli or eagle, but he does not describe
it. Montezuma paid his losses at play with the
Spaniards, in chips of gold, each of the value
of fifty ducats; this piece was called tejuele but
it does not certainly appear to have been a coin.
There was no system of phonetic writing. They
kept no domestic animals save rabbits, turkeys,
and little dogs, all of which they ate. Their
only cereal was maize and they had no beasts
of burden. They knew neither iron, nor tin,
nor lead, though the mountains were full of
them, and their only hard metal was copper.

Even from the summary and incomplete in-
dications here given, it may be seen that the
Aztec state possessed many excellent insti-

6o Fernando Cortes

tutions and the elements of an advanced ciyili-
sation and, despite the coexistence of certain
limitations which have led some to donbt the
development claimed for them, our interest in
the origin and history of the mysterious races
of Ankhuac is stimulated to wonder and admira-
tion, for what we do know of their empire, and
to boundless regret for the disappearance of all,
save the few vestiges which remain to excite a
curiosity they are inadequate to appease.

It is not required to endow Mexico with " the
glory that was Greece and the grandeur that
was Rome," in order to admit that it was
beautiful.

In the year 1519 when Cortes undertook the
invasion and conquest of this empire, its throne
was occupied by Montezuma Xocoyotzin, one of
the six sons of the King Axayacatl, who was
unanimously chosen by the electors to succeed
his uncle, Ahuitzotl. The eligible princes, in
that instance, were his own five brothers and
the seven sons of the deceased emperor.
Montezuma II. assumed the appelation of
Xocoyotzin upon his accession, signifying
"younger," to distinguish him from the elder,
Montezuma Ilhuicamina. Prescott gives his
age as twenty-three at the time of the election,
in 1502, but I prefer to follow the authority of
the Tezozomoc MS. given in Orozco y Berra,
which states that he was born in 1468 and was
hence thirty-four years old.

Montezuma and His Empire 6i

His early career was that of a successful
soldier, from which he passed into the priest-
hood, rising to the high grade of pontifif. At
that time he was held in great veneration by the
people as one who received revelations from the
gods, and his strict life was a model to his
fellows. It is related that, when the news of
his election to the imperial throne was brought
to him, he was found sweeping the steps of the
temple whose altars he served. His tempera-
ment was theocratic, he ruled sternly, and ill-
brooked opposition or even counsel, but he was
princely in recompensing faithful service. He
had greatly embellished his capital, but the
liberality that built an aqueduct, an hospital,
and new temples in the city, cost the subject pro-
vinces dear, and Montezuma, being both despotic
and a heavy tax-levier, was more feared than
loved by his people and allies. Loving order,
he understood the science of government, but
his finer qualities were marred by his inordinate
pride, and most of all by the ferocious supersti-
tion which finally lost him his throne and his
life.

The appearance of the ships of Cordoba and
Grijalba, and the fighting in Yucatan were
quickly reported to Montezuma, whose super-
stitious mind was so effected by events in which
he saw the disasters to himself and his people
foretold by Quetzalcoatl, that his first impulse
was to save himself by some enchantment or

62 Fernando Cortes

incantation which should translate him to
the abode, or Walhalla^ of the famous kings and
demi-gods of antiquity. The simultaneous ap-
parition of a great comet in the sky, confirmed
these forebodings and he gave himself entirely
into the hands of his diviners or necromancers,
who exercised all their resources of interpreting
dreams, reading signs in natural phenomena
and studying the heavens, to obtain directions
for their sovereign in his perplexity. Many,
whose dreams presaged evil, were starved to
death or put to tortures ; a reign of terror set in
and none dared to speak in the sovereign's pres-
ence, while the prisons were full of luckless magi-
cians, and death penalties were inflicted even
upon their families in the provinces.^

As the proofs of the presence of the white
strangers in their floating houses accumulated,
despite Montezuma's reluctance to believe the
reports which were repeatedly brought to him,
he fell into a state of profound depression
and, despairing of warding ofif the ominous
visitors, he ordered costly gifts to be especially
made, and he sent two envoys, Teutlamacazqui
and Cuitlalpitoc to Pinotl, governor of Cuet-
lachtla, commanding him to provide in every way
for the reception and entertainment of the sup-
posed celestial guests. After the departure of
Grijalba's men, the fears of Montezuma some

^ Duran, cap. Iviii. Tezozomoc apud Orozco y Berra,
torn, iv., cap. ii.

Montezuma and His Empire 63

what subsided and he persuaded himself that
he had staved off the impending disaster. The
governor of the coast provinces, however, had
strict orders to keep watch and to immediately
report any further appearance of the fearsome
strangers.

The way for the conquest was already pre-
pared and both the Aztec historians and the
earliest Spanish authorities record, that for
a number of years the belief that the hour of the
empire's dissolution was at hand, had been
steadily gaining ground, promoted by several
events which were regarded as supernatural
warnings of the approaching downfall. The
lake of Texcoco had risen suddenly in 1510 and
inundated the city, without any visible cause
or accompanying earthquakes or tempest; one
of the towers of the great toecalli was destroyed
in 1511 by a mysterious conflagration, that re-
sisted all efforts to extinguish it ; comets, strange
lights in the skies, accompanied by shooting-
stars and weird noises were all interpreted by
the astrologers as portents of gloomy presage.
The miraculous resurrection, three days after
her death, of the princess Papantzin, Monte-
zuma's sister, who brought him a prophetic
warning from her tomb, is reported at length
by Clavigero.^ Legal proofs of this event, which
occurred in 1509, were afterwards forwarded to

^ Storia del Measico, vol. i., p. 289.

64 Fernando Cortes

the court of Rome. The princess is said to have
lived for many years afterwards and to have
been the first person to receive Christian bap-
tism in Tlatelolco (1524), being henceforth
known as Dona Ana Papantzin. Whatever may
have been the exact nature of this occurrence,
the reported miracle doubtless rests upon some
fact which was interpreted by the Mexicans as
supernatural.

Quetzalcoatl, whose dark prophecy above re-
ferred to, cast a shadow of apprehension over
the glory of the Aztec sovereignty, was a Toltec
deity, and was venerated as the god of the air,
more especially identified with the east wind
that brought the fertilising rains. He figures
in different times and places, as a mortal man,
a deified legislator and as a primitive divinity,
thus rendering it difficult to separate the my-
thical from the real in his history. In Yucatan
he was known under the name of Kukulcan^
the etymology of which is identical in meaning
with QuetzalU'Cohuatly signifying a plumed ser-
pent. The story of his residence amongst the
Toltecs relates that he appeared as the chief
of a band of strangers coming from unknown
parts. He was larger than the Toltec men,
white-faced and bearded. He wore a long white
tunic, on which were black or dark-red crosses,
which sounds something like a pallium. He
taught the new religious virtues of chastity,
charity, and penance; his religion was mono-

Montezuma and His Empire 65

theistic, and he condemned war and forbade
human sacrifices. He instructed the natives in
the arts of agriculture, architecture, metal work,
and mechanics; he also brought the Toltec
calendar to the degree of perfection in which
it was found among the Aztecs. The halcyon
period of peace and plenty initiated by his bene-
ficient influence came to a mysteriously sudden
end and Quetzatcoatl left Tollan, accompanied
by a small band of followers, for Cholula. There
he remained for a period of twenty years, after
which he descended towards the seacoast where,
according to one legend, the waves opened be-
fore his steps to allow him to pass, while
according to another, he seated himself upon a
raft composed of serpents and, spreading his
mantle as a sail, was wafted away to the un-
known east. A third version of his end repre-
sents him as ascending his own funeral pyre,
and as the flames and smoke rose, his heart in
the form of a star was seen to mount into the
skies where it became the planet Venus.

The identity of Quetzalcoatl remains an un-
solved mystery. So numerous and striking were
the analogies to Christian teachings presented
by the Mexican beliefs and ritual, that the con-
viction has obtained amongst many, that this
mysterious personage was no other than a
Christian priest or bishop. The Mexican tra-
ditions concerning his appearance amongst the
Toltecs, his teachings, his miracles, and his
s

66 Fernando Cortes

final disappearance, seem to be hopelessly inter-
woven with legends of other deities; his per-
sonality became merged in that of other myth-
ical characters, with a plumed serpent for his
emblem; but there still remained a suflScient
number of intelligible and authentic doctrines
and practices traceable to him, to argue their
Christian origin. Ij^uetzalcoatl was feared by
the Aztecs because of the wide-spread belief in
the prophecy attributed to him, that one day
he, or his descendants, would return to reclaim
his rightful heritage and establish his dominion
over the land. He was to return as an avenger,
hence the object of the cult paid him was to
propitiate his w^rath, though the rites celebrated
in his honour did violence to his humane teach-
ings. The description of the bearded white men
who had arrived on his coasts in winged and
floating houses, persuaded Montezuma that the
second coming of Quetzalcoatl was at handj
Within the inflexible circuit of his superstitions,
his tormented soul turned and turned in hope-
less perplexity. Restrained by his fears, he did
not dare to use his power to crush the handful
of strangers who troubled the peace of his
realm. His royal allies and nobles were called
into daily council from which no decision issued.
The greater number were of the opinion that
if the strangers were gods, it w^as useless to
resist them; if they came as envoys of a foreign
sovereign, they should be received as such, while

Montezuma and His Empire 67

if they showed hostile intentions, they could be
easily crushed at the emperor's convenience.
Only Cuitlahuac, the lord of Itztapalapan, with
prophetic foresight dissented from this view and
urged the immediate destruction of the unbidden
guests before they could work the nation any
evil.

CHAPTER III

ALLIES OP THE SPANIARDS

Arrival at San Juan de Ulua — Marina — Embassies from
Montezuma — Founding of Vera Cruz — At Cempoalla

Missionary Methods

FOUR days were employed by the voyage
from Tabasco to San Juan de Ulua, during
which time those of the officers and men who
had accompanied the previous expeditions along
that coast under Hernandez de Cordoba, or
Grijalba, were busy recognising and pointing
out to their companions the different places
familiar to them.

Puertocarrero while listening to these remi-
niscences recalled an old ballad of Montesinos :

Cata Francia, Montesinos,
Cata Paris la Ciudad,
Cata las aguas del Duero,
Do van k dar en la mar.^

^ Here is France, Montesinos,
And here the city of Paris,
Here flow the waters of Duero,
On their way to the sea.
A popular song of those times, which is published in
Duran's Romances Caballerescos y Historicos.

68

Allies of the Spaniards 69

Turning to Cortes he added : " But I say, you
should look for rich lands and know how to
rule them." Cortes answered : " May God give
us such fortune in warfare as to the paladin
Roland, and as for the rest, with such knights
as you and these gentlemen for my companions,
I shall know very well what to do."

The ships cast anchor at San Juan de Ulua
on Koly Thursday the twenty-first of April at
midday.^ The pilot Alaminos chose a favour-
able anchorage, where the vessels would be
protected from the norther, a wind much dreaded
of mariners on those seas. Many Indians were
seen crowding the shores, and within half an
hour two large canoes filled with people put off
and approached the commander's ship. They
asked by signs to see the chief, for Aguilar
knew no Mexican, and the Maya tongue was
not intelligible to the Indians. The Spaniards
made out that their visitors had been sent by
the governor of the province to inquire who
. they were and whether they intended to remain
there or to proceed farther. The Indians were
invited on board and regaled with food and
wine, and it was explained to them that the
Spaniards would land the following day; the
visit concluded with a friendly exchange of
the usual presents and the natives left as they
had come.^

1 Bemal Diaz, cap. xxxvi.

2 Gomara, Cronica, cap. xxv. ; Bemal Diaz, cap xxxviii.

70 Fernando Cortes

On Good Friday the Spaniards landed and
formed a camp. The land along the coast was
level, save for some low hills formed by the
drifting sands that were constantly shifted by
the frequent northers. Cortes placed his bat-
teries in such wise as to defend his camp
from possible attack, though the Indians were
most friendly and helped his men in building
huts, felling trees, and other necessary labour,
besides supplying woven mats, cotton hangings,
and carpets of their own manufacture. The
site was a badly chosen one, for it was low
and was surrounded by stagnant swamps that
bred malaria. Another pest, from which there
was no escape by day or night, was the insects.
Every creature that crawls or flies, or buzzes,
bites and stings, infested the coast. The na-
tives supplied the camp with turkeys, fish, and
various dishes of their own cooking, besides
fruits and vegetables of the country, some of
which the Spaniards tasted for the first time.

On Easter Sunday, an embassy from Monte-
zuma, composed of Teuhtlili, the governor of
Cuetlaxtla, and Cuitlalpitoc, who had before
visited Grijalba in the same capacity, arrived
in the camp. About four thousand persons,
including some men of rank and the attendants
who carried Montezuma's gifts to Cortes, ac-
companied the envoys. Approaching Cortes
with much ceremony the ambassadors salaamed
three times, after their fashion, touching the

Allies of the Spaniards 71

earth with their hands and afterwards kissing
them; they next incensed him, an act of homage
they offered to their deities, their sovereign,
and to persons of the very highest rank. Cortes
responded becomingly to these demonstrations
of respect, but before beginning to treat with
the envoys. Fray Bartolom6 de Olmedo said
mass, at which the Aztecs assisted with grave
interest.

Difficulty had already been experienced in
communicating with the men who had visited
the ships three days before, as Geronimo de
Aguilar was unable to comprehend the Mexican
speech. It was opportunely discovered that
one of the slave women presented by the cacique
of Tabasco was a native Mexican, and, having
been in captivity in that province, she could
speak the Maya language. She was thus able
to understand Aguilar, who, in turn, trans-
lated into Spanish for Cortes. This woman,
Marina by name, was the daughter of a chieftain
of Painalla, whose unnatural mother had con-
tracted a second marriage after her first hus-
band's death and had consented to sell her
daughter into slavery in order to transfer her
inheritance to a son of her second marriage.
Marina was delivered to some traders of Xical-
ango, who afterwards sold her in the province
of Tabasco. Her family name was Tenepal and
her Indian name, Malinal, was derived from
Malinalli which is the sign of the twelfth day

72 Fernando Cortes

of the Mexican month; thus her Christian name
in baptism, Marina, was really derived from,
or suggested by, her original Indian name. As
the Indians could not pronounce the letter R
there was practically no change of name, save
that in her new and important position they
gave her the tzin, which was a title of respect,
and henceforth she was called Malintzin. The
Spaniards corrupted this into Malinche and
Cortes became universally known as the captain
of Malinche. In the distribution of women at
Tabasco, Marina had fallen to Puertocarrero,
but when her value as an interpreter was dis-
covered, she was promoted to the tent of Cortes,
and Puertocarrero left shortly afterwards for
Spain bearing the first letters and gifts to the
Emperor. Marina became indispensable and
all-powerful. She was unusually intelligent
and quickly learned Castilian, so that Aguilar's
intervention was no longer required and she
alone acted as intermediary between the Span-
iards and the Mexicans. She 'dispensed peace
or war at her pleasure and held the fate of
both parties in her hand. How faithfully and
disinterestedly she played her part, we have no
means of judging. She gave herself entirely to
the Spaniards and was devotedly attached to
Cortes, but whether she dealt fairly with the
Indians in her handling of the important nego-
tiations she conducted, may be doubted. Ber-
nal Diaz declares that she was so capable that

Allies of the Spaniards 73

they all held her to be like no other woman
on earth, and that they never detected the
smallest feminine weakness in her.^

On the memorable occasion of the first Inter-
view between Cortes and the envoys of Monte-
zuma, Marina was instructed to explain that
the Spaniards were subjects of the greatest and
most powerful sovereign in the world, by name
Don Carlos, whom many kings and princes held
it an honour to serve as his vassals. As their
monarch had long known of Montezuma's great-
ness, he had finally sent his envoy to enter into
friendly relations with him, and in token of
his good-will had sent him certain gifts. Cor-
tes therefore begged that Montezuma would
signify when and where he would receive him.

The Aztec envoys listened in perplexed sur-
prise to this discourse, and to the request for
an audience Teuhtlili somewhat haughtily ex-
claimed : " You have hardly arrived here and
you already want to speak to the Emperor." ^
He then signed to the bearers to bring forward
the gifts, which consisted of mantles of the
finest cotton textures, almost rivalling silk in
their delicate colouring and finish; articles of
the marvellous feather-work, of such exquisite
workmanship that it was hardly distinguishable

1 Hist. Verdad., cap. xxxvii., xxxviii. ; Ixtlilxochitl, Hist-
toria Chichimeca, cap. Ixxix.; Diego Camargo, Historia de
Tlascala,

2 Bemal Diaz, cap. xxxviii.

74 Fernando Cortes

from the finest embroidery or painting, and
certain ornaments of wrought gold. In ex-
change for these royal presents, Cortes delivered
to the ambassadors a carved and painted arm-
chair, a crimson cap, on which was a gold
medal of St. George and the dragon, and a num-
ber of collars and other ornaments of glass
beads. He arranged a display of cavalry
manoeuvres and caused the artillery to be dis-
charged, all of which made an obvious im-
pression on the envoys. There were several
artists present, engaged in painting, on cloth,
pictures of all they saw, especially the portraits
of Cortes, Marina, and the negro slaves, to be
shown to Montezuma. Teuhtlili observed that
the gilt helmet of a soldier resembled the one
worn by the Aztec war-god, Huitzilopochtli, and
desired that Montezuma should see it. In giv-
ing it to him, Cortes asked that it might be
returned to him full of gold-dust, to be sent to
his sovereign Charles V. Although Teuhtlili
discouraged all hope of Montezuma's admitting
Cortes to his presence, he took his departure
amicably, promising to return in a few days
with the monarch's decision.

Montezuma, who was kept informed by daily
couriers of what was happening in the Spanish
camp, still hesitated between the two courses
open to him. He continued to consult magi-
cians, whom he summoned from Yauhtepec,
Cuauhnahuac, Malinalco, and other towns of his

Allies of the Spaniards 75

dominions, but the oracles delivered by these
seers appear to have been as nebulous as such
utterances usually are, and the Emperor ended
by adopting two conflicting policies. Fearing
that the strangers, whom he held to be demi-
gods, would advance to his capital in spite of his
prohibition, he gave orders for every honour to
be shown them and for all their wants to be
generously supplied. Simultaneously, he di-
rected the magicians to proceed to the coast
and, by the power of their incantations, to turn
the invaders from their purpose and influence
them to quit the country. The journey of these
gifted men proved a fruitless expedition, and they
returned to the capital to report that, as their
charms and exorcisms produced no effect, the
white men must be deities of a very superior
order. ^

Meanwhile Teuhtlili also returned bringing
the presents from Cortes. Upon hearing that
the latter persisted in his desire to visit the
capital, Montezuma was more than ever per-
turbed, convinced that the fulfilment of Quetz-
alcoatl's prophecy was at hand. The only one
of his counsellors who still advised resistance
was Cuitlahuac, lord of Itztapalapan, who pro-
nounced these prophetic words : " It seems to
me, my lord, that you should not admit to your
house one who will drive you out of it." ^ This

1 Tezozomoc, cap. ex. ; Duran, cap. Ixxi.

2 Ixtlilxochitl, Hiatoria Chichimeca, cap. Ixxx.

76 Fernando Cortes

counsel prevailed and Teuhtlili was again de-
spatched to the coast, accompanied this time by
a man who was thought to bear a striking re-
semblance to Cortes, judging from the pictures
drawn by the Emperor's artists. That the re-
semblance existed is proven by the fact that,
on the man's appearance in camp, the Spaniards
at once detected and commented on the like-
ness. Bernal Diaz calls this man Quintalbor,
but he became later known as the Mexican
Cortes.

The embassy was conducted with the same
formalities and was accorded the same reception
as on the former visit. More presents from
Montezuma were offered, amongst which two
pieces of the metal-worker's craft excited special
admiration. One was a golden sun, elaborately
decorated with scroll figures and representations
of certain animals, probably the signs of the
Mexican zodiac, that weighed more than ten
marks. The other was a similar piece of silver,
representing the moon, and weighing fifty
marks. ^ They are described as being as large
around as carriage wheels, and the Spaniards
estimated their value at twenty-five thousand

1 Senor Clemencin, sometime secretary of the Royal
Academy of History, has carefully computed the values
of the different Spanish coins of the period. The cdstel-
lanOy according to his estimate, was equivalent to eleven
dollars and sixty-seven cents of American money. The
silver mark was equal to eight ounces.

Allies of the Spaniards 77

castellanos^ worth of metal alone, exclusive of
the marvellous workmanship, that would double
their value in any market of Europe.^ The
soldier's gilt helmet was also returned filled
with the desired gold-dust.

The message from Montezuma, though veiled
in smooth language, was equivalent to a posi-
tive refusal to allow the Spaniards to approach
his capital. He professed himself highly pleased
to have news of such a great monarch as the
King of Spain, and to enjoy his friendship and,
as a proof of his satisfaction, he would be glad
to provide the Spaniards with everything they
required as long as they remained in his do-
minions. Teuhtlili concluded by saying, that,
as Montezuma could neither descend to the
coast nor could Cortes, on account of the many
obstacles which he enumerated, make the long
and perilous voyage to the capital, it would be
impossible for his sovereign to receive him.

If Montezuma was a past master in the arts
of diplomacy, Cortes was no less skilful in dis-
simulating. He accepted the presents, giving
some of his usual trifles in return, and quietly
reiterated his demand for an audience of the
Aztec sovereign. He reminded Teuhtlili that,
having crossed so many leagues of ocean for the
sole purpose of delivering his King's message,

1 Herrera, dec. ii., lib. v., cap. v. ; Torquemada, lib. iv.,
cap. xvii.; Bernal Diaz, cap. xxxis;.; Gomara, cap. xxvii.;
First Letter of Relation.

78 Fernando Cortes

he was not to be deterred by the difficulties of
a journey overland to the capital, nor would
he dare to return without having accomplished
the mission on which he had been sent. The
unfortunate envoy reluctantly agreed to carry
this message to Montezuma, while his companion,
Cuitlalpitoc, remained in the Spanish camp to
superintend the daily supply of necessary
provisions.

The discomforts of the camp increased as the
month of May advanced, and some thirty men
had already died. Cortes therefore despatched
Francisco de Montejo and the pilots, Anton de
Alaminos and Juan Alvarez, with two vessels,
to seek a more sheltered harbour for the ships
and a more salubrious site for a permanent
settlement. During the ten or twelve days^
absence of this expedition a most significant
and illuminating event occurred in the Spanish
camp. Prince Ixtlilxochitl, the pretender to
the throne of Texcoco, secretly sent his agents
to welcome Cortes and offer him the customary
presents. The emissaries of the ambitious pre-
tender acquainted Cortes with the discordant
state of affairs in the Aztec empire, soliciting
his help to overthrow the tyrant and liberate the
enslaved peoples.^ Other malcontents also fur-
nished him, at this time, with exact informa-
tion concerning the position of the capital and

1 Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chichimeca, cap. Ixxx.

Allies of the Spaniards 79

the approaches to it, explaining to him, by
means of ancient picture-writings, the prophecy
of Quetzalcoatl, and voicing the complaints of
those provinces that had been subjected by force
to Montezuma^s rule and only waited a pro-
pitious occasion to free themselves from his
oppression.^ With consummate patience, Cortes
collected information from these and other
sources that made him master of the situation,
and his plan for conquest was being carefully
and sagaciously formed while his followers
wrangled over the division of the spoils, in-
dulged in desultory trading with the natives,
and were absorbed in the usual trifling occu-
pations of an idle camp.

A noticeable change took place in the dis-
position of the Indians; provisions suddenly
became scarcer and dearer. Within eight or
ten days after his departure, Teuhtlili reap-
peared bringing more presents and four large
green stones resembling emeralds, which were
highly esteemed by the natives, but were of
small intrinsic value. Bemal Diaz estimated
the value of the gold brought at this time, at
three thousand pesos. The message from Mon-
tezuma was a flat refusal to receive Cortes or
to permit him to advance: Montezuma de-
clined to receive or send any further messages
on the subject.

1 Orozco y Berra, Conquista de MeneicOy torn, iv., p. 139.

8o Fernando Cortes

While Teuhtlili was in camp, the Angelas
rang out, and the Spaniards uncovered and
knelt to recite the customary prayers before the
wooden cross they had set up. In response to
the envoy's inquiry as to the meaning of this
devotion, Cortes directed Fray Bartolom6 to
explain the doctrines of the Catholic faith to
the Mexicans. The friar's discourse was lucid
and exhaustive, and at its close he presented
TeuhtliU with a cross and a small image of the
Blessed Virgin and Child, which he asked him
to deliver to Montezuma, and to explain to the
Emperor the sense of what he had just preached,
Teuhtlili promised to do this and left the camp
for the last time that same evening. The next
morning the Spaniards found themselves aban-
doned, all the Indians having disappeared in
the night, leaving them destitute of provisions.^

The sudden disappearance of the Indians from
the camp, besides cutting off the supplies, roused
apprehensions that a hostile attack was im-
minent. Strict attention was paid to the de-
fences, and the Spaniards were constantly on
the alert against a possible surprise. Their
fears were not realised however, and three days
after the departure of Teuhtlili, five strange
Indians, wearing an entirely different dress
from the Mexicans, appeared in camp saying

1 First Letter of Relation: Bemal Diaz, cap. xi.;
Gomaray cap. xxvii.; Torquemada, lib. iv., cap. xviii.

Allies of the Spaniards 8i

they belonged to the tribe or nation of the Toto-
nacs and had been sent from their chief city
of Cempoalla by their ruler to seek the friend-
ship of Cortes. Two of the five spoke the Nahua
or Aztec tongue, so the conversation was carried
on through Marina. The Totonacs said they
would have come sooner but for fear of the
Mexicans, who had only recently conquered their
country and held them in subjection. They
proposed an alliance with Cortes, by whose aid
they hoped to throw off the Mexican yoke.
Cortes received them kindly, listened attentively
to all they told him, and, after informing him-
self concerning the exact whereabouts and the
resources of their country, he dismissed them
with presents for their chief, saying he would
soon come to Cempoalla to visit them.

Montejo and his companions had returned
after an absence of twelve days, and reported
that they had found a better harbour and a more
suitable position for the camp, where there
was plenty of fresh water. This place was some
twelve leagues to the north of San Juan de
Ulua, in the vicinity of a town called Quiahu-
iztla, and thither Cortes gave orders to transport
the camp.

This order was not received with unanimous
approval, and proved the signal for an outbreak
of the dissension that had for some time been
silently brewing in the camp. The men were
divided into two parties, one of which was in

6

82 Fernando Cortes

favour of scrupulously fulfilling the instructions
of Diego Velasquez and of returning to Cuba
with what treasure they had collected. The
other group, though doubtless unconscious of
the schemes forming in the brain of Cortes, was
in favour of establishing a permanent colony
and, in any event, was ready to follow their
commander. The position of Cortes was no
easy one; even the valuable spoil he had col-
lected, if turned over to Velasquez, would not
suffice to appease his resentment, while such a
proceeding would leave him ruined, both in
fortune and reputation. The glimpse he had
obtained of the wealth of Mexico, and his in-
creasing knowledge of the weakness of Monte-
zuma's state, encouraged a daring project of
conquest which he hoped to successfully carry
out. By uniting to himself all the rebellious
and discontented elements in the empire and
boldly raising the standard of revolt, native
allies would flock to him.

The case as stated by the partisans of Velas-
quez was the common-sense one. They claimed
that the expedition had been sent by the gov-
ernor's authority, fitted out largely with his
money, for certain defined purposes. These
purposes had been achieved as far as it was
.possible to accomplish them and, thus far, his
instructions had been obeyed. The course laid
down had been followed, the Spanish prisoners
in Yucatan had been found, the Gospel had

Allies of the Spaniards 83

been preached in various places to the natives,
with whom profitable trading relations were
established, and they had amassed an imposing
quantity of treasure which it was now their
duty to carry back to Cuba. They urged that
thirty-five men were dead of wounds and the
pestilential climate, that others were ill, while
all were without provisions and exposed to the
certainty of an attack by the Mexicans, who
had doubtless retired for the sole purpose of
uniting an overwhelming force to crush them.
They demanded that the expedition should
return to Cuba at once.

Cortes replied to these representations with
great moderation. His opinion was that they
would be ill-advised to abandon the country now
that they had obtained a foothold in it; it was
necessary to explore somewhat farther, so as to
make a satisfactory report concerning the land,
its resources, and its inhabitants. As for the
loss of thirty odd men, he reminded them that
this was a suprisingly small number, since in
all warfare some must fall, and that they should
rather thank God for His protection. The want
of provisions need alarm no one, for there was
always plenty of maize in the fields near by.
The well-pondered words and the calm manner
of the leader somewhat tranquillised the grow-
ing agitation and even won him some adherents;
Puertocarrero, the Alvarado brothers. Olid, Es-
calante, Avila, and Francisco de Lugo, who

84 Fernando Cortes

were the chief partisans of Cortes, worked
secretly amongst the soldiers to win them to
their views. Their principal argument was an
appeal to the soldiers' past experience of the
cupidity of Diego Velasquez, reminding them
that he invariably took the lion's share of every-
thing for himself, leaving the men who had
risked their lives in perilous adventures as poor
as they were in the beginning. This, they as-
sured the soldiers, would repeat itself if they
were to return now to Cuba with the treasure
they had collected. They proposed, therefore,
that a permanent settlement should be founded,
of which Cortes should be elected captain by
a popular vote. The partisans of Velasquez
were not slow to hear of these manoeuvres and
promptly presented themselves in a body before
the commander, demanding that the original
instructions of the governor be fulfilled to the
letter. Cortes replied that he would on no ac-
count disobey his superior's orders, and forth-
with commanded the ships to be got ready for
everybody to embark the next day for Cuba.

Such ready compliance nonplussed the friends
of Velasquez and left them in a state of per-
plexity, for, having so easily obtained what they
asked, they were no longer so sure that they
wanted it. The adherents of Cortes then shifted
their ground. They held a conference in which
it was declared that, as Spaniards, their first
duty was to their King; as they already held

Allies of the Spaniards 85

practical possession, in the royal name, of a
strip of rich coast-land, over which the banner
of Castile floated, they were bound to secure it
arid, instead of returning to Cuba where Velas-
quez and Cortes would merely divide the profits
of the expedition between themselves, they
should found a town and establish the King's
jurisdiction in this new country. They forth-
with entered a counter-protest to the com-
mander, declaring that the service of God and
of the King forbade the abandonment of the
country, and formally demanding that he, as
captain of the expedition, should found a settle-
ment and name the necessary municipal officers
from amongst them according to Spanish cus-
tom; in case of a refusal, their intention was
to denounce him to the King. Cortes deferred
his answer until the following day. It was
difficult for the opposing party to combat the
high patriotic and religious stand their ad-
versaries had adroitly taken, nor does it appear
that any open attempt was made to do so. The
conversion of the Indians to the true faith, the
extension of His Majesty's dominions — these
were high purposes which it would ill-become
good Catholics and loyal subjects to oppose.

At the appointed hour on the following day,
the last act of this historic comedy was gravely
performed. Addressing the assembled men,
Cortes declared that his sole wish was to serve
his sovereigns, at no matter what cost or loss

86 Fernando Cortes

to himself; he felt bound to accede to the will
of the majority of the members of the expedi-
tion and he therefore proceeded to appoint the
necessary officers of justice to carry on the
government of the new colony. Alonso Her-
nandez Puertocarrero and Francisco de Montejo
were named alcaldes; Juan de Escalante, al-
guacil mayor; Cristobal de Olid, quartermaster-
general ; Alonso Alvarez, procurator-general ;
Gonzalo Mexia, treasurer; Alonso de Avila,
accountant; Pedro and Alonso de Alvarado,
Alonso de Avila, and Gonzalo de Sandoval, re-
gidors; Diego Godoy as notary. The elaborate
name of Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz ^ was
given to the new settlement, the " rica '' being
suggested by the rich character of the soil and
the " Vera Cruz '' by the date of their landing,
which was a Good Friday, a day when the holy
cross is especially venerated.

The legal formalities so scrupulously observed
were a trifle farcical in this particular instance,
and Cortes doubtless listened to the reading of
the " requirements '' with a solemn exterior, but
with his tongue in his cheek. He resigned the
authority he had received from Velasquez, the
royal governor of Cuba, into the hands of
the municipal authorities he had himself, in re-
sponse to the popular demand, appointed, and
who thereby likewise became royal officials.

1 " Rich City of the True Cross."

Allies of the Spaniards 87

Tbey in their turn exercised" their newly ac-
quired powers, to elect him captain-general and
chief justice of the new colony and thus, by due
form of law, Cortes found himself, within twenty-
four hours after his abdication, installed as the
recognised dispenser of civil justice and as
military commander. He showed a becoming
reluctance to accept the nomination and finally
had all the appearance of yielding to an irre-
sistible expression of the popular will. Bernal
Diaz quotes to the point an old Spanish pro-
verb : ^^ Tu mi lo ruegas y yo mi lo quieroJ' ^

The partisans of Velasquez, though in a minor-
ity, still argued that the election was irregular,
because they had not taken part in it, nor had
it been confirmed either by the Jeronymite
fathers or the governor of Cuba. This incipient
sedition was characteristically met, by Cortes
offering as many as were dissatisfied, permission
to re-embark and return to Cuba, while he
demonstrated the reality of the new state of
things, by ordering the arrest of Juan Velas-
quez, Diego de Ordaz, Pedro Escudero, and
others of the more active agitators, who were
forthwith imprisoned on the captain's ship.
This drastic move had the desired effect on the
waverers.^

1 Literally " You ask me to do what I want to do.**

2 First Letter of Relation: Bernal Diaz, cap. xlii.;
Gomara, cap. xxx.; Las Casas, lib. iii., cap. cxxii.; Tor-
quemada, lib. iv., cap. xviii.

88 Fernando Cortes

In the distribution of the municipal offices,
Cortes was careful to include several of the
men of the opposing faction. Pedro de Alva-
rado was despatched inland with one hundred
men, ostensibly to collect provisions, but also
to divide the forces of the malcontents by
eliminating some of them temporarily from the
camp. This detachment visited several places
in the government of Cuetlaxtla, where they
discovered on all sides evidences of recent hu-
man sacrifices. The inhabitants almost invari-
ably abandoned their villages on the approach
of the Spaniards and fled. A goodly supply of
grain and other provisions was obtained and
the expedition was welcomed back to camp,
where its members regaled their companions
with accounts of the horrible vestiges of canni-
balism they had seen.^

During the absence of these men, Cortes had
employed his most engaging arts to win over
his opponents. The last to hold out were Diego
de Ordaz, and Juan Velasquez de Leon, who
was a kinsman of Diego Velasquez. With the
final adhesion of these two, all open dissension
ceased and Cortes was undisputed master of the
situation. He carried out his purpose of trans-
porting the settlement to the site recommended
by Montejo, sending the sick and wounded on
board the ships, which also carried the heavy

1 Bemal Diaz, cap. xliv.

Allies of the Spaniards 89

guns and provisions, while he, at the head of
some four hundred men, marched northwards
along the sandy beach. Leaving these dreary
wastes, the expedition gradually advanced into
the rich, rolling country behind Vera Cruz,
where forests of palms afforded a grateful pro-
tection from the tropical sun. Amidst the dark
foliage of these virgin forests, gorgeous orchids
and flowering creepers vie in the brilliancy of
their colouring with the gaily plumaged birds
of the parrot species which inhabit the dense
world of verdure overhead. Game abounded
and those of the men whose exuberant forces
were not exhausted by the fatigues of the march,
even engaged in chasing the deer, which roamed
in herds through sylvan defiles and over verdant
uplands.

The country was found to be everywhere de-
serted, but the evidences of human sacrifices
and cannibal feasts were frequent. During the
march, twelve Indians of the Totonacs appeared,
bringing provisions and reiterating their ca-
cique's invitation to visit him at Cempoalla.
Cortes received these overtures with satisfaction
and sent six of the messengers back to announce
his acceptance of the invitation, while the other
six remained to act as guides. Just before
reaching the town, twenty of the principal citi-
zens came out to receive Cortes, saying that
tlieir chief was unable to come in person, but
was awaiting his arrival in the town. One of

90 Fernando Cortes

the Spanish horsemen who had ridden ahead,
came galloping back and announced in great
excitement that the walls of the houses of the
city were all of silver. Gomara observes that,
in the excited state of their imaginations, every-
thing that glistened in the sun seemed to the
Spaniards gold or silver.

The town was en fete for the entrance of the
guests, and its streets were thronged with peo-
ple, both men and women, who mixed with the
Spaniards without a sign of fear. Both sexes
were dressed in garments of coloured cotton
stuffs, the men wearing loin-cloths and long
mantles, somewhat in the Moorish style, while
many of the women of the upper classes were
arrayed in embroidered and painted draperies
that fell in graceful folds from the neck to the
feet; ornaments of gold were common, and the
beautiful head-dress of many coloured plumes
and the profusion of flowers, for which the In-
dians cherished the highest appreciation, served
to enhance the natural beauties of form and
feature, which all early visitors to America
ascribe to the inhabitants. The cacique ap-
peared at the entrance of his palace, supported
by two attendants, for he was so fat he could
hardly walk alone. The Spaniards nicknamed
him el cacique gordo or the fat chief. After
the customary incensing and salutations, Cortes
embraced the cacique, who made a speech of
welcome. The Spaniards were lodged in the

Allies of the Spaniards 91

temples and served with an elaborate repast.^
Notwithstanding this friendly reception, Cortes
took the precaution of having his guns in readi-
ness for any possible emergency and of strictly
forbidding any of his men to leave their quarters
or to separate themselves from the others.

The cacique offered his guest a modest pres-
ent, meekly apologising for its poverty by say-
ing that it was all he had. The difficulties of
communication were doubled, for the conversa-
tion passed from Spanish into Maya, thence into
Nahua or Mexican, and finally into the Totonac
language, but it seems not to have been less
intelligible or satisfactory on that account.
Cortes graciously accepted the cacique's gift
and said that in return for it he would gladly
render him what services he could, for he came
there as the envoy of the most powerful mon-
arch in the world to administer justice, punish
tyrants, and to abolish human sacrifices. The
cacique needed no further encouragement to
disclose his grievances against Montezuma, who
tyrannised over him and his people, and afflicted
them with numberless vexations. He received
the assurance that the days of such tyranny
were now past, and that as soon as the new
settlement at Quiahuiztla was established, the
Spaniards would return to Cempoalla and help

1 Bemal Diaz, cap. xlv.; Gomara, Cronica, cap. xxxii.;
Herrera, dec. ii., lib. v., cap. viii.

92 Fernando Cortes

him to regain his independence. In the First
Letter of Relation to Charles V., the town of
Cempoalla ^ is described as the best one the
Spaniards had thus far seen. The houses, built
of stone and mortar, stood amidst well-cultivated
gardens and some of them had several spacious
courtyards. The Spaniards were so delighted
with the place that they compared it to Seville
for size and to Villaviciosa for its luxuriant
vegetation and abundance of fruit.

After a stop of only one day in these pleasant
surroundings, Cortes took leave of his new ally
and continued his march towards the site of
the new settlement. The cacique supplied four
liundred men to carry the heavy baggage, for
tliere were no beasts of burden in Mexico and
loads of all kinds were carried by men. Upon
his arrival at Quiahuiztla, it was found that
the inhabitants had fled, but fifteen priests
issued from the chief temple to incense Cortes,
and, as it soon appeared that nothing w^as to
be apprehended from the strangers, the people
returned and Cortes addressed them on his
usual theme, explaining tlie grandeur of the
Spanish King and the doctrines of Christianity,
exhorting them to become vassals of Spain and
good Catholics. The cacique of Cempoalla was
evidently plagued by some misgivings after the

1 Cempohualla is given by some authorities as the more
correct spelling but this name is found, as are all other
Mexican proper names, with every variety of spelling.

Allies of the Spaniards 93

departure of the Spaniards, lest their promised
assistance should fail him, for while Cortes and
the cacique of Quiahuiztla were conversing in
the public square, messengers arrived to say
that the cacique of Cempoalla was approaching.
They were closely followed by the chief himself,
who was carried on the shoulders of numerous
attendants. Both rulers then rehearsed their
grievances against Montezuma: not only were
exorbitant taxes levied by cruel means, but a
tribute of their young men was exacted for the
temple sacrifices in Mexico, and of their fairest
young women to grace the harems of the
Emperor and his confederate kings.

Even while this discussion was proceeding,
Montezuma's tax-collectors entered Quiahu-
iztla. These awe-inspiring oflScials wore a red
filet in their hair, indicating their rank, and
from their shoulders gorgeously coloured man-
tles hung to their feet. Both caciques hastened
to receive them and to order suitable quarters
prepared for their occupancy. Five in number,
the tax-collectors walked haughtily past the
Spaniards without deigning to cast a glance
towards them, smelling the roses they carried
in their hands, wliile their attendants sheltered
them with huge fans of beautiful feathers.

The two caciques were summoned into the
presence of these imperial officials, sharply re-
buked for having received the Spaniards con-
trary to the Emperor's wishes, and, as a penalty

94 Fernando Cortes

for such disobedience, twenty persons were de-
manded as a propitiatory sacrifice to the offended
deities.^ Although the country through which
the Spaniards had marched seemed to them to
be deserted, they were closely followed by spies,
their every movement watched and reported by
couriers to Montezuma ; nor is it likely that the
overtures of the cacique of Cempoalla to Cortes
were kept secret from the Mexican sovereign.
The tax-collectors were acting on explicit orders
from the capital, and in their open disdain of
the Spaniards might be read the proof that
Montezuma had adopted a hostile policy. At
this turn of affairs, Cortes executed a daring
stroke of diplomacy that displayed both the
readiness of his invention and the strategic
foresight he possessed in such a conspicuous de-
gree. Informed by Marina of what was hap-
pening, he called the caciques before him, and
reminding them that his sovereign had sent him
thither to punish injustice and suppress human
sacrifices, he ordered them not only to refuse
the twenty persons exacted for sacrifice, but
to immediately imprison the five tax-gatherers.
The dismay of the caciques was such that, at
first they could not conceive of such a daring
outrage on the persons of the Emperor's repre-
sentatives, but as Cortes remained inflexible,

1 Bemal Diaz, cap. xlvi.; Gomara, Cronica, cap xxxiv.;
Herrera, dec. 11., lib. v., cap. x.; Orozco y Berra, torn. Iv.,
cap. vll.

Allies of the Spaniards 95

the high-handed act was accomplished, one of
the oflScers who resisted being even beaten.
After this there was no turning back for the
two caciques. They advanced rapidly on the
road of rebellion and assented readily enough to
their new counsellor's second suggestion, which
was to publish an edict throughout their ter-
ritories declaring that no more taxes were to
be paid to Montezuma. The news of these revo-
lutionary events spread rapidly throughout the
empire, for the attendants of the tax-collectors
had been allowed to escape when their masters
were seized. Stupefaction greeted the news
wherever it was published, and the edicts of the
two rebellious caciques were listened to by ears
that could scarcely trust their own hearing.
Knowing full well that two small chieftains on
the outskirts of the empire would never of
themselves dare to so flout the mighty Emperor,
it was universally agreed that such acts could
only proceed from gods. From henceforward
the Spaniards were given the name of teules,^
or gods.

Having pushed the two caciques into open
rebellion, and holding five high officers of the
empire in his power, Cortes played his next
move in the game. He opposed the intention
of the Totonacs to kill the tax-collectors, and
had two of the prisoners, who were closely

1 Bemal Diaz, cap. xlvii.

96 Fernando Cortes

guarded by a mixed watch of Spaniards and
Indians, brought before him secretly at night,
without the knowledge of the Indian guards.
Feigning ignorance of what had happened, he
asked who they were and why they were held
prisoners. The tax-gatherers answered that
without his help the caciques would never have
dared to lay hands on them. Cortes declared
himself ignorant of the occurrence and greatly
afflicted by their misfortune. He invited them
to supper, which, after their prison fare, was
doubtless acceptable to the dainty, rose-smelling
gentlemen, accustomed to high living. During
the meal he assured them he would arrange
their escape in order that they might carry to
Montezuma the assurance of his friendship. He
added that had the Mexicans not abandoned the
Spaniards, leaving them without provisions, the
latter would never have visited the Totonacs.
He urged them to fly at once and save them-
selves from death; as for their companions, he
would likewise protect them from the caciques'
murderous desires and, in due time, would find
an opportunity to secure their release. The
officers were not slow to act on such acceptable
counsel, in fact Cortes provided men to row
them across to a spot on the coast outside the
boundaries of Cempoalla. Two messengers who
owed him their lives were tlius despatched to
Montezuma with flattering assurances of good-
will, while three others remained as hostages.

Allies of the Spaniards 97

The escape of two of the prisoners decided
the caciques to sacrifice the remaining three, but
Cortes again intervened, reproving them sharply
for the carelessness of their guards, and, under
pretext of rendering the flight of the others im-
possible, he put them in chains and sent them
on board one of his ships. Once there, he threw
all the blame upon the caciques, explaining to
his prisoners that he had used the only possible
means to rescue them, and promising to send
them safely back to Mexico. It was obvious to
the three Mexicans that he had saved them from
the sacrificial stone ; whether they penetrated his
motives or not, does not appear.^

A conference composed of the caciques of
Cempoalla and Quiahuiztla, and of other neigh-
bouring chiefs who had been summoned, was
then held to decide on their course of future
action. The offence committed was beyond par-
don, and from the Mexicans no mercy was to
be hoped. Cortes pointed out to them the diffi-
culties of their situation and advised them to
ponder well their decision. Two opinions de-
clared themselves in the conference, one in fa-
vour of throwing themselves on the Emperor's
mercy, and offering reparation for the outrage,
while the other was for a supreme struggle for
independence, relying on the assistance of the
teules to win. The latter opinion prevailed.

^ Soils, Conquista de Mexico, lib. ii., cap. ix.

7

98 Fernando Cortes

Before committing himself to the proffered al-
liance, Cortes was assured by the caciques that
the united Totonacs could put one hundred
thousand warriors in the field, a number ex-
actly double his own estimate made later.

The standard of revolt was raised through-
out the country, obedience to Montezuma was
thrown off, and the further payment of tribute
was refused. The caciques acknowledged them-
selves as the vassals of the King of Spain and
the public notary, Diego Godoy, drew up the
ratifications of the alliance.^ The foundations
of the new city of Vera Cruz were laid, and
Cortes not only drew the plan of the town, but
set an example to his men by labouring with
his own hands at the construction of the build-
ings. Large numbers of Indians were ready to
assist the Spaniards, and within a few weeks a
presentable counterpart of a Spanish town was
ready for occupancy. It possessed a church, a
store-house for ammunition, a fort or block-
house for defence in case of hostile attack, a
municipal building, and a sufficient number of
dwellings to house the inhabitants. It was
destined to serve as the point of contact with
the Spanish colonies in the islands, and with
Spain; as a store-house for supplies, and a re-
fuge for the sick and wounded during the cam-
paign against the Aztec capital.

1 Bemal Diaz, cap. xlvii.; Gomara, Cronica, cap. xxxvi.;
Orozco y Berra, torn, iv., p. 158 (note).

Allies of the Spaniards 99

When the news of the outrage perpetrated on
his tax-gatherers and of the insurrection in Cem-
poalla reached Montezuma, his first resolution
was to send a punitive force to chastise his
vassals and destroy the Spaniards; had he put
his intention into effect he would have found
Cortes in a position of doubtful security, while
the Totonacs, still wavering between their hopes
of liberty on the one hand and their fears of
Mexican vengeance on the other, would have
proved but feeble allies. The arrival of the
two liberated prisoners caused the Emperor to
relapse into the perplexity that characterised
all his dealings with the Spaniards. Instead
of an armed expedition to bring the Totonacs
into subjection, he despatched another embassy,
composed of two of his young nephews and four
older councillors, bearing fresh gifts to Cortes.
Highly satisfied with these first fruits of his
diplomacy, the Spanish commander received the
envoys and the present, renewing his protesta-
tions of regard towards Montezuma, and, as a
proof of his sincerity, he delivered to them the
three prisoners whom he still held on board his
ship. When the question of the tribute due
from the Totonacs and the punishment they
merited for their rebellion was touched upon,
Cortes answered that those provinces had passed
under the jurisdiction and protection of the King
of Spain and were henceforth freed from all
obligation towards their former suzerain. He

loo Fernando Cortes

added that he hoped soon to visit Montezuma,
when these matters would be further explained.
The result of this exposition of weakness on the
part of Montezuma was to confirm the Totonacs
in their allegiance to the Spaniards, as they
interpreted the consideration shown to Cortes
as meaning that the Mexicans feared him.

The missionary spirit of these pious adven-
turers did not slumber, and as the authority of
Cortes established . itself more absolutely over
the Totonacs, the moment for suppressing idola-
try and converting the natives to Christianity
seemed propitious. He had meanwhile sup-
ported the cacique in some skirmishes with his
hostile neighbours and, on the return to Cem-
poalla, the latter had presented eight young
girls, daughters of chiefs, to the Spanish cap-
tains. Cortes profited by the occasion to de-
clare that it was impossible for children of the
true faith to accept pagan wonjen and that be-
fore the Indian maidens could hope to share
the companionship of his oflScers, they must
renounce idolatry and become Christians. The
parents of the girls seemed to view their con-
version as an increased honour shown them,
but when Cortes, presuming on the apparent
indifference of the Indians to their religious
belief, ordered the idols to be cast out and
the temples purified for Christian worship, the
cacique not only demurred but even assumed a
threatening attitude.

Allies of the Spaniards loi

Whatever else may be doubted, the religious
sincerity and moral courage of Fernando Cortes
are above impeachment. He was a stranger to
hypocrisy, which is a smug vice of cowards, and
if his reasons for acts of policy, that cost many
lives, may be deplored by the humane, the
honesty of his convictions may be reasonably
impugned by none. Had the influence of his
faith on his morals been proportionate to its
sincerity, he might have merited canonisation.

Sixteenth-century Spain produced a race of
Christian warriors whose piety, born of an in-
tense realisation of, and love for a militant
Christ, was of a martial complexion, beholding
in the symbol of salvation — the Cross — the
standard of Christendom around which the
faithful must rally, and for whose protection
and exaltation swords must be drawn and blood
spilled if need be. They were the children of
the generation which had expelled the last Moor
from Spain, and had brought centuries of relig-
ious and patriotic warfare to a triumphant
close, in which their country was finally united
under the crown of Castile. From such fore-
bears the generation of Cortes received its
heritage of Christian chivalry. The discovery
of a new world, peopled by barbarians, opened
a fresh field to Spanish missionary zeal, in
which the kingdom of God upon earth was to
be extended and countless souls rescued from
the obscene idolatries and debasing cannibalism

I02 Fernando Cortes

which enslaved them. This was the " white
man's burden " which that century laid on
Spaniards' shoulders.

Whatever the risks were, Cortes took them.
He seized the cacique and several of the princi-
pal chiefs, ordering them to command their
people to remain quiet and admonishing them
that the first hostile act would be the signal
for their instant death. Marina went amongst
the people, calming their resentment and re-
calling the protection promised by the teules
against the vengeance of Montezuma, an argu-
ment that also went far towards restraining the
cacique from forfeiting the friendship of his
new allies, without whose help destruction would
inevitably overtake him. The idols at Cem-
poalla shared the fate of those at Cozumel and
Tabasco, for, at a signal from the commander,
fifty soldiers mounted the steps leading to the
top of the pyramid on which the sanctuaries
stood and, penetrating the blood-stained por-
tals, they bore forth the hideous figures and
hurled them to the bottom, where others were
waiting to consign them to the flames. An altar
was set up in the purified temple, mass was
said. Fray Bartolom6 delivered an instruction
to the natives, and the ceremonies terminated
as usual with a procession, in which some of the
Totonac priests, clad in white robes, carried
liglited tapers before the statue of the Blessed
Virgin. Most of all were the Indians amazed

Allies of the Spaniards 103

at the absence of any fulminating act of celes-
tial vengeance on the desecrators of their gods,
and evidences of the divine attributes of the
Spaniards seemed to accumulate before their
eyes.

The cacique having triumphed over his enemies
with the help of the Spaniards and peace being
restored, Cortes prepared to return with his
forces to Vera Cruz. Juan de Torres, an in-
valided soldier, was left to guard the oratory
at Cempoalla and to instruct the Totonacs in
the observance of their new religion.^

1 Bemal Diaz, cap. li., Hi.; Gomara, cap. xliii.; Herrera,
dec. ii., lib* v.

CHAPTER IV

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE SHIPS

Letters to Charles V. — The Velasquez Faction — Destruction
of the Ships — The March to Mexico — The Republic of
Tlascala

THE first news that greeted the Spaniards on
their return to Vera Cruz announced the
arrival that same day of a vessel commanded
by Francisco de Saucedo, having on board
seventy soldiers and two horsemen.^ From
Saucedo it was learned that Diego Velasquez
had received the royal appointment of adelan-
tadOy with faculties to trade and colonise in the
recently discovered countries. This last piece
of intelligence gave Cortes material for serious
reflection and obliged him to delay no further
the necessary steps to obtain for his shaky
authority some firmer foundation than the some-
what equivocal legal sanctions conferred by the
infant municipality of V6ra Cruz. This news
of the royal favour shown Velasquez was bound
to revive the slumbering activity of his par-
tisans in Vera Cruz, who had found themselves
constrained by superior numbers to acquiesce in
the changed plan of the expedition. Velasquez

1 Gomara, cap. xxxviii. ; Bemal Diaz, cap. liii.

104

The Destruction of the Ships 105

had friends at court, and would use every in-
fluence at his disposal to secure the forcible
recall and punishment of Cortes and his ad-
herents, so there was no time to be lost, nor
did his usual perspicacity and promptness of
decision fail the commander in this emergency.
He decided to forestall any report Velasquez
might send to Spain, by writing to the young
King a full account of his expedition and every-
thing that had happened since he left Cuba, and
to send his despatch by his own messengers to
Spain.^ The new arrivals were acceptable re-

1 This letter has never been found and by some was
believed to have been afterwards suppressed by the Coun-
cil for the Indies at the instance of Panfilo de Narvaez,
or to have been taken by the French pirate Jean de
Florin from Alonzo de Avila, and thus prevented from
reaching the Emperor. It bore the date of July 10, 1519,
and left Vera Cruz on the 16th of that month with the
two envoys, Alonso Hernandez Puertocarrero and Fran-
cisco de Monte jo. It was in duplicate, as was likewise
the letter of the magistrates of the newly founded colony,
which was shown to Cortes before it was sent. Bernal
Diaz, who was one of the signers of the joint letter, says
that Cortes had omitted from his own letter the account
of the expeditions of Francisco de Cordoba and of Juan
de Grijalba. The letter of Cortes and that of the magis-
trates confirmed each other, as they were intended to do,
and, according to Bernal Diaz, that of the magistrates
was the more detailed of the two, hence it is, historically,
the more valuable. The only important events which had
happened up to that date, were the change in the char-
acter and objects of the expedition, and the founding of
Vera Cruz, and on these points Cortes and the magistrates
were in perfect accord.

The search for this missing letter having been given

io6 Fernando Cortes

inforcemente to the little army and the opinion
of the majority was in favour of no longer
postponing the march into the interior. The
municipal officers of the new colony who, it was
evident, must stand or fall with Cortes, like-
wise prepared a despatch or carta de reUwion,
addressed to the Queen, Dona Juana, and the
Emperor, Charles V., her son. To ensure a
benevolent reception for these letters the truly
heroic sacrifice of surrendering the entire treas-
ure to the Emperor, instead of merely the royal
fifth that belonged to him by right, was pro-
posed to the members of the expedition. The
officers consented at once, for they i)erceived
that it was no time for half measures and, after
putting the case before the men and explaining
that by sending the whole amount an imposing
present would be made up for the Emperor, a

up in despair, it remained for the perspicacity of Dr.
Robertson to divine that, as the Emperor was about leav-
ing Spain for (Jermany at the time the envoys from Vera
Cruz arrived with the letters, they might still be found
in some of the imperial archives; he accordingly under-
took a search, for which all necessary facilities were
obtained by the British Ambassador in Vienna. His
efforts were crowned with a dual success, in that a cer-
tified copy by a notary public of the letter of the magis-
trates of Vera Cruz was discovered in the imperial
archives, and, at the same time, the fifth letter of the
Relaciones was also imearthed. The first letter appeared
in print, for the first time, in the collection of inedited
documents for Spanish history, published by Navarrete,
in 1844, and from that time has taken its place in the
complete series of five.

The Destruction of the Ships 107

paper was circulated, which all who were will-
ing were invited to sign. No constraint, how-
ever, was employed and any one who so desired,
had but to claim his share, to receive it. The
absolute ascendancy of Cortes over his men is
demonstrated by the fact that not one refused
his signature. A third letter to the Emperor
was drawn up and signed by all the captains
and men who were adherents of Cortes. Alonso
Hernandez Puertocarrero and Francisco de
Montejo were chosen to bear these letters to
Spain.

After assisting at a mass, said by Fray Barto-
lom6 de Olmedo, the two envoys sailed on July
16, 1519, and they took with them the royal
fifth of all the gold besides the other treasures.
They were strictly enjoined to sail by the chan-
nel of the Bahamas and to carefully avoid
Cuba, but they disobeyed this warning and

The entire series of the five letters has been printed
in Spanish by Don Enrique de Vedia in Ribadeneyra's
Biblioteca de Autores Classicos, in 1852. The five letters
were published by Don Pascual Gayangos of the Span-
ish Academy (Cartas de Hernan Cortes al Emperador
Carlos v., Paris, 1866), who also made an English trans-
lation of the fifth letter, which appeared alone in 1868 in
a volume of the Hakluyt Society's publications. The
five letters were published in a French translation by
Desire Chamay in Paris, 1896, and an English edition of
the entire series, preceded by a short biography and ac-
companied by notes, was published by the author of the
present work, under the title of Letters of Cortes to
Charles V., New York, 1908,

io8 Fernando Cortes

stopped several days at Marien, where Montejo.
had a property near by. They renewed their
supplies at this place and showed some of the
treasure to a servant, besides which, Montejo
also wrote to a former overseer of his, Juan de
Roja, who had meanwhile passed into Diego
Velasquez's service. The governor thus learned
of what was happening and promptly despatched
a vessel to overhaul the messengers and bring
them back, but he was too late. The envoys
landed, early in October, 1519, but Benito
Martin, a friend and agent of Velasquez, was
already advised of their coming and lodged a
complaint with the Casa de Contractacion in
Seville, in which he described Cortes as a rebel
against his superior's authority and asked for
the arrest of the envoys and the sequestration
of the letters and the treasure. He found a
ready ally in Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca,
Bishop of Burgos, who, as President of the
Royal Council for the Indies, was omnipotent,
and was a warm friend and supporter of Velas-
quez, with whose family his own was about to
be connected by a marriage.

Peter Martyr, who was then at court and
noted every circumstance of interest, mentions
the arrival of the two envoys in December as
" recent," which might mean that he had only
recently heard of it. All authorities agree that
they got a rough reception from the Bishop of
Burgos, and only saw the Emperor in March,

The Destruction of the Ships 109

1520, after many difficulties. The audience was
at Tordesillas, where His Majesty was then pay-
ing a visit to his mother, Dona Juana, before
proceeding to Santiago de Compostella. Peter
Martyr, however, says that the Emperor had
then already seen the gold and presents from
Mexico, which confirms another authority, who
states that while they were stopped by the
Bishop in Seville, Martin Cortes, the father of
Fernando, and an official of the Royal Council
who was friendly, one Nunez, contrived to for-
ward duplicates of the despatches to the Em-
peror, accompanied by a memorial describing
the Bishop's behaviour and his sequestration of
the treasures. The Emperor was well impressed
by the letters and ordered the gifts to be sent
on to him. He was, however, so absorbed with
business of importance prior to quitting the
country for Germany to assume the imperial
crown, that he left Tordesillas without giving
a decision. The envoys followed him to La
Coruna, and there exists in the archives of
Simancas the deposition given under oath be-
fore Dr. Carbajal, member of the Royal Council
for the Indies, by Alonso Hernandez Puerto-
carrero dated. La Coruna, April 30, 1520. The
memorial of Benito Martin is found, according
to Prescott, in the collection of MSS. made by
Don Vargas Ponce, sometime president of the
Spanish Academy of History.
The departure of the two messengers from

no Fernando Cortes

Vera Cruz did not take place without opposition
from the Velasquez faction, whose members
revived their former complaints against the
treacherous conduct of Cortes towards the gov-
ernor of Cuba and even formed a plot to seize
a brigantine, kill its captain, and escape to Cuba
to inform Velasquez of the departure of the
messengers carrying the treasure and the letters.
Bernaldino de Coria, one of the conspirators,
weakened at the last moment and betrayed the
plot and those implicated to the commander.
Cortes did not mince matters but promptly
hanged Diego Cermeno, and Juan Escudero.
The latter was the same alguacil who had cap-
tured him before the church in Santiago, where
he had taken sanctuary during his quarrel with
Velasquez, and had imprisoned him on the ship
in the harbour. Gonzalo de Umbria had his
feet cut off, and two hundred lashes were ad-
ministered to each of the others except the
priest, Juan Diaz, whose cloth protected him.
Bernal Diaz reports that Cortes exclaimed
when he signed the warrant for these punish-
ments, " Who would not rather be unable to
write, than to have to sign away the lives of
men ! " but the old soldier shrewdly adds, that
he believes most judges, from the days of Nero
down, have expressed the same sentiment.^

1 Bernal Diaz, cap. Ivii. ; Oviedo, Hiatoria de las Indias,
lib. xxxiii., cap. ii.; Las Casas, Hist, de las Indias, lib. iii.,

The Destruction of the Ships m

The discovery of such a conspiracy amongst
his followers gave Cortes grave cause for pre-
occupation, for it was manifestly impossible for
him to set out on his great undertaking, with-
out first assuring the loyalty of those he had to
leave behind at Vera Cruz. It was clear that
certain of the friends of Diego Velasquez merely
bided their time, waiting and hoping for an
opportunity to return to Cuba; others were im-
pressed by the risks attending an expedition into
an entirely unknown country where there was
every reason to believe a dense and hostile popu-
lation was preparing to dispute their advance.
All were familiar with the fate awaiting prison-
ers of war, and there were few who did not
shudder at the possibility of ending their days
on the sacrificial stone and furnishing the festal
meats at cannibal feasts. Cortes perceived
there was but one effectual means to prevent
further plots, after the restraint of his presence
was removed, and to involve the fate of each
member of the expedition in his success or
failure, and that was to cut off all possibility of
escape by destroying his fleet. He first took
the precaution of sending Pedro de Alvarado
with a large part of the army on ahead to Cem-

cap. cxii. Bernal Diaz refers to the passage in Suetonius
recording an exclamation of Nero : " Et cum de suppli-
cio cujusdam capite damnati, ut ex more subscriberet, ad-
moneretur quam vellem, inquit, nescire litteras " (lib. vi.,
cap. X.)*

112 Fernando Cortes

poalla, thus reducing the number of possible
objectors to the contemplated measure.

The destruction of the ships is one of the
most dramatic episodes in the eventful history
of the conquest, and Cortes, in reporting it to
the Emperor, assumed exclusively the credit of
the heroic decision and its execution, but
throughout his narrative he is chary of ever
mentioning anybody but himself. Gomara nat-
urally gives the same account, and Prescott
accepts his version, as do other reputable his-
torians. Bernal Diaz, who figures always as
the great objector and corrector, contradicts
this account very positively and says that the
destruction of the ships was decided upon after
a general discussion, and that Cortes was un-
willing to accept any responsibility, either for
their demolition or for their cost if there should
later arise a necessity to pay for them to their
rightful owners. He refutes with emphatic
scorn Gomara's assertion that Cortes feared to
tell the soldiers of his intention to push into
the interior in search of the great Montezuma,
exclaiming : " What sort of Spaniards are we,
not to want to push ahead but to stop where
we had no hardships or fighting?" The Relacion
of Andres de Tapia (who was also an eye-
witness) agrees with Bernal Diaz. Puerto-
carrero replied in La Corufia in the same sense
as his companion Montejo (April 29, 1520),
stating that the proposal to destroy all but three

The Destruction of the Ships 113

of the ships came from the captains of them,
who declared them to be unseaworthy, and even
those three to be of doubtful value. Puerto-
carrero and Montejo sailed, as has been said,
on July 16th, with the treasure and the letters
which were dated July 10th, so that the discov-
ery of the conspiracy and the punishment of
its authors and the destruction of the ships all
took place in those six days. Clavigero believes
that Cortes induced some of the pilots to scuttle
one or two of the ships and afterwards to come
to him, representing the others as unseaworthy,
from being three months in port.

Prescott sagaciously observes that " the affair
so remarkable as the act of one individual, be-
comes absolutely incredible when considered as
the result of so many independent wills " but
the Mexican historian Orozco y Berra is doubt-
less right in believing that the idea of destroying
the ships originated with Cortes, who adroitly
suggested it in such wise and with such argu-
ments, that it came back to him as a spon-
taneous proposal from the others, supported by
the opinions of the pilots and ship-captains that
the vessels were unsound. Such artifice was
not alien to his diplomacy, for he usually con-
trived that he should appear to interpret • the
popular will as well as to serve the royal in-
terests in all the undertakings his ambition
prompted. He dazzled, cajoled, or bullied his
men as occasion required; he also bribed them

8

114 Fernando Cortes

•

at times, but he took counsel with few if any of
them. To carry out his daring plan of destroy-
ing the fleet, he had need of confederates to
execute it, and all the evidence before us points
to the conclusion that he chose them wisely and
in small number.^ Puertocarrero and Montejo
embarked for Spain in the flag-ship of the fleet,
which had been spared, and the little band of
adventurers found themselves isolated in a
strange world, cut oflE from all possibility of
retreat, as only one small vessel remained. The
cordage, anchors, and other movable fixtures
that might serve some future purpose, had been
carefully removed from the condemned vessels
and were stored in Vera Cruz. Cortes followed
Alvarado to Cempoalla, where the news of the
destruction of the fleet had produced conster-
nation. Mutiny seemed imminent, and the opin-
ion spread that the commander was leading
them like cattle to the slaughter.^

In the presence of one of the greatest dangers
that ever faced him, Cortes lost nothing of the
presence of mind that never failed him. His
address to the assembled men was a master-
piece of persuasive logic. He adopted his con-

1 Prescott, Conquest of Mexico, torn, i., cap. viii.; Orozco
y Berra, Conquista, torn, iv., cap. viii.; Bernal Diaz, cap.
Iviii.; MacNutt's Letters of Cortes, Second Letter; Ala-
man, Disertadone, II.; Las Casas, HisU de las Indias,
lib. iii., cap. cxxiii.

2 Gomara, Cronica, cap. xlii.

The Destruction of the Ships 115

ciliatory rather than his authoritative manner,
explaining to them, first of all, that the ships
were his own property, and therefore their de-
struction was his loss. He next reminded them
that the expedition had been increased by
one hundred sailors, who would otherwise
have had to be kept idle on board the ships
while the others bore the brunt of the hard-
ships and fighting in the interior; the vessels
being unseaworthy, would have been of no serv-
ice and, moreover, if their expedition against
Mexico succeeded, they would not be needed,
while if it should fail they would all find
themselves too far from the seacoast to be
able to avail themselves of ships. He closed
with just the right note, — an appeal to their
courage and cupidity, — offering, if there were,
however, any so cowardly as to shrink from the
dangers of the glorious enterprise, to send them
back to Cuba in the one vessel that still re-
mained. A wave of enthusiasm swept his
hearers. Evoked by the hypnotic eloquence of
their leader, the golden mirage of wealth and
glory once more dazzled the eager eyes of the
adventurers, and the assembly that had gathered
in a spirit of mutiny, broke up with cheers and
shouts of : " To Mexico ! To Mexico."^

1 Ixtlilxochitl, Historia Chichimeca, cap. Ixxxii.; Ala-
m^n, Disertadone, II.; Bernal Diaz, cap. lix.; Orozco
y Berra, torn, iv., cap. viii.; Prescott, Conquest of Mex,,
torn, i., cap. viii.

ii6 Fernando Cortes

Juan de Escalante, alguacil mayor of Vera
Cruz, was left in command of one hundred and
fifty men, cliosen amongst those least apt for
the hardships of the long march, though capable
of forming a sufl&cient garrison. Summoning
the Totonac chiefs before him, Cortes formally
presented Escalante to them saying : " This
man is my brother, whom you must obey in
whatever he commands you, and if the Mexicans
attack you, have recourse to him for he will
defend you." The chieftains swore obedience to
the new commander, saluting him and offering
him incense. The cacique of Cempoalla fur-
nished two hundred pack-carriers to drag the
guns and carry the baggage, in addition to fifty
of his principal chiefs who were to act as guides
and counsellors. Including several hundred
warriors, the Totonacs numbered in all thirteen
hundred men. Everything was ready for the
departure from Cempoalla, when a messenger
arrived from Escalante to inform Cortes that
four Spanish ships ^ and appeared oflE the coast,
which he had ascertained belonged to Francisco

1 This expedition was composed of four ships carrying
two hundred and seventy men, with horses and cannon,
and had sailed from Jamaica towards the close of 1518,
under command of Alonzo Alvarez de Pineda.

Francisco de Garay sailed with Columbus on his second
voyage. Las Casas speaks of his great wealth, and says
that he had five thousand Indians solely to look after his
pigs. He went to Spain as procurator for San Domingo,
and returned as Lieut.-Govemor of Jamaica. When the

The Destruction of the Ships 117

de Garay, the governor of Jamaica. The con-
duct of their captains seemed to him somewhat
mysterious, as they had refused to land. Fear-
ing that the ships might carry a force sent by
Diego Velasquez, Cortes hastily returned with
a few horsemen to Vera Cruz, leaving Alvarado
and Sandoval in command of the forces at Cem-
poalla. The ships had anchored some four
leagues to the north of the settlement, and while
Cortes and his followers were going thither they
encountered three of Garay's men, one of whom
was a notary charged to warn him that he was
trespassing on the territories granted to Garay,
and that he must withdraw from the coast. Cor-
tes answered that if the commander of the ex-
pedition would meet him at Vera Cruz, they
would discuss the question of their respective
boundaries, but the notary replied that neither
the captain nor any one else would land. Cortes
. took the three men prisoners and concealed his
party in the shrubbery near the coast, hoping
that some one else would land .from the ships.

news of the Cordoba and Grijalba expeditions became the
excitement of the day, Garay sent out an exploring party
under command of Diego de Camargo which discovered
the Panuco region, and continuing thence about one
hundred leagues towards Florida, finally returned to
Jamaica. The Emperor Charles V. granted Garay facul-
ties for further enterprise, and the title of adelantado of
the new countries he discovered. Garay was one of the
most cruel oppressors of the Indians and it was said of
him that he came, not to populate, but to depopulate,
Jamaica.

ii8 Fernando Cortes

Seeing that no one came on shore he disguised
three of his men in the prisoners' clothing and
sent them to signal the ships for a boat. The
stratagem was successful and, in response to
the signals from the shore, a boat landed three
or four armed men whom the band awaiting
them in ambush immediately seized. The others
who remained in the boats, seeing their com-
panions overpowered, bent to their oars and re-
turned to the ship. Cortes thus increased
his force by the welcome addition of seven
men.^

All preparations for the march being com-
pleted, and the Garay incident disposed of,
Cortes left Cempoalla on August 16, 1519. Be-
fore setting out he addressed his men in the
peculiarly winning and moving style, of which
he possessed the secret. Their enterprise was
undertaken first of all for the glory of God and
the propagation of the Faith, and hence the *
divine protection would not fail them; the
honour of the Spanish name was in their hands,
and upon them depended the extension of the
Spanish sovereignty over the great and rich
country before them. All hope of retreat or
succour being cut off, upon God's providence
and their own brave hearts must their success
depend. Bernal Diaz years afterwards wrote
that his leader's phrases of honeyed eloquence

1 Second Letter of Relation ; Bemal Diaz, cap. Ix. ;
Orozco y Berra, vol. iv., cap viil.

The Destruction of the Ships 119

were beyond anything he could repeat. The
response was neither slow in coming, nor doubt-
ful; acclamations greeted the commander's
words and amidst the farewells of the Totonacs,
the troops marched forth across the luxuriant
tierra-caliente and on up the first slopes of the
lofty mountain chain of the Cordilleras that
shuts off the valley of Mexico from the sea.^
The first town in which they rested was Xalapa,
situated on the slope of Macuiltepec. The
scene had changed in character, for the glowing
tierra-caliente with its luxuriance of tropical
vegetation, feathery palms, and fiowering para-
sites lay far beneath on the rolling plain that
stretched to the azure waters of the gulf. The
tropics had given place to the temperate zone,
and the country was now covered with virgin
forests of dark-foliaged oak, while the ever-
ascending slopes of the Sierra Madre, were
clothed with a sombre mantle of pines. Rising
far above this inspiring landscape, towered the
snowy peak of Orizaba, over the whiteness of
whose immaculate summit a rosy glow was shed
from the fires of its burning crater. Four days
of marching, always higher and higher, brought

1 The force numbered four hundred foot soldiers, fifteen
or sixteen horsemen, and six pieces of artillery. The
Totonac warriors were commanded by three chiefs, Teuch,
Mamexi, and Tamalli. Prescott gives the number of war-
riors alone as 1300 and adds to them 1000 bearers. I
have kept to the numbers given by Cortes, Bemal Diaz,
and Orozco y Berra.

I20 Fernando Cortes

them to a town called Xicochimileo/ whose
natural position for defence and well-constructed
fortifications, Cortes reported at some detail to
the Emperor in his second letter. Beyond this
place the change in temperature from the tierra-
caliente became very marked, and after passing
the rugged defile called by Cortes,' Paso del
Nombre de' Dios,^ they marched for three days
through a wild and forbidding country seared
and tormented by prehistoric convulsions of the
now extinct volcano, known as Cof re del Perote ^
where the cold was so great that several of the
Indians, ill-clad and unused to such rigorous
weather, perished. In the several towns where
a halt was made, the cacique of each place re-
ceived the Spaniards hospitably; in some in-
stances because he was a friend of the Totonacs,
and in others because he knew the strangers
were on their way to visit Montezuma. Every-
where Cortes announced himself as the am-
bassador of the greatest sovereign in the world,
to whom all the Indians must acknowledge alle-
giance; everywhere he denounced idolatry, hu-
man sacrifices, and cannibalism as contrary to
the laws of the one supreme God and hence
forbidden by the King of Spain ; Christian doc-

1 Identified with probability as the present town of
Naulinco.

2 Now called Paso del Obispo.

8 Humboldt gives its height as 4089 metres or 13,314 feet
above sea level.

The Destruction of the Ships 121

trine was preached by Fray Bartolom6 de
Olmedo and in each town, a cross was erected
which the Indians obediently promised to
reverence after his departure.

Crossing the Sierra del Agua by a defile, to
which the name of Paso de la Lena was given,
because of the symmetrical piles of hewn wood
found there, the Spaniards emerged into a vast
stretch of fertile and well cultivated valley,
called Caltanmic, in the midst of whose planta-
tions of bananas and maize stood the handsome
town of Xocotla that seemed to the Spaniards
even larger and better built than Cempoalla.
Xocotla was the residence of the lord of Caltan-
mic, whose name was Olintetl, a man of such
immense size that he had to be supported by
two of his kinsmen when he walked. The Span-
iards promptly nicknamed him " the trembler "
because he shook like a jelly. Though he pro-
vided for the wants of his self-invited guests,
OlintetPs reception of them was somewhat want-
ing in cordiality. When asked if he were a
vassal of Montezuma's, he answered with an
air of surprise, " And who is not a vassal of
Montezuma? " Cortes was not slow in explain-
ing that he and his men were vassals of a far
greater sovereign, whom many kings and princes
held themselves honoured to serve. The cacique
was not visibly impressed by these descriptions
of a distant sovereign whom he did not know, and
lie replied, telling Cortes that Montezuma ruled

122 Fernando Cortes

over thirty great vassals, each of whom could
put a hundred thousand soldiers in the field;
his magnificence and wealth were incalculable
and his capital, standing in the midst of a lake,
was the most beautiful of cities, and unapproach-
able save only with his permission, for his boats
commanded the lake, and the causeways leading
to the mainland were defended by his troops
and provided with drawbridges. Cortes gleaned
much information from the boasting Olintetl,
which, though of a disquieting order, only served
to stimulate his indomitable determination to
advance.^ Olintetl listened with impassive mien
to the exposition of the Christian religion made
by Fray Bartolom6 and also refused the gold
asked of him, saying that he would only give
it if ordered to do so by Montezuma, who might
dispose of all he possessed. Fray Bartolom6,
perceiving the folly as well as the dangers of
attempting to force unacceptable doctrine on the
cacique, checked the missionary zeal of Cortes
and dissuaded him from his intention to erect
a cross at Xocotla.

Olintetl offered to send guides to conduct the
Spaniards on their way to Mexico as far as the
city of Cholula, without leaving Mexican terri-
tory. The Cempoallans gave just the contrary
advice, declaring that the Cholulans were false
and treacherous people, friends of Montezuma,
and that the best road lay through the republic

^Bemal Diaz, cap. IxL

The Destruction of the Ships 123

of Tlascala, with whose people the Spaniards
should form an alliance. Cortes accepted the
advice of the Cempoallans and despatched four
of them as his messengers, to ask permission of
the regents of Tlascala to pass through their
territory.^

To ensure a favourable reception for his en-
voys, he sent gifts to the regents, consisting of
a red Flemish hat, a crossbow, and a sword.
He also gave them a letter couched in flattering
terms, carefully instructing the messengers to
explain its sense, as the Spanish document
would only serve as a formal, if incomprehen-
sible, credential, in the eyes of the Tlascalans.

More than the necessary time for their return
having elapsed without anything being heard of
his messengers, and the four days of repose
at Xocotla having refreshed his men, Cortes
marched to a town of some five or six thousand
inhabitants called Yxtacamaxtitlan.^ He de-
scribed the fortress of this place in his Second
Letter of Relation to the Emperor as " a better
one than could be found in half Spain." ^ Here
he determined to await the reply from the
regents.

1 Bemal Diaz, cap. bdi.; Gomara, Cronica, cap. xliv.;
Torquemada, lib. iv., cap. xxvii.

2 Ixtacmaxtitlan, in the present state of Puebla. For
convenience' sake the town was removed from the hill-
top in 1601 and built on its present site lower down.

3 Letters of Cortes, tom. i., p. 125.

124 Fernando Cortes

Tlascala was an independent republic com-
posed of four federated states, each ruled by
its chief, while federal affairs were controlled
by a senate^ composed of the four rulers and
their principal nobles. The Tlascalans were a
brave and hardy people, well advanced in mili-
tary science, who had preserved the indepen-
dence of their mountain republic against the
ever-encroaching power of Montezuma some-
what as the Montenegrins, in their mountain
fastness, have ever successfully withstood the
Ottoman sultans.

When the Spaniards came to understand more
about the Mexican empire, it caused them no
small wonder that Montezuma, with all his
powerful allies, should nevertheless tolerate
the existence of this small, hostile state in the
midst of his own dominions. Andres de Tapia
states in his Relacion that, in reply to his ques-
tion to Montezuma as to why he did not crush
the Tlascalans at one blow, the Emperor said:
" We could perfectly well do so, but afterwards
there would be no place left where our young
warriors could obtain their military training,
without going a great distance from here; we
also constantly require these people to furnish
victims for sacrifices to our gods." According

1 Orozco y Berra objects to the word senate as inac-
curately describing the form of federal council, and calls
the governing body senoria, Cortes likened the system
of government to those of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa*

, The Destruction of the Ships 125

to this declaration of Montezuma, the Tlascalans
owed their continued independent existence to
his interested toleration, rather than to their
own ability to defend themselves.

Their state was so completely hemmed in on
all sides that even commercial intercourse was
cut off, and their chief pursuit was agriculture.
They were deprived of the use of salt ^ and
cotton-stuffs, since the former commodity was
not found within their borders and the latter
was not produced at such a high altitude.^
Their warriors were the equals, if not the
superiors of the Aztecs in the field, fighting with
the same weapons and employing the same tac-
tics. They were trained from infancy to detest
the Mexicans as the hereditary foes of their na-
tion, and the Cempoallans assured Cortes that
he would find them ready and valiant allies
against Montezuma.

Still the messengers did not return, and as
some disquietude was even felt at their long
absence, Cortes decided to advance. The fron-

1 Called by the Indians " tequesquit." It is made from
the saltpetre, which was largely found in the neighbour-
hood of Itztapalapan and Ixtapaluca (Ixtabl meaning salt-
petre), and formed an important article of commerce,
which, however, did not reach the Tlascalans on account
of the permanent state of hostilities. As they were also
cut off from the sea, salt had been for fifty years an
almost unknown luxury amongst them; cotton which was
a product of the tierra-caliente was for the same reason
denied them.

^Letters of Cortes, tom. i., p. 195.

126 Fernando Cortes

tier of the republic was defined by a massive
stone wall, nine feet high and twenty feet
thick that extended for a distance of two leagues
across the valley, effectually barring out all
comers. Cortes described this wall as being
built of " dry stones " but Bernal Diaz says the
stones were held together by such a strong ce-
ment that it could scarcely be broken with
pikes.^ Two semicircular lines of wall over-
lapping one another in such wise as to form a
passage ten paces wide and forty long, afforded
the only opening. To pass through this narrow
circuitous lane, between two high stone walls,
from whose parapets armed warriors could rain
down missiles on those below, was to march
into a veritable death-trap. When the Span-
iards arrived at this singular barricade they
found it undefended, so they marched through
and entered the republic without opposition.

^Letters of Cortes, Second Letter, p. 197; Bemal Diaz,
cap. Ixii.

CHAPTER V

THE SPANISH-TLASCALAN ALLIANCE

The Senate of Tlascala — Spanish Victories — Cruel Treat-
ment of Spies — The Alliance — Effect on Montezuma
— Cortes in Tlascala.

WHILE the events described in the last chap-
ter were happening, the four Cempoallan
envoys were conducting important negotiations
in the city of Tlascala. They presented them-
selves at the city gates, wearing the insignia of
ambassadors and were consequently conducted
to the council chamber where they were regaled
with a feast, after the Indian fashion, while the
four overlords were assembling. Their recep-
tion was marked by the punctilious formalities
prescribed by Indian etiquette and, after deliver-
ing the letter and the presents, the eldest of
them addressed the Tlascalan lords, recounting
the arrival of the teules at Cempoalla and the
liberation, through their intervention, of that
country from the tyranny of Montezuma. He
repeated what had been told them of the power
of the Spanish King, who had sent the strangers
to Mexico, and explained, as best he could, the
new religion that was being everywhere ex-
pounded to the people. In conclusion, he said

that the Spaniards wished to visit Tlascarla and

127

128 Fernando Cortes

that it seemed to the Cempoallans an admirable
occasion for the Tlascalans to form an alliance
against their ancient enemy, Montezuma.

The four rulers listened to the envoy's dis-
course and, at its close, declared that they ac-
cepted the present sent them by the teules^ but
it would be necessary to deliberate before an-
swering the proposition of the Cempoallans to
form an alliance with them. The envoys with-
drew, only to be assailed by the eager populace
Avith a thousand questions concerning the white
men, which they answered in such wise as to
both satisfy and inflame the interest of their
hearers.

Maxixcatzin, lord of Ocotelolco, was the first
of the four lords to address his co-regents on the
proposition of the Cempoallans. He observed
that the Cempoallans were enemies of Montezuma
and counselled the Tlascalans to receive the
strangers, who seemed from their extraordinary
deeds to be armed gods rather than mere men, and
who now offered their potent assistance against
the Mexicans. His hearers knew from the tra-
ditions handed down from their remote ances-
tors that there would one day arrive children
of the sun, coming from the East, whose valour
would be such that one of them might stand
against a thousand men; it appeared to him
that they were now assisting at the fulfilment
of these ancient prophecies and that they should
receive these jjowerful strangers with open arms

The Spanish-Tlascalan Alliance 129

lest, otherwise, refusal to do so might bring
disaster on the republic.^

At the close of Maxixcatzin's speech, Xicoten-
catl, lord of Titzatlan, who was the oldest of all
and blind,2 rose to reply. He took a contrary
view of the expediency of admitting the so-
called teules into their state and city; the rites
of hospitality were sacred, and it was a divine
precept to receive the stranger and assist him,
but not when he came with evil intentions. As
for the prophecies, their purport was obscure,
nor were they to be lightly interpreted. If these
strangers were brave, why so were the Tlas-
calans and it would only betray weakness to allow
such a small body of men to invade their country
unopposed; for if they were mere mortals, they
could be destroyed, while if they were gods there
would be time to placate them later on. As for
his part/ they seemed to him more like monsters
than like gods, monsters thrown up by the sea
because the sea would no longer contain them.
For these, and other reasons that he exposed,
the venerable Xicotencatl opposed the admission
of the Spaniards into Tlascalan territory.^

Divided between these two opinions, the as-

1 Muiioz Camargo, Historia de Tlaxcalla; Herrera, dec.
ii., lib. vi., cap. iii.; Torquemada, lib. iv., cap. xxvii.;
Orozco y Berra, torn, iv., cap. ix.

2 Xicotencatl's age, though great, was probably not 140
years as is stated by several authorities.

3 Orozco y Berra, torn, iv., cap. ix.; Munoz Camargo,
Hist, de la Republica de Tlaxcallan,

I30 Fernando Cortes

sembly of nobles seemed unable to reach a de-
cision, when Tlehuezolotzin, lord of Tlepticpac,
offered the Machiavellian proposition to wel-
come the commander of the teules by means of
a friendly message sent through the Cempoallan
envoys, and meanwhile to send a force of bar-
barous Otomies, under command of the Tlas-
calan commander-in-chief; General Xicotencatl,
to contest their advance. If the Otomies were
victorious, the credit would redound to Tlascala,
while if they were defeated, the republic could
disown their act.

This solution of the difficulty seems to have
been received with general applause and at any
rate was adopted. General Xicotencatl, son of
the venerable regent of the same name, was a
valiant soldier, eager for glory and he was scep-
tical of the divinity attributed to the Spaniards.
To gain time in which to complete his arrange-
ments for the attack, the Cempoallan messengers
were detained by one pretext or another and
were finally even imprisoned to prevent their
premature departure.^ Such were the reasons
for the long period of delay, during which both
Spaniards and Totonacs were wondering and
chafing at Yxtacamaxtitlan. Cortes advanced
some four leagues beyond the great wall of Tlas-
cala, despite the entreaties of the cacique of
Yxtacamaxtitlan, who again warned him against

1 Herrera, dec. 11., lib. vl., cap. ill.; Torquemada, lib. Iv.,
cap. xxli.

The Spanish-Tlascalan Alliance 131

the Tlascalans and offered to conduct him to
Mexico by way of Cholula.

Accompanied by six horsemen, he rode about
half a league ahead of his army, while a body
of light infantry acted as scouts, supported by
a vanguard of musketeers and crossbowmen.
The artillery was placed in the centre, and the
rear was brought up by some two thousand
Indians in charge of the baggage and provisions.
The first hostile encounter was with a small
body of Indians, armed with the maquahuitl
and rodela,'^ who attacked the Spaniards with
great courage, showing no fear either of fire-
arms or horses. They succeeded in unhorsing
one man, who afterwards died of his wounds,
and two horses were killed outright: according
to Gomara, they were decapitated at a single
blow. The Indians finally withdrew in good
order. Four Spaniards were wounded in this

1 The maquahuitl was a club about three and a half
feet long in which blades of the stone called itztliy as
sharp as razors, were fixed; rodelas were stout shields,
usually round in shape and decorated with coloured
feathers. The darts, which are so frequently mentioned,
were short lances, whose points were tipped with bone or
copper, or simply hardened in the fire. Clavigero identi-
fies them with the Roman Jaculum or^Telum Amentatum,
and says they were the weapons most feared by the
Spaniards. As marksmen, the Mexican bowmen were
marvellously quick and accurate; their arrows were also
pointed with bone, but, singularly enough, there is no
mention throughout the conquest of poison being used on
them.

132 Fernando Cortes

engagement while the Indians had seventeen
killed and an immense number of wounded.^

As the Spaniards advanced, they were met by
two of the Cempoallan envoys accompanied by
two Tlascalans who disavowed all responsibility
for the recent engagements, inviting them to
come to their capital and offering to pay for the
horses that had been killed.^ Whatever im-
portance he may have attached to these excuses
and protestations, Cortes feigned to accept them
in good faith. The night was passed hardly
enough; the only food obtainable was some
little dog-like animals and tunas, or Mexican
figs, while for dressing their wounds, the soldiers
had only the grease from a fat Indian whom
they had killed and cut open.^ The next day,
the first of September, the two Cempoallan en-
voys who had been imprisoned in the city of
Tlascala appeared, having escaped during the
night."* They related that the Tlascalans had
intended to sacrifice them and they brought the
news that an immense force was under arms

1 Bemal Diaz, cap. Ixii. Cortes gives the number of
Indians killed at fifty or sixty.

^Letters of Cortes, torn, i., p. 199.

8 Bemal Diaz, loc. cit.; Gomara, cap. xlv.

^Herrera, dec. ii., lib. vi.; Torquemada, lib. iv., cap,
XXX. Orozco y Berra disbelieves this assertion of the
envoys, saying that all those people observed with the
strictest fidelity the immunities of ambassadors (Con-
quista de Mexico, tom. iv., cap. ix.). There would In-
deed seem to be no possible reason why the envoys should
have been so roughly treated.

The Spanish-Tlascalan Alliance 133

to attack the Spaniards. These tidings were
speedily confirmed by the appearance of about
one thousand Indians, who advanced with shouts
and warlike gestures. Cortes ordered his in-
terpreters to declare that his intentions were
pacific and that he had not come there to fight
but merely to pass through their territory, be-
lieving they were willing to allow this. The
notary Godoy made a record of this transaction
so that no blame should attach to the Spaniards
for any blood that might be shed.

Seeing that his peaceful advances were met
by increased fury, Cortes gave the order to
charge, and with their usual battle-cry of " San-
tiago ! " the Spaniards plunged into the fray.
After some hours of sharp fighting, the Indians
began to draw off in an orderly fashion, while
the Spaniards, pressing after them, were art-
fully drawn into a narrow defile intersected by
a watercourse, where the ground rendered the
artillery and cavalry practically unavailable.
The crafty Indians had decoyed them into an
ambush, for all of a sudden, their astonished
eyes beheld a countless multitude of warriors,
amongst whom could be discerned the standard
of Xicotencatl, his colours red and white sur-
mounted by a white heron with spread wings.^
Cortes estimated the number of the Indians at

^ Bemal Diaz, cap. Ixiii.; Orozco y Berra, torn, iv.,
cap. ix.

134 Fernando Cortes

more than one hundred thousand,^ while Bernal
Diaz says they exceeded forty thousand and
other writers give various estimates between
these two extremes. With shrill cries and the
beating of drums, this vast host which, by its
numbers alone might well hope to engulf the little
group of Spaniards, rushed to the attack. The
first Spaniard to fall was Pedro Moron, whose
horse was killed, leaving him on foot amongst his
foes. No less than ten of his companions were
wounded in their attempts to rescue him and,
though their efforts were finally successful, he
succumbed to his injuries the following day.
The body of the dead horse was cut in pieces
to be distributed throughout the Tlascalan terri-
tory as trophies of the fight. Cortes managed to
shift the action to more level ground where the
employment of his cavalry and artillery became
easier. The Indians, being massed together,
were simply mowed down by the guns, while the
horsemen, armed with lances, galloped amongst
the now retreating enemy, doing terrible exe-
cution. Towards sunset Xicotencatl sounded
the retreat, drawing off his men in good form,
though eight of their chief commanders had
fallen. Cortes chose a secure position for his
camping place on the hill of Yzompachtepetl,
where there stood a tower, and conducted his

1 Letters of Cortea, torn, i., p. 200 ; Bernal Diaz, cap.
Ixiii.

The Spanish-Tlascalan Alliance 135

forces thither. Prescott remarks that whoever
has consulted the ancient Spanish chroniclers
in relation to wars with the infidel, whether
Arab or American, will place little confidence
in their numbers. We need not therefore de-
tain ourselves to speculate as to the correct
number of the slain and wounded in this engage-
ment, whether Spanish or Indian, Cortes de-
clared that not one Spaniard was killed though
many were wounded; Bernal Diaz admits one
killed, while on the Indian side, no proper count
was made. Certainly, the Christians in this, as
in countless later battles, owed their lives to the
determination of the Indians to capture them
alive for sacrifice.

After one day of welcome repose, Cortes re-
sumed hostilities, sallying forth from his camp
to surprise five or six small villages in the
neighbourhood. The prisoners captured during
this action, numbering about four hundred, were
treated kindly and released, being told to return
to their people and dissuade them from con-
tinuing their unreasonable attacks upon the
Spaniards, who desired nothing so much as their
friendship. A letter was likewise addressed to
the four regents of the republic explaining that
there had been no intention to give them. offence,
and that all the Spaniards asked was their
permission to march peaceably through their
country. The next day, two of these messengers
returned with a defiant reply from the young

136 Fernando Cortes

general Xicotencatl. Cortes extracted from the
two nobles who brought this haughty answer, the
information that the troops marshalling against
him were those of Tlascala, although the enemy
sought to dissemble this fact. Xicotencatl was
the influence most hostile to the Spaniards in the
Tlascalan council, and his son's troops, number-
ing fifty thousand, were divided into five bat-
talions of ten thousand men each. Bernal Diaz
owned that the fear of death was upon every
Spaniard and that all confessed their sins, so
that the friar, Bartolom6 de Olmedo, and the
chaplain, Juan Diaz, were occupied during the
whole night in administering the sacrament of
penance.^

The decisive engagement began on the morn-
ing of the fifth of September. The singular fact
is recorded by several early historians that
Xicotencatl sent three hundred turkeys and
two hundred baskets of tamalhi or maize cakes
to the Spaniards' camp, so that they might eat
a good meal before fighting and not afterwards
attribute their defeat to weakness from hunger.^
Before going into the engagement Cortes made
one of the simple but stirring speeches he was
accustomed to address to his men, giving them

1 Bemal Diaz, cap. Ixiv.

2 Ixtlilxochitl, Hist, Chichimeca, cap. Ixxxiii.; Gomara,
cap. xlvii.; Torquemada, lib. iv., cap. xxxii.; Herrera,
dec. ii., lib. vi., cap. vi. Cortes omits to mention this
gift and Prescott discredits the story.

The Spanish-Tlascalan Alliance 137

also some practical instructions. There must be
no straggling, for their one hope lay in keeping
compactly together. The foot-soldiers were told
to use the points, rather than the edges of their
swords, the horsemen must charge at half speed
and aim their lances at the eyes of their foes,
and the artillery, crossbowmen, and arquebusiers
must so manage that an incessant fire should be
kept up, some loading, while the others dis-
charged the pieces.

Cortes reported that day's victory to the Em-
peror in terms only somewhat less laconic than
Caesar's immortal Veni^ vidi, vicL In his second
letter he wrote : " We mustered against them and
our Lord was pleased to so aid us, that in about
four hours we managed that they should no more
molest us in our camp, though they still kept up
some attacks; thus we kept fighting until it
grew to be late, when they retired."

Cortes followed up his victory by two meas-
ures designed to illustrate both his wish for
peace and his readiness for war. He despatched
an embassy the next day to the city of Tlascala,
bearing his ultimatum to the rulers of the re-
public. After reiterating his professions of
good-will and his desire for their friendship, he
declared himself ready to forget the recent hos-
tilities; were his offer rejected, however, he
would raze their capital to the ground and put
every inhabitant to the sword. The envoys bore
his letter offering peace, and an arrow, — the

138 Fernando Cortes

Tlascalans might choose. While this embassy
was absent, Cortes left his camp at the head of
his horsemen, one hundred infantry, and some
Indian allies, to destroy some neighbouring
villages. In reporting the success of this sortie
to the Emperor he wrote : " As we carried the
banner of the Holy Cross and were fighting for
our Faith and in the service of your Sacred
Majesty, to your Royal good fortune, God gave
us such victory that we slew many people, with-
out ourselves sustaining any injury." The
banner mentioned was made of black silk bear-
ing the arms of Charles V., and on both sides,
a red cross surrounded by white and blue rays.
It bore the legend Amid sequamur crucem et
si fidem hahemus in hoc signo vinceremus.^

The envoys had meanwhile been courteously
received by the rulers of Tlascala, a fact that
confirms our suspicion that the former mes-
sengers, who pretended they had been ill-treated
and destined for sacrifice, were untruthful;
but, although dismay pervaded the senate and
people, their indomitable courage still forbade
surrender on any terms, however favourable.
Maxixcatzin's advice to make peace and an
alliance with the formidable teules was again
rejected, the young general Xicotencatl de-
claring that the stain inflicted for the first time
on the prestige of their arms could only be

1 Elaborated from the labarum of Constantine.

The Spanish-Tlascalan Alliance 139

obliterated by retrieving their defeat. Recourse
was had to the priests and magicians, of whom
the inquiring senators demanded whether the
strangers were really gods or only men. The
answer had in it perhaps more wisdom than
appears at first hearing. The priests declared
that the white men were not really gods but
children of the sun, from whose beams they de-
rived their strength and wisdom. They coun-
selled therefore a night attack, as when the light
of the sun was quenched, the teules were de-
prived of his assistance and were no stronger
than ordinary mortals. It was contrary to the
customs of the Tlascalans, and indeed of all
the Indian tribes of Andhuac, to fight at night,
and it has been thought that this oracular ut-
terance, violating what was almost a law of the
nations, was suggested by Xicotencatl, who only
wanted the necessary authority to attack the
Spaniards in the dark, when the artillery and
horses, being unseen, would spread less con-
sternation amongst his men.

On the seventh of September a Tlascalan
embassy appeared in the Spanish camp, bring-
ing some presents and five slaves, saying : " If
you are gods who eat flesh and blood, eat these
Indians, and if you are beneficent deities we
oflfer you incense and feathers; and if you are
men, behold here fowls and maize and cherries."
Cortes repeated his former declarations and as-
sured them that he and his men were simple

I40 Fernando Cortes

mortals like themselves.^ That same evening,
some fifty Tlascalans came to the Spanish camp,
ostensibly to bring provisions, but one of the
Cempoallan chiefs called the attention of Cortes
to the interest with which these men seemed to be
peering about, and expressed his conviction that
they were spies. One by one Cortes had them
enticed apart from their companions and, by
frightening and cross-questioning them, he
learned about the projected night-attack and
the reasons that had prompted it. He cut ofiE
the hands of the spies and sent them back to
tell Xicotencatl to come whenever he chose, by
day or by night, for he would always find the
Spaniards ready for him.^ Martial law every-
where deals severely with spies and the death
penalty would not have exceeded their deserts,
— perhaps it would have been more merciful
than such barbarous mutilation.^ Prescott ob-
serves that " it is too much to ask of any man,
still less of one bred to the iron trade of war, to
be in advance of the refinement of his age. We
may be content if, in circumstances so unfavour-
able to humanity, he does not fall below it."

'^Relacion de Andres de Tapia, in Garcia Icazbalceta,
p. 569; Gomara, cap, xlvii.; Herrera, dec. ii., lib. vi.,
cap. vii.

^Letters of Cortes, torn, i., p. 202; Gomara, cap. xlviii.;
Reladon de Andres de Tapia, p. 570.

8 The entire garrison of Uxellodunum had their right
hands amputated by Caesar's order and, thus mutilated,
were sent back to their homes.

The Spanish-Tlascalan Alliance 141

However repugnant to our humaner feelings
such punishments may be, the logic of the his-
torian's observation compels our assent.

The night attack that followed was repulsed,
as the Tlascalans, perceiving that their intended
surprise was a failure, made but a poor fight
and then fled away into the darkness. Several
days of quiet ensued, save for some small skir-
mishing in the neighbourhood of the camp.
Despite their repeated victories against such
appalling odds, the soldiers were becoming dis-
couraged, and discontent seethed throughout
the camp; fifty-five men had perished, most of
the survivors were wounded, — some of them se-
verely,— and a dozen, of whom Cortes was one,
suffered from fever. The strain on their forces
of resistance was terrible, for they lived in their
harness and slept, — when at all, — with their
arms by their sides. Those who had come half-
heartedly and against their will, the partisans
of Diego Velasquez and those who were frankly
afraid, despairing of success, formed the nuc-
leus of a discontent that spread daily, influencing
the others. Cortes overheard it said that if he
were so mad as to rush into a situation from
which he could never escape, there was no rea-
son why the others should do likewise, and that
the best thing for them to do, was to return
to the coast, with or without him, as he chose.
This state of unrest culminated one day, in
seven men presenting themselves before their

142 Fernando Cortes

commander to declare that, in view of the im-
mense difficulties ahead of them, their small
number, and the multitude of the enemy, they
thought the expedition should return to Vera
Cruz and obtain reinforcements before attempt-
ing anything further. Cortes replied in his
most suave and gentle manner, calling their at-
tention to the almost miraculous success they
had so far achieved, and which he attributed to
the special protection of Almighty God, for
whose glory they were fighting: to retreat to
the coast would be to lose all their prestige, for
the move would be ascribed both by their foes
and their allies to fear of Montezuma. His
winning eloquence did not prove so immediately
effective as usual, and despite his arguments,
the grumblers still persisted, until he cut them
short by exclaiming that it was better to die
with honour than to live disgraced. This sen-
timent touched the right chord, and was loudly
approved by the majority.^

Montezuma had followed the movements of
the Spaniards with unabating interest and no
small satisfaction, arguing that if they defeated
the Tlascalans, they were destroying his enemies,
while if the Tlascalans overcame the Spaniards
then he would be rid of their obnoxious pres-
ence. When the proposals of peace were re-

1 Bemal Diaz, cap. Ixix. ; Letters of Cortes, torn, L,
p. 204.

The Spanish-Tlascalan Alliance 143

ported to him, however, he took alarm, for an al-
liance between Spaniards and Tlasealans was the
last thing he wished to see consummated. After
consultation with his advisers, he decided to send
an embassy with presents to congratulate Cortes
on his victories. Six nobles, accompanied by
an escort of two hundred attendants, departed
on this mission and, on arriving at the Spanish
camp, were received with his usual urbanity by
the astute commander.^ The gift consisted of
gold-dust to the value of one thousand pesos,
clothing, stuflfs, and feather-work. The ambas-
sadors had been instructed to discourage the
advance of the Spaniards towards Mexico, on
the ground that the roads were very difficult
and dangerous, and the country too sterile to
furnish them provisions. They inquired what
annual tribute in gold, slaves, and other pro-
ducts of the country the King of Spain would
require of Montezuma, who professed himself
ready to acknowledge the suzerainty of that
monarch on condition that Cortes renounced
his intention of visiting the capital. Cortes
received the embassy, accepted the gifts, but
made no definite answer to Montezuma's pro-
position. He invited the envoys to remain with
him and two of them returned to Mexico to
make their report, while the others continued
in the Spanish camp. The same day in which

^Letters of Cortes, torn, i., p. 209; Bemal Diaz, cap.
Ixxii.; Gomara, cap. xlix.; Torquemada, lib. iv., cap. xxxv.

144 Fernando Cortes

the Mexican envoys arrived, Xieoteneatl made
a desperate, but vain, attack on the Spaniards;
that his hereditary foes, the Mexicans, were
witnesses of his defeat probably caused him
greater mortification than did his losses. Re-
sistance was at an end, and the next day an
embassy from the republic solicited peace.
General Xieoteneatl came fully armed and es-
corted by fifty nobles robed in his colours, red
and white. Cortes, who could not but admire
the splendid courage of his intrepid opponent,
received him with every mark of respect, con-
ducting him to his own tent and seating him
opposite to himself, while all the other parti-
cipants in the conference remained standing.
The offering brought by Xieoteneatl was but a
small one and, in presenting it, he said that
the Tlascalans were not rich and that he made
the offering merely as a token of their desire
for peace. Their independence was their only
possession, and it was one they had ever de-
fended, for, despite his great power, Montezuma
had never brought them under his yoke. Xieo-
teneatl was evidently a stranger to the Mexican
view of Tlascalan independence and little sus-
pected that Montezuma would later explain to
the Spaniards that the republic continued to
exist merely because it was a convenient ground
for the military training of the Aztec youths,
while the inhabitants were a perpetual preserve,
supplying victims for the Mexican altars.

The Spanish-Tlascalan Alliance 145

To the general's efforts to excuse and explain
the hostility of the Tlascalans, Cortes replied
that he had come to their country trusting to
the assurance of their friends, the Totonacs,
that he would be welcomed, and that after they
had received his messages of good-will they had
treacherously attacked him and brought upon
themselves the severe defeats and losses of the
past days, for which he was heartily sorry. It
was agreed that bygones should be forgotten,
though Cortes made it plain that he only ac-
cepted the submission of the republic from an
excess of condescension and magnanimity see-
ing that, in fact, their treachery really merited
the destruction of their city and nation. The
invitation to proceed at once to the city was
not accepted and Xicotencatl withdrew, carry-
ing the blue and green glass beads that Cortes
sent to the regents in return for their gift.

The conclusion of a peace, which meant an
alliance, perturbed the Mexican ambassadors
not a little, and hardly had Xicotencatl left the
camp than they sought to rouse suspicions of
his sincerity, declaring that the Tlascalans were
deceiving Cortes with the purpose of enticing
him into some situation favourable for revenging
themselves for their recent defeat. The Tlas-
calan opinion of the Aztecs was that they were
liars and deceivers, who had subjugated their
neighbours by fraud and ruled them by force;
they cautioned Cortes to be chary of placing

xo

146 Fernando Cortes

confidence in anything they said. Reporting the
situation at this time in his second letter to
Charles V., Cortes wrote:

I was not a little pleased to see this discord
and want of conformity between the two parties,
because it appeared to me to strengthen my design
and that later I would find means to subjugate
them. That common saying De monte,^ etc., might
be repeated and I was even reminded of a scrip-
tural authority which says, Omne regnum in aeip-
sum divisum, desolahltur; so I treated with the one
and the other and I privately thanked both for the
advice they gave me, giving to each the credit for
more friendship than to the other.^

News of the treaty of peace was received with
great rejoicing in the city, and was published
throughout the republic. Tlascala was as jubi-
lant as though victory, and not defeat, had
perched on her standards. Provisions poured
into the Spanish camp and the population
flocked thither to see the strangers, with whom
they mingled on terms of perfect confidence and
amity. The continued presence of the Mexican
ambassadors disquieted the Tlascalan rulers
and they repeated with insistence their invita-

1 De monte malo si quiera un palo. Explained in
Stevens's Spanish-English dictionary: "Of an ill wood
take, tho' it be but one stick, that is. Get what you can
tho' never so little from an ill man or a miser."

^Letters of Cortes, tom. i., p. 210; Bemal Diaz, cap.
Ixxiii.

The Spanish-Tlascalan Alliance 147

tion to Cortes to come inside the city, where
they might provide for him, and might enter-
tain him more becomingly. Cortes, however,
still delayed. He was waiting for another em-
bassy from Montezuma that was due in six days'
time and had also, meanwhile, written to Es-
calante at Vera Cruz, reporting his successes,
and asking him to send supplies of wine and hosts
for the celebration of mass.

The expected envoys arrived within the es-
tablished time from Mexico, bringing three
thousand dollars in gold, besides ornaments and
the usual feather-work and cotton stuffs. This
was intended as a God-speed to the Spaniards,
whom Montezuma still urged to return whence
they came, adding a warning that they should
on no account trust the perfidious Tlascalans
nor go into their city.

The Tlascalans, having fought so obstinately
to keep Cortes out of their town, were now.
equally determined that he should come into it,
and the humorous element in his situation was
doubtless not lost on Don Fernando, who found
himself so assiduously courted by the rival
powers — the empire and the republic. The re-
turn of the Mexican ambassadors brought things
to a climax and as soon as their arrival was
known in Tlascala, the four chief rulers left the
city attended by a great concourse of nobles
and marched in their greatest pomp to the
quarters of Cortes. After the salaams and in-

148 Fernando Cortes

censing prescribed by their etiquette, the aged
Xicotencatl spoke to Cortes in a tone of affec-
tionate reproach, frequently repeating his name,
Malintzin, Malintzin, and begging him to no
longer deny them the pleasure of receiving him
in their city. The venerable chieftain protested
against the insidious arts of the Mexicans to
poison his mind against them, and to prevent
the Spaniards and the Tlascalans from becoming
friends. To such an appeal there was but one
reply.

The following morning, Friday the twenty-
third of September, mass was first celebrated
by the chaplain Juan Diaz, after which the
Spaniards broke the camp at Yzompachtzinco,
to which place they gave the name of Torre de
la Victoria, and, marching with every precau-
tion against a possible surprise, they made their
triumphal entry into Tlascala, accompanied by
a vast concourse of people collected from all
the country roundabout, and amidst the ac-
clamations of the populace. At different places
during the march, military and civil dignitaries
met the procession and swelled the commander's
escort. The streets were thronged with people,
eager to behold the teules, and from crowded
roofs, garlands of flowers were rained down
upon them. The population was in gala attire,
and the four regents accompanied by nobles of
each of the four states and by the priests, all
in their robes of state, advanced to greet Cortes,

The Spanish-Tlascalan Alliance 149

salaaming to the earth and sending up clouds
of incense in token of their homage and sub-
mission. The palace of Xicotencatl was pre-
pared for the Spanish commander and, as the
Mexican ambassadors had come on his guarantee
that they would be respected, they were lodged
there with him. The Spanish troops were
quartered in the extensive courts and buildings
of the same palace, while the Indian allies were
lodged in the dependencies of the great temple.^
Cortes did not relax his customary discipline
because of these enthusiastic demonstrations.
He gave strict orders that no one was to take
anything that was not offered to him, nor was
any one to move one step outside the quarters
without permission. The artillery was placed
and the guard mounted, exactly as though the
place were besieged. The men protested and
demanded more liberty; likewise the Tlascalans
were hurt at what seemed to them a want of
confidence in their friendship, but Cortes an-
swered them that such were the rules and cus-
toms of his troops, which were never relaxed in
war or peace. This explanation was not only
sufl&cient to allay criticism, but so impressed
General Xicotencatl that he proposed its adop-
tion in the army under his command.^

1 Ixtlilxochitl, Historia Chichimeca, cap. Ixxxiii. ; Bemal
Diaz, cap. Ixxiv.

2 Gomara, Cronica, cap. liv., Iv.; Bemal Diaz, cap. Ixxv.;
Sahagun, Historia de Nueva Espana, lib. xii., cap. xi.

150 Fernando Cortes

This town [wrote Cortes in his second letter
to Charles V.] is so large and admirable that,
although much of what I might say I shall omit,
the little which I shall say is almost incredible;
for it is much larger than Granada, and very much
stronger, having very good buildings, and it con-
tains a great many more people than Granada did
when it was taken, and is much better supplied
with provisions, such as bread, birds, game, and
river-fish and other good vegetables and edibles.
There is a market in this city, in which every day
above thirty thousand souls sell and buy, without
counting many other small markets in different
parts of the city. Everything is to be found in
this market in which they trade and could need,
not only provisions, but also clothing and shoes.
There are jewelry shops for gold and silver and
stones and other valuables of feather-work, as well
arranged as can be found in any of the squares or
market-places of the world; there is also as good
earthenware and crockery as the best in Spain.
They also sell wood and coal, and both edible and

medicinal herbs. There are houses like barbers'
*

shops, where they wash their heads and shave them-
selves; there are also baths: finally there prevail
good order and politeness, for they are a people
full of intelligence and understanding, and such
that the best in Africa does not equal them. This
province contains many extensive and beautiful
valleys, well tilled and sown, and none are left
uncultivated. The province is ninety leagues in
circumference, and, as far as I have been able to
judge about the form of government, it is almost
like that of Venice, Genoa, or Pisa, because there

The Spanish-Tlascalan Alliance 151

is no one supreme ruler. There are many lords,
all living in this city, and the people, who are
tillers of the soil, are their vassals, though each one
has his lands to himself, some more than others.
In undertaking wars, they all gather together and,
thus assembled, they decide and plan them. It is
believed that they must have some system of jus-
tice for punishing criminals, because one of the
natives of this province stole some gold from a
Spaniard and I told this to that Magiscatzin,i the
greatest lord amongst them. After making their
investigation they pursued him to a city which is
near there, called Churutecal,^ whence they brought
him prisoner and delivered him to me, with the
gold, telling me that I might chastise him. I
thanked them for the diligence they took in this,
but told them that, inasmuch as I was in their
country, they might chastise him according to their
custom, and that I did not wish to meddle with
the punishment of their people while I was in their
country. They thanked me for this and took him
with a public crier, who proclaimed his offence,
leading him through the great market-place where
they put him at the foot of a sort of theatre and,
with a loud voice, again published his offence. And
all having seen him, they beat him on the head with
sticks until they killed him. We have seen many
others in the prisons, whom, it is said, were con-
fined there for thefts and other offences they had
committed. According to the visitation that I
ordered to be made, this province has five hundred
thousand householders, besides those of another

^ Maxixcatzin. ^ Meaning Cholula.

152 Fernando Cortes

small province called Guazincango, which joins it,
whose people live as these do, without a rightful
sovereign, and are no less vassals of Your Highness
than the Tlascalans.

The day after the solemn entry into the city,
many of the chiefs and nobles assisted at mass,
which was said by the chaplain, Juan Diaz.
Gifts were then offered to Cortes which, though
modest enough compared with the rich presents
sent by Montezuma, were graciously accepted
for the significance attaching to them. Three
hundred young girls were next presented,
amongst whom was a daughter of Xicotencatl
whom he destined as a wife for Cortes, and nu-
merous other daughters of nobles for the officers
of his army. Cortes expressed his recognition
of this attention, but declined to receive the
young women, and in answer to the surprise of
the Tlascalans, he explained that being Chris-
tians, he and his men adored and served the
one true God, to whom the human sacrifices and
cannibal feasts in use amongst them w^ere offen-
sive and that they could not consort with idola-
ters. An exposition of Christian doctrines then
followed, which concluded by an exhortation to
the Indians to abandon their superstitions and,
by so doing, make it possible for the Spaniards
to accept their daughters and become their firm
allies.

The Tlascalans, however, were tenacious of
their gods whom their forefathers had always

The Spanish-Tlascalan Alliance 153

adored and, after consulting amongst themselves,
they refused to abandon them. The most they
would concede was to admit the Christian God
to a place amongst their deities. Flexible on
all other questions, Cortes never temporised
where religion was concerned, and how far his
zeal would have carried him, it is not difficult
to guess, had it not been for the wiser counsels
of the Mercedarian friar, Bartolom6 de Olmedo,
who put clearly before him the peril and folly
of attempting to force conversion on people who
were unprepared to receive the faith. The
friar's reasoning prevailed, but a chapel was
fitted up in Xicotencatl's palace and a cross
was erected on the site of Cortes's reception on
entering the city, and a statue of the Blessed
Virgin was placed in a teocalli that was first
cleansed and redecorated. As the Tlascalans
were familiar with the cross as the sign of a
god called Tonacacuahuitl, they were more
pleased than not to find their new friends
venerating the same symbol. Five of the noble
Indian maidens were baptised and given to the
Spanish officers. The daughter of Xicotencatl,
who became known as Dona Luisa after her
baptism, was accepted, not by Cortes, but by
Pedro de Alvarado, and Prescott states that
their posterity intermarried with some of the
noblest families of Castile. Tlascalan authors
later affirmed that Juan Diaz also baptised the
four ruling lords of the republic, to whom Cortes

154 Fernando Cortes

stood godfather; the conversion of Maxix-
catzin is elsewhere described as taking place a
year later (1520) when, falling ill of the small-
pox and desiring to die a Christian, Cortes sent
Fray Bartolom6 to administer the sacrament.
In the absence of any mention of such events,
either by Cortes, who would have been the first
to proclaim them, or by Andres de Tapia and
Bernal Diaz, who were present, these alleged
conversions would seem to belong to the stock
of pious fables that multiplied after the conquest.
While their daughters were being baptised by
the Spanish chaplain, the Tlascalans christened
Cortes and Pedro de Alvarado with names that
will never die, for it was from them that Cortes
first acquired the name of Malintzin or Malinche,
signifying Marina's captain; Mufioz Camargo,
the Tlascalan historian, is authority for the
assertion that after his entrance into the city
the Tlascalans also addressed Cortes as Chal-
chuich. To Pedro de Alvarado they gave the
expressive name of Tonatiuh, meaning the sun,
because of his fiorid complexion and golden
blonde hair.

CHAPTER VI

THE CHOLULAN CONSPIRACY AND MASSACRE

Events in Tlascala — The Cholulans — Their Treachery —
The Massacre — Justification of Cortes — Description of
Cholula — Popocatapetl

THE submission of the warlike Tlascalans
contributed to enhance the fame of the
Spaniards throughout the nations of Andhuac,
and envoys came from far and wide to view the
formidable strangers, concerning whom, they
carried back reports that excited still more the
popular interest in them. During three weeks,
Cortes and his men enjoyed the lavish hospi-
tality of the city, in return for which he dis-
tributed amongst the nobles the loads of
presents he had received from Montezuma and
the various caciques, and which he had sent
messengers to bring up from Cempoalla. These
gifts consisted of the feather- work, so highly
prized by the Indians, but which was of no value
or interest to the Spaniards after their first
curiosity was satisfied, and of the beautiful
cotton-stuffs to which they were equally indif-
ferent, but which to the Tlascalans, were the
rarest of luxuries, since their country produced
no cotton.

Life was not all festal, however, at least not

155

I $6 Fernando Cortes

for Cortes, who profited by his daily companion-
ship with the Tlascalan rulers and nobles to
inform himself minutely concerning the Aztec
capital, its fortifications, the number of its
population and the military resources of its
ruler. He heard all that his hosts were able to
tell him, amongst other things, the old prophecy
foretelling the arrival of the bearded white men
from the East who would one day subdue and
rule the land, and with whom public opinion
identified the Spaniards. He answered them
that he and his men did, in fact, come from the
east and that their king had sent them to be
their brothers ; " and may it please God to grant
us the grace, that by means of us, they [the
Indians] may be redeemed " ^ he piously con-
cludes.

Amongst others who, from hatred of Mon-
tezuma, offered allegiance to the Spaniards,
there came another embassy from Prince Ixtlil-
xochitl, inviting Cortes to pass by Calpulalpan,
where he would join him with all his forces
and march against the Aztec capital. The en*
voys were sent back to their ambitious master,
bearing a politic answer to his proposal.

Mexican ambassadors came and went between
the capital and Tlascala. These harassed digni-
taries had indeed a difllcult task, for their in-
structions varied according as Montezuma's
humour changed. Their sovereign's instruc-

1 Bemal Diaz, cap. Ixxviii.

Cholulan Conspiracy and Massacre 157

tions to them were to turn the strangers back,
but without offending them, lest, being gods,
perchance their wrath might destroy the empire.
The victory over the Tlascalans had estab-
lished once for all the imposing military pres-
tige of the Spaniards, and Montezuma, despairing
of staving off their impending visit, resolved to
admit them to his capital with what grace he
could muster. To this end an embassy was sent
to Tlascala to formally invite Cortes to visit
the emperor in Mexico, advising him to march
by way of the city of Cholula ^ where orders for
his reception had been given. The Tlascalans
strongly opposed this plan, warning Cortes that
Cholula would prove a trap, prepared for his
destruction. They described the Cholulans as
cowards in the field, but crafty and dangerous

1 Cholula lay six leagues south of Tlascala and twenty
leagues distant from the city of Mexico; it was the sacred
city of Anahuac, the Jerusalem or Mecca of the nations
where stood (and stands) the greatest pyramid in Mexico,
of whose construction there is no authentic record. The
form of government there was theocratic, and the priests
chose a captain-general to command the army while the
civil affairs were administered by a council composed of
six nobles.

The Cholula pyramid, now so covered with earth, and
overgrown with shrubs and trees, that its artificial char-
acter and architectural lines are no longer discernible,
measures at the length of its base 1423 feet, or twice the
length of Cheops; the square of the base covers about
twenty-four acres, and the flat area on the summit, a
little more than one acre. The chief deity worshipped
at Cholula was the mysterious Quetzalcoatl. See Saha-
gun, Historia de Nueva Espana, lib. i., cap. iii.

iS8 Fernando Cortes

people, obedient in all things to Montezuma's
will. The most telling argument they used,
however, was their reminder that, while peo-
ple had come from great distances to salute him
and pay him homage, nobody had appeared from
Cholula, though the city was but six leagues
distant.^

In response to a summons Cortes sent to
Cholula, there arrived an embassy, which the
Tlascalans promptly pointed out was composed
of persons of very inferior rank, whose very
appearance in the character of ambassadors was
a mockery. These people were sent back, bear-
ing a peremptory order from Cortes to the chiefs
to present themselves and make their submission
without delay, otherwise he would consider and
treat them as rebels against the King of Spain's
authority.

Cortes acted consistently on his unfaltering
conviction that he was an instrument of divine
justice, and he determined that others should so
regard him. He started from the dogmatic as-
sumption that the new world belonged to Spain
by right of Pope Alexander's bull of donation,
that its inhabitants were, therefore, just as much
the lawful subjects of the Crown as were the
natives of Castile or Granada, and that to refuse
obedience was rebellion. The native chiefs, in
resisting his pretentions and defending their
countries became, according to his reasoning,

1 Letters of Cortes, torn, ii., pp. 211-212.

Cholulan Conspiracy and Massacre 159

instigators of revolt and must be dealt with as
such. Most of all, the people were practisers
of idolatry, in peril of eternal damnation, whom
it was a chief part of his mission to rescue
and bring into the knowledge of the Faith. He
held himself to be merciful, in that he invariably
invited their obedience by explaining what a
privilege it was to be ruled by such a mighty
sovereign as the Emperor, and he sought to ac-
complish their conversion by expounding the
doctrines of the Christian religion. Once this
choice was put plainly before them and they
had refused to accept the dual blessings of
vassalage and conversion, they became, in his
eyes, contumacious rebels and conscious here-
tics. He had the Spanish sixteenth-century
standards as to how all such were to be treated.
In dealing with the Cholulans, he followed
the usual solemn formality of causing a letter
to be drawn up by a notary; that the Cholulan
priests to whom it was addressed could not un-
derstand a word of it, did not detract from the
validity of the proceeding in his estimation.
The excuse for their tardy appearance, offered
by the Cholulan chiefs who came the next day,
was, that they had not ventured to trust them-
selves in the power of the Tlascalans who were
their enemies; they were persuaded that the
latter had spoken ill of them, but they begged
Cortes not to listen to such calumnies but to
come to Cholula, where he might judge the

i6o Fernando Cortes

sincerity of their friendship from the welcome
he would there receive.^

Despite the continued opposition of his new
allies, Cortes decided to accept this invitation
and he fixed the date of his arrival. Accom-
panied by a force of one hundred thousand Tlas-
calan warriors, he marched, on the thirteenth
of October, to within two leagues of Cholula,
where he pitched his camp and, to avoid possible
troubles from the presence of such a number of
their enemies in the Cholulan capital, he dis-
missed the greater part of the Tlascalans.
Some five or six thousand, however, still re-
mained with him, despite his protests that their
presence was unnecessary.^

The following day, as many as ten or twelve
thousand persons came out from the city, bear-
ing presents of flowers, fruits, bread, and birds.
The Cholulan chiefs represented to Cortes that
the entrance of such a numerous body of armed
Tlascalans into the city would certainly pro-
voke disorders and, as the commander shared
this apprehension, he ordered his allies to
remain in the camp outside the city walls.

Upon entering the city the next day, the Span-
iards were struck with the marks of a civilisation
superior to that of Tlascala. The costumes of
the people were richer, their manners more
polished and ceremonious and, as the procession

1 Letters of CorteSj torn, i., p. 213.

2 Ibid., p. 214.

Cholulan Conspiracy and Massacre i6i

moved forward amidst the assembled multitude
of citizens, escorted by the principal nobles and
priests bearing smoking censers, garlands of
flowers were thrown down upon them from the
crowded housetops. They were assigned spa-
cious quarters in the dependencies of one of
the great temples and a plentiful repast was
immediately offered them. Forewarned by the
Tlascalans, Cortes was not blinded by these at-
tentions; his quick eye noted that the usual
high-road was closed and another had been
opened, while some of the city's streets were
barricaded and on the flat roofs of the houses,
stones had been collected. Some agents of Mon-
tezuma's whom he knew by sight, were also seen
in conversation with the chief member of the
Aztec embassy which had accompanied the Span-
iards from Tlascala. This ambassador suddenly
disappeared without giving any previous notice
of his intention, and after his departure the
polite attentions of the Cholulans seemed to
diminish, while the provisions became notice-
ably insufficient. The visits of the chief priests
and nobles became fewer and finally ceased
altogether, while the Aztec envoys who still re-
mained, changed their tone and sought once
more to dissuade Cortes from going on to Mex-
ico, saying one moment that the road was im-
passable, and at another that provisions were
so scarce that the Emperor could not properly
entertain him. The atmosphere became charged

II

i62 Fernando Cortes

with suspicion, some of the Cempoallan allies
reported that they had discovered several pits
dug in the streets, in which sharp pointed stakes
were driven and carefully covered over, in such
wise as to be hardly perceptible.

It was remembered the Tlascalans had warned
the Spaniards, that such pitfalls were prepared
for the horses. Simultaneously, eight Tlas-
calans who had come into the city as camp
servants, reported that two men and five
children had that morning been sacrificed to
the god of war and that the Cholulans were
sending their women and children out of the
city. All doubts as to the meaning of these
disquieting reports were dispelled by Marina,
who had been urged by a Cholulan woman with
whom she had become intimate, to leave the
white men and conceal herself in her house, as
a general massacre of the strangers had been
ordered and her only salvation lay in adopting
this plan. Marina feigned to assent, and thus
acquired more particulars, all of which she
faithfully reported to Geronimo de Aguilar.^
Marina next induced her informant and two
priests to visit the Spanish quarters, where they
were persuaded to confirm the truth of her
story. Little by little the details of the plot
were disclosed. Montezuma, who had at first

^Letters of Cortes, torn, i., p. 215; Bemal Diaz, cap.
Ixxxiii.; Gomara, Cronica, cap. lix.; Herrera, dec. xi., lib.
vii., cap. i.; Torquemada, lib. iv., cap. xxxix.

Cholulan Conspiracy and Massacre 163

directed the Cholulans to receive the Spaniards
hospitably, had since been informed by certain
oracles that Cholula was destined to be the
grave of the strangers; he consequently revoked
his previous instructions, ordered the citizens to
prepare ambuscades and pitfalls in their streets
and to hold themselves in readiness to take the
Spaniards at a disadvantage. Twenty thousand
Mexican troops, which had been stationed in a
place of concealment near by, would come to
their assistance at the critical moment and
annihilate the obnoxious strangers.

Even the resourceful Cortes was perplexed at
the dilemma in which he found himself and, be-
fore he formed a decision, he summoned his
captains together and put the situation clearly
before them. In such conferences the veritable
character of each participant is disclosed. The
timid counsel retreat, the prudent devise half
measures, seeking to safeguard their honour
and at the same time to save their skins. Cor-
tes, who was as faithful to his purpose as is
the needle to the pole, declared there was but
one hope for them; retreat in any form would
be disastrous, if not indeed impossible, and their
only course was to strike quickly and strike
hard, before they were struck. His plan was
carefully laid and the first step was to urgently
invite the principal caciques to come to his
quarters, as he had a communication of import-
ance to make to them. When they appeared, he

1 64 Fernando Cortes

quietly explained that, as the presence of his
men seemed no longer desired by the Cholulans,
he had decided to quit the city the following
day and therefore begged them to supply him
with two thousand men to transport his artillery
and baggage. His request was granted and the
chiefs withdrew. The second step was to com-
municate his knowledge of the plot to the Aztec
envoys, telling them that this murderous design
was attributed by the Cholulans to Montezuma.
The envoys protested that they were ignorant
of the conspiracy and were convinced that their
imperial master was equally so. Cortes was
prepared for this answer which he feigned to
believe, declaring that he held it to be incredible
that such a great prince as Montezuma could
stoop to such base treachery. His decision was
taken, and he declared to the envoys that he
would chastise the Cholulans in such wise as
should vindicate Montezuma as well as himself.
The envoys were then placed under strict guard
and prevented from communicating with the
Cholulans. The Tlascalan allies outside the
walls were notified that they should hold them-
selves in readiness on the following morning,
and on hearing a musket shot they should make
a general assault on the city.

At dawn the next day Cortes mounted his
horse and, having placed his heavy guns so as
to command the approaches to the temple court
or square where his men were encamped and to

Cholulan Conspiracy and Massacre 165

which there were but three entrances, he awaited
the arrival of the caciques and the promised
bearers. No sooner had these latter been col-
lected inside the enclosure, the entrances to
which were guarded by soldiers, than Cortes
conducted the nobles into a smaller court-yard
and there questioned them one by one concerning
the conspiracy, telling them that further con-
cealment was useless as he was fully informed
of their plans. The chiefs admitted their guilt,
but excused their action by saying that they
were bound to obey Montezuma, by whose orders
the plot had been formed. Cortes feigned indig-
nation on hearing this, declaring that they de-
famed the Emperor whom he held to be his
friend but that in any case their plea was in-
admissible, as he was in their city in response
to their urgent invitation and hence protected
by the laws of hospitality.

The fatal musket shot was fired. The de-
fenceless men herded in the enclosure were mas-
sacred, while the Tlascalan allies from without
rushed to attack the city, whose streets quickly
became encumbered with the slain. Cortes him-
self states that within the space of two hours
more than three thousand persons were killed,
while other authorities place the number much
higher.^ This massacre is one of the bloodiest

^Letters of Cortes, torn, i., p. 216; Gomara, cap. Ix,;
Ixtlilxochitl, Hist Chichimeca, cap. Ixxxiv.; Herrera, dec.
ii.y lib. vii.y cap. ii.

1 66 Fernando Cortes

in Mexican history and concerning it the great-
est controversy has raged. Las Casas leads in
judging Cortes most severely and says that it
was a part of his policy, as indeed it was of
the Spaniards everywhere, to strike terror into
the natives by a wholesale slaughter. Bernal
Diaz defends Cortes and says his course was
justified later, when, in the investigation made
by the friars who came for that purpose to
Cholula, it was learned from the chiefs and
other Cholulans that there had really been a
concerted plot to destroy the Spaniards in their
city.

A contrary theory is, that the Tlascalans
invented the fiction of a plot expressly to pro-
voke a massacre of their Cholulan enemies. If
this be true, Marina was the only instrument
for accomplishing their purpose. If Marina in-
vented the alleged disclosures of her female
friend, if slie used her absolute power as inter-
preter to put into the mouths of the priests and
caciques confessions of guilt that they never
uttered, tlie responsibility for the massacre falls
upon her.

Cortes trusted Marina. Of the sincerity of
his belief in the existence of such a plot, the
evidence before us leaves no room for reason-
able doubt. The moment was one of great
peril, in which the commander's first duty
was to save his men. The accusation of Las
Casas may, in this instance, be dismissed, for

Cholulan Conspiracy and Massacre 167

•

it was not tlie policy of Cortes to massacre
the Indians merely to strike terror into the
survivors. Nowhere had he provoked hos-
tilities or encouraged wanton cruelty. Admit-
ting, however, that his belief in the existence of
a conspiracy to destroy his men was honest or
even correct, and granting that his only hope
of salvation lay in forestalling the conspirators
by striking the first blow, the excessive severity
of the measures he adopted is indefensible.
Nothing can excuse or attenuate the wholesale
massacre of a defenceless population, and once
the Spanish commander had the Mexican en-
voys and a certain number of Cholulan chiefs
and priests securely in his power, he held suffi-
cient hostages for his own safety. Upon these
instigators of treachery, his vengeance might
justly have fallen.

In a chapter devoted to his interesting and
instructive reflections on this, one of the saddest
and most regrettable incidents of the conquest,
Prescott traces its justification back to the
foundation on which the right of all or any con-
quest rested at the time. The research might,
however, be logically carried still further back
to the elemental instinct in every man to pro-
tect his life at all costs. It does not seem likely
that Cortes sought warrant for his action at
Cholula, in papal bulls or theological opinions.
He and his men had been lured by fair words
into a populous city, whose people were secretly

1 68 Fernando Cortes

preparing to entrap and annihilate them, and
their intention was to extricate themselves from
the trap and administer such chastisement as
would effectually prevent a repetition of such
treachery. Once the barrier was down and the
Tlascalan allies were loose in their ancient
enemy's town, no effort, even had one been made,
would have sufficed to check their ferocity, while
the not unnatural sentiment of the resentful
Spaniards was that the Cholulans merited all
they suffered.

The merciless slaughter was brought to an
end by the petition of some of the nobles and
chief priests, who protested that they had taken
no part in the plot and who humbly implored
mercy for themselves and their countrymen.
The Tlascalans, surfeited with blood and booty
were called off and sent out of the city to cele-
brate their triumph in their own fashion. Two
of the captive lords who were released and
charged to bring back all the inhabitants who
had fled, succeeded in accomplishing their diffi-
cult mission, and within twenty days the life
of the city resumed its normal course.^

Cortes described Cholula in his second letter
to Charles V. in the following terms:

This city of Churultecal is situated in a plain
and has as many as twenty thousand houses in the

^Letters of Cortes, torn. !., p. 218; Andres de Tapia,
Relacion; Bemal Diaz, cap. Ixxxiii.; Gomara, cap. Ix.

Cholulan Conspiracy and Massacre 169

body of the city, and as many more in the out-
skirts. It is an independent state and has its recog-
nised boundaries, and they do not obey any chiefs
but govern themselves like the Tlascaltecas. The
people are better clothed in some ways than the
Tlascaltecas, because their honoured citizens all
wear albornoces ^ above their clothing, though these
differ from those of Africa in having pockets, but
in the making, the stuff, and the borders, they are
very similar. They have all been and are, since
the recent occurrence, very faithful vassals to Your
Majesty, and very obedient in all that I required
and commanded of them in Your Royal name; and
I believe that henceforth they will remain so. This
city has very fertile fields, for they possess much
land, of which the greater part is irrigated; seen
from the outside the city is more beautiful than the
cities of Spain, because it is very flat, and con-
tains many towers, for I certify to Your Highness
that from a mosque, I counted four hundred and
odd towers in the city, and all belonged to mosques.^
It is the best adapted city for Spaniards to live in,
of any I have seen since leaving the port, as it
has some uncultivated lands and water-supply suit-
able for the purpose of raising cattle, such as no
other we have thus far seen. For, such is the mul-
titude of people who live in these parts, that there
is not a palm of land which is not cultivated, and
even then, there are many places where they suffer

1 Meaning the bournoua or mantle commonly worn by
the Moors.

2 All non-Christian places of worship except Jewish
synagogues were designated mosques by the Spaniards.

170 Fernando Cortes

for want of bread; and there are many paupers
who beg amongst the rich in the streets and at
the market-places, just as the poor do in Spain
and other civilised countries.

Had the massacre been dictated by the policy
of terrorising the natives, as Las Casas suggested,
that object could not have been more fully at-
tained. Montezuma was thrown into a panic of
abject fear that still further bewildered his judg-
ment in his dealings with the invaders. He had
recourse to singular penances, and gave himself
entirely into the hands of priests and magicians.
He denied all knowledge of the Cholulan con-
spiracy, and his ambassadors continued to come
and go between the capital and the Spanish
camp, using every argument to divert Cortes
from his determination to se6 their imperial mas-
ter, but also making preparations for his advance
which they saw was inevitable. Seeing that
neither protests nor persuasion availed, three of
Montezuma's agents remained permanently with
the Spaniards to act as guides and purveyors
for the army. The Tlascalans offered a large
force of warriors, of which Cortes only accepted
one thousand, while the Cempoallan chiefs were
seized with fears of the Aztec monarch's ven-
geance and excused themselves from appearing
in his capital. They were dismissed with a
share of the booty and some acceptable presents
for their cacique, and quit Cholula, bearing de-
spatches for Juan de Escalante at Vera Cruz.

Cholulan Conspiracy and Massacre 171

During the stay of the Spaniards in Cholula,
the great volcano of Popocatepetl ^ was in active
eruption, — a phenomenon that exercised no small
influence on the superstitious natives, who dei-
fied the mountain and its neighbour Ixtaccihu-
atl; the crater of Popocatepetl was thought
to be the abode of the tormented spirits of wicked
kings. Cortes chose ten men under command
of Diego de Ordaz to undertake the ascent of
the volcano and make a report to him on the
eruption, which continued night and day, and
was accompanied by tremendous detonations
and subterranean rumblings. Several Indians
were found to accompany the expedition as
guides for a part of the way, though beyond
a certain point, no force could induce them to
advance. The Spaniards mounted somewhat
higher, but were obliged by the masses of snow
underfoot and the shower of hot ashes that
rained down on tliem to renounce their perilous
intention of reaching the brink of the crater.
They brought back snow and icicles with them
to regale their comrades in the tropical heat
below, and their feat contributed to still further
enhance their reputation as teules, who knew
no fear. Diego de Ordaz was, afterwards,
granted a smoking volcano in his arms to com-
memorate this first ascension of the Popocatepetl.

^ Popocatepetl signifying in the Mexican language
" smoking mountain." Humboldt gives its height as 5400
metres. Ixtaccihuatl means the white woman.

172 Fernando Cortes

Ordaz reported to Cortes that he and his men had
obtained an extensive view of the valley of
Mexico, with its lakes and cities, and had also
discovered a very good road leading thither.

This exploit of Ordaz and his men has evoked
the astonishment of many writers. Had these
men not enough hardship and perils, but they
must needs go in search of more adventures
amidst the eternal ice and fire of the mysterious
mountain? Divested of the somewhat fanciful
trappings with which poetry and fiction have
draped him, the Spanish adventurer of the six-
teenth century still remains a strangely pic-
turesque and dashing creature, whose exploits
command our interest, even when his motives
do not merit our applause. Many influences
were necessary to produce his type. From his
immediate forebears who had, after heroic
struggles, freed Spain from the last vestige of
Moorish domination, he inherited an ardent
patriotism so closely bound up with religion
that he himself, at least, was incapable of sepa-
rating the two sentiments. Soldier of Spain
and soldier of the Cross, for the Cross was the
standard of a militant Christianity of which
Spain was the truest exponent, his religion,
devoutly believed in but intermittently prac-
tised, inspired his ideals, without sufficiently
guiding his conduct. Ofttimes brutal, he was
never vulgar, while as a lover of sheer daring
and of danger for danger's sake, he has never

Cholulan Conspiracy and Massacre 173

been eclipsed. The army of Cortes contained
its fair share of the best and worst examples of
this type. These men, seen in their distant
perspective, seem to us to move in an aura of
romance, and even the most cut-and-dried chroni-
cle of their deeds reads more like a troubadour's
tale than the sober pages of history.

CHAPTER VII

IN THE AZTEC CAPITAL

Approach to Mexico — On the Causeway — Meeting with
Montezuma — Montezuma's Discourse — The Market-
place— Temple of Tlatelolco — Seizure of Montezuma
— Perfidy of Cortes

ON the first day of November, the Spanish
force accompanied by its Indian allies
marched out of Cholula on the road to the city
of Mexico. There had been some discussion
about the better road to follow, for, after a cer-
tain distance from Cholula the highway divided,
and, while each of the branches led to the capi-
tal, one was described as better and shorter
than the other. At different places along the
line of march, deputations from tribes and towns
met Cortes to present gifts of gold and pro-
visions, and to render him homage. The Tlas-
calans had warned him against taking the road
proposed by the Aztec ambassadors, saying that
it would surely lead him into some ambush, as
Montezuma was determined to destroy the white
men before they reached his capital. As has
been said, Cortes never under any circumstances
relaxed his vigilance, and this information
merely resulted in more stringent orders to his
men to be constantly on the alert against a
possible surprise.

174

In the Aztec Capital 175

The first halting place was Guajocingo,^
whose people were hostile to the Aztecs. The
chiefs received the Spaniards with generous
hospitality and, in conversation with the com-
mander, warned him against Montezuma's
treacherous character, repeating the assurance
of the Tlascalans, that he would find one of
the roads to Mexico blocked up with magueys
and felled trees. They added that the obstructed
road was the one he ought to take, though
the Mexicans had arranged to lead him by
the other one, where their warriors were wait-
ing in concealment to attack him if the chance
offered. On arriving, the next day, at the divi-
sion of the roads, one of them was found, as
had been described, blocked up with magueys
and tree trunks. The Mexican ambassadors
explained that although the open road was in
fact somewhat longer, it led continuously
through Mexican territory to Chalco, whereas
the other traversed the country of Guajocingo,
where, as the Spaniards knew, Montezuma had
no jurisdiction and hence could not provide for
their entertainment. Cortes decided, however,
to abide by his original decision and to march
by the shorter road, so he ordered the obstacles
cleared away and continued mounting the lofty
pass between the two volcanoes. The cold be-

lAlso spelled Huexotzinco and Huejocingo. The spell-
ing of Mexican names is variable amongst the early
Spanish writers.

176 Fernando Cortes

came intense, but before night came on, the
army reached a commodious building of
stone where the men could take shelter,
and where great fires were lighted for their
comfort.^

At this place, Cortes was met by a personage
who was represented to him as the brother of
Montezuma,^ accompanied by other dignitaries
and attendants, bearing rich presents and gold
to the value of three thousand dollars. All the
former unavailing arguments to prevent the
Spaniards from advancing were again rehearsed
and the formal offer of whatever sum Cortes
might fix as a yearly tribute, was made; the
amount would be delivered at the seacoast or
wherever he might direct.

Cortes replied that did it lie with him to
abandon his visit to Mexico, he would yield,
with pleasure, to the wishes of Montezuma but
he had been sent by his sovereign for the ex-
press purpose of visiting the Emperor in his
capital that he might render a full report based

^Letters of Cortes, torn, i., p. 224; Sahagun, lib. xii.,
cap. xii.

2 This embassy is somewhat differently described in the
Mexican version quoted by Sahagun, Torquemada, and
other early writers who collected information from native
sources shortly after the conquest. These writers state
that Montezuma chose a man who closely resembled him,
and sent him to Cortes to represent himself as the Aztec
emperor. Cortes enquired of his Cempoallan and Tlas-
calan allies if the man was really Montezuma, and they
assured him that he was not.

In the Aztec Capital 177

on his own observations, and hence he was not
at liberty to disregard these orders. The King
of Spain had long since had news of the Mex-
ican empire and its ruler, with whom he desired
Cortes to establish personal relations and not
through any third party, be he even Montezuma's
own brother. He added the assurance that
great profit and advantage would redound to
the Emperor from his visit and that his appre-
hensions were groundless. Once he had seen
and spoken with him, he would, if Montezuma
so desired, immediately withdraw from the city.
With this refusal, suaviter in modo sed fortiter
in re, the embassy departed, after receiving the
usual gift of beads and trinkets. Still fearful
of some ambuscade or treacherous attack, Cortes
warned the Mexican ambassadors that his men
were prepared day and night, and that they
would do well to notify all their people that
any one who approached the camp after sunset
would be immediately killed. Fifteen natives
who prowled about, doubtless to satisfy their
curiosity, were in .fact killed that same night,
and even Cortes himself, when making his usual
rounds to inspect the guard, just escaped being
fired on by a sentry, to whom he did not give
the password with suflftcient promptness.^

Resuming their march, the Spaniards arrived
at Amecameca, in the province of Chalco, on

1 Reladon de Andres de Tapia; Herrera, dec. ii., lib. vii.,
cap. iv.; Torquemada, lib. iv., cap. xli.

12

178 Fernando Cortes

the third of November. The lord of the place
assigned his guests quarters in the palace and
loaded them with rich presents, amongst which
figured forty female slaves of great beauty and
richly dressed.^

The province of Chalco had been recently con-
quered by the Mexicans, after much bloodshed,
and was held in subjection by force, hence its
people were not loyal subjects to be counted upon
in time of need. They were the first to profit
by the arrival of the Spaniards in the valley
to throw off their allegiance. Cortes promised
them relief and assured them that he had come
to redress their wrongs and establish justice.
As the Spaniards gradually, but steadily ap-
proached the capital, Montezuma fell into a
state of abject despair; his gods had deserted
him, his magicians and priests offered him no
comfort, his lavish presents to the insatiable
strangers had failed to buy them oflE and in the
council of princes and nobles he summoned,
there prevailed a hopeless diversity of opinion
as to the policy to adopt towards the oncoming
invaders. As a forlorn hope, the young King
of Texcoco, Cacamatzin, was sent to receive
Cortes, who had meanwhile advanced to Ajot-
zinco. The King, carried in a gorgeous litter
adorned with jewels and rich plumes, was
escorted by a numerous suite. Cortes, in de-

1 Duran, Hist, de los Indios de Nueva Eapana, cap.
Ixxiii.

In the Aztec Capital 179

scribing his meeting with the young monarch,
says that " They all fell on their knees protest-
ing so much that it only remained to say that
they would defend the road by force, if I still
insisted on going on." ^ The implacable con-
queror continued his onward march despite
these entreaties, and next halted at the beauti-
ful little lake-town of Cuitlahuac, now called
Tlahua, to which the Spaniards gave the name
of Venezuela, — little Venice.

Here they first beheld the famous floating
gardens called chinampas^ on which the choicest
vegetables and most beautiful flowers were cul-
tivated. They were much impressed by the
unique charm of this town, which Cortes de-
scribed to Charles V. as the most beautiful they
had thus far seen. The mainland had now been
left behind and the Spaniards found themselves
on one of the splendid causeways that gave
access to the capital. The last stopping place
was the stately city of Iztapalapan, seven miles
distant from Mexico, of which the chief glory
was its botanical and zoological gardens, with
reservoirs full of all kinds of fish, such as no
town in Europe possessed at that time. Cortes
describes it as follows:

This city of Iztapalapan has some twelve or fif-
teen thousand households and stands on the shore of
a great salt lake, half of it [the city] in the water

^JLettera of Cortes, torn, i., p. 227.

i8o Fernando Cortes

and the other half on land. Its chief has some
new houses which, though still unfinished, are as
good as the best in Spain; I say as large and well
constructed, not only in the stone work but also in
the wood work, and all arrangements for every kind
of household service, all except the relief work and
other rich details which are used in Spanish houses
but are not found here. There are both upper and
lower rooms and very refreshing gardens, with
many trees and sweet scented flowers, bathing
places of fresh water, well constructed and having
steps leading down to the bottom. He also has a
large garden round his house, in which there is a
terrace with many beautiful corridors and rooms,
and within the garden is a great pool of fresh water,
very well constructed, with sides of handsome
masonry, around which runs an open walk with
well-laid tile, pavements, so broad that four per-
sons can walk abreast on it, and four hundred
paces square, making in all sixteen hundred paces.
On the other side of this promenade, towards the
wall of the garden, it is all surrounded by a lattice
work of canes, behind which are arbours, planted
with fragrant shrubs. The pool contains many
fish and water fowl, such as ducks, cranes, and
other kinds of aquatic birds, in such numbers that
the surface is covered with them.

Four thousand castellanos of gold enriched
the Spanish treasure-chest, besides the usual
raiment of delicate cotton stuffs, feather-work,
and some female slaves, but with the Aztec capi-
tal before his eyes, the magnificent hospitality

In the Aztec Capital i8i

of the lord of Iztapalapan, Cuitlahuatzin, was
impotent to detain Cortes in tliat city of delight
for longer than one day. More messengers from
the court had arrived to make the final arrange-
ments for his formal entrance into Mexico the
following day. Objections were raised to the
admission of the Indian allies, who all belonged
to tribes hostile to, or in rebellion against Mon-
tezuma, but Cortes overruled these, saying that
his Indian friends did not accompany him as
warriors, but to assist in carrying his baggage
and artillery. Other fictitious obstacles were
likewise disposed of and, on the morning of
Tuesday the eighth of November, the Spanish
force set out from Iztapalapan, on the last stage
of the memorable march that brought the
civilisation of the two worlds face to face.

The great causeway that joined the Aztec
capital to the mainland was broad enough for
eight horsemen to ride abreast. Three of these
highways gave access to the city; that by which
the Europeans first entered, forms the founda-
tion of the present road known as Calzada de
Iztapalapan, merging into the street called El
Rastro.^ ^

The Spanish force had originally numbered
about four hundred men when Cortes set out
from Vera Cruz, but, fifty at least, had fallen
during the fighting in Tlascala, thus reducing

1 Humboldt, Essai Politique, torn ii., p. Ivii.; Alaman^
Segunda Diaertacion.

1 82 Fernando Cortes

the number to not more than three hundred
and fifty. Six thousand Tlascalans, a few Cem-
poallans, and others made up the procession that
marched amidst the countless thousands of
Mexicans, who lined the causeway and even cov-
ered the surface of the lake in their number-
less canoes. The scene on which the Spaniards
gazed was, beyond question, one of the most
wonderful and beautiful ever offered to man's
contemplation. The panorama of the great
lakes bordered by populous towns, the walls of
whose houses were covered with white lime-
wash of such brilliancy that they glittered like
silver in the dazzling sunlight, spread before
them. The valley of Mexico to-day, despite the
changes in its configuration, the destruction of
its magnificent forests, and the shrinkage of its
fair lakes, still offers the traveller a spectacle
of surprising beauty, on which none can gaze
without feelings of rapturous admiration. What
it must have been when the Spaniards first be-
held it, requires no great exercise of the imagi-
nation to realise. Besides the glowing and
perhaps sometimes extravagant accounts of the
conquerors, the testimony of soberer writers who
beheld the valley immediately after the conquest
has been transmitted to us, corroborating unani-
mously the essential facts of the more fervid
descriptions. Cortes himself has told in the
terse language of a soldier the events of that
memorable day, and, though abler ^Titers have

In the Aztec Capital 183

since built upon and enriched his narrative with
the graces of more perfect literary style, none
have composed a more impressive description of
his first meeting with Montezuma:

Having gone half a league, I reached another
causeway, leading into the lake a distance of two
leagues to the great city of Temistitan,i which
stands in the midst of the said lake. This cause-
way is two lances broad, and so well built that
eight horsemen can ride abreast; and within these
two leagues, there are three cities on one and the
other side of the said causeway, one called Mesi-
calzinco, founded for the greater part within the
said lake, and the other two, called Nyciaca and
Huchilohuchico,^ on the other shore of it, with
many of their houses on the water. The first of
these cities may have three thousand families, the
second more than six thousand, and the third, four
or five thousand. In all of them there are very
good edifices of houses and towers, especially the
residences of the lords and chief persons, and the
mosques or oratories where they keep their idols.
These cities have a great trade in salt, which they
make from the water of the lake, and the crust of
the land bathed by the lake, and which they boil
in a certain manner, making loaves of salt, which
they sell to the inhabitants in the neighbourhood.

1 The Aztec name was Tenochtitlan or Mexico-Tenoch-
titlan. An explanation of the etymology of this name is
given in the third chapter.

1 Cortes conquered the people of Mexico but he never
mastered their language. These towns were Mexicalzinco,
Huitzilopocho, and Coyohuacan.

1 84 Fernando Cortes

I followed the said causeway for about half a
league before I came to the city proper of Temix-
titan. At the junction of another causeway, which
joins this one from the mainland, I found an-
other strong fortification, with two towers sur-
rounded by walls twelve feet high with castellated
tops. This commands the two roads and has only
two gates, by one of which they enter and from
the other they come out. About one thousand of
the principal citizens came out to meet me and
speak to me, all richly dressed alike, according to
their fashion; and when they came, each one in
approaching me, and before speaking, would use
a ceremony that is very common amongst them,
putting his hand on the ground and afterwards
kissing it, so that I was kept waiting almost an
hour, until each had performed his ceremony. In
the verv outskirts of the citv there is a wooden
bridge, ten paces broad, across an opening in the
causeway, where the water may flow in and out
as it rises or falls. The bridge is also for defence^
for they remove and replace the long, broad wooden
beams of which it is constructed, whenever they
wish; and there are many of these bridges in the
city, as Your Highness will see in the account that
I shall make of its affairs.

Having crossed this bridge, we were received by
that lord, Montezuma, accompanied by about two
hundred chiefs, all barefooted and dressed in a kind
of livery, very rich, according to their custom, and
some more so than others. They approached in two
processions near the walls of the street, which is
very broad, and straight, and beautiful, and very
uniform from one end to the other, being about two

In the Aztec Capital 185

thirds of a league long and having very large houses,
both dwelling-places and mosques on both sides.
Montezuma came in the middle of the street, with
two lords, one on the right side and the other on the
left, one of whom was the same great lord, who,
as I said, came in that litter to speak with me;
and the other was the brother of Montezuma, lord
of the city of Iztapalapan, whence I had come that
day. All were dressed in the same manner, except
that Montezuma was shod, and the other lords were
barefooted. Each supported him below his arms
and as we approached each other, I descended from
my horse and was about to embrace him, but the two
lords in attendance prevented me, and they and he
also, made the ceremony of kissing the ground.
This done, he ordered his brother who came with
him, to remain with me and fake me by the arm, and
the other attendant walked a little ahead of us.
After he had spoken to me, all the other lords who
formed the two processions, also saluted me, one
after another, and then returned to the procession.
When I approached to speak to Montezuma, I took
off a collar of pearls and glass diamonds, that I
wore, and put it on his neck, and after we had
gone through some of the streets, one of his servants
appeared bringing two collars of shells, wrapped
in a cloth, which were made of coloured shells.
These they esteem very much, and from each of the
collars hung eight golden shrimps a span long, and
executed with great perfection. When he received
them, he turned towards me and put them on my
neck, and again went on through the streets, as I
have already indicated, until we came to a large
and handsome house, which he had prepared for our

1 86 Fernando Cortes

reception. There he took me by the hand, and led
me into a spacions room in front of the court where
we had entered, where he made me sit on a very
rich platform which had been ordered to be made
for him, and, telling me to wait there, he then
went away.

After a little while, when all the people of my
company were distributed to their quarters, he re-
turned with many valuables of gold and silver work,
and five or six thousand pieces of rich cotton stuffs,
woven and embroidered in divers ways. After he
had given them to me, he sat down on another plat-
form, which they immediately prepared near the one
where I was seated, and being seated, he spoke in
the following manner: "We have known since a
long time, from the chronicles of our forefathers,
that neither I, nor those who inhabit this country,
are descendants from the aborigines of it, but from
strangers, who came to it from very distant regions ;
and we also hold, that our race was brought to these
parts by a lord, whose vassals they all were and who
returned to his native country. After a long time
he came back, but so much time had elapsed, that
those who remained here were married with the
native women of the country and had many de-
scendants, and had built towns where they were
living ; when, therefore, he wished to take them away
with him, they would not go, nor still less receive
him as their ruler, so he departed. And we have
always held that his descendants would come to
subjugate this country and us, as his vassals; and
according to the direction from which you say you
come, which is where the sun rises, and from what
you tell us of your great lord, or king, who has

In the Aztec Capital 187

sent you here, we believe and hold for certain that
he is our rightful sovereign, especially as you tell us
that since many days he has had news of us. Hence
you may be sure that we shall obey you and hold
you as the representative of this great lord of
whom you speak, and that in this there will be no
lack or deception ; and throughout the whole country
you may command at your will (I speak of what I
possess in my dominions) because you will be
obeyed and recognised, and all we possess is at
your disposal.

" Since you are in your rightful place and in your
own homes, rejoice and rest, free from all the
trouble of the journey and the wars you have had,
for I am well aware of all that has happened to
you, between Puntunchan and here, and I know
very well that the people of Cempoal and Tascal-
tecal have told you many evil things respecting
me. Do not believe more than you see with your
own eyes, especially from those who are my enemies
and were my vassals, yet rebelled against me on
your coming, as they say, in order to help you. I
know they have told you also that I have houses
with walls of gold, and that the furniture of my
halls and other things of my service are also of gold,
and that I am, or make myself, a god, and many
other things. The houses you have seen are of lime
and stone and earth." And then he held up his
robes and showing me his body he said to me, " Look
at me and see that I am flesh and bones the same
as you and everybody, and that I am mortal and
tangible." And touching his arms and body with
his hands " Look how they have lied to you ! It is
true indeed that I have some things of gold which

1 88 Fernando Cortes

have been left to me bv mv forefathers. All that
I possess, you may have whenever yon wish. I shall
now go to other houses where I live; but you will
be provided here with everything necessary for you
and your people, and you shall suffer no annoyance,
for you are in your own house and country."

I answered to all he said, certifying that which
seemed to be suitable, especially confirming his belief
that it was Your Majesty whom they were expect-
ing. After this, he took his leave, and when he
had gone, we were well provided with chick^is,
bread, fruits, and other necessaries, especially such
as were required for the service of our quarters,
Thus I passed six days well provided with every-
thing necessary and visited by many of the lords.

Amazement and satisfaction must have con-
tended for the mastery in the mind of Cortes
as he listened to this singular discourse from a
sovereign, of whose power he beheld such tan-
gible proofs. Taken literally, Montezuma's
speech was an acknowledgment of his own
vassalage to the king of Spain, if not indeed
of his abdication. Doubtless, however, Cortes
did not put a strictly literal construction on
the Emperor's phrases ; superstition may enslave
the mind without deciding the conduct of its
victim, and certainly Cortes did not count on
the Aztec monarch's surrender of his power,
merely in obedience to the imaginary fulfilment
of an ancient prophecy, and without resistance.^

^ Montezuma's speech reached Cortes through Marina
and Aguilar, whose best efforts did not exclude inaccuracy.

In the Aztec Capital 189

The customary vigilance was exercised in pla-
cing the guns so as to command the approaches
and defend the entrances of the Spanish
quarters; the guards were mounted and every
precaution taken against the possibility of an
attack.^ That evening the Spaniards celebrated
their entry into the capital by firing salvos of
artillery, the sound and smoke of which spread
terror through the city, whose inhabitants were
thus furnished with actual proof that the teules
commanded the thunder and the lightning.^

Accompanied by Pedro de Alvarado, Juan
Velasquez de Leon, Diego de Ordaz, and Gonzalo
de Sandoval, Cortes returned Montezuma's visit,
in state, on Wednesday the ninth of November.
His escort was composed of five soldiers, of
whom Bernal Diaz was one. The latter has
left us an interesting sketch of the Aztec
monarch's appearance :

The great Montezuma may have been about
forty years old,^ of a good height and well pro-
portioned, slender and not very dark-complexioned,
but of the regular Indian shade. His hair was just
long enough to cover his ears, and his beard was
scanty and thin ; his face was full and genial, with
pleasing eyes. His glance was kindly and, when

1 Bernal Diaz, cap. Ixxxix.; Relacion de Andrea de Tapia;
Sahagun, lib. xi., cap. xvi. ; Torquemada, lib. iv., cap. xlvi. ;
Gomara, Cronica, cap. xvi., xvii.

2 Sahagun, lib. xii., cap. xvi.

3 Bom in 1468, Montezuma was fifty-two years old.

ipo Fernando Cortes

necessary, grave. He was exquisitely clean, and
bathed once a day in the afternoon.

After the formalities exacted by the etiquette
of the court had been complied with and all
had taken their places in the Emperor's pre-
sence, Cortes announced the mission that had
brought him to Mexico, sent by the King of
Spain, the greatest monarch in the world. The
usual exposition of Christian doctrine followed,
accompanied by an exhortation to the Aztec
sovereign to renounce the falsehoods of idolatry
and embrace the Catholic faith. The homily
was lengthy — perhaps more so than on previous
occasions. It would be interesting to know in
just what sense the great truths and mysteries
of religion reached Montezuma's understanding,
through the medium of Marina's interpreta-
tion. She had recited this speech a number of
times, but just what her comprehension of its
real meaning was, is also unknown to. us. In
any case it seems to have made small impression*
on the Emperor, who had been a priest of his
own religion and was now its official chief as
well as the head of the state ; it was not possible
for him to divest himself of his life-long beliefs
in response to such stammering and mangled ex-
position of a new doctrine. The greatness of
his power, the prosperity of his state, and all
temporal blessings as well as spiritual aspira-
tions, were centred in the national gods, and

In the Aztec Capital 191

in his answer, he dismissed the argument by
admitting that the Christian God was doubtless
very good, but his own deities were equally so
and that they must not talk of religion. At the
termination of this interview a thousand dollars
of gold, besides other presents, were distributed
amongst the captains, and to each soldier a
golden neck-chain was given. The Spaniards
returned to their quarters, talking of the de-
lightful personality, agreeable conversation, and
princely generosity of the ruler of Mexico.

The fourth day after the Christians had taken
possession of the quarters assigned to them in
the palace of Axayacatl, Cortes expressed a
wish to visit the market-place and the temple,
which his host hastened to gratify. He rode
at the head of his small troop of horsemen to
the Tlatelolco quarter, where the chief market
of the city was situated, in the immediate
neighbourhood of one of the greatest of the
temples. As no better description of the great
mart of Tlatelolco has ever been written than
that penned by Cortes to Charles V., let us
read the first impressions of the first European
who ever beheld that novel spectacle.

There is one square, twice as large as that of
Salamanca, all surrounded by arcades, where there
are daily more than sixty thousand souls, buying
and selling, and where are found all the kinds of
merchandise produced in these countries, including
food products, jewels of gold and silver, lead, brass,

192 Fernando Cortes

copper, zinc, stones, bones, shells, and feathers.
Stones are sold, hewn and unhewn; adobes, bricks,
and wood, both in the rough and manufactured in
various ways. There is a street for game, where
they sell every sort of bird, such as chickens, par-
tridges, quails, wild-ducks, fly-catchers, widgeons,
turtle-doves, pigeons, reed-birds, parrots, eagles,
owls, eaglets, owlets, falcons, sparrow-hawks, and
kestrels, and they sell the skins of some of these
birds of prey with their feathers, heads, beaks, and
claws. They sell rabbits, hares, and small dogs,
which latter they castrate and raise for the purpose
of eating.

There is a street set apart for the sale of herbs,
where can be found every sort of root and medicinal
herb that grows in the country. There are houses
like apothecary shops, where prepared medicines
are sold, as well as liquids, ointments, and plasters.
There are places like our barber shops, where they
wash, and shave their heads. There are houses
where they supply food and drink for payment.
There are men who carry burdens, such as are called
in Castile porters. There is much wood, charcoal,
braziers made of earthenware, and mats of divers
kinds for beds, and others very thin, used as
cushions and for carpeting halls and bedrooms.
There are all sorts of vegetables and especially
onions, leeks, garlic, borage, nasturtium, water-
cresses, sorrel, thistles, and artichokes. There are
many kinds of fruits, amongst others, cherries, and
prunes like the Spanish ones. They sell bees' honey
and wax, and honey made of corn stalks, which is
as sweet and syrup-like as that of sugar, also honey
of a plant called maguey, which is better than

In the Aztec Capital 193

most; from these same plants they make sugar and
wine/ which they also sell.

They also sell skeins of different kinds of spun
cotton, in all colours, so that it seems quite like
one of the silk markets of Granada, although it is
on a greater scale; also as many different colours
for painters as can be found in Spain and of as
excellent hues. They sell deerskins, with all the
hair tanned on them, and of different colours ; much
earthenware, exceedingly good, many sorts of pots,
large and small, pitchers, large tiles, an infinite
variety of vases, all of very singular clay, and most
of them glazed and painted. They sell maize, both
in the grain and made into bread, which is very
superior in its quality to that of the other islands
and mainland ; pies of birds and fish, also much fish,
fresh, salted, cooked, and raw; eggs of hens, and
geese, and other birds in great quantity, and cakes
made of eggs.^

Finally, besides those things I have mentioned,
they sell in the city markets everything else that
is found in the whole country and which, — on ac-
count of the profusion and number, do not occur
to my memory, nor do I describe the things, be-
cause I do not know their names. Each sort of

1 The whitish, slippery, fermented liquor called pulque
is extracted from the maguey and is still the popular
drink in Mexico; as it must be drunk fresh, special pulque
trains daily carry supplies to towns along the railway lines.
Flavoured with pineapple, strawberry, and other fresh
fruit juices, and well iced, it is a very good drink, whole-
some, and only intoxicating if drunk immoderately.

2 Given wrongly, as I think, by some translators as
omelettes.

13

194 Fernando Cortes

merchandise is sold in its respective street and
they do not mix their kinds of merchandise
of any species; thus they preserve perfect order.
Everything is sold by a kind of measure, and until
now, we have not seen anything sold by weight.

There is in this square a very large building, like
a Court of Justice, where there are always ten or
twelve persons sitting as judges, and delivering their
decisions upon all cases that arise in the markets.
There are other persons in the same square who
go about continually among the people, observing
what is sold, and the measures used in selling, and
they have been seen to break some which were false.

This great city contains many mosques, or houses
for idols, very beautiful edifices situated in the
different precincts of it; in the principal ones of
which, dwell the religious orders of their sect, for
whom, besides the houses in which they keep their
idols, there are very good habitations provided.
All these priests dress in black and never cut or
comb their hair from the time they enter the relig-
ious order until they leave it; and the sons of all
the principal families, both of chiefs as well as of
noble citizens, are in these religious orders and
habits from the age of seven or eight years, till
they are taken away for the purpose of marriage.
This happens more frequently with the first-born
who inherit the property, than with the others.
They have no access to women, nor are any allowed
to enter the religious houses; they abstain from
eating certain dishes, and more so at certain times
of the year than at others.

Prom the market-place Cortes went to the

In the Aztec Capital 195

teocalli where Montezuma, who had been carried
thither in his litter, awaited him. Six men
were in readiness to spare him the fatigue of
the ascent by carrying him up the steps, but, re-
fusing their proffered assistance, he and his
soldiers marched up the broad staircase to the
top where the Emperor received him. In reply
to the courteous observation of Montezuma that
he must be fatigued by the climb, Cortes an-
swered, with a touch of bravado that was un-
usual to him, " Nothing ever tires me or my
companions."

Prom the summit of the teocalli , towering as
it did above the entire city, an extensive view
of the capital and its surroundings was offered
to the Spaniards, who gazed on the beauty of
the scene with interest, not unmingled with ap-
prehension roused by the sight of the system of
canals and bridges, by which they might be com-
pletely cut off from retreat at Montezuma's
pleasure.

The first thought of Cortes, however, was to
plant a Christian church on the teocalli. Fray
Bartolom6 de Olmedo, who was present, objected
and reasoned so earnestly against a step that
was obviously premature and also dangerous,
that the commander consented to refrain from
mentioning his wish at that time. He asked
permission, however, to see the interior of
the sanctuaries and, after consulting with the
priests Montezuma accorded his consent. The

196 Fernando Cortes

sight that met the eyes of the Spaniards was
a horrifying one. The gigantic images of
Huitzilopochtli, the god of war and his com-
panion deity Tezcatlipoca, decorated with gold
and precious stones and splashed with human
gore, stood within the dim sanctuary that reeked
with the blood of recent sacrifice and the heavy
fumes of copal incense. On a golden salver lay
human hearts.

Revolted by this ghastly spectacle Cortes
spoke to Montezuma through Marina saying,
" My lord Montezuma, I know not how so great
a sovereign and so wise a man as Your Majesty
should never have perceived that these idols are
no gods but the things of evil, called devils."
He further asked for permission to cast out the
idols, cleanse the temple, and erect there a
cross and a statue of the Blessed Virgin that
Montezuma had already seen. The consterna-
tion and anger provoked by this demand were
very great and Montezuma answered with of-
fended dignity, " Had I thought, Senor Malint-
zin, that you would offer such an insult as
you have thought well to utter, I would not
have shown you my gods; we hold them to be
very good, for they give us health, rains, good
harvests, victory, and all we desire, hence we
are bound to adore them and oflfer them sac-
rifica I beg you to dishonour them no further."
Even Cortes perceived that he had gone too far
and, changing his tone, he took leave of his host.

In the Aztec Capital 197

who remained behind to placate the outraged
deities with fresh sacrifices.

The Spaniards, with the Emperor's consent,
fitted up a chapel in one of the rooms of the
palace they occupied, where mass was cele-
brated as long as the limited supply of wine
held out. The soldiers said their prayers be-
fore the altar, with its statue of the Blessed
Virgin and the symbol of the cross, and all
assembled there for the Angelus.

While the altar in this improvised chapel
was being erected, the carpenter discovered a
masked door which, on being opened, was found
to lead to a vast hall that served as a treasury.
In the centre of the floor was a great pile of
gold and precious stones, while the walls round-
about were hung with rich stuffs, mantles of
costly feather-work, shields, arms, and numerous
ornaments of gold and silver exquisitely worked.
This hoard was the treasure left by Montezuma's
grandfather, the Emperor Axayacatl. After
inspecting the secret treasure-house, Cortes
ordered the door to be sealed up and the
discovery never to be mentioned.

During these first days in the capital, the
Spaniards were the object of every attention
and were visited daily by the great nobles of
the country. Despite such outward seeming,
the Spanish captains were disquieted by reports
that reached them through the Tlascalan and
Cempoallan allies, that treachery was brewing.

198 Fernando Cortes

It was asserted that they had finally been
allowed to enter the city because it would be
more easy to annihilate them there than else-
where. Surrounded as they were by countless
hordes of Montezuma's warriors and vassals, to
whom his word was law, the gravity of their
situation became daily more oppressively evi-
dent to all of them. It was obvious that their
stay could not be indefinitely prolonged, but it
was not exactly clear how it was to terminate
felicitously. If it had been difficult to get into
the Aztec capital, it seemed even more of an
undertaking to get out of it alive. The city
was so planned that exit from it could be
effectually cut off by raising the bridges; once
this were done, the little handful of Christians
would find themselves isolated amidst a vast
multitude of fierce enemies who, if they did not
overwhelm them by mere force of numbers,
might reduce them by thirst and starvation.
The imminence of their danger prompted Cortes
to call a meeting of his captains, Juan Velas-
quez, Pedro de Alvarado, Gonzalo de Sandoval,
and Diego de Ordaz, at which twelve soldiers ^
assisted, to consider the measures necessary for
their safety. After divers propositions had been
presented, Cortes exposed the plan he had been
maturing in his mind, to seize Montezuma and
bring him to the Spanish quarters, where he

1 Bemal Diaz del Castillo states that he was one of the
twelve.

In the Aztec Capital 199

would serve as a hostage for the good conduct
of his subjects. This project, which for sheer
daring stands alone in history, met with instant,
if not unanimous approval, and nothing more
lucidly illustrates the character of the Spanish
conquerors of that epoch, than the enthusiasm
with which they acclaimed the maddest under-
taking ever conceived by a responsible leader.

Cortes had likewise discovered a pretext,
flimsy indeed, but suflScient for his purpose, for
putting his scheme into execution, by referring
back to a certain report received from Juan de
Escalante at Vera Cruz, while the army was
still in Cholula. This report stated that Mon-
tezuma's lieutenant at Nauthla, by name Quauh-
popoca, had induced Escalante to send him four
Spaniards to act as his escort to Vera Cruz,
where he declared he would oflfer his allegiance
to the King of Spain, but whither he was un-
able to go because he would have to pass through
hostile provinces, with whose people he did not
wish to provoke open warfare. When the four
Spaniards arrived at Nauthla, Quauhpopoca
killed two of them and the other two, after
barely escaping with their lives, returned to
report his treachery to Escalante. A punitive
force was sent, and the town of Nauthla was
burned, but Quauhpopoca escaped. Escalante
reported that prisoners taken at Nauthla affirmed
tliat Quauhpopoca had declared he had received
Montezuma's orders, not only for what he had

200 Fernando Cortes

done, but also to exterminate the Spanish force
left behind at Vera Cruz.^

So impressed were the Spaniards with the
risks of their bold enterprise, that they passed
the night in prayer and confessed themselves
to the Mercedarian friar, as though preparing
for death. On Monday, the fourteenth of No-
vember, Cortes ordered his men to prepare as
though for immediate action, the gunners to be
ready with the artillery and the horsemen in
their saddles, after which he set out for the
royal palace accompanied by five or six cap-
tains fully armed. He also placed small bodies
of soldiers at different cross-streets to keep the
way open behind him, while numerous others
were sent, in twos and threes, to stroll casually
about the streets near the palace.

Montezuma received the Spanish commander
with his usual affable courtesy and, after some
desultory conversation, in the course of which
he gave his visitors some presents of gold and
presented one of his own daughters to Cortes,
the real object of the visit was disclosed. Cor-
tes, in exposing the perfidy of Quauhpopoca, de-
clared that he held Montezuma incapable of
giving his representative such orders, but that

^Letters of Cortes, torn, i., p. 235. The version of this
affair given by Bemal Diaz, Herrera, and Torquemada
differs as to the cause of the trouble with Quauhpopoca.
The essential fact is, that the incident served the purpose
of Cortes, and we follow his account, which he said he
received from Escalante.

In the Aztec Capital 201

he must answer to his king for the lives of
those Spaniards and that Montezuma was bound
to disculpate himself by investigating Quauh-
popoca's conduct and punishing him as he de-
served. The Emperor emphatically denied that
Quauhpopoca had acted with his knowledge or
authority and, in proof of his sincerity, he then
and there despatched messengers to Nauthla,
bearing his seal as a sign of their full powers,
to bring the offender and his accomplices before
him without delay. Such ready acquiescence
in the demands of the Spaniards might seem
to have blocked the way for further measures
but Cortes, after waiting till the messengers
had left, reopened the subject and, without use-
less phrases, informed the Emperor that until
Quauhpopoca had been punished, His Majesty
must consent to change his residence to the
palace inhabited by himself where, he hastened
to assure him, he would be perfectly free and
would be treated with all the respect due to his
rank.

Stupefied and indignant at this unheard-of
proposal, Montezuma replied that such a thing
was impossible, for even were he disposed to
consent, his subjects would never permit it.
During some four hours, the discussion con-
tinued, until Montezuma, observing the im-
patient mien of one of the captains and hearing
his tone, though he could not understand his
words, turned to Marina for an explanation.

202 Fernando Cortes

Marina answered, begging him to accompany the
Spaniards quietly and without fear, as he would
be well and honourably treated, but if he re-
sisted he would be instantly killed where he
stood. After the offer of his own children as
hostages had been peremptorily refused, the
hapless monarch yielded to his captors and, sum-
moning his courtiers, he ordered his litter to
be prepared, explaining that in obedience to an
oracle of the god of war, he would transfer his
residence for a time to the palace of Axayacatl.
Sadly, and with tears in their eyes, his faithful
attendants bore him forth to his captivity, es-
corted by the Spaniards, and as the procession
passed through the streets the people, although
not yet comprehending its destination or the
meaning of what was happening, murmured
loudly at seeing their sovereign surrounded by
the armed white men. The rising disturbance
was checked at the outset by an order from the
Emperor, commanding the populace to remain
tranquil.^

Thus was the imprisonment of Montezuma
effected. If the audacity of Cortes quickens
our involuntary admiration, it need not blind
us to the unspeakable perfidy of this act. Ee-
peatedly during his march from the seacoast to
the valley of Mexico, he had given his solemn

1 Letters of Cortes, torn, i., p. 238; Bemal Diaz, cap. xcv.;
Gomara, Cronica, cap. Ixxxiii.; Relacion de Andrea de
Tapia; Clavigero, Storia Antica de Mexico, torn, ii., p. Lxxi.

In the Aztec Capital 203

promise to the Emperor that his visit would be
productive of nothing but what was good and
advantageous to him and his people. He had
represented himself, falsely, as the accredited
ambassador of a great and distant king, charged
to deliver messages of friendship to the Aztec
monarch ; he had been loaded with princely gifts
and treated with royal hospitality, for all of
which he protested that he would repay with
" good deeds," — buenas ohras; if the Emperor
had sought to evade his unwelcome visit and had
thrown obstacles in the way of his march, it
cannot be denied that he was perfectly within
his rights, and both his fears which were great,
and his forebodings of evil which were greater,
were more than justified, as well by what he
already knew of the Spaniards as by what he
was later to suffer at their hands.

Orozco y Berra observes that had Cortes thus
violated his faith in treating with a European,
he would have been ashamed of himself, but as he
was dealing with an idolater, a barbarian, an In-
dian, he admitted such acts of perfidy as the
subtleties of genius.^ If success achieved by
imposture, deceit, and audacity is worthy of
commendation, this achievement of Cortes must
command our applause. Ignorant, doubtless of
the letter, he guided his course by the spirit
of a crafty maxim of Louis XL: Qui nescit
dissimulare nescit regnare.

^ Conquista de Mexico, torn, iv., p. 316.

CHAPTER VIII

MONTEZUMA A PRISONER

Quauhpopoca — Acolhuacan — Vassalage of Montezuma —
The Great Temple — The Idols Overthrown — Monte-
zuma's Warning — The Arrival of a Fleet

ALTHOUGH a prisoner in the Spanish
quarters, Montezuma was to all outward
appearance free. He continued to govern, to
receive his nobles and the ambassadors from
distant states or his own provinces, while the
pompous ceremonial of his court suffered no
interruption. The unfortunate monarch per-
sisted in maintaining the fiction that he had
voluntarily changed his abode and, in reply to
his counsellors and relatives who sought to
arrange for his escape, he again declared that
it was the will of the gods that he should re-
main where he was. More than a fortnight
passed in this manner, when the messengers
returned from Nauthla, bringing Quauhpopoca,
his young son and fifteen nobles of that pro-
vince, accused of favouring the murder of the
two Spaniards. They were delivered to Cortes
who first imprisoned them and then, after a
brief interrogatory, condemned them to be

burned alive. All of them had loyally defended

204

Montezuma a Prisoner 205

their sovereign and to the question whether it
was by Montezuma's orders they had killed the
Spaniards, they answered no. While this bar-
barous sentence was being carried out, Cortes
ordered Montezuma to be put in irons. On the
square before the palace, the populace gazed in
silence at the blazing pyre of Quauhpopoca and
his companions, while within Montezuma's apart-
ment his devoted courtiers silently wept as they
knelt to sustain the heavy manacles lest they
should hurt his legs. When the fatal fires were
spent, Cortes returned to his royal captive and
removed the irons, protesting his affection and
devotion towards him and offering him his
liberty. Montezuma replied that it was better
for him to remain where he was, for were he to
return to his palace, he would be importuned by
his relatives and nobles to declare open war on
the Spaniards, whereas he did not wish to bring
such disaster on his people.

We are here again confronted by the diflftculty
of measuring the conduct of Cortes by abstract
standards of right and wrong. If Quauhpopoca
acted in obedience to his sovereign's orders, he
merited no punishment, — much less the supreme
agony of death by fire. If, on the contrary, his
action proceeded from his own initiative and
without the previous authorisation of the Em-
peror, then Montezuma was free from blame
and should not have been degraded by the im-
position of chains. The explanation or defence

2o6 Fernando Cortes

of the action of Cortes must be sought, not in
the moral but in the political order. Eegarded
as a politic measure to advance the Spanish in-
terests, nothing could have been wiser and more
effectual than to demonstrate to the entire na-
tion that the life of every Spaniard was sacred,
and to the Emperor that there was no depth of
humiliation to which he might not be brought.
That Cortes felt himself vested with a dual
mission of conquest and conversion, there can
be no doubt; that the results of that con-
quest to humanity at large have been beneficial
is equally positive. If there be a divine law of
expiation, both in the moral and the natural
order, that exacts atonement for man's offences
against his creator and against his fellow-men,
Montezuma was far from filling the measure
of his debt by one brief hour of humiliation.
Bernal Diaz, in reviewing the events of the con-
quest some forty years later, expressed his belief
that God's providence had guided Cortes and
his men in all they did, adding, " There is much
food here for meditation."

The most civilised nations of modern times
have stood by, while deeds of equal arrogance
have been perpetrated by the strong over the
weak. Examples are within our recent know-
ledge, and, if the royal dynasties and national
independence of small states are now suppressed
by intruding foreigners with less barbarity than
that employed by Cortes, the reason will be

Montezuma a Prisoner 207

found, partly in the weaker resistance offered
and partly in the humaner standards of modern
warfare, to which all peoples have gradually
advanced since the sixteenth century.

After Juan de Escalante was killed at Vera
Cruz, Cortes had appointed Alonso del Grado to
fill the post of captain there. The choice was a
bad one, and it was soon found necessary to
supplant him by sending Gonzalo de Sandoval to
take his place. Sandoval was instructed to send
up two blacksmiths from the coast, and the
necessary sails, cordage, iron-work, and other
materials preserved from the sunken fleet, to
enable Cortes to construct two brigantines on
the lake of Texcoco. He had promised to build
these vessels so that Montezuma might see what
the " water houses " of which he had only seen
drawings, were like, but the more serious object
of providing some means of communication with
the mainland, in case the Mexicans should raise
the drawbridges, underlay the pretext of divert-
ing the captive Emperor.

While Montezuma adapted himself to the
conditions of his captivity and even amused
himself at games with his captors, the arrogance
of the Spaniards increased with their growing
sense of security and gave great offence to his
subjects. Most of all did the King of Texcoco
resent the indignities offered to his brother-sov-
ereign and the invasive influence of the detested
strangers in the affairs of the government.

2o8 Fernando Cortes

Texcoco, the capital of the kingdom of Acol-
huacan, stood at the north-eastern extremity of
the lake of the same name. It rivalled Mexico
in size and importance, was the centre of Nahua
culture and has been described as the " Athens "
of the Aztecs. The triple alliance of Mexico,
Texcoco, and Tlacopan (Tacuba) formed the
core of the Aztec empire, where centred the
civilisation of Andhuac. The kings of Texcoco
and Tlacopan recognised the King of Mexico as
their over-lord in war and in the affairs of the
central administration, but in all other respects
these sovereigns were equal, absolute, and inde-
pendent in their respective dominions. Texcoco
was older than Mexico, and Nezahualcoyotl, the
greatest of its rulers, bore the title of Aculhua
Tecutl, which Mexican historians define as the
equivalent of Caesar. This king once declared
war against Mexico over a trifling question of
etiquette, sacked the capital, and exacted a
heavy indemnity. The kingdom was divided
into seventy-five principalities or lordships^
something after the feudal system in Europe
during the Middle Ages. The last king before
the arrival of the Spaniards, had been Nezahual-
pilli, a ruler of superior ability, one of the
greatest princes in Mexican history, who left
one hundred and forty-five children, of whom
there were four sons eligible for the succession.
The electors, under pressure of Montezuma,
chose the eldest, Cacamatzin, with the result

Montezuma a Prisoner 209

that the youngest, IxtlilxochitI, contested the
election and plunged the country into civil
strife from which it emerged divided, and in
this weakened and distracted state, Cortes
found it upon his arrival.^

Cacamatzin had absented himself from Mex-
ico after the arrival of the Spaniards and
refused to respond to Montezuma's invitation,
sent at the instance of Cortes, to return to the
city, saying that if he was wanted they knew
where to find him. A conspiracy to seize him was
formed with Montezuma's approval, in which his
own brothel's took part and, after being treacher-
ously captured in his palace in Texcoco, he was
brought to Mexico where Cortes imprisoned him,
appointing his brother Cuicuitzcatzin to rule in
his stead.

1 The ambitious IxtlilxochitI, discontented with the por-
tion he had received, was a permanent pretender to his
brother's crown and he, as has been stated, secretly sent
an embassy to Cortes at Cempoalla asking his help and
offering his own alliance. This afforded Cortes an early
insight into the internal dissensions of the empire, by
which he so readily and ably profited (IxtlilxochitI, Hist,
Chichimeca apud Orozco y Berra, tom. iv.).

Texcoco rapidly diminished in population and import-
ance after the conquest, and Thomas Gage, who visited
it in 1626, found a village containing one hundred Span-
iards and three hundred Indians, reduced to poverty.
Great havoc had been wrought by the wanton destruction
of the magnificent forests of giant cedar trees in the
neighbourhood. Panfilo de Narvaez accused Cortes of
using seven thousand cedar beams in the construction of

his palace alone (Voyage de Thomas Gage, tom. i., cap.
• • • \

Xlll.).

14

2IO Fernando Cortes

Deeming that the time was ripe to exact from
Montezuma a formal and public recognition of
his vassalage to the King of Spain, Cortes pre-
vailed upon his prisoner to summon all the
nobles of the empire to ratify his act of sub-
mission. The unhappy monarch delivered an
address to the assembled nobles and invited, —
nay, commanded, — them to obey Cortes for the
future as the lawful representative of their
real sovereign, to whom they all, as well as
himself, must render obedience and tribute.
This pitiful speech was delivered with such
emotion of the part of the humbled speaker and
provoked such an outburst of tears and lamen-
tations that Cortes, in describing the scene to
Charles V., concludes by saying, " and I assure
Your Sacred Majesty that there was not one
amongst the Spaniards, who heard this dis-
course, who did not feel great compassion."

Each of the nobles was enjoined to immedi-
ately pay his quota of tribute, and imperial mes-
sengers were sent throughout the provinces to
collect it. The partition of the vast sum, vari-
ously calculated by different authorities, led to
great dissension and much quarrelling amongst
the Spaniards. According to the original pact
made amongst themselves, one fifth of the total,
after deducting the royal fifth for the King, was
assigned to Cortes, but when it came to making
the distribution, the greatest discontent was
expressed at the commander's portion. To ap-

Montezuma a Prisoner 211

pease the complaints, Cortes renounced his
fifth to be divided among the poorer soldiers.
This remarkable man had by this time advanced
beyond the stage of squabbling over the division
of spoils, however rich, for his calculations
already dealt with empire.

During these weeks, while the Spaniards'
control was affirming itself over all branches
of the government and in all the affairs of the
capital, Cortes had sent different expeditions
throughout the country, each accompanied by
Montezuma's agents, who pointed out the where-
abouts of the gold mines. These expeditions
had brought back specimens of the precious
metal. The search for a better harbour than
that of Vera Cruz was another project that
occupied the commander's attention and, with
the aid of a map that Montezuma gave him and
guided by the Aztecs, one was finally discovered,
and Juan Velasquez de Leon was sent with fifty
men to make a settlement on the banks of the
Coatzacoalco Eiver.

There remained, however, one national strong-
hold which the Spaniards had thus far not
shaken, — the Mexican religion. Neither the
strenuous methods of conversion employed by
Cortes, nor the more apostolic system of Fray
Bartolom6 de Olmedo had prevailed to win
Montezuma from his national gods. The ritual
was daily celebrated in the temples, and human
sacrifices continued to be offered on the countless

212 Fernando Cortes

altars of Andhuac. Since his first visit to the
Tlatelolco teocalli, Cortes had refrained from
entering the temples, doubtless distrusting his
powers of self-control to restrain him from
committing acts of violence which his saner
judgment told him would be imprudent. The
chief temple of the city stood immediately oppo-
site the Spanish quarters, and the religious rites
celebrated on the summit of the teocalli must
have been within full sight of the garrison.

The great teocalli of the chief temple was
completed in the form in which the Spaniards
beheld it, by Montezuma's grandfather, Ahuit-
zotl, in 1487, when the solemn dedication was
celebrated by the sacrifice of a vast number of
human victims, estimated by Torquemada at
72,344,1 by Ixtlilxochitl at 80,000,^ but more
credibly fixed by the Tellerian and Vatican
Codices at the still respectable figure of 20,000.
Pretexts for wars with various tribes were in-
vented in order to procure the victims for this
ghastly hecatomb, and the ceremony of incessant
slaughter occupied two entire days.

The exact form and dimensions of the temple
are not positively known, but it is probable that
the pyramid was an oblong, measuring some-
thing over three hundred feet in length at its
base, and rising in graduated terraces to a
height of something less than one hundred feet.

1 Monarchia Indiana, lib. ii., cap. Ixiii.
^ Historia Chichimeca.

Montezuma a Prisoner 213

Bemal Diaz^ says that he counted one hun-
dred and fourteen steps, and this tallies almost
exactly with the statement of Andres de Tapia ^
that he counted one hundred and thirteen. Ber-
nal Diaz also measured the pyramids at Cholula
and Texcoco in the same way, and counted one
hundred and twenty steps on the former, and
one hundred and seventeen on the latter, hence,
if he was accurate, the great pyramid of Mex-
ico was not the loftiest in the empire. Not one
of the Spaniards who saw this edifice seems to
have observed it critically, or to have left a com-
plete description of it to posterity. They were
all more impressed with the dreadful significance
of the horrors they saw within it than with
the architectural details; all agree that it was
a most awesome place, in which dark, grue-
some chambers, smelling like a slaughter-house,
contained hideous idols, smeared with human
blood. In these dim recesses, demoniacal priests,
clad in black robes, with grotesquely painted
faces framed in blood-clotted locks, celebrated
their inhuman rites and offered smoking hearts
on golden salvers to the monstrous deities there
enthroned. The presiding figure of this theo-
cratic charnel house was that of the god of war,
Huitzilopochtli — the humming-bird to the left —
and of his image Bernal Diaz gives a careful
description.

* Hist. Verdad, cap. viii.
^ Relacion, p. 582.

214 Fernando Cortes

Its face was distorted and had terrible eyes,
the body was covered with gold and jewels, and
was wound about with the coils of golden
serpents; in the right hand was held a bow,
and in the left a bundle of arrows. Suspended
from the idol's neck was a necklace of human
heads and lieart^ made of gold and silver and
studded with precious stones, and by its side
stood the figure of a page, called Huitziton, bear-
ing a lance and shield, richly jewellel. This
little statue of the page was carried by the priests
in battle, and was also on certain occasions
borne with much pomp through the streets.
The honours of these altars were shared by
Tezcatlipoca, — Shining Mirror, — who was called
" the soul of the world." He was a god of law
and severe judgment, and was much dreaded.
His statue was of black obsidian, and suspended
from his plaited hair, which was confined in a
golden net, was an ear made of gold, towards
which tongues of smoke mounted, symbolising as-
cending prayers. On the summit of the teocalli
stood a great cylindrical drum {tlapanhuehuetl)
made of serpents' skins, which was beaten on
certain solemn occasions, and as an alarum. It
was said to give forth a most sinister sound
which could be heard for miles, and during the
siege, the Spaniards had sad cause to shudder
at its fearsome roll, which so frequently an-
nounced tlie sacrifice of their captive comrades,
whose white, naked bodies, were even discernible

Montezuma a Prisoner 215

in the dusky procession which moved, in the
glare of torches and the sacred fires, up the
terraces of the pyramid on its way to the stone
of sacrifice. The area of the courtyard, some
twelve hundred feet square, was paved with
flat, polished stones, which were so slippery
the Spaniards' horses could hardly keep their
footing. Four gates in the surrounding wall,
called coatepantli^ gave entrance to the court-
yard, one facing each of the cardinal points,
and over each gate there was kept a store of
arms in readiness for attack or defence.

Sahagun ^ enumerates seventy-eight buildings
inside the wall surrounding the courtyard; they
comprised chapels, cells for priests, fountains
for ablutions, quarters for students and attend-
ants, and a number of smaller teocallL This
tallies with the descriptions written by Cortes
and Bernal Diaz, and makes it evident that the
grouping of the buildings somewhat resembled
that of the Kremlin at Moscow or a vast cathe-
dral close. In one of the temples, the Spaniards,
after painstaking calculation, estimated that a
symmetrical pyramid of bones contained one
hundred and thirty-six thousand human skulls.
Amongst these temples there was one dedicated
to Quetzalcoatl, circular in form and having its
entrance built in imitation of a serpent's open
mouth. Bernal Diaz says that this was a veri-

1 Hist, Nueva Espana, torn, i., p. 197.

2i6 Fernando Cortes

table hell or abode of demons, in which they
saw frightful idols, cauldrons of water in which
to prepare the flesh of the victims, which the
priests ate, and furnishings like those of a
butcher's stall; so that he never called the
place other than " hell."

Human sacrifices and cannibalism were prac-
tised even in honour of the beneficent deity of
the Toltecs, whose mild teachings, pure life, and
aversion to war almost persuade us that he
may have been a Christian bishop. Nothing
more conclusively proves that, in spite of their
material prosperity, their extended empire, and
a certain refinement in their social life, the
Aztecs occupied a much lower moral and intellec-
tual level than did their Toltec predecessors in
Andhuac. From the Toltecs they had received
the foundations of their civilisation; all that
was good in their religion or true in their philo-
sophy, all that was known amongst them of
science, they received from that mysterious race
whose only records are a few neglected and
almost unknown ruins.

It was this great temple that Cortes visited
some five months after his arrival in the city.
The repeated discussions with Montezuma on
religion had not visibly advanced his conversion,
and the patience of Don Fernando was ex-
hausted. His arrival, accompanied by ten of
his men, immediately attracted a crowd of peo-
ple, in addition to the priests and servants of

Montezuma a Prisoner 217

the temple. After glancing into the foul-
smelling and blood-stained sanctuary, where he
beheld in the gloomy recesses the bulky forms of
bejewelled idols such as he had before seen at
Tlatelolco, Cortes drew back exclaiming, " Oh,
God, why dost Thou permit the devil to be so
honoured in this land ! "

Human life was cheap in the eyes of Cortes,
and the cruelties inflicted on the natives in the
furtherance of his designs show that it was not
the inhumanity of the sacrifices that filled him
with the most abhorrence. It was the sight of
idolatry, of people given over to devil worship,
that inflamed his Catholic blood, and there
seems, on this occasion, to have been no friar
Olmedo at hand to restrain him, as in Cholula.
He first called the priests together and de-
livered a pious exhortation, explaining the
fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of mankind,
and other Christian beliefs, conjuring them to
abandon superstitions that imperilled their im-
mortal souls, to purify their altars and dedicate
them to the true God and the Saints. As the
priests defended their own, the controversy en-
raged Cortes beyond control, and, seizing an
instrument, he began smashing the idols right
and left, with such magnificent fury that Andres
de Tapia afterwards declared that he seemed
like a supernatural being. Montezuma was
notified and hastened to entreat him, for pru-
dence' sake, to desist, as such profanation would

2i8 Fernando Cortes

provoke an upraising of the people. Cortes,
however, was deaf to remonstrance, and the idols
were cast out, the temple washed and put in
order, two altars being set up, one to Our Lady
and the other to St. Christopher, with their
respective statues placed upon them. Mass was
thenceforth said there, and some of the Indians
came to the ceremony, as they wanted rain and,
their own gods being overthrown, they were
willing to invoke the God of the Spaniards.
Cortes declared they should have rain, and,
with the most confident faith, ordered prayers
and a procession to obtain this blessing; al-
though the procession set forth under a cloud-
less sky, it returned after mass in such a
downpour that the people waded ankle deep in
the streets. Malintzin's religion was vin-
dicated.^

Although the power of the Spaniards over
the city had increased, their prestige diminished
as they came to be better known. No longer
teules in the popular imagination, they de-
scended to the ordinary level of men, — of a
different race, endowed with extraordinarily
fearless courage and armed with invincible
weapons, — but after all mortal men, with their
fair share of the worst qualities observable in
human nature. The horses were seen to be

1 Andres de Tapia, Relacion, pp. 584-6 ; Bernal Diaz, cap.
cvii.; Gomara, cap. Ixxxvi.; Torquemada, lib. iv., cap, liv.;
Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chichimeca, cap. Ixxxvii.

Montezuma a Prisoner 219

animals, not even of a ferocious and blood-
thirsty character, but well trained and docile
and, with the fall of the legend ascribing the
semi-divinity of Quetzalcoatl to the strangers,
the Mexicans began to ask themselves by what
right were outrages on their national gods, the
captivity of their sovereign and the thinly dis-
guised pillaging, under the name of tribute,
being tolerated amongst them. The destruction
of the idols had profoundly affected the Emperor,
whose manner towards the Spaniards underwent
a change from that time forth.

One day the monarch sent for Cortes and his
captains apd, on their arrival, communicated to
them his grave fears for their safety if they
prolonged their stay in the city. The desecra-
tion of the national temple had profoundly
stirred the resentment of his subjects; the
priests demanded reparation, and interpreted
oracles from their gods that commanded the
people to rise against the offending strangers
and drive them back into the sea from whence
they had come. He therefore urged his un-
popular visitors to depart at once before it was
too late, otherwise they would never leave the
city alive.

Cortes thanked the monarch for his warning,
and declared himself ready to go, but before
he could do so, it was necessary to build three
ships at Vera Cruz to transport his men, and
for this purpose he asked for some native work-

220 Fernando Cortes

men, carpenters and others, to assist his peo-
ple to complete the ships more quickly. He
informed Montezuma that when the Spaniards
left he must also accompany them, in order
to present himself before the King of Spain;
meanwhile he must restrain the excitement
amongst his subjects until the vessels were
ready. Montezuma agreed to furnish the work-
men, who departed in company with the two
Spanish carpenters for Vera Cruz. The Span-
ish force had been considerably reduced in
number by the departure of Velasquez de Leon
with more than one hundred men to found the
settlement on the Coatzacoalco Eiver. Eodrigo
Eangel with a number of others, was absent
in the neighbourhood of Chinantla, where he
and his men were engaged in laying out a plan-
tation for the Spanish King, while several other
smaller parties were scouring the provinces to
collect tribute and search for gold mines. The
occasion doubtless seemed opportune to Mon-
tezuma for the proposal he made, but these
conditions likewise explain the unusually pliant
attitude of Cortes and the nature of his reply It
was of the first importance to reunite his scat-
tered forces, and for this, time must be gained.
At this juncture of affairs, the complexion of
everything was suddenly altered by an unex-
pected event at Vera Cruz. Eight days after
the departure of the carpenters for the coast,
the arrival of several Spanish vessels was re-

Montezuma a Prisoner 221

ported to Montezuma by his governors in those
provinces. These reports, in the form of
picture-writings, accurately represented eigh-
teen ships, the number of people the painters
had seen disembark, together with their
horses, arms, and other details. Montezuma
showed the pictures to Cortes, telling him that
he would no longer need to build more ships,
since his men would find place on those of the
fleet recently arrived. The news spread through
the Spanish quarters where it was received with
an outburst of joyous relief; until the tension
of the past few days was relaxed, no one had
quite realised its severity, A salvo of ar-
tillery was fired and the men gave themselves
up to festivity and rejoicing. Cortes shared
the general confidence that a relief expedition
had arrived and that, with such reinforcements,
his conquest was now assured. When the first
wave of enthusiasm had subsided, sober reflec-
tion generated doubts in the commander's mind ;
the fleet might after all have been sent against
him by Diego Velasquez and, far from bringing
assistance, it might mean his destruction. Sus-
pense was intolerable; the only additional in-
formation that reached him in his perplexity,
was a letter written by one, Alonso de Cervantes,
whom he left on the coast with instructions
to immediately report the arrival of any ships.
This letter was brought by an Indian of Cuba,
and described the arrival of but one vessel, which

222 Fernando Cortes

the writer believed to be that of Puertocarrero
and Montejo returning from Spain, adding that,
as soon as the ship came into the harbour, he
would ascertain and report further. Cortes
despatched four of his men with instructions to
bring him information as quickly as possible.
Andres de Tapia was simultaneously sent to
Vera Cruz, and messengers left, bearing orders
to Rangel in Chinantla and to Velasquez de
Leon at Coatzacoalco, instructing them to re-
main where they were until further notice.

I •

CHAPTER IX

OOBTES DEFEATS NABVABZ

Arrival of the Envoys in Spain — ^Velasquez and the Audi-
encia — Landing of Narvaez — His Policy — Negotiations
with Narvaez — Cortes Leaves Mexico— The Attack
— After the Victory

LEAVING Cortes and his companions a prey
to their conflicting hopes and fears in the
Aztec capital, it is necessary, in order to ex-
plain the arrival of the fleet depicted by Mon-
tezuma's artists, to trace the development of
events in Spain, affecting Cortes. As has been
already stated in Chapter IV., the procura-
tors, Puertocarrero and Montejo, who were
sent from Vera Cruz with the letters and the
presents to Charles V. found, on their arrival
in Spain, that Diego Velasquez had, through his
agent Benito Martin, already lodged a com-
plaint against Cortes with the colonial authori-
ties in Seville, -and had succeeded in piejudicing
the President of the Royal India Council, the
Bishop of Burgos, against him. Their ship was
in consequence seized, their own effects and the
presents sent by Cortes to his father were con-
fiscated, the present to the Emperor being

forwarded in response to a royal order, dated

223

2 24 Fernando Cortes

December the fifth from Molino del Rey, to
Louis Veret, keeper of the royal jewels. The
Bishop of Burgos wrote a most unfavourable
report of the conduct of Cortes, representing
him as a mutineer and a rebel, and advising
that his agents be punished forthwith.

In this sorry plight, Puertocarrero and Mon-
tejo sought out Martin Cortes, the father of
Don Fernando, and all three set out to obtain
an audience of the Emperor. They were re-
ceived by Charles V. in the month of March,
1520, at Tordesillas. The rich and curious ob-
jects they presented excited the interest and
admiration of all who saw them, for they
were the first treasures brought from the New
World that in any way corresponded to the
expectations of those who believed, with Colum-
bus, that the golden realms of Cathay had been
reached by sailing to the west.^ Despite the
favourable impression produced by the magni-
ficence of their offering and the wonderful tale
they had to tell of the newly discovered country,
the Bishop's letter had had its effect; moreover,
the Emperor was too preoccupied with his pre-
parations to start for Germany to assume the
imperial crown, to give attention to matters
so remote. No definite answer was returned
and, after following the court to La Coruna,
where Charles embarked on the sixteenth of
May, the two procurators found themselves left

^ Las CasaSy Hiaioria de las Indias, lib. iii., cap. cxxi.

Cortes Defeats Narvaez 225

to the tender mercies of the Bishop of Burgos.
Relying on the powers conferred upon him by
a royal decree dated November 13, 1518, Diego
Velasquez had meanwhile decided to send an
expedition to capture and bring back Cortes to
Cuba. He named as commander of the expedi-
tion, Panfilo de Narvaez, a native of Valladolid
who had first settled in Jamaica and afterwards
taken part in the conquest of Cuba as captain
of thirty bowmen, under Velasquez's command.
Narvaez was at this time about forty years of
age and, though his bravery was admitted by
all who knew him, his arrogance, vanity, and
want of discretion were notorious.

Narvaez's fleet consisted of eighteen vessels
carrying nine hundred men, of whom eighty were
mounted, the remainder being archers and arque-
busiers. Besides the fighting men, there were
about one thousand Indians, twenty heavy guns,
and an ample supply of ammunition and stores.^

The Audiencia of San Domingo, foreseeing the
scandal that would inevitably result from such
an expedition against Cortes, sent Lucas Vas-
quez de Ayllon to Cuba, with full powers to
stop the preparations and prohibit the sailing.
Ayllon followed Diego Velasquez to the port of
Trinidad where he had gone, and there learned
that Narvaez was at Xagua, some fourteen
leagues distant, ready to join the others of the
fleet who were at Guaniguanico. He also dis-

^ Bemal Diaz, cap. cix.

X5

2 26 Fernando Cortes

covered that most of the able-bodied men in the
colony had enlisted and that the island would be
left with few defenders in case of trouble with
the natives. He went, therefore, to Xagua and
notified Narvaez not to sail, but to go to Guani-
guanico, where he intended to dissuade the
governor from the undertaking. Though Velas-
quez appeared at first to yield, he ended by
repudiating the authority of the Audienciay
though he consented to give pacific instructions
to Narvaez as to his manner of dealing with
Cortes. Ayllon decided at the last moment to
go himself with the armada in order, if possible,
to prevent troubles between the rival com-
manders. Narvaez, showed himself heedless of
the notary's protests at San Juan de Ulua, and
finally rid himself of his importunities by send-
ing him back to Cuba on one ship, and his
secretary and alguacil on another. It was
some three months after his departure on his
mission that Ayllon landed at San Nicolas in
San Domingo, and made his way, as best he
could, on foot across the island to report his
ill success to the magistrates. This flouting of
the Audiencia cost Diego Velasquez any triumph
he might otherwise have hoped to gain over
Cortes, and Narvaez's summary violence to-
wards a representative of the government bears
out Bernal Diaz's estimate of his character,^

1 Orozco y Berra, Conquiata de Mexico, torn, iv., cap.
vi.-yii.

Cortes Defeats Narvaez 227

Narvaez's first act was to land his people,
horses, and artillery, after which he proceeded
to the foundation of a settlement for which he
named the usual municipal authorities who, in
this case, were chiefly relatives of his patron,
Diego Velasquez. The news of the arrival of
this new detachment of white men spread with
great rapidity throughout the land, and several
Spaniards, who were scattered about in the coast
provinces, visited the new settlement. From
these men, Narvaez procured full information
concerning the movements of Cortes and the
state of affairs at that moment. These Spanish
informers were stragglers and deserters from
the force of Cortes, and their descriptions of his
achievements, dictated as they were by personal
spite, were very acceptable to Narvaez. More-
over, the informants were able to serve him
as interpreters and were hence made cordially
welcome to his camp.

As was related in the previous chapter, Mon-
tezuma was informed of the arrival of the fleet
long before Cortes, and had even entered into
amicable relations with the newcomers by
means of his envoys whom he sent to salute
Narvaez in his name. The envoys carried the
usual presents, and orders were given to the
local authorities to provide generously for
the wants of the new settlement. Narvaez told
the envoys that Cortes was a rebel whom he had
been sent to apprehend and convey to Cuba,

2 28 Fernando Cortes

and that in the event of the latter not yielding
to his authority, he would kill him and all of
his men who resisted. He promised Montezuma
his liberty and sent him some presents of Span-
ish merchandise. Then it was that Montezuma
showed Cortes his picture-writing, depicting
the arrival of the fleet. While Cortes was
ignorant concerning these events, Narvaez pos-
sessed the advantage of being fully informed
concerning him and his affairs. He notified
Juan Velasquez de Leon at Coatzacoalco of his
arrival, inviting him to join him with all his
force. He had a dual claim on Velasquez's ad-
hesion to his party, first because of the authori-
sation he bore from the governor of Cuba,
and second because they were brothers-in-law.
Velasquez was heedless of both, however, and
started at once to report what was happening
to Cortes. Gonzalo de Sandoval, who was in
command at Vera Cruz, proved equally loyal
to his commander and in reply to the address
of Juan de Guevara, a priest whom Narvaez
had sent with two others to summon him to
submit to his authority as the legal representa-
tive of the governor of Cuba, he answered :

Sir priest, you choose your words badly, speak-
ing of traitors; all of us here are better servants
of His Majesty than are Diego Velasquez and this
man, your captain; as you are a priest, I do not
punish you as you deserve. Go in peace to Mexico
where you will find Cortes, who is the captain-

Cortes Defeats Narvaez 229

general and chief justice of this New Spain, and
who will answer you: there is nothing more to be
said here.^

The priest persisted in his mission and ordered
the notary to read the full powers and require-
ments from Diego Velasquez. As Sandoval
interrupted, refusing to listen, the dispute waxed
violent, ending in Sandoval seizing the three
messengers, whom he bound fast and packed on
the backs of Indian porters with orders to carry
them straight to his commander in Mexico.

After the forcible deportation of the licen-
tiate Ayllon to Cuba, Narvaez removed his
camp from the unhealthy seacoast to Cempoalla
and established his own quarters in the great
temple, where Cortes had erected the Christian
altar. Accustomed to ride roughshod over the
timid natives of Cuba, he failed to realise that
similar conduct would not succeed with the
war-like Totonacs. All hopes of winning the
friendship of the " fat cacique " were jeopardised
by the arrogance of the commander and the
wild licence of his men. A new pest was intro-
duced amongst the Indians, by one of Narvaez's
negro slaves who fell ill of smallpox, a disease
hitherto unknown in America, and which spread
rapidly throughout Mexico, killing and disfig-
uring thousands of the natives.

1 Bemal Diaz, cap. cxi. ; Orozco y Berra, Conquiata de
Mexico, torn, iv., cap. vii.

230 Fernando Cortes

Such, therefore, was the situation that eon-
fronted Cortes, though at the time he was igno-
rant of the events we have just described. No
further news came to supplement the bare facts
communicated to him by Montezuma, until a fort-
night after the despatch of his first messengers,
for whose return he was impatiently waiting,
when there arrived certain Mexicans from the
coast, bringing Montezuma another picture-writ-
ing. These Indians informed Cortes that his
messengers had not returned because they were
forcibly detained in the camp of the newly ar-
rived captain. This news confirmed his worst
apprehensions concerning the expedition which,
it clearly seemed, had come with hostile intent.
He wrote a letter to its unknown commander, in
which he related all that had happened since his
own arrival in Mexico and asked to know from
whence the fleet came, who was its captain,
and with what intention it had been sent. If
the newcomers were Spaniards, he offered them
any assistance they might require, but if they
were not subjects of the King, he admonished
them to at once quit the country which he held
in the King's name, otherwise he would march
against them with his full force of Spaniards and
Indians, as against invaders of His Majesty's
realm. The municipal authorities of Vera Cruz
who were with him, wrote likewise to Sandoval,
and both letters were given to Fray Bartolom6
de Olmedo, whose clerical character would com-

Cortes Defeats Narvaez 231

mand respect and who had already shown him-
self a man of singular prudence and ability in
conducting negotiations.

Fray Bartolom6 had been gone five days,
when Guevara and his two companions, who
had been carried in hamacas^ day and night with-
out rest from Vera Cruz, arrived at the gates
of Mexico. Sandoval's letter was brought by
the same carriers and Cortes was at last in
possession of full information concerning the
mysterious fleet. The three prisoners had been
set down outside the city, while the messengers
went ahead to deliver Sandoval's letter and re-
ceive instructions from Cortes. With his charac-
teristic diplomacy, Cortes ordered the prisoners
to be released; he sent them horses so that they
might enter the city in a dignified manner, and
on their arrival, they were received with effusion
and invited to a banquet in the Spanish quarters.
Cortes excused the vivacity of Sandoval and,
by the exercise of those blandishments of which
he was master, he succeeded in winning the
newcomers over to his service. Not only did
they give him all the information in their power,
but they also delivered to him more than one
hundred letters addressed by Diego Velasquez to
the settlers at Vera Cruz, offering recompense
and favour to all who would desert Cortes and
threatening punishment for all who resisted
Narvaez.^

1 Bemal Diaz, cap. cxi.; Letters of Cortes, torn, i., p. 270.

232 Fernando Cortes

So completely had Cortes secured the alle-
giance of Narvaez's three men, that he sent them
back to Cempoalla bearing a letter from him-
self to their chief. The tone of this missive
was concilatory; he was delighted and relieved
to learn that it was his old friend and neigh-
bour in Cuba who had arrived at Vera Cruz,
and reproached him for not announcing his
coming. After this amiable preamble, the letter
went on to point out that, if Narvaez brought
any authorisation from the King to found a
settlement where one had already been estab-
lished in the royal name, he should present his
papers to the municipality of Vera Cruz and
to Cortes, by whom their provisions would be
scrupulously respected; it was impossible for
him to leave the city of Mexico, without risking
the loss of all the treasure he had there col-
lected for the Crown, otherwise he would come
in person to welcome his old friend. Guevara
and his companions departed with this letter
and, hardly had they left the city when Andres
de Tapia, who had accomplished the journey
from Vera Cruz in the incredibly short space
of threQ and a half days, arrived with news of
fresh troubles in that settlement. The Indians,
seeing the dissensions between the rival colo-
nists, had rebelled, refusing any longer to work
on the fortifications of Vera Cruz or to supply
provisions for the inhabitants. Difficulties
were multiplying on all sides and Sandoval had

Cortes Defeats Narvaez 233

retreated with his people to the mountains, as
the only means to avoid open hostilities with
Narvaez.

Cortes promptly took the hazardous decision
to march forthwith to the centre of disaffection
and to restore order by whatever means might
prove necessary, amicably if possible, and if
not, by force. Pedro de Alvarado was left in
command of eighty men in Mexico to guard the
Spanish quarters and the treasures; these men
were made up, as far as possible, of the former
partisans of Diego Velasquez or those on
whom Cortes felt he could least rely, and of
such others as were incapable of rapid march-
ing. Juan Diaz remained as chaplain to the
garrison.

Confused, indeed, must have been the mind
of Montezuma by these perplexing events, nor
did the explanations offered by Cortes throw
much light on the situation. In taking leave
of the captive monarch, Cortes charged him to
protect and provide for the garrison left in
the city, and to guard their property. He must
also see that the Christian altars were respected
and that fresh flowers were provided for their
adornment, and the candles kept lighted day
and night.^ Montezuma offered to furnish a
large force of warriors to assist in conquering
the newcomers if they were enemies of his
friend Malintzin, but this aid was refused, Cortes

1 Orozco y Berra, torn, iv., cap, vii.

234 Fernando Cortes

explaining that it was unnecessary, as he would
settle the difficulty himself and speedily return.
Alvarado's chief care must be to guard Monte-
zuma and not allow him to escape. The soldiers
were made to swear fidelity and obedience to
the temporary commander, and were strictly
enjoined to keep within their quarters and to
refrain from provoking in any way the citizens
of Mexico. All possible precautions having been
taken and measures for all foreseeable emergen-
cies provided, Cortes marched out of the capi-
tal by the causeway leading to Iztapalapan, at
the head of eighty foot-soldiers and twelve
horsemen in the early part of May, 1520.

At Cholula, this small force was increased by
the men under Juan Velasquez and Rodrigo
Rangel who were there awaiting its arrival, care
being exercised to choose those whose fidelity was
assured, while the others, together with some who
were ill, were sent back to reinforce Alvarado's
scanty garrison in Mexico. To still further win
the loyalty of his company, Cortes distributed
two loads of treasure collected by Juan Velas-
quez in Coatzacoalco, giving each man one or
two collars of gold. An application to the re-
public of Tlascala for ten thousand auxiliaries
was met by a refusal, the rulers of that state
professing their willingness to furnish any num-
ber required to fight against Mexicans, but none
at all to combat Spaniards.^

1 Orozco y Berra, torn, iv., cap. vii.

Cortes Defeats Narvaez 235

Leaving Cholula, the Spanish force encount-
ered Fray Bartolom6 de Olmedo some fifteen
leagues distant from the city. The friar de-
livered Narvaez's answer to the letter he had
carried to Cempoalla. The tone of this com-
munication was curt enough, being, in fact,
hardly more than a peremptory summons to
Cortes to submit without delay to the author-
ity of Diego Velasquez. More significant even
than this haughty letter, was the information
the friar brought concerning the communica-
tions that had passed between Narvaez and
Montezuma. At a place called Quechola, a
notary, Alonso de Mata, and four Spaniards
of Narvaez's company met the advancing force
and, after saluting Cortes, essayed to read
some legal documents calling upon him to sub-
mit himself to the lawful jurisdiction of the
governor of Cuba; but as Mata was unable to
produce any proof of his notarial character, all
three were promptly put in the stocks and left
to reflect on their temerity during the rest of
the day. In the afternoon, the three men were
released, treated with kindness, and presented
with a number of valuable gifts. They were
much impressed by the wealth of golden chains
and other rich ornaments worn by even the foot-
soldiers of the troops. From Ahuilizapan, the
present Orizaba, where he was detained two
days by heavy rains, Cortes replied to the legal
notifications with which Narvaez had sought

236 Fernando Cortes

to serve him, by sending an equally formal " re-
quirement" to that commander, demanding his
instant submission, under pain of severe penal-
ties. This parrying with legal documents was
but the skirmish, preliminary to the real engage-
ment that seemed inevitable.

The advantage always remained with Cortes,
whose gallant manners and lavish generosity
contrasted most favourably with the arrogance
and selfishness of Narvaez. The several bodies
of messengers who approached the former to de-
liver their captain's fulminations, were speedily
seduced, flattered, corrupted with rich presents
and either openly espoused his cause, or re-
turned to Cempoalla disaffected towards their
less genial leader. Fray Bartolom6 used gold
with wise liberality in the enemy's camp, where
he adroitly coaxed into existence a strong feeling
of sympathy lor Cortes, that was as much the
fruit of his eloquent tongue as of his open hand.
Among those whom Narvaez at this time en-
trusted with delivering messages and conducting
negotiations was Andres de Duero, sometime
secretary to Diego Velasquez and to whose in-
fluence Cortes largely owed his appointment to
the command of the expedition to Mexico. The
two met as old friends and, after the first cordial
greeting, Duero produced a letter from his chief
that was couched in more moderate language
than his earlier communications. While abat-
ing nothing of his demands, it contained impor-

Cortes Defeats Narvaez 237

tant concessions. Narvaez offered to give Cortes
vessels to carry himself and his companions,
with all their treasure, safely out of the country,
a proposition that many of the oflftcers and
men would have doubtless embraced readily
enough had they ever heard of it. The bribe
had no attraction for Don Fernando, who an-
swered that he would only yield to the intruder
if he could produce a royal commission, for he
held the country for the King, by virtue of the
authority confirmed upon him by the muni-
cipality of Vera Cruz, and he recognised no
jurisdiction short of the Crown. This legal
fiction seems almost laughable when we recall
the circumstances of the creation of the muni-
cipal authorities of Vera Cruz, but, slender as
was the foundation it offered, it was suflftcient
for the purpose of Cortes and on it he based
his immense pretensions.

Gonzalo de Sandoval had meanwhile joined
his commander, bringing a reinforcement of
sixty men from the garrison at Vera Cruz, and
a soldier, Tovilla by name, who had been sent
to Chinantla to procure a supply of long lances
for which the natives of that province were
noted, had also come into camp, accompanied
by two hundred Indians and bringing three
hundred copper- tipped spears to be used against
Narvaez's numerous cavalry.

Negotiations had failed and there only re-
mained the appeal to arms. Cortes marched to

238 Fernando Cortes

within one league from Cempoalla and there
halted his troops to rest before fording the river.
He did not dignify the operations against Nar-
vaez with the adjective military; according to
his view, he as chief justice of Vera Cruz was
serving a writ on a disturber of the public peace
who was in rebellion against the properly consti-
tuted authorities of a Spanish colony. The on-
coming night promised to be both dark and
stormy, and he decided to strike his enemy
under these favourable conditions.

He first addressed his men, rehearsing their
great services to their king and country, unique,
indeed, in history, and deserving of the highest
honours and rewards. The governor of Cuba,
however, sought in his own petty, selfish interest
to dishonour them, calling them traitors, muti-
neers, and pirates. He had sent his agent,
Narvaez, to capture them and take them back
to Cuba where the infamy of the scaffold
awaited them, while the fruits of their hard-
won victories would redound to the profit and
glory of their executioner. This discourse went
home to every man in the troop and fired the
most sluggish with the determination to frustrate
Narvaez. Cortes then assigned the captains
their places, and outlined the plan of attack.
Gonzalo de Sandoval, as alguacil mayor of Vera
Cruz, was charged with the duty of arresting
Narvaez. His instructions were precise, and
authorised him in case of resistance, to kill the

G)rtes Defeats Narvaez 239

invader, for by so doing he would serve God and
the King.^ Eighty men were told off to assist
him in his hazardous undertaking. A premium
of three thousand pesos was to be given to whom-
ever first laid his hands on Narvaez, two thou-
sand to the second, and one thousand to the
third.

Cortes had received information concerning
the disposition of the quarters of Narvaez, the
measures for defence and other details, from one
Galleguillo who had arrived that evening direct
from Cempoalla, either as a deserter or sent as
an informer by Andres de Duero. Crossing the
swollen stream with infinite danger and difficulty
owing to the swift current and the dense black-
ness of the night, and without falling in with the
forty horsemen who were supposed to be on the
alert for his coming, Cortes surprised two scouts,
one of whom he captured while the other ran off
towards Cempoalla to give the alarm. Pushing
on in great haste to reach the town before the
garrison could arm in response to the scout's
alarm, these extraordinary men still found
time to dismount and recite a prayer while
Fray Bartolom6 caused them to repeat in
unison the form of general confession, after
which he pronounced the absolution. The
horses and the scanty baggage were left in
charge of Marina and a page, while the men
rushed forward to the assault of the teocalli

^ Bernal Diaz, cap. cxxii. Relacion de Andrea de Tapia,

2 40 Fernando Cortes

where Narvaez lodged. The sentinels fled, yell-
ing at the top of their lungs and closely fol-
lowed by the oncoming assailants. Each of
the captains flew to his appointed task ; Pizarro
and his men seized the artillery, others cut
the saddle-girths of the cavalry, Sandoval got
possession of several small guns placed at the
base of the teocalli, while Cortes commanded
the rear-guard and saw that those of Narvaez's
men who were captured, were speedily dis-
armed. Sandoval, with his eighty soldiers,
stormed up the steps of the teocalli where Nar-
vaez and a few of his officers made a stubborn
defence, in the course of which, the latter lost
one of his eyes. A soldier threw a burning
torch into the roof of thatch and in a moment
the top of the teocalli was in a blaze. The
struggle was quickly over; Pedro Farfan won
the three thousand pesos, for he was the
first to seize Narvaez, though it is nowhere
recorded that he ever received the premium.
Shouts of victory were heard from the teo-
calli^ mingled with cheers for the King and for
Cortes.

Some twelve of Narvaez's men had fallen in
the short engagement and most of the survivors,
including the forty horsemen who had not
taken part in the fray, found little difficulty
in swearing allegiance to the victor and enrolling
themselves under his banner.

This victory of the twenty-ninth of May

Cortes Defeats Narvaez 241

marked an epoch in the fortunes of Cortes,
working as complete a change in his situation
as had the creation of the municipality of Vera
Cruz and his own election by that body as
captain-general and chief justice of New Spain.

He had staked everything on this venture,
and again Fortune was kind to her favourite
son. In receiving the officers of Narvaez,
Cortes assumed an unaccustomed state, while
the soldiers, ship-captains, and pilots were per-
mitted to approach and kiss his hand. When
Narvaez was brought before him, manacled, he
said with bitterness, " You have much reason,
Seuor Cortes, to thank Fortune for having given
you such an easy victory and placed me in your
power.'' " The least important deed that I have
accomplished in this country, was to capture
you," replied Cortes^ with ready sarcasm.

He had worsted Narvaez at every point, for
while the latter failed either to win friends
amongst the Spaniards or Indians in Mexico,
or even to hold the allegiance of his own men,
Cortes attached new supporters from among
his opponent's followers, and had held his own
men, even when his fortunes looked blackest.
He carried on his negotiations with the skill of
an accomplished ambassador and drafted his
letters to Narvaez in language worthy of a prime
minister. While engaged in this correspondence,
the negative result of which he foresaw, he

1 Oviedo, Hist, de las Indias, lib. xxxiii., cap. xlvii.
16

242 Fernando Cortes

descended with bewildering rapidity from Mexico
to the coast and, with the precision of a prac-
tised strategist, he struck his enemy one swift
blow that revolutionised their positions and left
him master of a new fleet, a new army, and of
vast stores of munitions of war, with which
to return and complete his suspended conquest.

CHAPTER X

REVOLT OF MEXICO

Ravages of Smallpox — News of the Revolt — Feast of
Toxcatl — Alvarado's Folly — Cortes Returns to Mex-
ico— Release of Cuitlahuatzin — Intervention of Monte-
zuma— Hard Fighting — Decision to Retreat — Death of
Montezuma.

THE Indians of Cempoalla were the chief
sufferers from the hostilities carried on in
their province; the "fat cacique" was wounded
during the assault on the teocalli, a great part
of the town was destroyed, and the people were
dying in immense numbers from the virulent
smallpox that raged unchecked, for want of
remedies or knowledge of how to handle the
dread disease. Pestilence seemed imminent, and
there was a dearth of men to bring provisions
into the Spanish camp, and even of women to
grind the maize and make the bread. The
cacique sent a painted representation of the
triumph of Cortes to Montezuma, and a Span-
iard was also despatched to inform Pedro de
Alvarado of the victory.

With such an increase in the number of his
force, Cortes felt that the conquest of the Mexi-
can empire was assured; he sent expeditions to
Panuco to contest Francisco de Garay's occu-

243

244 Fernando Cortes

pation of that province, two hundred men were
left under command of Diego de Ordaz to con-
tinue the interrupted work of making a settle-
ment at Coatzacoalco, and for the support of both
of these expeditions ships were sent along the
coast, one of which had orders to go first to
Jamaica and bring a supply of horses, pigs,
sheep, and other live-stock for the colonists.
Never had the present seemed more serene or
the future more assured than when the last dis-
pute over the distribution of the horses, arms,
and other property of Narvaez, had been finally
settled.

This promising state of affairs was suddenly
dissipated by the arrival of two Tlascalans who
brought the verbal information that the Mexi-
cans had risen and were besieging Alvarado's
garrison in the Spanish quarters. Closely
following them, came two others with letters
from Alvarado confirming the alarming report,
and imploring Cortes, in God's name to hasten
to his relief. The Spanish messenger whom
Cortes had sent to Alvarado also returned,
bringing further details of the disaster. Seven
Spaniards had already been killed, many were
disabled by wounds, their quarters were in flames
and, as no provisions were furnished, the gar-
rison would be starved out if not otherwise
destroyed. The two brigantines built by Cortes,
ostensibly to amuse Montezuma, had been burned
and the plight of the Spaniards was desperate.

Revolt of Mexico 245

Simultaneously four messengers arrived from
Montezuma to complain that the Spanish cap-
tain had ordered an unprovoked attack upon
the Mexicans during a religious festival, and
that the latter had merely defended themselves
as best they could.

The feast of Toxcatl fell upon the tenth of May^
and only the highest and the noblest, adorned
w ith their richest ornaments, but unarmed, took
part in the ceremonial dance. Cortes had con-
sented, before he left Mexico, to the usual cele-
bration, with the proviso that there should be no
human sacrifices, though very likely the priests
reserved their intention to perform that part of
the rites privately. The first contrariety arose
from Alvarado's refusal to allow the statue of
Huitzilopochtli to be restored to its former place,
from which it had been ejected to make room
for the Christian altars. The Tlascalans next
excited his suspicions by saying that the fes-
tival was merely a pretext to collect a large
multitude in the city, the real object being to
fall upon the diminished garrison and exter-
minate it. On the day of the feast, Alvarado and
others saw certain idols, decked out for the
procession, standing in the court of the temple
and also three youths clad in new robes, and
their heads shaven, which indicated that they
were destined for sacrifice. He seized the in-
tended victims, and, by putting them to worse
tortures than those of the sacrificial stone (un-

246 Fernando Cortes

der which one of them died) he obtained such
testimony as he wanted from the other two, to
prove that a general revolt was planned.

What these poor creatures, who were mere
lads, could be supposed to know of such con-
spiracies does not appear, but Alvarado was
satisfied, and, arming his men, he left some in
charge of Montezuma, with orders to kill the
nobles who were with him, while he repaired with
the others to the great teocalli, where six hundred
nobles and priests were dancing, while some three
thousand other persons assisted as spectators.
The appearance of the Spaniards caused no
interruption, but, at a given signal, they drew
their weapons and fell upon the defenceless
people, slaughtering them without quarter; the
doors were guarded, but some few escaped, who
gave the alarm and aroused the city. Meanwhile
the nobles of the court had been slain, and the
Spaniards had fortified themselves inside their
quarters.

The exact place where the dance was per-
formed is uncertain, as neither Cortes nor
Bemal Diaz mentions it. Acosta, contradicting
most of the early writers, argues that it must
have been the court of the palace where Monte-
zuma was kept. It nowhere appears, however,
that Montezuma was present and, as the dance
was a religious rite, the temple court would seem
more indicated for its celebration. Alvarado,
who was wounded on the head by a stone, ap-

Revolt of Mexico 247

peared before Montezuma crying: "See what
your subjects have done," but the Emperor an-
swered that had he not begun the disturbance,
the Mexicans would have remained peaceable,
adding, " You have undone yourself and me."
Nor did Alvarado's explanations satisfy Cortes,
who openly showed his anger upon his arrival.
Indeed, his conduct seems destitute of any
reasonable excuse, and his efforts to exculpate
himself at his trial were weak and unconvin-
cing; at best, he had but the word of a captive,
an intended victim, and that wrung from him
under torture. Replying to Article IV. of the
accusations against him, he alleged first, that
it was common report in the city that, during
the absence of Cortes, the reduced garrison
would be crushed; second, on the morning of
the festival he had seen a large number of
sharpened sticks, with which the Mexicans
openly boasted they would kill him and his
men; third, the admission of the captive vic-
tim, which was confirmed by a native of Tex-
coco; fourth, that a skirmish had already taken
place in the palace, in which he himself was
wounded, and one Spaniard was killed, and
that all would have certainly shared the same
fate.^

^Torquemada adds the detail that huge cauldrons were
prepared in which to cook the Spaniards. Las Casas ad-
vances the theory, usual with him, that Alvarado wished
to strike such a blow as would terrorise the Indians.

248 Fernando Cortes

Admitting the weighty unanimity of many
authorities as pointing to the existence of the
alleged conspiracy, Alvarado's conduct would
still be without justification; even had there
been an intention to attack him, his proper
course would have been to collect all the Span-
iards and the Tlascalans within his quarters;
provision his garrison, hold Montezuma and the
court nobles as hostages, notify Cortes by mes-
senger, and stand strictly on the defensive until
help or instructions came. The situation cannot
be properly paralleled with that of Cortes in
Cholula, for the conditions were entirely dif-
ferent. Alvarado was the most violent of all
the Spanish captains and his brutality culmi-
nated in this inhuman massacre, which drove
the long-suffering Mexicans to desperation. It
destroyed the last illusion about the celestial
origin and character of the white men, and
brought on the tragedy of the "Sorrowful Night,"
and the siege, with its long train of misery and
destruction. From that day forward, the Mex-
icans were deaf to all overtures from the Span-
iards; regardless of suffering and indifferent to
death they sought only vengeance.

Herrera admits that a revolt may have been brewing,
but deprecates the wholesale massacre and the taking of
jewels from the dead bodies of the victims. Clavigero
scouts the idea of a conspiracy, and affirms that this
was an invention to shield Alvarado. Oviedo, Sahagun,
and Duran, all exempt the Indians of hostile intentions.

Revolt of Mexico 249

Cortes probably gave little credit to the story
told by Montezuma's envoys, for his suspicions
were already sufficiently aroused by his know-
ledge of the negotiations the Emperor had
carried on with Narvaez behind his back.
Wherever the truth lay in the contradictory
explanations offered him, the important thing
was to save the Spanish garrison. His de-
cisions were quickly formed and his orders
rapidly given. His prisoners, Narvaez and an
officer, Salvatierra, were sent to Vera Cruz
together with all the sick and disabled; swift
couriers were despatched in pursuit of Ordaz
and Juan Velasquez, bearing orders for them to
desist from their enterprises and to join the main
force at Tlascala; the great majority of Nar-
vaez's men were induced by presents and prom-
ises to march with Cortes to Mexico and, at
the head of these men and some seventy horse-
men, the intrepid commander rode forth from
Cempoalla on his second march to the Aztec
capital. At Tlascala, the scattered forces punc-
tually united and it was there learned that
Alvarado was still holding out, though hard

I

pressed. The total force now reached the re-
spectable figure of thirteen hundred men.
ninety-six horses, and a fair supply of artillery.^

1 These figures are taken from Bemal Diaz (cap. cxxv.)
whose estimate of the numbers of the force is the high-
est of any authority. Cortes reduced them to less than

J^MH-'

252 Fernando Cortes

Even his habitually imperturbable equanimity
showed signs of giving way under the strain
and, when some court officers approached him,
asking when he would see the Emperor, he im-
patiently exclaimed, "Away with the dog, who
wont even keep his markets open or order us
to be supplied with food ! " Several of his
officers intervened to moderate his anger, re-
minding him that but for Montezuma, they
would all be dead and eaten before now. Such
testiness was new in Cortes and was the first
sign of the corrupting effects of good fortune
on his balanced and well-controlled character.
The victory over Narvaez, the homage of the
men, his triumph over Diego Velasquez and his
certainty of conquest, seem to have somewhat
puffed him up, and the sudden disappointment
awaiting him in Mexico came as a painful shock
to his comfortably growing sense of omnipotence.
He sent a curt message, equivalent to a threat,
to Montezuma that he must order the markets
opened immediately. This message and the tone
of its utterance, probably lost nothing in trans-
mission to the Emperor through his courtiers.
His reply reminded Cortes that as he was a
prisoner, he could not leave the Spanish quarters,
but that if the latter desired the markets to be
opened and the populace to be tranquillised,
some one of the sovereigns whom the Spaniards
held, must be liberated. The Kings of Texcoco
and Tlacopan shared Montezuma's imprisonment

Revolt of Mexico 251

and over the city there brooded a sinister
silence, veiling the memory of past conflict and
heavy with the forecast of coming calamity.
The gates of the Spanish quarters were thrown
open to receive the welcome arrivals, Cortes and
Alvarado embraced, while all crowded forward
to kiss the commander's hand and the soldiers
of both parties greeted one another and ex-
changed news of their several adventures. Mon-
tezuma, who advanced into the courtyard, was
ignored by Cortes, who passed him by without
returning his salute. Fray Bartolom6 visited
the offended monarch in his apartments and
sought to satisfy his plaintive inquiries as to
whether and why Malintzin was angry with
him, by assurances that anxiety and over-
fatigue had rendered the general so distrait that
he had been unaware of the Emperor's presence.
Thus the feast of St. John the Baptist, the
twenty-fourth of June, 1520, found Cortes once
more within the Aztec capital, in command of
a greater force than he had previously possessed,
but faced likewise by an infinitely greater danger.
Despite all he was told, Cortes hardly realised
the conditions prevailing in the city and the
intensity of the resentment Alvarado's cruel
folly had aroused, until the next morning, when
he learned that no markets were open nor were
any provisions supplied to the garrison. If he
had counted on his mere presence sufficing to
restore confidence, he awoke to his mistake.

252 Fernando Cortes

Even his habitually imperturbable equanimity
showed signs of giving way under the strain
and, when some court officers approached him,
asking when he would see the Emperor, he im-
patiently exclaimed, " Away with the dog, who
wont even keep his markets open or order us
to be supplied with food ! " Several of his
officers intervened to moderate his anger, re-
minding him that but for Montezuma, they
would all be dead and eaten before now. Such
testiness was new in Cortes and was the first
sign of the corrupting effects of good fortune
on his balanced and well-controlled character.
The victory over Narvaez, the homage of the
men, his triumph over Diego Velasquez and his
certainty of conquest, seem to have somewhat
puffed him up, and the sudden disappointment
awaiting him in Mexico came as a painful shock
to his comfortably growing sense of omnipotence.
He sent a curt message, equivalent to a threat,
to Montezuma that he must order the markets
opened immediately. This message and the tone
of its utterance, probably lost nothing in trans-
mission to the Emperor through his courtiers.
His reply reminded Cortes that as he was a
prisoner, he could not leave the Spanish quarters,
but that if the latter desired the markets to be
opened and the populace to be tranquillised,
some one of the sovereigns whom the Spaniards
held, must be liberated. The Kings of Texcoco
and Tlacopan shared Montezuma's imprisonment

Revolt of Mexico 253

as did likewise his brother Cuitlahuatzin, lord
of Iztapalapan. Cortes recognised the force of
the Emperor's argument but his habitually sub-
tle judgment was evidently disturbed, for he
made the blunder of designating Cuitlahuatzin
as the one to accomplish the pacification of the
city.

This prince, who was an heir presumptive to
the throne, was young, brave, intelligent, and
popular; from the outset, he, like General Xico-
tencatl in Tlascala, had refused to recognise the
Spaniards as teules, and had repeatedly advised
that they be annihilated without further dis-
cussion. He had later supported the plan of
Cacamatzin for a general coalition against the
strangers, that was wrecked by the unpatriotic
dissensions of the latter's ambitious brothers.
Cortes had imprisoned the proud young prince,
even putting him in chains, hence his feel-
ings towards the Spaniards may easily be
conceived.

Once free, outside the Spanish quarters that
had been his prison, Cuitlahuatzin took com-
mand of the Mexican troops, organised an as-
sault on the Spaniards and raised the whole
city in revolt against the odious white men.

A Spanish horseman, Antonio del Rio, was
sent out with letters for Vera Cruz, but within
half an hour he returned at full gallop, wounded
and crying that the bridges were up and the
whole city in revolt. Close upon his heels fol-
17

2 54 Fernando Cortes

lowed an immense crowd, brandishing weapons
and uttering war-cries. From the roofs, which
became peopled as though by magic, showers
of missiles poured into the quarters — every-
where were shouts, confusion, and sounds of
war.

Diego de Ordaz sallied out at the head of
four hundred foot and a few horsemen to re-
pulse the first onslaught. His men were im-
mediately surrounded and unable to advance
one pace, so dense was the throng that pressed
upon them. Eight men were killed, a number
wounded, and it was only with the greatest
difficulty that their leader succeeded in getting
the rest of his demoralised force safely back
into the quarters. Cortes made efforts to sus-
tain Ordaz, but was himself wounded, as well
as several of his men and, seeing the impossi-
bility of making headway against such over-
whelming numbers, he fell back under shelter.
Although the artillery and the arquebusiers
worked fearful execution amongst the compact
body of Indians, the places of the fallen were
immediately filled and the death-dealing volleys
seemed to produce no impression whatever,
either on the numbers of the enemy or on their
courage. Notwithstanding that the Mexicans
had hitherto merely heard salutes fired from
the guns, but had never witnessed the deadly
efficiency of these engines of warfare, they
stormed the very walls of the quarters, seeking

Revolt of Mexico 255

to make breaches, while others stationed on the
neighbouring house-tops rained arrows, stones,
and missiles of all kinds into the midst of the
garrison. Fire was set to the building in
various places by flaming arrows shot onto some
of the wooden and thatched roofs. Scarcity of
water inside the garrison, where, indeed, there
was barely enough to drink, forced the Spaniards
to tear down walls or to throw earth onto the
flames to extinguish the spreading conflagration.
On all sides the battle raged with unexampled
fury, — never, not even during the war with the
Tlascalans had the Spaniards sustained such an
attack, and the men of Narvaez's troop, ac-
customed to the timid Indians of Cuba and
Hayti were amazed at this unexpected baptism
of fire. Night mercifully put an end to the
conflict, for, as the darkness fell, the Aztecs,
according to their invariable custom, drew off
their forces.

The cessation of hostilities brought no rest
to the beleaguered garrison, and an anxious
night was passed in caring for the wounded,
strengthening the defences, and repairing their
weapons for the morrow. Early in the morn-
ing, Cortes ordered a general sortie, leaving a
sufficient body of men to defend the quarters.
He found the enemy awaiting him with seem-
ingly increased numbers. In the course of a
long day's flghting, the Spaniards lost twelve
men and many disabled by wounds, without

2 s6 Fernando Cortes

gaining any advantage, beyond the destruction
of a few houses. The artillery worked inces-
santly and the number of Indians killed was
never known, but though a hundred fell at each
discharge of the guns, a thousand seemed to
spring into their places with undiminished
courage.

The night following on this second day's
struggle, was occupied in the construction of
three wooden machines, similar to the mantelets
in common use in Europe before the invention
of gun-powder. They were portable towers,
constructed of light beams, covered over with
planks, in which were loop-holes. The towers
rested on rollers and were pulled through the
streets by means of ropes. All the next day
(Wednesday, 27th of June) the Spaniards re-
mained behind their defences, where they sus-
tained almost uninterrupted attacks, that left
them no time for much-needed rest. Cuitla-
huatzin was everywhere present amongst the
besiegers, encouraging his people and directing
their operations with singular skill.

In the midst of the ever-increasing perils that
beset his men, Cortes appealed to Montezuma
to use his authority to stop the fighting. If he
still had illusions as to Montezuma's influence
over his people, that unhappy prince evidently
had none. To Fray Bartolom6 and Cristobal
de Olid, who came to him on behalf of the
commander, he frankly said that the people

Revolt of Mexico 257

would no longer listen to or obey him, for they
had chosen another leader; he added his con-
viction that not a Spaniard would leave the city
alive. Yielding finally to the persuasions of
his two visitors, the Emperor vested himself
for the last time in his imperial robes and, ac-
companied by his courtiers bearing the insignia
of his rank, he mounted the parapet of the
palace overlooking the square. The unexpected
apparition of their sovereign threw an instant
hush over the raging crowd of Mexicans who
dropped their arms and, falling prostrate, they
touched the earth with their foreheads. Amidst
the profound silence that reigned Montezuma
spoke, declaring that he was not a prisoner, but
lived with the white men voluntarily, free to
come and go at his pleasure; he exhorted his
people to cease fighting and assured them that
the teules only asked to be allowed to leave the
city in peace. It is not to be wondered at,
that this badly inspired and feebly spoken
discourse failed to procure the cessation of
hostilities.

On the contrary, he had hardly finished speak-
ing when the young prince, Quauhtemotzin, who
was one of the leaders of the people, stepped
forward and reviled him as a coward and the
effeminate tool of the Spaniards, declaring that
his subjects renounced obedience to one who
had so degraded his royal dignity. With that
he hurled a stone, and in the volley of missiles
17

2 58 Fernando Cortes

that followed, one struck the Emperor on the
head.^

The Spaniards who had been charged to pro-
tect Montezuma's person with their shields were
not quick enough, and it is said that he was also
wounded by arrows in the arm and in the leg.
The wounds were not, however, serious, but the
unfortunate monarch was evidently determined
not to survive this supreme humiliation and,
refusing to allow his hurts to be properly
dressed, he remained without food in a pro-
foundly dejected condition. Herrera describes
Cortes as showing the greatest concern, solici-
tously visiting the Emperor to comfort him, but
it seems little likely that, in the midst of his
many perilous occupations, the commander
found time to condole with his wounded cap-
tive; for Montezuma's tardy efforts for peace
had failed completely, and though Prescott says
that the Aztecs "shocked at their own sacri-
legious act . . . dispersed, panic-struck, in
different directions . • . so that not one of the
multitudinous array remained in the great
square,'^ there seems to be no authority for
believing that any such dramatic revulsion of
feeling took place. Montezuma had fallen from
his royalty and his high priesthood to be a
thing of scorn and loathing to his people, while

^ Codex Ramirez in Orozco y Berra, torn, iv., cap. x.;
Acosta, Hist, Nat. y Moral de las Indiaa, lib. vii., cap. xxvi.

Revolt of Mexico 259

his influence on the course of events was less
than nil.

The attacks on the walls of the Spanish
quarters continued all day, interrupted once by
a conference between Cortes and a group of
Mexican nobles, who assured him that the only
condition on which they would consider peace
was that he and his men should leave the city
and quit the country; failing this, they had
determined to fight to the end even if every-
body perished in the conflict.^

On Thursday, June 28th, the wooden towers
or turtles {tortugas)^ as the soldiers called
them, were drawn out and started through the
street leading to the causeway of Tacuba. This
road out of the city was the most easily ac-
cessible and the shortest, and had hence been
chosen in preference to either the Iztapalapan
or the Tepeajac causeway. The turtles proved
less effective than had been hoped; they were
ponderous and clumsy to move and, though they
protected the men inside them and enabled
them to reach some of the lower house-
tops, they gradually sustained such damage
that they no longer offered an effective
shelter.

The teocalli of the great temple, overshadow-
ing as it did the courtyards of the quarters, was
a vantage ground of which the Aztecs profited

1 Letters of Cortes^ torn, i., p, 285,

26o Fernando Cortes

to do great damage to the garrison. Tlie Chris-
tian altar had been destroyed and the cross
supplanted by the statues of the national gods,
Huitzilopoehtli and Tezcatlipoca, which were
once more restored to their original pedestals.
Several hundred nobles and priests had taken
permanent possession of the summit of the
teocall% where they were protected from the fire
of the garrison by the sanctuaries, behind or
into which they retreated at their pleasure.

The first attack on this important strong-
hold was led by Escobar in command of one
hundred men, but was unsuccessful. Cortes,
who had been badly wounded in his left hand,
had his shield bound to his arm and, selecting
three hundred Spaniards and several thousand
Tlascalans, he charged the mass of Indians de-
fending the foot of the great staircase. The
horsemen were of little service, as the pavement
of the temple courtyard was so slippery their
steeds could hardly keep their feet. The teocalU
was composed of five terraces, communicating
with one another by flights of steps built at the
corners, one over the other, so that when the
first terrace was reached, it was necessary to
make the circuit of the pyramid in order to
mount the second flight. The whole structure
measured about three hundred feet square at
its base, so the distance the Spaniards had to
cover before reaching the top was scarcely less
than a mile. Supported by Alvarado, Sandoval,

,'.^dij

Revolt of Mexico 261

and Ordaz and closely followed by his men,
Cortes attempted the ascent of the first stair-
case, leaving the Tlascalans and a small force
of Spaniards to defend the base and hold off
an attack at his rear. Every foot of the ascent
was stubbornly contested by the Aztecs on the
upper terraces, from which they hurled down
great stones and masses of burning wood on
the assailants. Every terrace was hotly dis-
puted, and the arquebusiers posted below ren-
dered splendid service, forcing many of the
Mexicans to retreat from their exposed position
on the top platform and take refuge in the sanc-
tuary. The area of the summit was paved
with flat stones and its expanse was un-
broken, save by the great stone of sacrifice
and two small, tower-like structures about
forty feet in height, in which stood the
idols.

Retreat was impossible, and the chivalry of
two worlds locked in a death struggle on the
lofty platform between earth and heaven. In
the furious fight that raged between the com-
batants, neither of whom gave or asked for
quarter, many were hurled over the sides of the
pyramid and fell, crushed and mangled, on the
lower terraces, or were despatched by the de-
fenders at the base. It is related by several
writers that an attempt was made by two Mex-
icans to drag Cortes to the edge and force him
over, but that, by his superior dexterity, he

262 Fernando Cortes

saved himself.^ During three mortal hours
eight hundred men swayed to and fro, from
side to side of the perilous stage, dedicated so
appropriately to the god of war, under the
shadow of whose dread presence these rites of
his fearful cult were being celebrated. Victory
finally rested on the superior arms of the Span-
iards, but not an Aztec warrior was left alive
to grace their triumph. Every man of the de-
fenders, about five hundred, had given his life
in defence of his gods. Forty-five Spaniards
had fallen and of the survivors, all were more
or less severely wounded.

No victory on any other site in the city could
have caused more rejoicing to the Spaniards or
greater dismay amongst the Mexicans than this
dearly-bought success in the very stronghold of
the Aztec theocracy. To complete their triumph,
the soldiers overturned the monstrous idols,
rolling them down the steps of the pyramid
and, after collecting what treasures there were in
the sanctuaries, they set fire to them. Great
was the lamentation amongst the Mexicans, for
those who had perished were of their best and
bravest ; the bodies were collected and reverently
carried away for burial. Not grief alone af-
flicted the natives, but the fall of their great
>.temple and the destruction of their protecting
idols renewed the old-time forebodings that the

iHerrera, dec. ii., lib. x., cap. ix.; Torquemada, lib, iv.,
cap. Ixix.; Prescott, torn, ii., lib. v., cap. ii.

Revolt of Mexico 263

coming of the teules presaged the end of their
empire. That night the Spaniards burned
several hundred houses in the city.

While the influence of this disaster was still
fresh on the minds of the people, Cortes in-
vited their leaders to a conference, with a view
to coming to terms. In his address to them,
which was delivered through Marina, he re-
hearsed the events of the preceding days, re-
minding them of their losses and sufferings and
declaring that these calamities were the con-
sequences of their own stubbornness, for he was
their friend and was much afflicted at being
forced to do them such injury. He pointed out
that their resistance was hopeless and that if
they persisted, they would force him to ex-
terminate them. The answer of the chiefs was
prompt and definite; they recognised the truth
of some things he had said but they had made
their calculations that if, for every Spaniard
who fell, a thousand of their men perished, they
could still hold out and conquer. With force-
ful logic they reminded Cortes that, while his
forces were daily weakening from death, wounds,
illness, and fatigue, their own numbers were in-
creasing by fresh arrivals hourly. His provisions
would give out, the bridges were raised and
there was no hope of escape for the Spaniards.
Tlie truth of this reasoning was irrefutable, for,
as Cortes afterwards wrote to Charles V., " they
were perfectly right, for though we had no

264 Fernando Cortes

other enemy save starvation and the want of
provisions, this would suffice to kill us in a
short time/' ^

Friday, the twenty-ninth of June, showed the
situation unchanged. The Spaniards managed
to capture one of the ditches on the Tacuba
causeway, where the Mexicans had destroyed
the bridges, which they then filled in with
adobes, pieces of wood and earth to establish
a crossing for their horses. On Saturday, a
review of their situation showed that, de-
spite their efforts and their victories, they had
not really bettered their situation : their number
was daily reduced by death, while the severely
wounded, destitute of proper attention and
cure, encumbered the quarters where provisions
had become so scanty that each white man re-
ceived for his ration, a handful of maize, and
each Tlascalan a tortilla.^ Another enemy now
confronted Cortes, which was the grumbling,
swelling daily to the very borders of rebellion,
inside his quarters. The Narvaez contingent had
suffered some bitter disappointments and pain-
ful surprises. This march to Mexico under the
triumphant standard of Cortes, had not proved
the profitable excursion on which they had con-
fidently set out. The stories told them of a
magnificent capital, of w^hich he was master,

^Letters of Cortes, torn i., p. 291.

2 Flat cakes made of maize and water similar in form
to a buckweat cake.

Revolt of Mexico 265

and where a captive sovereign daily distributed
dazzling wealth to even the humblest foot-
soldiers, were found to bear no resemblance to
the facts with which they were confronted. Of
treasure, they had seen none, and they were
besieged by an hostile army in a capital that
seemed destined to be the tomb of all of them.
They audibly cursed Cortes who had led them
into this situation. In the midst of these per-
plexities,— war without and insurrection within
his own quarters, — Cortes decided that he must
at all costs fight his way out of the city. There
was in his troop a soldier called Bias Botello,
who enjoyed some reputation as an astrologer,
or even as a magician amongst the more ig-
norant. Cortes was not exempt from the in-
fluence of ideas common enough, even amongst
learned people in that century. Some of Bo-
tello's minor predictions had been observed to
come true and when consulted concerning the
plan for leaving the capital, he answered that
they must leave in the night.

It was easier to perceive the wisdom of
evacuating the city, than it was to devise means
for accomplishing the undertaking. First of
all it was necessary to gain possession of the
ditches on the Tacuba road and to fill them in
where the bridges had been destroyed. There
were seven of these, and during two days the
Mexicans defended them stoutly and were only
overcome after exhausting combats, in one of

266 Fernando Cortes

which Cortes was even reported to have fallen.
Another matter to be decided was the fate of
the royal and noble captives. The simplest so-
lution of this problem was the one Cortes
adopted. He ordered them to be strangled in
their chains. Was Montezuma included in the
number of victims? Contradictory answers are
given to this query by different authorities;
like the virtue of Mary Stuart and the death
of Louis XVII., it occupies a place within the
sphere of the eternally debatable.

Montezuma Xocoyotzin, ninth king of Mexico,
died on June 30, 1520, in the fifty second year
of his age, the eighteenth of his reign, and in
the seventh month of his captivity. His death
was attributed by the Spaniards to the wound
caused by the stone which struck him on the
head; by the Mexicans it was, on the contrary,
asserted that he was put to death by Cortes.
The Codex Ramirez^ before quoted from the
work of Orozco y Berra, states that Montezuma
was found stabbed to death by the Spaniards
with the other chiefs who shared his captivity.
Acosta accepts this as true, and Father Duran
(cap. Ixxvi.) says, "They found him dead with
chains upon his feet, and five dagger wounds
in his breast, and with him, many other of the
chiefs and lords who were prisoners." Amongst
the murdered nobles were the kings of Tlacopan
and Texcoco and the lord of Tlatelolco. Caca-
matzin, according to Ixtlilxochitl, was stabbed

Revolt of Mexico 267

forty-five times, and he adds that Montezuma
died from the wound in his head, "although
his vassals say that the Spaniards themselves
killed him, and plunged a sword into his
fundament." ^

The murder of the other chiefs was deemed
necessary, as it was neither possible to be
burdened with them in the flight from the city,
nor was it wise to release them. Their bodies
were thrown out of the Spanish quarters at a
spot called Teayotl, because of a stone turtle
that stood there, in the hope that their fate
might discourage the people and also give them
occupation in preparing their funerals as re-
quired by custom.^ The account of the wound-
ing and death of Montezuma given by Cortes,
was naturally followed by Gomara; Oviedo also
copies his words, and says that he heard the
same account viva voce from Pedro de Alvarado ;
Herrera asserts that the Emperor's wound was
not mortal,^ but that he died because he refused
all attendance and food; and Bernal Diaz, who
relates the same story, adds the affecting detail
that " Cortes and all the captains and soldiers
wept as though they had lost a father," ^ which
those may believe who can. Clavigero refers

1 Ixtlilxochitl, Hiat. Chichimeca, cap. Ixxxviii.

2 Sahagun, lib. xii., cap. xxviii.; Ixtlixochitly HisU
Chichimeca, cap. Ixxxviii.

3 Lib. X., cap. x.

* Hiat. Verdad., cap. cxxviii.

268 Fernando Cortes

to the grief of the Spaniards, as described by
Bernal Diaz, and says that in view of the con-
tradictory accounts, it seems impossible to know
the truth adding, " I cannot believe that the
Spaniards would take the life of a king to whom
they owed so many benefits and from whose
death they would derive only evil." ^

The facts exclude participation in this chari-
table incredulity; Montezuma's influence was
gone; another leader had been chosen by the na-
tion in the person of the brave Quauhtemotzin,
and when Cortes announced his death, offering to
deliver his body for burial the people cried out,
"We want Montezuma neither living nor dead." ^
Hence the fallen sovereign's presence was only
an embarrassment to Cortes, who was planning
to fight his way out of the city with as few en-
cumbrances as possible, — even the precious gold
was being left behind. The moment the Em-
peror became an obstacle, his doom was sealed,
and there was nothing in the character or
conduct of Cortes which warrants the belief
that he was influenced by sentiments of com-
passion for the King he had degraded, while his
disposal of Cacamatzin at that time, and of
Quauhtemotzin later in Yucatan, reveal the ab-
sence of any scruples whatsoever. Prescott joins
Clavigero in his generous assumption and, with
a fine outburst of indignation, finds it " hardly

^ Storia Antica del Mesaico, torn, ii., p. 103,
^Herrera, lib. x., cap. x.

Revolt of Mexicx) 269

necessary to comment on the absurdity of this
monstrous imputation." Such sentiments do
credit to the magnanimity of these writers for it
is manifestly the nobler part to admit such a
charge against Cortes, only when forced by irre-
futable proofs, which in this case are not forth-
coming. Orozco y Berra, the result of whose ex-
tensive researches are expressed in calm judicial
language in his Conquista de Mexico, adopts the
Indian version. Clavigero has perhaps said the
most that generous impartiality will allow, when
he states that, " There reigns such variety among
historians that it seems impossible to verify the
truth."

Torquemada ^ records that Montezuma's body
was taken to Copalco where it was cremated,
according to the Aztec usage, though the solem-
nity was marred by the insults heaped by
some of the bystanders upon the hapless corpse.
Herrera was of the opinion that the body was
buried at Chapultepec, because the Spaniards
heard great lamentations in that quarter, and
because that was the place of royal sepulture,
but the observation of Clavigero on this opinion
that there was no fixed place for burying the
sovereigns and that Chapultepec, being some
three miles distant from the Spanish quarters,
it was hardly likely the sound of lamentation
could have been heard there, seems to weaken
this assumption.

^ Lib. iv.y cap. Ixx.

2 ^o Fernando Cortes

Diego Mufioz Camargo, the Tlascalan his-
torian, would seem to be the chief authority
for the pious legend that Montezuma was bap-
tised by his own desire just before he died, and
that Cortes and Pedro de Alvarado were his
godfathers. Gomara asserts that the Emperor
had expressed his wish to become a Christian
prior to the departure of Cortes from Mexico
to meet Narvaez, but that the ceremony was
deferred until Easter, so that it might be cele-
brated with more solemnity, and was afterwards
forgotten amidst the confusion of the changed
circumstances. The silence of Cortes on a
matter he would have been eager to report in
his letters, seems alone sufficient to dispose of
the assertion, and Torquemada, who would also
have not been slow to enroll a royal convert,
does not admit the story.^

A pathetic figure is that of this Aztec king,
gifted with some of the highest qualities of his
race, venerated during a long and prosperous
reign almost as a demi-god, only to be humbled
in the end to the very dust. The starting point
of his downfall was his superstition, for, had
he listened to his generals rather than to his
priests, Cortes and his handful of adventurers
would never have left the seacoast alive. The
misfortunes and humiliations of the last months
of his life seemed to completely change his

'^Monarchia Indiana, lib. iv., cap. Ixx.; Jose Ramirez^
Banti9mo de Motecuhzoma IL, Noveno Rey de Mexico*

Revolt of Mexico 271

character, so that, from the time of his docile
abdication at the bidding of Cortes, to the in-
famy of his appearance on the walls of the
Spanish quarters to rebuke his long-suflfering
people, he descended step by step on his way to
the nameless grave where his dishonoured form
was finally laid.^

^Prescott's description of the scenes of Montezuma's
death-bed, with Cortes present, to whom he confided his
daughters, is based upon the narration of Cortes made
in the grant afterwards conceded to one of the daughters.
Dona Isabel, when she married Alonso Grado, who is
described in the same document as an hidalgo of Al-
cantara. It is to the Conqueror's credit that he recognised
the debt of the Spanish crown to Montezuma, and that he
procured the royal protection for his children.

CHAPTER XI

THE SORROWFUL NIGHT

Saving the Treasure — The Retreat from Mexico— The
Survivors — Battle of Otumba — ^Arrival in Tlascala.

THE decision to leave the city silently. and as
secretly as possible, under cover of night
having been agreed to by most of the captains,
preparations for the flight were at once under-
taken. The accumulated treasure that had al-
ready cost such rivers of tears and blood was
piled in a room of the palace and, the royal
fifth being first carefully separated and con-
fided to the charge of Alonso de Avila and
Gonzalo de Mejia in their quality of officers of
the Crown, the remainder was divided amongst
the officers and men according to the provisions
already stipulated. The quantity, however, was
so great that it was impossible to carry it away,
and the men were cautioned against loading
themselves down with heavy weights that might
prove their destruction. The wiser among them
chose pearls and precious stones, with only such
a small quantity of gold as they could easily
carry; the more avaricious could not turn their
backs on the shining heap of metal, but weighted

themselves until they could hardly move. The

272

The Sorrowful Night 273

hour fixed for departing, was midnight on the
thirtieth of June.

To Gonzalo de Sandoval with the captains
Antonio de QuiSones, Francisco de Acevedo,
Francisco de Lugo, Diego de Ordaz, and Andres
de Tapia, was assigned the vanguard, composed
of two hundred foot-soldiers and twenty horse-
men. They were charged with one of the most
important duties of the march, namely the laying
down of the portable bridge wherever the ditches
in the causeway had not been filled in. This
bridge was carried by four hundred Tlascalans
who were under the protection of fifty soldiers
commanded by a captain, Magarino. Cortes
took command of the centre division of his
forces, with Alonso de Avila, Cristobal de Olid,
and Velasquez de Tapia a« captains under him.
Two hundred and fifty Tlascalans, protected by
forty shield-bearers, dragged the artillery in this
division, in which were the baggage, the treas-
ure, the prisoners, and the women. The latter
comprised Marina and two of Montezuma's
daughters who were placed under a guard com-
posed of thirty Spaniards and three hundred
auxiliaries; two sons of Montezuma, the young
King of Texcoco, and a few others who had es-
caped the general execution that afternoon, were
among the prisoners. The rear-guard, under
command of Pedro de Alvarado and Juan Velas-
quez de Leon, was composed of the main body of
infantry and most of the force of cavalry,

z8

2 74 Fernando Cortes

The night was dark with a drizzling rain.
Ijeaving fires lighted, the troop cautiously
emerged at the hour of midnight into the de-
serted streets of the sleeping city, making its
way as silently as possible along the street lead-
ing to the Tlacopan causeway. Magarino and
his men had placed their bridge over the first
ditch and the vanguard and artillery had passed
safely over when, out of the darkness, was heard
a cry of alarm that was quickly taken up by
other Mexican sentinels, and in a moment the
city was roused. The priests, keeping watch at
the sacred fires on the teocalU^ began to beat
the sacred drum whose lugubrious roll could be
heard for miles. From all sides the Aztec war-
riors fell upon their escaping foes, the surface
of the lake on both sides of the causeway be-
came alive with light canoes, darting hither and
thither, from which volleys of arrows and sling
stones were discharged into the now disordered
mass of panic-stricken fugitives. The bridge,
upon which their safety so greatly depended,
was found to be wedged fast and immovable
after the passage of so many horses and heavy
guns, while at the second ditch, the people in
the fore were being driven into the water by
the pressure of the oncoming multitude from
behind. Terror banished discipline and the re-
treat became a mad scramble for safety, in which
each one thought only of himself. The second
ditch became quickly choked with guns, bag-

The Sorrowful Night 275

gage, dead bodies of men and horses, over which
the later comers sought to struggle to the op-
posite side. Cortes, leaving those of his own
people who had managed to cross the second
ditch, returned to the scene of confusion to lend
what assistance he might to the rear-guard.
Many of those who fell into the water met a more
terrible fate than mere drowning, being seized
by the Mexicans and carried off in their canoes
to die on the stone of sacrifice. The third ditch
was still spanned by a single beam, over which
some of the more agile of the first to reach it,
were able to cross, but the onrush from behind
was too great and the attack of the enemy too
fierce to allow many to profit by this narrow
road to safety. The commander's voice, giving
orders and seeking to calm his people, was lost in
the uproar of battle, the shrieks of the drowning,
and the wild shouts of the assailants; the scene
of confusion at the second ditch repeated itself.
It was at this ditch that Alvarado is alleged to
have made his incredible leap, one of the ex-
ploits of the conquest so firmly rooted in three
centuries of tradition and popular folklore that
no proof, however lucid, of its entirely apoc-
ryphal character will ever dislodge it.^ The last
of the baggage and treasure was here abandoned,
and the Mexicans allowed themselves to be di-

1 Bemal Diaz, cap. cxxvlii.; Orozco y Berra, torn, iv.,
p. 450.

276 Fernando Cortes

verted from further pursuit, by their desire to
collect the rich spoils.

The dawn that broke after the Sorrowful Night
found the remnant of the army at Popothla, a
village situated on the shore of the lake. And
what a sad remnant! Forty-six horses were
dead, the artillery no longer existed, hardly a
musket had been saved, the treasure was lost, all
the prisoners had fallen, and the few men who
filed before the commander, as he sat on the
steps of a temple ^ with unaccustomed tears roll-
ing down his cheeks, were soaked to the skin,
destitute of arms, and so caked from head to foot
with mud and the blood of their wounds, as to
be scarcely recognisable. The actual number
of the dead cannot be positively known, for
the figures given by different writers are hope-
lessly confiicting. Prescott, whose judgment it
is safe to follow, adopted the estimate of Gomara,
according to which four hundred and fifty Span-
iards and four thousand of their Indian allies
perished during the retreat. Cortes, in his
letter to the Emperor, reduces these figures to
one hundred and fifty Spaniards and two thou-
sand Indians, but his tendency throughout his
reports was to minimise his losses. Oviedo*
quoting Juan Cano, one of the gentlemen pre-

1 The site is still pointed out and a venerable tree stand-
ing there is known as the Arhol de la Noche Triate, or
" Tree of the Sorrowful Night."

2 Lib. xxxiii., cap. liv.

The Sorrowfu 1 Night 277

sent, states that eleven hundred and seventy
Spaniards and eight thousand Indians were
killed and missing. Cano's estimate was made,
in Tlascala, and included all who fell during the
whole of the retreat from Mexico until safety
was reached inside the loyal republic, but his au-
thority is questionable. He it was who invented
the tale that two hundred and seventy men of
the Spanish garrison, who were ignorant of the
plan to march out of the city, were left behind
in the quarters where, after surrendering to the
Mexicans, they were all sacrificed. He does not
explain how these men were kept in ignorance,
while their comrades departed with the artillery,
baggage, and all of the treasure they could
carry. In Herrera's account of the plan to es-
cape from Mexico by night, the historian records
that Ojeda was particularly charged -by Cortes
with the care of the wounded and to see that
no one was left behind in the hurried prepara-
tions.^

The Spaniards who remained behind were
either unwilling to relinquish the gold collected
in the quarters or, failing to cross the first
bridge, found themselves driven back by the
crowd of Mexican warriors that cut them off
from joining their comrades. The latter ex-
planation seems the more probable. Herrera
fixes their number at one hundred; Acosta men-

^Hiat, General, dec. ii., lib. x., cap. xii.; Orozco y
Berra, torn, iv., p. 456.

278 Fernando Cortes

tions the fact but gives no figures. These un-
fortunates managed to hold out for three days,
at the end of which time they were forced by
hunger to make terms with the Mexicans. Al-
though there is nowhere an authentic record of
their end, there is little doubt as to their fata
Deplorable as were the losses, the condition of
those who survived the Sorrowful Night and
reached Tacuba was hardly less discouraging, for
so broken and exhausted were they that not even
in defence of their lives did they seem able to
raise a hand, while their horses could scarcely
stand on their trembling legs, much less carry
their riders.

Of the captains, Francisco de Morla and
Juan Velasquez de Leon were numbered amongst
the dead. Sandoval, Alvarado, Olid, Avila, and
Ordaz had come out alive, and both the inter-
preters, Marina and Aguilar, were likewise
among the survivors. The vanguard was pushed
on to Tacuba, where Cortes overtook them,
collected in the public square and not knowing
whither to turn. Just outside the city a group
of temple buildings crowned a hilltop, and there
he decided to rest his weary men, though
they were obliged to make one more effort and
dislodge some Indians who held possession of
the buildings. The danger of another attack
inside a to\^Ti, where the Mexicans would have
the advantage of roofs from which to fight and
houses in which to taKe shelter, admitted of no

The Sorrowful Night 2 79

choice. Fortunately the Indian occupants of-
fered no serious resistance and the Spaniards
were soon decently lodged within the court-
yards and buildings, where provisions and fire-
wood were fortunately found. One whole day
of blessed respite was vouchsafed the Christians,
during which they dressed their wounds, re-
paired what arms and armour remained to them,
and obtained some much-needed rest.^ The
Aztecs were evidently engaged inside their city
and refrained from any attack. At midnight,
Cortes resumed his march, guided by a Tlascalan
who professed to be able to lead him to Tlascala,
unless they were stopped; care was taken to
leave the fires burning, the badly wounded were
carried on litters, while those who were able to
keep their seats mounted behind the horsemen.
All went passing well until the morning light
betrayed their whereabouts to their enemies,
who thenceforth gave them no peace, following
close on their rear, and harrassing them with
piercing yells and showers of missiles. Pro-
visions, there were none, save what little maize
they chanced upon in the fields, and even the
cornstalks were eagerly devoured; wild fruits,
especially cherries, were their mainstay and a
horse that was killed, was entirely consumed,
not even his hide remaining.^ One Spaniard,

^ The church of Nuestra Seiiora de los Remedios stands
on this site and the statue of the Virgin kept there is
believed to be the one brought to Mexico by Cortes.

^Letters of Cortes, torn, i., p. 303.

28o Fernando Cortes

goaded by hunger and perhaps infected by the
cannibalism of the Indians, cut open a dead
body and ate the liver.^ Cortes ordered him to
be hanged on the spot. During this painful
retreat many died of wounds and exhaustion,
others, who were too weak to keep up with the
main body, dropped behind only to be pounced
upon by the pursuers and carried off to be sac-
rificed, while stragglers who wandered too far
in search of food met the same dismal fate.

In six days of such marching the Spaniards
covered only nine leagues and, though intermit-
tent skirmishing had accompanied their every
movement, they had encountered no consider-
able number of the enemy, until on the seventh
day, when they crossed the ridge of hills that
shuts in the valley of Otumba they beheld, to
their dismay, a vast body of troops prepared
to dispute their advance. This force, composed
largely of men from Texcoco, Tlacopan, and the
towns along the lakes, was commanded by
Cihuacoatl and had been sent by Cuitlahuat-
zin to intercept the retreat to Tlascala, whither
his spies informed him the Spaniards were
directing their march.

Cortes quickly put his weary men in order
of battle, the wounded being placed in a hollow
square former by the infantry. Briefly, but in
well-chosen and forceful words he spoke to them ;

1 Orozco y Berra, torn, iv., p. 460,

The Sorrowful Night 281

it was victory or death that faced them all.
From all sides the multitudes of warriors rushed
upon the little company of Christians, surround-
ing, engulfing, and so entirely overwhelming
them that they no longer distinguished one
another, nor friend from foe. For hours the
battle raged with varying fortunes, for, although
the Spaniards performed prodigies of valour,
the numbers of the enemy were such that the
losses inflicted on them made no visible dif-
ference. Towards midday the Spaniards be-
came disorganised and began to give way. The
Aztec commander, who was carried by his nobles
in a litter and was surrounded by his body-
guard, had taken his station on a hillock, from
whence he could direct the movements of his
troops. There also floated the great standard
of battle. Suddenly across the mind of Cortes
there flashed the recollection that the death of
the commander and the capture of his standard
were the signal amongst the Mexicans for a
general retreat. Summoning six of his most
trusty captains, he led a charge directly
at the group on the hill, the horses forcing a
passage through the compact masses of strug-
gling warriors. In an instant the litter was
overturned, Juan de Salamanca slew the pro-
strate Cihuacoatl, and seizing the standard he
thrust it into the hand of Cortes who raised it
in sight of all with a cry of victory. The effect
was instantaneous, for the Mexicans, as though

282 Fernando Cortes

stricken with a sudden panic, fled in all di-
rections, abandoning the field to their exhausted
foe. The wine of victory renewed the ebbing
strength of the Spaniards and their allies who,
but an instant before, had felt the faintness of
certain death chill their veins, and in an in-
stant they were in full pursuit of the flying
enemy, until the field was cleared of all save
the dead and the victors. So sudden and so
marvellous was this victory by a handful of
fugitives, worn out with fatigue and hunger and
weakened by wounds and discouragement, that
it seemed to the Spaniards only explicable by
the direct intervention of their protecting saints,
Santiago and St. Peter. Even Bemal Diaz, who
on other occasions had doubted or at least had
failed to perceive the celestial apparitions that
his companions declared they beheld, conceded
that on this occasion supernatural assistance
won the victory.^

The spoils were sufficiently rich and very wel-
come. The Aztec host was estimated by early
Spanish writers to number two hundred thou-
sand men and their losses to have been twenty
thousand; to the men engaged in that day's
fight, no doubt these figures did not seem ex-
cessive. That night Cortes and his men slept

^ Bemal Diaz, cap. cxxviii.; Gomara, cap. ex.; Sahagun,
lib. xii., cap. xxvii.; Letters of Cortes^ torn, i., p. 303.;
Torquemada, lib. iv., cap. bcxiii.; Herrera, dec. ii., lib. x.,
cap. xiii.

The Sorrowful Night 283

at Apan, and the next morning, July 8th, they
reached a fountain of clear water, where all drank
and bathed and refreshed themselves before
crossing the frontier of the Tlascalan republic.
During the long march from Tacuba, Cortes had
been assailed by doubts as to the reception that
awaited him in Tlascala, where the news of the
Sorrowful Night would have preceded him and
where he arrived, no longer as a conquering
teule, invincible, if not immortal, but as a
wretched fugitive who, after leading thousands
of Tlascalan warriors to their death in the
Aztec capital, now craved shelter and succour
from the republic. At Hueyothlipan, the first
Tlascalan town after crossing the boundary, he
learned his first lesson of Tlascalan loyalty;
hospitably received and cared for, he was al-
most immediately visited by the four aged rulers
of the republic who came from the capital to
welcome and console him. Mingled with their
words of comfort were gentle reproaches and
reminders of their warnings to him of Mexican
treachery and perfidy. They renewed their offer
of a perpetual alliance and were already plan-
ning vengeance for the losses they had sustained.
Cortes and the Tlascalan chiefs were made to
understand one another; their tempers were of
the same metal, for the effect of defeat upon
both him and them was to confirm the determi-
nation to conquer. Leaving Hueyothlipan, the
Spaniards repaired to the capital where an

284 Fernando Cortes

abundance of provisions was furnished, and such
care for the wounded as the simple pharmacy

of these rude mountaineers could offer was
supplied.

This second entrance of Cortes and his men
into the chief city of Tlascala was marked by
as great demonstrations of amity and enthusi-
asm as had greeted him on the occasion of his
first reception there. Through the chorus of
welcome there sounded, however, a minor chord
of sorrow, for of all the hosts of Tlascala that
had gone forth to Mexico in his train, many
were missing among the sadly diminished troop
of returning braves. The women of Tlascala
crowded around, seeking their husbands, sons,
and brothers, only to break forth into shrill
wailings or to turn aside, convulsed with silent
grief when those they sought were not found.
Cortes was deeply afflicted at witnessing, help-
lessly, these demonstrations of grief and, through
his interpreters he sought, as far as words could
do so, to console them.^

Thirty days of repose within the hospitable
city did much towards restoring the wasted
forces of the men and healing their wounds.
Cortes wrote that he lost two fingers of his left
hand, but there is reason to believe that this
passage in his letter to Charles V. was either in-
accurately expressed or has since been miscopied.

1 Sahagun, lib. xii., cap. xxvii. ; Bemal Diaz, cap.

cxxviii.

The Sorrowful Night 285

It is probably the fact that he lost the use of two
fingers.^ A bad wound on his head necessitated
the removal of a piece of bone and brought on
a severe fever, over which his magnificent con-
stitution fortunately triumphed. Four men
died and many others remained lamed or
maimed for life.

During this period of recuperation, the news
of several disasters reached Cortes, proving that
the recent reverses suffered in Mexico had not
been without their influence in other parts of
the country. Forty-five Spaniards from Vera
Cruz, who had undertaken to bring certain treas-
ure that he had deposited in Tlascala to Mexico,
had been intercepted and massacred on the road ;
another party, consisting of twelve men, had
been surprised and slaughtered by the natives
of Tepeaca, a province that bordered on Tlas-
cala, while from all sides unwelcome evidences
of his fallen prestige accumulated. A messenger
whom he sent to Vera Cruz returned, bearing a
letter from the captain there, conveying the en-
couraging news that the little colony had suf-
fered no reverses and that the Totonac tribes
remained faithful to their alliance.

It is significant of the unfaltering determina-
tion of Cortes to persist in his mission of con-
quest that, amidst circumstances well calculated
to dishearten the bravest and which would cer-

^ Letters of Cortes, torn, i., p. 307; Orozco y Berra,
torn, iv., p. 464.

286 Fernando Cortes

tainly have warranted his relinquishing, or at
least postponing plans for further hostilities, it
seems never to have even occurred to him that
there was any other course open, than to reorgan-
ise his force and resume his efforts to sub-
jugate the Mexicans. He solemnly renewed his
pact with the rulers of Tlascala, forming an
offensive and defensive alliance, in which both
the obligations of each of the contracting parties
and the compensations to be given the Tlas-
calans for their services were clearly defined.
In the name of his sovereign and of the Crown
of Castile, Cortes promised that Cholula and
certain other towns should be ceded to the re-
public; that Tlascalan warriors should garrison
the fortress, to be constructed in Mexico when
the city should be taken, and that all citizens
of the republic, their descendants and successors
forever, should be free from every form of tax-
ation and tribute. Other promises of minor
importance were included in the articles of this
treaty, of which the Tlascalans were faithfully
observant, both in the spirit and the letter,
while the Spaniards violated every pledge they
had given. Cortes did, indeed, remember to ob-
tain from Charles V., in 1528, a decree exempt-
ing the Tlascalans from taxation, but even this
concession proved illusory and ephemeral. That
once hardy people was gradually dispersed and
lost its separate identity, while of its once
flourishing capital hardly a vestige remains, —

The Sorrowful Night 287

a squalid village of poverty-stricken Indians.
This people forsook their own race and threw
in their part with the invading stranger. With-
out their aid, Cortes could not have conquered
Mexico. Their motives were hatred and long-
ing for revenge, both of which were gratified
by their ally, though their own state was en-
gulfed in the general downfall of the peoples
of Andhuac. The conditions of the solemn pact
were ignored and, once their services were no
longer required, the claims of the Tlascalan re-
public to a share in the fruits of the victory
they so largely contributed to achieve were
relegated to oblivion.

"®cr ajfoor l^at feine ©d^ulbigfeit gctl^an,
®er ajfoor fann gcl^en/'

While the mind of Cortes was busy with
new schemes and plans for his future cam-
paign, many of his followers were absorbed
in reflections of a different complexion. It
will be remembered that a large number of
them, perhaps even the majority amongst the
survivors, were those who had joined Cortes
after the defeat of Narvaez. These men had
been hurried from Vera Cruz up to Mexico,
where they found themselves plunged into
the sufferings and horrors of such fighting
as they had never conceived and in the course
of which a good part of their comrades had
perished, while the survivors only reached safety

288 Fernando Cortes

in Tlascala after a desperate retreat they were
not likely soon to forget. From the date of
their entrance into the Aztec capital, where
their dreams of wealth and conquest promised
to be realised, until the morning when the way-
worn remnant of that dashing troop staggered
wounded and bleeding over the Tlascalan fron-
tier, barely a fortnight had elapsed, but within
that brief period they had endured and suf-
fered enough for a lifetime.

Many of these men were not properly soldiers
at all; they were planters and well-to-do colo-
nists in the Islands, who had joined Narvaez's
expedition, tempted by the prospect of increas-
ing their patrimony by a lucky venture in
Mexico. Their inclinations recalled them to the
scene of their interests, and those who had sur-
vived that awful adventure were prepared to
thankfully return to the more modest but less
perilous methods of fortune-hunting with which
they were familiar in Cuba.

By the first of August Cortes was sufficiently
recovered from his wounds to think seriously of
beginning active operations. While the Tlas-
calan rulers and nobles were ready to support
him, the common people grumbled as loudly as
his own men. To quell the rising discontent
and furnish occupation that might silence their
complaints, Cortes announced a punitive ex-
pedition into the neighbouring province of
Tepeaca, where the inhabitants had murdered

r

p(

The Sorrowful Night 289

the Spaniards on their way from Vera Cruz,
and where there were garrisons of Mexicans
which he thought it wise to disperse. The idea
of undertaking a new campaign or another as-
sault on the Mexicans seemed to the malcon-
tents, neither more nor less than a form of
madness and, seeing that their not unreason-
able arguments against these courses exerted
no influence on their commander's decision, they
drew up a written statement in which, after
reviewing their situation and pointing out the
rashness of continuing the war, they demanded
to be led back to Vera Cruz immediately.

This document was read to Cortes by a notary
public, and his old friend and ally, Andres de
Duero, headed the deputation that presented it.
Cortes was inflexible; he declared that For-
tune always favoured the daring, and that as
they were Christians, they must confide in the
mercy of God, Who would never permit them to
perish ; the war must be continued and the coun-
try reconquered, because to abandon it now would
be disgraceful to himself, dangerous to his men,
and treasonable to their King; he had taken
his determination to renew hostilities at the
earliest possible moment and with greater vigour
than before,^ and he forbade any one to men-
tion the subject again in his presence; in conclu-
sion he gave leave to all who wished to desert
him, to do so, for he preferred to have few but

1 Letters of Cortes, torn, i., p. 306.
19

290 Fernando Cortes

brave men, than many false or cowardly ones.
As usual, he struck the right chord and the
veterans rallied at once to support their leader
so that, partly owing to his energy and partly
to the taunts and jibes of those faithful to him,
the disaffected party was silenced and agreed
to remain, at least for the present. It is evident
that few, if any, of the companions of Cortes
understood him; his admirers, who were ready
to follow him anywhere, were attracted by the
magnetism which, as a born leader, he exercised
powerfully over just such men as they. He
was their alter ego, in whom they beheld re-
flected their own daring aspirations but united
to powers of command as alien to their inferior
abilities, as they were necessary to the success
of their wild undertakings.

Cortes was indeed daring, but he was never
rash.

His seemingly spontaneous decisions were, in
reality, the result of plans carefully formed, of
cautious calculations that seemed to take cog-
nisance of every emergency, to forestall eveiry
risk. In the execution of his designs he was
relentless, hence the unmerited reputation for
cruelty that has obscured his really kindly in-
stincts and many generous deeds. Both his
resolution and his perseverance were implacable,
and those who did not willingly bend to his will
were made to break. 8ois mon frere ou je te
tue, not inaccurately describes his attitude to

The Sorrowful Night 291

those who crossed his path. His equanimity was
never disturbed by misfortune, and, as he sus-
tained success without undue elation, so did he
support reverses with fortitude ; defeat might be
a momentary check but was never accepted as
final. Besides being compared with Julius
Caesar as a general, he has been ranked with
Augustus and Charles V. as a statesman, nor
does he unduly suffer from such lofty com-
parisons, for he unquestionably possessed many
of the qualities essential to greatness, in com-
mon with them. He ruled his motley band
with a happy mixture of genial comradeship and
inflexible discipline and hence succeeded, where
an excess of either the one or the other would
have brought failure. He knew when and whom
to trust and, though he was ready with his
friendship, he avoided favouritism, with the con-
sequence that his men were united by the bond
of a common trust in their commander.

CHAPTER XII

REINFORCEMENTS AND A NEW CAMPAIGN

Montezuma's Successor — Campaigning in Tepeaca —
Founding of Segura de la Frontera — Reinforcements
Second Letter of Relation — Death of Maxixcatzin—
The Brigantines — Ordinances — Headquarters at Tex-
coco.

AFTER the death of Montezuma, Cuitlahuatzin
of Iztapalapan, who had been in command
of the rising against the Spaniards, assumed
the chieftainship and three months later (Aztec
calendar) he was elected Emperor. His coro-
nation was celebrated with the customary solem-
nities, the prisoners taken on the Sorrowful
Night, both Spaniards and Tlascalans, serving
as victims for the sacrifices. The newly elected
sovereign had to cope with a situation bristling
with difficulties — dissensions within, insubordi-
nation in the tributary provinces, the enemy
without and, finally, and most terrible of all,
the smallpox, that raged throughout the country.
To this dread pest, called by the Aztecs teoza-
huatly Cuitlahuac fell a victim, dying after a
brief reign of eighty days, on November 25, 1520.
During this period he had exerted every eflPopt
to unite all the forces of Mexico against the
common enemy, sending embassies to friends
and foes alike, urging that old differences be

392

A New Campaign 293

buried for the moment and that all should make
common cause to expel or destroy the strangers.

He found a supporter in Xicotencatl who,
like himself, had never believed in the semi-
divine character of the teules, but had from
the first distrusted them and counselled their
destruction. Maxixcatzin withstood Xicotencatl
in the Tlascalan senate when the embassy
from Mexico appeared, proposing an alliance;
an acrimonious dispute ensued, in the course
of which the old senator struck the young
general and knocked him down the steps of the
rostrum. Maxixcatzin profited by the divided
opinions to impose his decision, and the am-
bassadors hurriedly withdrew to report their
failure to their sovereign.

The importance to the Spaniards of the re-
jection of Cuitlahuatzin's overtures to the Tlas-
calans, cannot be overestimated. Had Maxix-
catzin not prevailed over the eloquence of
General Xicotencatl, Cortes would have found
himself in a situation that would have taxed
even his courage and ingenuity beyond their
powers. He recognised his debt to the venerable
regent and paid him a visit, for the express
purpose of thanking him for his magnificent
demonstration of fidelity.

The campaign against the Indians of Tepeaca
having been decided upon, the Tlascalans fur-
nished fifty thousand warriors led by nobles
chosen from the four states of the republic.

294 Fernando Cortes

Cortes promised the states of Cholula and
Huexotzinco to the republic in recompense for
the assistance furnished him.^ The Spanish
force numbered seventeen horsemen and four
hundred foot-soldiers. The natives. of Tepeaca
were a warlike people of Aztec blood and were
subjects of Montezuma, hence Cortes, accord-
ing to his theory, was leading an expedition
against Spanish subjects who were in open
rebellion against the King. Montezuma hav-
ing acknowledged himself a vassal of the Crown
and having enjoined upon all his subjects to
transfer their allegiance and pay their taxes
to Cortes, as the representative of the King
of Spain, it logically followed that the Tepe-
acans were in revolt, and must be reduced
to order and obedience. A summons to submit
having met with a defiant answer, the first
battle was fought near Zacatepec and, although
the Tepeacans and their allies of Cholula and
Huexotzinco made a gallant stand, they were
overcome and routed with great loss. The
historian Herrera relates that the Tlascalans
supped that night off the legs and arms of their
enemies, which they roasted on spits, and that
no less than fifty thousand cauldrons of human
flesh stewed over their camp-fires. Cortes had
forbidden human sacrifices and discouraged
cannibalism, but the hosts of his allies were

1 Ixtlilxochitl, Hiatoria Chickimeca, cap. xc; Motolinia
in Icazbalceta, pars iii., cap. xvi.

A New Campaign 295

beyond his control and their commissariat was
provisioned according to their own barbarous
custom.^

Town after town fell rapidly before the in-
vaders until the capital was taken, sacked, and
its inhabitants sold as slaves. The Spaniards
selected the women and the boys, while the
men fell to the share of the Tlascalans, who
were well pleased by the fidelity of their ally to
his promises. On the site of the capital, a
Spanish town was founded to which the name
of Segura de la Frontera was given. The
position was well chosen, both as a strategical
base and for keeping open the line of com-
munication with Vera Cruz and the coast.
From this point of vantage, Cortes next pro-
ceeded to the reduction of the town of Quauh-
quechollan (or Guacachula as the Spaniards
called it), a place so admirably situated and
strongly fortified as to be considered well-
nigh impregnable. The town lay some five
leagues to the south-west of Segura de la Fron-
tera and, in addition to its population of thirty
thousand people, it was garrisoned by an
important force of Mexican warriors. The
arrogance and exactions of the Aztecs bred
treachery amongst the inhabitants, and the ca-
cique of the place sent, offering to betray the
city and formulating a plan by which this

1 Bemaldino Vasquez de Tapia, torn, ii., p. 58; Orozco
y Berra, torn, iv., p. 477.

296 Fernando Cortes

might be successfully accomplished. Guaea-
chula fell, and the spoil of the Aztec camp,
which was unusually rich, was shared with the
allies. Dividing his forces, Cortes next sent
expeditions in various directions to reduce the
minor villages and disperse the Aztec camps,
with the result that the whole of the fertile
region lying between Popocatepetl on the west
and Orizaba on the east submitted to the Spaii-
iards. Not only was his prestige re-established,
his influence over the natives augmented, but
he had attached his allies to him by a display
of consideration and generosity that was
irresistible.

Fortune, as Cortes had assured his wavering
men, favours the daring, and something of his
own spirit had evidently communicated itself
to his lieutenants, inspiring them with the same
audacity and cunning he was wont to display.
At this time there arrived at Vera Cruz a
vessel sent by Diego Velasquez, carrying thir-
teen soldiers under command of Pedro Barba,
who brought letters from the governor to
Narvaez. Pedro Caballero, who had been ap-
pointed captain of the port, visited the ship
and, in reply to the commander's inquiries as
to the success of Narvaez, assured him that
the latter was in command while Cortes, with a
handful of his followers, was a fugitive from
justice. Suspecting nothing, Barba landed his
men and two horses, but no sooner were they

A New Campaign 297

on shore than Caballero declared them his
prisoners; he brought everything of value oflE
their ship which he then burned, after which
he despatched the entire company to Tepeaca,
where Cortes gave them an enthusiastic wel-
come, loading the men with presents, embracing
Barba as an old friend and enrolling them all un-
der his standard. No resistance was offered and
Barba was made a captain.

Eight days later, the same stratagem was suc-
cessfully operated on Rodrigo Morejon and his
eight men, who arrived with some welcome pro-
vision of guns and stores. Francisco de Garay,
who was renewing his efforts to colonise in the
Panuco region, had sent a fleet of three caravels
under Diego Camargo to found a settlement.
This expedition was composed of one hundred
and fifty men, seven of whom brought their own
horses, and was provided with artillery and
and other necessary stores. After disastrous
encounters with the Indians and the loss of
two of the ships, the survivors of this company
reached Vera Cruz and were promptly marched
off to join the camp in Tepeaca. A fourth ship
of Garay's that had been sent to look for the
missing three, after failing to discover them, like-
wise put in at Vera Cruz, and the entire equip-
ment, numbering fifty soldiers and seven cavalry
besides the sailors, went to swell the growing
forces at Tepeaca.

Francisco de Garay deserved to succeed, for,

298 Fernando Cortes

not discouraged by the disappearance of his
four ships, he despatched still another, carrying
one hundred and twenty foot-soldiers and four-
teen horsemen. Upon their arrival at Vera
Cruz, it was made clear ,to them that the settle-
ment at Panuco was a failure, the Indians
hostile, and the project impossible. They forth-
with marched to Tepeaca and joined the army
of the conquerors. More or less authentic news
of the events in Mexico had spread to the
Spanish colonies in the Islands, and the cap-
tain of a Spanish ship just arrived in Cuba
with a cargo of arms, ammunitions, and general
stores for the settlements in America, decided
that Mexico was his best market and forthwith
sailed for Vera Cruz. The captain of the port
bought the entire cargo, and some of the crew,
fired by the gossip of the settlement concerning
the events in the interior, deserted and made
their way to the Spanish quarters at Segura
de la Frontera.

The hostilities in Tepeaca had meanwhile been
succeeded by tranquillity; the policy of merci-
lessly punishing all who resisted and of wel-
coming with open arms and flattering speeches
those who yielded peaceably had produced its
natural result. From Segura de la Frontera,
Cortes wrote his second Carta de Relacion to
Charles V., in which he gave the Emperor a
full description of all that had happened. In
this letter which bore the date of October 30,

A New Campaign 299

1520, he announced that he had given to the
country he was conquering the name of New
Spain of the Ocean Sea, for which he begged
the Emperor's gracious sanction.^ The name
did not, however, originate with him, for Juan
de Grijalba had already applied it to the coun-
try during his expedition along the coast from
Cozumel to San Juan de Ulua in 1518.

Cortes owed not a little of his rapidly in-
creasing authority over the natives to the
ravages of the smallpox. The Indians recog-
nised the right of conquest; to be ruled by the
strong was, in their eyes, to be ruled by the
right man and, as hitherto they had passed
unprotestingly from the dominion of one tyrant
to that of another, so did they accept their
new ruler, once his power was established.
They referred their local affairs to his judg-
ment, they brought their disputes to him for
settlement and, as many of their chiefs and
nobles had died of smallpox and there were
cases of disputed succession, these were like-
wise voluntarily submitted to his arbitration.
Not only was he supreme military commander, to
whom the provinces supplied levies of troops, but
he likewise exercised the same civil jurisdiction

1 This letter was first printed in Seville by Juan Cron-
berger on the eighth of November, 1522. It is known in
the collection of his letters as the Second Relation. Letters
of Cortes to Charles V. English translation by F. A.
MacNutt, New York, 1908.

300 Fernando Cortes

as Montezuma had done in the days of his su-
premacy and by identically the same title — the
right of conquest.

The smallpox numbered among its victims
the venerable Maxixcatzin, by whose death
Cortes lost his firmest friend in Tlascala. The
news that the chief was stricken down, first
came from the ship's carpenter, Martin Lopez,
who had been sent to the city to begin the
construction of the brigantines. Maxixcatzin
expressed a wish to die a Christian and Lopez
sent his message to Cortes, who immediately
despatched Fray Bartolom6 de Olmedo to ad-
minister both the first and the last rites of the
Catholic Church to the dying chief. He wore
mourning for his dead friend, and amidst the
celebrations and demonstrations that greeted
his triumphal return to Tlascala, the loss he
had suffered weighed heavily on his spirits.
His first care was to recognise the young son
of the deceased chieftain, a lad of thirteen
years, as heir to his father's rank and estates,
causing him also to be baptised a Christian
and enrolled as a Spanish knight. Prescott
observes that this was probably the first in-
stance of knighthood being conferred on an
American Indian.^ The boy took the name of
Lorenzo and became known thenceforward as
Don Lorenzo Maxixcatzin.

Experience had shown Cortes that a most

* Conquest of Mexico, torn, iii., p. 407.

A New Campaign 301

valuable auxiliary to his military operations
against the city of Mexico would be a fleet of
ships, and while still at Segura de la Frontera,
he had sent Martin Lopez back to Tlascala
with orders to begin the construction of thir-
teen brigantines, on much the same lines as
those he had built for Montezuma. His own
account in his second letter to the Emperor is
the best that could be given of his activity
during this period of preparation for the great
war.

I sent four ships to the island of Hispaniola
that they might return quickly with horses and
people for our assistance; and I likewise sent to
buy four others, so that they might bring from
the island of Hispaniola, and the city of San Do-
mingo, horses and horsemen, bows, and powder,
because these are what we most need in these parts.
Foot-soldiers armed with shields are of little serv-
ice, on account of the great number of people and
their having so great and such strong cities and
forts. I therefore wrote to the licentiate, Rodrigo
de Figueroa, and to Your Highness's officials in
the said island, asking them to favour and assist
me as much as possible, as it was of such import-
ance to Your Highness's service, and to the security
of our lives, since, on the arrival of this help,
I intended to return against the capital and its
country; and I believe, as I have already told Your
Majesty, that it will again in a short time return
to the condition in which I had it before, and that
the past losses will be made good. Meanwhile I

302 Fernando Cortes

am engaged in building twelve brigantines to launch
on the lake, and already they are making the deck-
ing and other parts of them, because they have to
be carried overland, so that on their arrival they
may be joined and completed in a short time.
Nails are also being made for them, and the pitch,
sails, tow, oars, and other things which are neces-
sary are being got ready. I assure Your Majesty
that until I achieve this end, I shall take no rest,
nor shall I cease to strive in every possible way
and manner for it, disregarding all the danger and
trouble, and cost, that may come upon me.

History hardly records a greater tour de
force than the construction, transport, and
launching of these brigantines; the glory of the
conception belongs to Cortes, but the credit for
its execution was due to the Tlascalans. Martin
Lopez was assisted by a few other Spaniards,
but the brunt of the work, as well as the cost,
was borne by the Tlascalans.

Prescott recalls two instances of similar un-
dertakings, but on a smaller scale and with
less distance to cover; the first was during the
siege of Taranto by Hannibal, and the second
was at the same place seventeen centuries
later under Gonsalvo de Cordoba. Balboa also
built four small boats on the Isthmus of Darien,
two of which he succeeded in carrying to the
coast and launching successfully. For magni-
tude of the undertaking, distance of transport,
number of men engaged, with no beasts of

A New Campaign 303

burden to help them, and the importance of
the issue at stake, the achievement of Cortes
and the Tlascalans stands alone.

On Wednesday the 26th of December, a
grand review of all the forces was held. The
army was found to consist of forty horsemen
divided into four squadrons of ten each; five
hundred and fifty foot-soldiers, divided into
nine companies of sixty; there were eight or
nine pieces of artillery, in all not a very
numerous force with which to lay siege to the
capital of the Aztec empire. Halting before
his troops, Don Fernando addressed them in
a short speech, of which he himself gave a
summary to Charles V.:

All being assembled for this review, I spoke to
them as follows: They already knew that they
and I had come to serve Your Sacred Majesty by
settling in this country, and they likewise knew
how all the natives of it had acknowledged them-
selves as vassals of Your Majesty, and how they
had persevered as such, receiving good deeds from
us and we from them, until, without any cause,
all the inhabitants of Culua including the people
of the great city of Temixtitan and those of all
the other provinces subject to it had revolted
against Your Majesty; yet more, they had killed
many of our relatives and friends, and had ex-
pelled us from their country: that they should
remember how many dangers and hardships we
had endured, and how it was profitable to the

304 Fernando Cortes

service of God and of Your Catholic Majesty to
return and recover what was left, inasmuch as we
had just causes and good reasons on our side. One
cause was because we fought for the spread of
our Faith, and against barbarians; another was
because we served Your Majesty; another was for
the security of our lives; and another because we
had many natives, our friends, to help us. All
these were strong motives to stimulate our hearts;
for the same reasons I told them to cheer up and
be brave. In the name of Your Majesty, I had
made certain ordinances for maintaining discipline
and regulating the affairs of the war, which I then
immediately published. I enjoined them to likewise
comply with these, because by so doing, much serv-
ice would be rendered to God and Your Majesty.
They all promised to do so and to comply with
them, declaring they would very gladly die for our
Faith and Your Majesty's service, or return to re-
cover the loss, and to revenge so great a treachery
as had been done by the people of Temixtitan and
their allies. In the name of Your Majesty I
thanked them for it. After this we returned to
our camp on the day of the review, in good spirits.
The following day, which was the feast of St. John
the Evangelist, I had all the chiefs of the pro-
vince of Tascaltecal assembled and told them that
they already knew I was about to leave the next
day to enter the country of our enemies; that they
must see that the city of Temixtitan could not
be captured without the brigantines which were
being built, and that hence I prayed that they
would furnish everything necessary to the work-
men and the other Spaniards I left there, and

A New Campaign 305

would treat them T^ell, as they had always treated
us, I also said that they should be prepared, if
God should give us the victory, whenever I should
send from the city of Tasaico ^ for the joinings,
planks, and other materials for the brigantines, to
send them. They promised to do so, and they also
wished to send some warriors with me at once,
declaring that when the brigantines started they
would go with all their people, for they wished
to die where I died and to revenge themselves on

the Culuans, their mortal enemies.

'I

These ordinances mentioned above were drawn
up by " the magnificent Senor Fernando Cortes,
captain-general and chief justice of this New
Spain of the Ocean Sea and published in the
city and province of Tlascala on Wednesday,
the feast of St. Stephen, the twenty-sixth day
of December, in the presence of the notary
public Juan de Ribera," etc. In the pre-
amble were explained the necessity and con-
venience of subjecting all human actions to
law; the right of conquest was traced to the
principles of religion, and the primary object
of all must be to win the heathen natives from
idolatry and procure their eternal salvation
by converting them to the Christian religion.
Were this war undertaken with any other in-
tention it would be unjust, and everything won
by it would have to be restored.

In conformity with the crusading spirit pro-

1 Meaning Texcoco.

20

3o6 Fernando Cortes

claimed in the preamble, the ordinances pro-
hibited blasphemy against the name of God
and the saints. Gambling was also discouraged
by certain severe restrictions tending to so
moderate play as to render it innocuous. Dice,
however, were absolutely forbidden. Brawling,
quarrelling, rivalries between different com-
panies, and evil speaking, either among the
soldiers themselves or against their ofllcers, were
not to be tolerated. The regulations governing
military discipline and operations enjoined
officers to keep to the posts assigned them
and prohibited them under pain of death from
charging the enemy without orders from the
commander. Other articles prescribed that all
booty taken, either in cities or on the battle-
field, and of whatsoever character, must be de-
livered either to the commander or to an officer
designated to receive it.^

It is evident from the temper and language
of these regulations that the military organisa-
tion of the troops had made considerable strides
since they first left Vera Cruz to march into
the interior. Limits there undoubtedly were
to the commander's authority, and there were
occasions when his discretion tolerated a licence
that his judgment reproved, but his policy was
to unite the interests of all in the success of

1 A more complete summary of these ordinances may be
found in Orozco y Berra, torn, iv., p. 502, and a reprint of
the entire document in Prescott's Conquest, Appendix xiii.

A New Campaign 307

their common undertaking and, by playing
first on their religious sentiments, then on their
pride as Spaniards, and last and always on
their hopes of wealth, to enforce a discipline
under which such bold spirits must have chafed.
But if there were limits to his authority, there
were likewise bounds to his forbearance, and
while the former were vaguely defined, the
latter were very positively outlined. Shortly
after the promulgation of the ordinances of
Tlascala, Cortes hanged two of his own slaves
for robbing an Indian, and even a Spaniard
received similar sentence for a like offence,
though the commander discreetly turned his
back while the fellow's companions loosened
the knot before life was extinct.

The allies promised for the campaign formed
an important addition to the forces. Their
number has been variously estimated at from
one hundred and ten to one hundred and fifty
thousand men. Alonso de Ojeda and Juan
Marquez had devoted much attention to drilling
the Tlascalans; born fighters, every man of
them had profited, not only by this instruction
but likewise by the experience gained in the
several campaigns fought under Spanish di-
rection. Even the distrustful General Xicoten-
catl was not too proud to learn the art of war
from the detested conquerors of his country,
whose skill and courage commanded his reluctant
admiration.

3o8 Fernando Cortes

On Friday, the twenty-eighth of December,
the army marched out from Tlascala by way
of Tetzmulocan, headed towards Texcoco, The
most difficult of the three roads leading from
Tlascala to the valley of Mexico had been chosen,
after a council composed of all the captains,
as it was hoped their choice would hardly be
foreseen by the Mexicans and hence they would
encounter no organised opposition. The com-
pany was joined at Tlepehuacan by Ixtlilxo-
chitl, prince of Texcoco and claimant of the
crown. Ever since the Spaniards had been in
Mexico, this discontented and ambitious in-
triguer had paid diligent court to Don Fer-
nando, hoping, with his support and patronage,
to seat himself on the throne of Acolhuacan.
The new ally was cordially welcomed, sym-
pathised with in his grievances, and encouraged
to regard the Spaniards as his saviours. What-
ever Cortes may, in his heart, have thought of
this renegade prince, he was bound to view
with satisfaction, and encourage by all means
in his power, the dissensions and animosities
that divided and weakened his enemies. The
descent of the mountain-pass was accomplished
and on Sunday, the thirtieth, the Spaniards
found themselves once more in the valley of
Mexico.

No troops came forth to dispute their advance,
though on the surrounding hilltops fires blazed
and columns of black smoke rose into the clear

A New Campaign 309

blue of the sky, thus giving notice to all the
towns in the valley of their enemy's approach.
Groups of Mexican warriors were seen in the
distance, apparently following their movements,
and Cortes, who anticipated an ambush or a
sudden attack at any hour, took occasion to
remind the men of his orders for all to keep
well together, to avoid straggling and to in-
stantly obey the commands of their officers.
It was victory or death, and they must main-
tain the reputation of Spanish valour. After
this exhortation, to which all responded by
promising obedience, they marched ahead, "as
gaily as though bent on a pleasure party," to
quote from the language of the Relaciones.

Texcoco had been fixed upon as the temporary
headquarters, from whence Cortes proposed to
reconnoitre the situation and reduce the out-
lying towns and villages along the lake shore,
while waiting for the arrival of the brigantines,
to begin operations against the capital. Al-
though it was not expected that Texcoco would
be occupied without severe fighting, a deputa-
tion of nobles approached the Spanish force a
few leagues outside their city, carrying a golden
pennon,^ in sign of peace, and bringing a pres-
ent from their King to the commander. They
begged that their city might be spared, affirm-

1 It was in the form of net-work or mesh of gold, and
both Cortes and Bemal Diaz calculated its money value
with the rapidity of practiced appraisers.

3IO Fernando Cortes

ing that they had never wiHingly sided against
the Spaniards but only in obedience to the
superior force of the Mexicans. Cortes, in re-
ply, reminded them of the party of Spaniards
they had recently murdered within their own
territory and demanded the restitution of the
treasure they had taken from their victims.
Still protesting their innocence and declaring
that it was by the Mexican Emperor's orders
that the deed had been done and that the
plunder had been taken to Mexico, they oflEered
to collect what they could and restore it; mean-
while, they suggested that the Spaniards should
pass the night in the neighbouring village as
they had not been able to prepare quarters for
them in the city. Cortes ignored their sug-
gestion and marched on to Texcoco where the
first thing that impressed him was the deserted
appearance of the streets, which he had always
seen thronged with a busy population. The vast
palace of Nezahualpilli and its extensive de-
pendencies furnished ample quarters for all the
force. The reason of the Texcocan's eflEorts to
prevent him entering the city that evening,
was quickly discovered by some of the soldiers,
who ascended one of the teocalU to survey the
town and observed that the entire population
was abandoning the place, — some in canoes on
the lake, while others were escaping on foot to
the hills. Coanacochtzin, the King, was already
safe in Mexico and, as it was late in the eve-

A New Campaign 311

ning, the efforts made to check this movement
were too tardy to be of any avail. The Span-
iards were left in undisputed possession of the
deserted capital of Acolhuacan.

CHAPTER XIII

BACK TO THE CAPITAL

Destruction of Iztapalapan — Quauhtemotzin — First Ex-
pedition of Chalco — ^Arrival of the Convoy — Fall of
TIacopan — Death of Fonseca — Second Expedition to
Chalco — Capture of Cuernavaca — Rescue of Cortes —
Spanish Losses

EIGHT days passed after the arrival of the
Spaniards in Texcoco, during which time
they were exclusively occupied in fortifying the
city, laying in provisions, and converting the
place into a well-furnished base from which to
conduct the campaign in the neighbourhood.
Cortes had declared the throne of Acolhuacan
vacant after the flight of Coanacpchtzin and had
ordered an election held that resulted in the
elevation to the royal dignity, of Tecocoltzin,
a bastard son of Nezahualpilli. This youth
proved a weak tool in the hands of the Span-
ish commander, and the government passed
practically into the latter's exclusive contpol.
The neighbouring towns and some tribes in
the vicinity came, one by one, to offer their
submission which Cortes received as a matter
of course, assuring them that they were now
vassals of Castile and were doing their duty
in remaining faithful to their lawful sovereign.

The city of Iztapalapan, where Cortes had

312

Back to the Capital 313

once been entertained in the magnificent palace
and gardens of its sovereign, was the first place
designated for destruction, chiefly because it
had belonged to Cuitlahuatzin, the arch-enemy of
the Spaniards, and also because its inhabitants
shared their ruler's hatred of the teules. Cor-
tes led the expedition himself, having Pedro de
Alvarado and Cristobal de Olid for his captains.
The force consisted of eighteen horsemen, two
hundred and thirty foot-soldiers, a large num-
ber of Tlascalans, and some Indians of Texcoco,
furnished by the young king, Tecocoltzin.

Iztapalapan was utterly destroyed and six
thousand of its inhabitants were killed, the re-
mainder either saving themselves by flight in
their canoes or being captured by the victors.
An artful stratagem of the Indians that would
have annihilated the Spaniards had it succeeded,
just missed being successful. As the town stood
on the edge of the lake and even partly over
the water, it was protected from the rising tides
by a dyke, which the Spaniards had passed on
their way into the city. Cortes had noticed an
opening in this dyke, through which some water
was running but, in the heat of the attack, had
galloped ahead without attaching any signifi-
cance to the fact. Towards nine o'clock at
night, when the sack and destruction of the
burning city were completed and his men were
weary with slaughter, it suddenly flashed across
his mind that with the rise of the salt lake, the

314 Fernando Cortes

waters would pour through the aperture in the
dyke and cut off the Spaniards from the main-
land. In short, they were taken in a trap and
would drown to a man. His surmise was as
correct as it was timely, for on reaching the
place, that whole quarter was found to be al-
ready flooded, while the water was rising so
rapidly that the booty and prisoners had to be
abandoned and each man made a dash for
safety through the insidious flood. Several In-
dians were drowned and the spoils of war were
lost, but the Spaniards escaped the trap their
cunning foes had set for their destruction.^

The news of the fall of Iztapalapan produced
a great impression throughout the valley and
was followed by the submission of several other
dependencies of the capital. Cortes, in re-
ceiving their adhesion, made it a condition that
they should deliver up to him all Aztec nobles
or persons of consequence who were in their
towns, his object being to seek through such
persons to open communications with the capi-
tal and, if possible, to form inside its walls a
party in favour of coming to terms with him.
These overtures met with no response. Cuitla-
huatzin had been succeeded by Quauhtemotzin,
son of Ahuitzotl, a youth of twenty-flve years, dis-
tinguished both for his bravery and his intelli-
gence. He was the eleventh and the last of the
Aztec emperors. Montezuma's presumptive heir

1 Letters of Cortes, torn, ii., p. 18.

Back to the Capital 315

had perished during the retreat on the Sorrow-
ful Night, and his two remaining legitimate
sons were said to be paralytics. His daughter,
Tecuichpo, married Cuitlahuatzin and, on the
accession of Quauhtemotzin, the widow espoused
her late husband's successor. One of the im-
becile heirs having meanwhile died, the newly
elected Emperor removed the possibility of any
future complications by killing the survivor.

Quauhtemotzin had followed the policy of his
predecessor and had succeeded in gathering
about his throne all the forces that remained
faithful; while there were still waverers in the
provinces, and many of the neighbouring states
were maintaining an observant neutrality until
events might show them on which side to range
themselves, within the capital itself absolute
unity prevailed. The messages from Cortes
proposing peace, his offers to pardon the Mexi-
cans, and his invitations to a friendly con-
ference, all fell on deaf ears. Quauhtemotzin
declared that the city would never surrender
and that its last man would die fighting.

On his return from Iztapalapan, Cortes sent
an expedition under Sandoval to the province
of Chalco, whose cacique had complained of the
exactions and oppressions of a Mexican gar-
rison stationed in his city and had invited the
Spaniards to assist him in expelling it. From
all sides similar complaints and proposals
reached Cortes and, in writing to Charles V.,

3i6 Fernando Cortes

he declared that one of his chief regrets was,
that he could not respond to the demands made
upon him by the Indian allies and faithful
vassals of His Majesty.

To make up for his inability to send Span-
iards to the various centres of disaffection
towards tlie Aztec rule, Cortes sought to over-
come the local jealousies and ancient feuds that
divided the tribes, and to form alliances be-
tween them for their mutual defence against
the Mexicans. In these efforts he was suc-
cessful,— at least, suflftciently so for his own
purpose. During his expedition to Chalco,
Sandoval stopped in the little town of Zoltepec,
the scene of tlie murder of the forty-five Span-
iards, of which mention was made in a former
chapter. Melancholy relics of their dead com-
rades were found in the temples, even the heads
of some of them, so well dried and tanned that
their faces were easily recognisable, were ex-
posed, while on the wall of a room in a build-
ing close by, they read the inscription : " In
this place was imprisoned the unhappy Juan
Yuste and some of his companions." From
Chalco, Sandoval continued his way to Tlas-
cala, from whence he was to assist in escorting
the Tlascalans, who were to transport the brig-
antines to Texcoco. He was likewise charged
to bring from Tlascala the young prince of Tex-
coco, known as Don Fernando, whom Cortes
designated to succeed the youth, Fernando Teco-

Back to the Capital 317

coltzin, whose death had just brought his brief
reign to a close. Both of these princes having
been baptised under the name of Fernando, mucli
confusion has been occasioned by the early
writers attributing the acts of the one to the
other, and even merging the two into one
person.^

Shortly after crossing the Tlascalan frontier,
three of Sandoval's horsemen, who were riding
ahead as scouts, detected the fires of what
seemed to be a vast encampment. Approaching
cautiously to reconnoitre, it was discovered to
be the camp of the Spanish ship-carpenters and
the Tlascalans, who had brought the brigantines
that far on the road and were encamped to
wait for their escort from Texcoco. Twenty
thousand Indians composed the convoy which,
after four days of arduous marching, reached
Texcoco with their unique burdens. Their ar-
rival was made the occasion of great festivity
and rejoicing. Cortes and his officers rode out
to meet the procession, which was of such im-
posing length that six hours were occupied in
filing before the commander into the city.
Spaniards and Tlascalans fraternised, with
demonstration of the heartiest good-will; the

1 As if to further augment the complications arising
from a number of Indian princes adopting the same Chris-
tian name, Prince Ixtlilxochitl was at this time baptised
and assumed the name of Fernando. He was placed in
command of the Texcocan forces.

3i8 Fernando Cortes

shrill pipes and rude musical instruments of
the Indians mingled their sounds with the
music of atabal and cornet, while enthusiastic
crowds rent the air with cheers of Castilla!
Tlascala! Cortes, the destroyer of a fleet was
the creator of another, for only his genius could
have conceived and accomplished such an un-
dertaking. The Tlascalan captains crowded
about him, declaring that they had come to
fight under his banner until their common
quarrel was avenged or they fell together, and
demanding to be led at once against their
enemy. He responded cordially to these wel-
come demonstrations and assured them that he
would provide them with plenty to do as soon
as they were rested.^

While the work of putting the brigantines to-
gether was going actively forward in the canal
that had been built to convey them onto the
waters of the lake, Cortes planned a series of
attacks on the towns in the neighbourhood that
were still loyal to Quauhtemotzin. Marching
in a northerly direction from Texcoco, the first
engagements with the enemy were at an island-
town in the lake, called Xaltocan. The re-
sistance of the Mexicans was stubborn and the
town was unapproachable, as the dyke had been
cut and neither infantry nor horsemen could
breast the swift current of water that rushed

"^ Letters of Cortes, torn. !.; p. 32; Gomara, cap. cxziv.;
Bemal Diaz, cap. cxl.

Back to the Capital 319

through the opening. Treachery, however, de-
livered the place to the Spaniards, for a
Mexican deserter revealed the whereabouts of
a shallow ford. Xaltocan was sacked and
burned, while those of its inhabitants who had
trusted to their defences instead of escaping in
canoes were made prisoners. Continuing the
circuitous line of march he had mapped out,
Cortes passed through two abandoned towns and
finally arrived at Azcapozalco, known as the
^' silversmith's town " on account of the artistic
productions of its metal-workers.

The objective point of this march was the
town of Tlacopan or Tacuba where he intended
to establish temporary headquarters. The fate
of Tacuba was not long in the balance and, as
the Tlascalans nourished a special hatred for
the inhabitants because of the injuries suffered
there by their countrymen the morning follow-
ing the Sorrowful Night, Cortes was unable to
hinder a general massacre that ended in setting
fire to the town, after everything of value had
been pillaged. From Tacuba, one of the three
famous causeways led directly across the lake
into the city of Mexico; the same one in fact
along which the Spaniards had fled in panic
and confusion when they evacuated the capital.
The skirmishing along this causeway was kept
up daily during the commander's stay at Ta-
cuba and though the Mexicans fought well,
both on the causeway itself and from their light

320 Fernando Cortes

canoes in which they approached the banks, the
ultimate advantage invariably rested with the
Christians. Renewed overtures for peace were
rebuflEed by the Mexicans and in reply to the in-
vitation of Cortes that their chiefs would come
to parley with him, the warriors answered that
they were all chiefs and that whatever he wished
to say, might be said to any or all of them.

During the six days he remained in Tacuba,
Cortes obtained much of the information con-
cerning the defences of Mexico he had come to
seek. He found the Aztec troops well equipped
and full of courage; nor did the fact that they
had been worsted day after day in their en-
counters with the Spaniards seem to daunt
them. Following the same road by which they
had come, the Spaniards returned to Texcoco
where the booty was divided, permission being
given to the Tlascalans to depart to their own
country with their share.

The defection of the Chalcans from the Mex-
ican cause greatly enraged Quauhtemotzin, who
sent a force to invade their province and punish
their treachery, and Bernal Diaz states that
twenty thousand Mexican soldiers crossed the
lake in two thousand canoes. The Chalcans ap-
pealed in their extremity to Cortes, who again
sent Sandoval to their assistance. During this
campaign there occurred a break in the close
intimacy existing between Cortes and his
favourite captain, Gonzalo de Sandoval; the

Back to the Capital 321

latter having returned to Texcoco after an en-
gagement at Ayachapichtla, which he considered
decisive, was curtly ordered to go back and
finish what he had begun. When he afterwards
learned that he had been hasty and that the
rebuke was unmerited, Cortes made such a
frank and sincere apology for his injustice that
the cloud which threatened to obscure their
friendship was at once dispelled. Nothing,
more than this little incident, illustrates the
nature of the relations existing between Cortes
and his officers, nor better shows the absence
of petty vanity in the commander's character.
His readiness to admit and repair a wrong done
to a subordinate officer proved the quality of
his moral courage and won him the confidence
and obedience of his captains.

Three vessels which arrived at Vera Cruz,
very probably from Hispaniola in response to the
letters of Cortes to the audiencia in that island,
brought the considerable reinforcement of two
hundred men, seventy or eighty horsemen, and
a large supply of arms, ammunitions, and mili-
tary stores. Simultaneously there came into
the same port a ship from Castile, having on
board several persons of distinction, amongst
whom were the royal treasurer, Julian de Al-
derete and a Dominican friar, Pedro Melgarejo
de Urrea. A facetious passage in Bernal Diaz's
history of the conquest describes this monk as
bringing bulls from the Pope granting indul-

az

322 Fernando Cortes

gences to the men, and states that he did such a
thriving trade in his holy wares that within a
few months he returned to Castile a rich man.
The bulls in question were chiefly useful in
guaranteeing lawful title to holders of property
acquired during the conquest, whose rightful
owners it was no longer possible to identify.
The spoils of war captured in the sacking of
towns did not fall within the terms of the bulls,
though it is not improbable that there were
soldiers whose elastic consciences enabled them
to stretch the papal concession to suit their
interests.^

Bernal Diaz's quip has furnished material for
caustic comment on the business-like methods
of the Dominicans in dispensing spiritual
favours to the faithful. Alleged abuses of a
similar nature in Germany were at that very
time one of the chief reproaches cast on the
Order in Europe, where the Reformation was
just then convulsing Christendom.

The most welcome intelligence for Cortes that
arrived by the ship from Spain was the news
of the fall from power of the Bishop of Burgos^

iBemal Diaz, cap. cxliii.; Orozco y Berra, torn, iv., p.
537.

2 Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca, Bishop of Burgos and
titular Archbishop of Rosano, was of noble family and,
when dean of Seville, had been named by King Ferdinand
to the presidency of the newly constituted Royal CouncU
for the Indies, which had charge of the affairs of the
recently discovered realms in the New World. This ap-

Back to the Capital 323

The province of Chalco continued, despite the
two successful expeditions of Sandoval, to be
the scene of constant hostilities between Chal-
cans and Mexicans, and, as it was impossible
to begin the siege of the capital before the sur-
rounding country was freed from Aztec domin-
ion and made safe for the Spaniards and their
allies, Cortes determined to respond to the last
appeal of the Chalcan chiefs for assistance, by
marching thither himself. His intention was
also to extend his operations by circling com-
pletely round the lakes and, in the course of
his march, to occupy all the more important
strongholds and disperse their Aztec garrisons.
He had already secured such a result in the
western parts of the valley, and once he suc-
ceeded in establishing his supremacy towards
the south, the city of Mexico would remain iso-
lated, in the midst of a broad zone under Span-
ish control. Two or three weeks were to be
devoted to these preparatory operations, within
which period it was hoped that the brigantines

pointment was singularly unfortunate, as he possessed
no aptitude for the post, and, being of choleric temper,
touchy, vindictive, and given to favouritism, he seems
never to have grasped the possibilities of his office, or to
have comprehended the meaning of the events whose
course he was called upon to shape. The Emperor's eyes
were finally opened to his incurable defects of character,
and his influence received its death-blow from the trans-
actions of his agents with Cortes. He died March 14,
1524, having done his worst during thirty years with the
interests confided to his direction.

324 Fernando Cortes

would be completed and ready for use. The
force to be employed was composed of thirty
horsemen and three hundred foot-soldiers, with
the usual complement of numerous Indians
from Tlascala and Texcoco.

Gonzalo de Sandoval was left in command at
Texcoco, with a force of twenty horsemen and
three hundred foot-soldiers. The following day
Cortes addressed the chiefs in a speech that
was interpreted by Marina and Geronimo de
Aguilar, telling them that the hour for united
action against the capital was drawing near and
that he would soon call upon them for the levies
they had promised. He outlined the purpose
of his present movement and then marched on
to the town of Chimalhuacan-Chalco, where he
intended to pass the night. An immense num-
ber of Indians, — some forty thousand in all, —
joined his force, in addition to whom, a myriad
of spoilers followed the army, attracted chiefly
by the prospect of feeding on the dead bodies
of the slain.

Sharp fighting took place in the country be-
tween Chalco and Huaxtepec, notably in the at-
tempts to storm two rocky knolls on which large
numbers of Indians had established themselves.
In one of these attacks, the Spaniards were re-
pulsed and obliged to withdraw, leaving the
defenders victorious, but when the second
stronghold was captured, all the neighbourhood,
including the unconquered people on the first

Back to the Capital 325

hillock, submitted and made the usual terms of
peace. From Huaxtepec, the road lay through
Yauhtepec, where the inhabitants sought safety
in the neighbouring town of Xiuhtepec. The
latter town offered no resistance, and the
troops rested there that day (Friday, the
12th) expecting the local caciques to return
and make their submission. As none appeared,
however, the town was looted and burned.

On the following day Cortes arrived before
Cuauhnahuac (the present Cuernavaca) ^ the
ancient capital of the Tlahuica tribes, situated
on an isolated promontory at an elevation of
more than five thousand feet and surrounded,
save on one side, by a narrow but profound
caiion. This town Was, from its peculiar posi-
tion, almost inaccessible; the bridges over the
chasm had been broken and the place was de-
fended by a strong garrison under Coatzin, its
lord. Its capture was due to the intelligence
and bravery of a Tlascalan warrior, whose
remarkable exploit is hardly noticed by Cortes
in his letter to the Emperor, but which is de-
scribed by Bernal Diaz who claims to have
followed close on the heels of the intrepid war-
rior. Two immense trees growing on opposite

1 Cuernavaca is the present capital of the state of
Morelos, and is one of the most beautiful and interesting
towns in Mexico, while its situation is hardly excelled
in picturesqueness and grandeur by any other in the
world. The palace and church, which Cortes afterwards
built there, still stand.

326 Fernando Cortes

sides of the ravine, inclined towards one an-
other until their branches met. The bold
Tlascalan conceived the plan of crossing by
this aerial bridge, and, with an agility worthy
of his daring conception, he safely passed on
the swaying boughs over the dizzy height and
slid down the tree trunk on the other side,
while the garrison of Cuernavaca was fighting
elsewhere and unobservant of his achievement.
About thirty Spaniards and a number of Tlas-
calans followed his example, three of whom lost
their balance and fell into the stream below.
Bernal Diaz says that it was a frightful un-
dertaking, and that he himself became quite
blind and giddy from the great height and
danger. Indeed, it was no small thing fop a
man, weighted with arms and armour, to essay
such a feat, and if the credit of the invention
belongs to the Tlascalan, we cannot withhold
our admiration from the thirty Spaniards who
had the hardihood to follow him.^

After destroying the captured town and re-
ceiving the submission of its chiefs, Cortes re-
traced his march towards the valley of Mexico,
crossing the rocky sierra and traversing a
waterless region of pine woods, with such suf-
fering to man and beast that some people even
perished of thirst. Shortly after daybreak on
Monday, the 15th, the Spaniards came in
sight of one of the most beautiful and pros-

1 Bernal Diaz, cap. cxliv.

Back to the Capital 327

perous towns of Mexico, — Xochimilco, — aptly
described by its Aztec name, meaning " field of
flowers.'' As the town stood somewhat out in
the waters of the lake, the approach was by
means of a causeway, similar to but smaller
than those which connected the city of Mexico
with the mainland. The Xochimilcans had
fortified this causeway and defended the en-
trance with great spirit, but before the fire of
the archers and arquebusiers, they were forced
to give way and to retreat into the better se-
curity of their streets. With the hope of gain-
ing time in which their families might escape
by means of canoes, the Indians began parley-
ing for peace; moreover, towards evening, a
formidable body of well-armed Mexican troops
came to their assistance, and the fighting was
renewed. While leading a calvary charge, the
horse on which Cortes was mounted slipped and
fell, unseating its rider. In an instant his
enemies were upon him. Neither in wit nor
courage were the Tlascalans ever found want-
ing, and in this instance, it was a Tlascalan
who first perceived the commander's peril and
rushed to his assistance. Cortes afterwards
searched in vain for this Indian who saved his
life, but as he could never be found, dead or
alive, he finally declared that he was per-
suaded that it was not an Indian at all but
his holy patron, St. Peter, who had rescued
him.

328 Fernando Cortes

Clavigero pertinently notes that, in this
battle as in many others, the Indians might
easily have killed Cortes had they not determined
to take him alive and sacrifice him. Bernal Diaz
attributes the rescue of Cortes to a Castiliaji
soldier, Cristobal de Olea, who led a body of
Tlascalans to his relief, but makes no mention
of any one particular Tlascalan, Cortes may,
however, be supposed to know better, and he
refers to Olea as " a servant of mine who helped
raise the horse." Olea received three frightful
wounds from the deadly maquahuitl, a weapon
which the Mexicans wielded with great and
formidable skill.

The fighting in, and around Xochimileo,
lasted from the 15th of April until the morn-
ing of Friday the 20th, when the Spaniards
arrived in Tlacopan and, though Cortes says
little in his reports about the events of those
days, his men suffered considerably. While a
small division was engaged in pillaging some
storehouses near Xochimileo, the Mexicans at-
tacked them, wounding a number and taking
Juan de Lara, Alonso Hernandez, and two
other soldiers of Andres de Monjaraz's company,
prisoners. These men were carried in triumph
to the city of Mexico where, after being ques-
tioned by Quauhtemotzin, they were sacrificed,
their arms and legs being afterwards taken to
be exhibited in the neighbouring provinces as
a forecast of the fate awaiting the remainder

Back to the Capital 329

of the white men.^ Cortes wished to abandon
the spoils taken at Xochimilco, rather than be
cumbered with them, but yielded to the clamours
of his men, who declared they were able to
defend what they had taken.

The plunder was therefore placed in the
centre, with a guard of cavalry to watch over
it and, after firing the city as a penalty for the
obstinate resistance of its inmates, the Span-
iards marched by way of Coyohuacan to Tacuba.
Numerous bodies of the enemy were frequently
descried, usually at a distance, and it was evi-
dent that Quauhtemotzin was following the
movements of his foe and that the entire coun-
try was under arms. From Coyohuacan, where
a two days' halt was made to care for the
wounded and gain some rest after the fatigues
of the recent fighting, Cortes reconnoitred the
causeway leading to Iztapalapan. At the junc-
tions of the two causeways stood the small
fortress of Xoloc, that barred the road to the
capital.

Small skirmishes marked the day's advance
to Tacuba, in one of which two more Spaniards,
Francisco Martin Vendabal and Pedro Gallego,
were captured alive. These two men were per-
sonal servants of Cortes, who had accompanied
him throughout the perils and hardships of the
campaign and on whose fidelity he could always

iBemal Diaz, cap. cxiv.; Herrera, Hist General., dec.
in,, lib. i,, cap. vlii.

33 o Fernando Cortes

count. The commander made a rare display of
feeling on this occasion which led to the com-
position of a romance or ballad, long in popular
vogue :

En Tacuba estfi, Cortes
Con su eseuadron esforzado,
Triste estaba y muy penoso,
Triste y eon gran cuidado,
La una mano en la mejilla
Y la otra en el costado, etc,^

Standing on a lofty teocalli in Tacuba, a group
of the leaders, including Julian de Alderete
and Fray Pedro Melgarejo, surveyed the valley,
with the great capital floating on the waters
of its lake; and one, Alonzo Perez, noting the
pensive sadness of the commander's mien, begged
him not to feel dejected, since losses and de-
struction were incident to warfare, but that of
him it could never be said that like Nero he
had watched the burning city, quoting the
couplet :

1 Prescott gives the following accurate and acceptable
English rendering of these verses:

In Tacuba stood Cortes,

With many a care opprest,

Thoughts of the past came o'er him,

And he bowed his haughty crest.

One hand on his cheek he laid,

The other on his breast.

While his valiant squadrons round him, etc.

Back to the Capital 331

Mira Nero de Tarpeya

A Roma como se ardia, etc.^

Cortes answered, calling his companions to wit-
ness how often he had begged the Mexicans to
make peace and save themselves, adding that
his sadness was not for any one cause alone,
but from thinking of all the hardships still to
be endured in reconquering the city, which, with
God's help, they must now undertake.

1 Nero, from the Tarpeian rock,
Watched while Rome was burning, etc.

CHAPTER XIV

THE SIEGE OF THE IMPERIAL CITY

Action of the Audienda — Conspiracy of Villafana —
Launching the Brigantines — Division of the Forces
— Fate of Xicotencatl — The Aqueduct — The Sieg^e—
First Naval Engagement — First Assault

WHILE Cortes was occupied as described
in the last chapter, in preparing to lay
active siege to the Aztec capital, events de-
stined to exert an influence on his future were
happening in Spain and in the Islands.

Information of the defeat and imprisonment
of Narvaez and the enrolment of his men un-
der the standard of Cortes had flnally reached
Cuba, tardily indeed, because no ships had been
allowed to leave Vera Cruz. Diego Velasquez,
in the first heat of his rage against Cortes, pre-
pared a fleet of seven or eight vessels, of which
he himself took command, to sail for Mexico
and reduce the rebel to obedience. Arrived
within sight of the coast of Yucatan, more
prudent, if less valiant counsels prevailed, and
the irate governor preferred to return and
nurse his outraged dignity in Cuba, rather than
risk an encounter with his formidable enemy on
Mexican soil. In addition to the cost of this

fruitless demonstration, Diego Velasquez had

332

The Siege of the Imperial City 333

to bear the ridicule provoked by its failure. It
will be remembered that the fleet of Narvaez
had sailed from Hispaniola, in defiance of the
positive prohibition of the royal audiencia's
delegate. Ayllon, who accompanied it to Vera
Cruz in the hope of restraining Narvaez's im-
petuosity and preventing acts of violence, had
been seized by the commander and bundled back
to Hispaniola. The audiencia did not meekly
tolerate such contempt of its authority and the
viceroy, Don Diego Columbus, appointed Alonzo
Zuazo, juez de residencia^ to proceed to Cuba
and institute proceedings against the governor.
Diego Velasquez and his partisans denied the
authority of the viceroy to exercise such juris-
diction in Cuba and appealed the case to the
mother country. Manuel de Kojas, a relative
of Velasquez, conducted the affair in Spain
and, with the support of the Bishop of Burgos,
succeeded in staying further proceedings against
Velasquez and Narvaez. The Bishop obtained
from Cardinal Adrian, who was regent of the
kingdom during the Emperor's absence, the ap-
pointment of Cristobal de Tapia to investigate
all questions in dispute between Diego Velasquez
and Cortes. He was given full powers to im-
prison those he judged to be culpable, to con-
fiscate their property, and to refer the final
judgment to the royal tribunals; the colonial
authorities were instructed to grant him every
assistance in carrying out his mission. Cris-

334 Fernando Cortes

tobal de Tapia was the inspector of the royal
foundries in Santo Domingo, a reputable man
but totally incompetent to deal with Cortes,
Both in Spain and Santo Domingo, those who
understood the importance of what was hap-
pening in Mexico, opposed these measures of
the Bishop, and when the authorisation of the
regent was delivered to Tapia in Santo Do-
mingo, the viceroy and others persuaded him
to await the outcome of the operations Cortes
was conducting in Mexico, rather than bring
ruin upon him and possibly lose the country by
interfering at such a critical moment.^

Though ignorant of the menace to his suc-
cess that was being prepared by his foe at a
distance, Cortes was met on his arrival in Tex-
coco at the conclusion of his march around the
valley, by revelations of a design on his life
amongst his own men. The Narvaez men had
been shamed and laughed out of their plan to
desert at Tlascala, but, in spite of the victories
that had since attended all their commander's
operations, their hearts were not with him, nor
did their distrust of his seemingly wild and
reckless scheme of conquest, yield place to con-
fidence. One of these men, by name Villafafia,
formed a conspiracy to kill Cortes, Sandoval,
'Olid, Alvarado, and several other of his prin-
cipal officers, and he had worked out his plot
in such detail, that the successors of the com-

1 Orozco y Berra, torn, iv., p. 668,

The Siege of the Imperial City 335

manders to be slain, were already designated.
A packet was to be given to Cortes, when he
was seated at table with his officers in their
quarters, and while he was engaged in opening
the papers, the conspirators were to fall upon
them and despatch them.

Whether too many men were involved in this
plot, or too much time was allowed to elapse
between its conception and its execution, is not
clear; in any case, one of the men privy to it
repented, and the day previous to the one fixed
for carrying it out, he revealed everything to the
commander. Calling his officers together, Cor-
tes related what he had just heard, and then
going all together to the quarters of Villafana,
they surprised him there in conference with sev-
eral confederates. Eealising that he was dis-
covered, the traitor attempted to destroy a slip
of paper that lay on the table, but Cortes was
too quick for him and in glancing down the
list of names written on it, he was much sur-
prised and pained to find some whom he had con-
sidered his faithful friends inscribed amongst
his would-be assassins. VillafaJDia was tried,
found guilty, and after having confessed and
received absolution was hanged, all with
such military promptness that his dead body,
swinging over the doorway of his quarters, was
the first intimation to his confederates that the
conspiracy had been discovered. Anxious in-
deed, and expectant of a similar fate were the

336 Fernando Cortes

guilty ones; they were destined, however, to
profit by a wisdom they failed to comprehend,
for Cortes decided that the death of Villafafia
was sufficient to strike terror into the others and
to prevent a repetition of such infamy. He
spoke to his men, explaining the reason for
their comrade's execution, saying that Villa-
fafia had swallowed the pai)er containing the
list of his accomplices whose names were there-
fore unknown: he begged that if any one had
cause for complaint against him, he should dis-
close it, for he would do all in his power to
satisfy him. Self-congratulation on their es-
cape from sharing the fate of Villafafia smoth-
ered all desire in the breasts of the malcontents
to expose any grievances, real or imaginary, in
response to this invitation.

The most important consequence of this
conspiracy was the formation of a body-
guard composed of twelve men, commanded by
Antonio de Quifiones, that henceforth accom-
panied the commander. As for the traitors,
whose names were known to him, Cortes never
allowed his knowledge to appear, though he
was careful never again to place these men
in positions where they might work him mis-
chief.

For weeks, the natives in the neighbouring
villages had been diligently at work making
arrows, lances, and other munitions of war, —
thousands of each kind of weapon being pre-

The Siege of the Imperial City 337

pared; and now the brigan tines were completed
and lay in the canal, ready to be launched.
Eight thousand men had laboured on the con-
struction of the first fleet ever built and launched
in American waters. Sunday the twenty-eighth
of April having been fixed for the ceremony of
launching the new vessels, all the Spaniards,
officers, and men, confessed and received the
Holy Communion, in preparation for the im-
portant event. Near the shore of the lake,
an altar had been erected, decorated with what
splendour their resources furnished, for the
celebration by Fray Bartolom6 de Olmedo of
the mass of the Holy Ghost. After a sermon
on the significance of the event about to take
place and the object all must have in view in
carrying on the war, the boats were solemnly
blessed and, the ropes being loosed, one by one
the little crafts glided from the waters of the
canal onto the bosom of the lake. Each in its
turn unfurled its flag to the wind and fired a
salute, to which the Spaniards and Indians as-
sembled on the shore responded with cheers,
sound of music, and salvos of artillery. The
celebration of the happily accomplished launch-
ing terminated with the singing of Te Deum
Laudamus.^ Of all the incidents of the life of
Cortes in Mexico, the launching of these little

1 Motolinia, Hist, de los Indios in Icazbalceta, pars i.,
cap, i.; Letters of Cortes, torn, ii., p. 58; Herrera, dec.
iii., lib. i., cap. vi.

338 Fernando Cortes

brigantines is the one at which all Christendom
might most desire to have assisted.

A review of the forces which was then held,
showed them to number eighty-seven horsemen,
eight hundred and eighteen foot, including one
hundred and eighteen arquebusiers and cross-
bowmen. There were eighteen large guns, of
which three were heavy field-pieces, and the
other fifteen, brass falconets. The supply of
ammunition was ample and, in addition to the
shot, powder, and balls, there were some fifty
thousand lances, tipped with copper points,
which the Indians had made from a model fur-
nished them by Cortes. In response to his
summons, the Indian allies began to pour into
Texcoco ; fifty thousand of the best fighting men
of Tlascala, well armed and making a brilliant
show, were commanded by their young general
Xicotencatl. The auxiliaries furnished by other
tribes and provinces were ordered to assemble
in Chalco, as they would be employed during
the siege on the southern side of the city.

The division of the forces was very carefully
planned by Cortes: two of the three divisions
were to have their permanent base at the ex-
tremity of different causeways from whence at-
tacks on the city could be made in unison.
Pedro de Alvarado, in command of thirty horse-
men, one hundred and sixty-eight Spanish foot-
soldiers, and twenty-five thousand allies was
stationed in Tacuba. Cristobal de Glides base

The Siege of the Imperial City 339

was in Coyohuacan where, with thirty horse-
men, one hundred and seventy-eight foot-soldiers,
and twenty thousand Indians he held the great
causeway leading to the fortress of Xoloc and
the capital. The third division was commanded
by Gonsalvo de Sandoval, and consisted of
twenty-four horsemen, one hundred and sixty-
nine foot-soldiers, and more than thirty thou-
sand Indians from Tlascala, Cholula, and
Chalco. Sandoval was to go first to Iztapala-
pan and, after completing the destruction of
that place, was to join the. camp of Olid at
Coyohuacan, his ultimate movements to depend
on the later orders he would receive from Cortes.
The thirteen brigantines, — or rather twelve,
for one was found to be defective, — with Cortes
in command, were manned by three hundred
men. Although a number of men of the ex-
pedition had been sailors and fishermen and
consequently knew something about handling
boats, none of them wanted to act as rowers
for the brigantines, and it was with difficulty
that the crews were completed. Many of the
natives of Palos, Triana, and other seaports,
who were ordered to take the oars, even objected
on the score of their gentle birth, but the com-
mander enforced his orders in spite of all ex-
cuses and protests. Each brigantine displayed
the royal standard as well as its own particular
ensign, and carried a falconet. Before despatch-
ing the divisions to their several destinations.

340 Fernando Cortes

Cortes made a stirring address to the united
forces, reminding them of the extraordinary
good fortune that had recently sent them re-
inforcements, arms, ammunition, and repeated
victories, even beyond their most sanguine hopes ;
these were all so many proofs of divine protec-
tion, for they were fighting in a holy cause, —
for the spread of the Faith and the extension of
the dominions of the Catholic sovereigns of
Spain. There was, therefore, every reason for
confidence and rejoicing, — they must conquer
or they must dia^ .

These sentiments found a ready echo in the
hearts of his hearers, who burst forth into ac-
clamations and protests of fidelity. The veter-
ans of the little band had weathered the severest
trials and could honestly view with satisfaction
their present condition as the best they had
known since they landed in Mexico; never be-
fore had there been such a force, such artillery
and ammunition, so many allies and holies and,
most of all, a fleet. The lukewarm men of the
Narvaez group, repentant, doubtless, of their
recent treachery and thankful for their escape
from sharing Villafana's fate, counted on oppor-
tunities of making good their fault by deeds of
heroism, while all, whether they would or not,
were whipped on by the obvious truth of their
leader's reminder, that it was " conquer or die.''

Cortes makes no mention in his report to the

^Letters of Cortes, torn, ii., p. 59.

The Siege of the Imperial City 3 41

Emperor, of an incident of bad augury that
occurred just at this time. This was the de-
sertion of the Tlascalan general, Xicotencatl,
who left the army accompanied by a few fol-
lowers, and returned to Tlascala. Various
reasons are given for his action; Bernal Diaz
attributes it to jealousy of Chichimecatl and a
perfidious plan to get possession of his lands
while the latter was absent, fighting against
Mexico. Herrera ascribes his desire to return
home, to a love affair.^ It seems, however, that
there had been a quarrel between a Spanish
soldier and a Tlascalan chief, in which the latter
was badly wounded; the matter was hushed up,
so that Cortes should not hear of it, as he was
very strict in such matters; thus the soldier re-
mained unpunished and, as Xicotencatl was a
relative of the wounded chief, he left.^

Cortes first sent some Tlascalans to seek to
induce him to return and, this failing, he de-
spatched some Spanish horsemen with orders to
arrest the general and bring him back. He
simultaneously sent news of the afifair to the
senate of Tlascala, informing the senators that
amongst Spaniards, desertion was punishable
by death. The versions of Xicotencatl's end do
not agree. Herrera describes his death by hang-
ing in public at Texcoco, while Bemal Diaz
says he was executed where he was captured.

1 Lib. i., cap. xvii.
2Prescott, lib. vi., cap. iv.

i

342 Fernando Cortes

Xicotencatl had always mistrusted the Span-
iards nor could the blandishments of Cortes,
nor the popular sentiment in Tlascala ever
change his opinion. He was opposed to the al-
liance and, after fighting the Spaniards in the
field, he continued to oppose them in the coun-
cils of his people. Cortes was aware of his
sentiments and conscious of the bad effect such
an example of desertion would have if left un-
punished; it is also likely he was glad to be
rid of an ally on whose fidelity he could not
count. XicotencatPs act of desertion was in-
defensible and its penalty, according to the code
of Tlascala, was death.

In addition to the forces named, the Mexican
historian Ixtlilxochitl enumerates allies from
Itzocan, Tepeaca, Otumpa, ToUantzinco, Xilol-
tepec, and other provinces, that bring the sum
total up to two hundred thousand fighting men ;
fifty thousand workmen were ready for road-
making, bridge-building, repairing arms, and
supplying new ones ; of camp servants there were
numbers in proportion to the needs of this vast
army, so that, all told, the Indian forces led by
Cortes against Quauhtemotzin fell little short
of three hundred thousand men.^

On the twenty-second of May, the divisions of

1 Ixtlibcochitl, Relacion, p. 20. These numbers are
greatly reduced by other writers; as has been already
noted, all such estimates are not based on actual countin^^
and must be taken as expressing the idea of multitude.

The Siege of the Imperial City 343

Alvarado and Olid marched out of Texcoco to
take up their respective positions, and after two
days occupied in their march through deserted
towns where no opposition was offered, the
siege of the Mexico-Tenochititlan may be dated
from the twenty-fifth day of May, when these
two divisions arrived in Tacuba where Alvarado
and his force were to remain. The two cap-
tains were not friends; at Acolman, where the
first night out from Texcoco had been passed,
a squabble had arisen over the selection of
houses in the town for their respective quarters,
that was only prevented from ending in blood-
shed by the intervention of Fray Pedro Mel-
garejo and Luis Marin, who w^ere despatched,
as soon as Cortes heard of the quarrel, with
instructions to pacify the litigants.

The first blow struck at the city, was to cut
off its water supply by destroying the conduits
that carried the water from Chapultepec into
the capital. The Mexicans, realising the im-
portance of the aqueduct, had foreseen that it
would be attacked and had prepared for its
defence. Immediately after mass, which was
said by the chaplain, Juan Diaz, both captains
led an attack on the aqueduct; the engagement
was a sharp one, but the Spaniards were vic-
torious and succeeded in breaking the conduit

Alaman, Disertaciorif i., estimates a total of 150,000 allies
and Cortes himself mentions 50,000 Tlascalans, but no
others.

344 Fernando Cortes

which was built of stone, mortar, and wood;
three Spaniards were wounded and a number of
Indian allies were killed. After some further
fighting the next day. Olid proceeded to his de-
signated headquarters at Coyohuacan some two
leagues distant from Tacuba, so that the two
commanders could henceforward co-operate with
one another in their operations against the
enemy.

On the thirty-first of May, Gonzalo de Sando-
val left Mexico and marched to Iztapalapan,
passing through Chalco, where his force waB
joined by large bodies of Indian allies, who
were there awaiting him. The three divisions
having taken their designated places, Cortes
embarked on his flagship, and the little fleet
moved slowly out of the harbour of Texcoco,
headed for Iztapalapan, where it was part of
his plan to assist Sandoval. Signal fires on the
neighbouring hills sent their columns of smoke
towards the sky and, being repeated from one
point to another, the entire valley was promptly
informed of the Spanish commander's move-
ments. As the brigantines neared the rocky
island of Tepepolco,^ the Aztec garrison let fly
a volley of arrows and raised cries of defiance;
not wishing to leave this fortified stronghold of
his enemies behind him, Cortes landed one hun-
dred and fifty men who, after a fierce contest,

1 Afterwards the property of Cortes and caUed Pefiol
del Marques.

The Siege of the Imperial City 345

succeeded in reaching the rocky summit. Every
man of the garrison died at his post, only the
women and children being spared. " But it was
a beautiful victory," wrote Cortes in his third
letter of relation to Charles V. Meanwhile, in
response to the signals of alarm, fifteen hun-
dred canoes, filled with warriors, had come out
from the canals of the capital and were seen ad-
vancing towards the brigantines. Cortes ordered
his ships to remain perfectly quiet; he was
anxious that the first encounter with the enemy's
boats should be decisive in establishing his su-
premacy on the lake. This inactivity mystified
the Indians whose canoes, after approaching to
within a short distance of the brigantines, also
stopped, and the men of the rival fleets regarded
one another for a short space, in silence.

Again, as Cortes predicted, "Fortune favoured
the daring," for a land wind suddenly sprang
up astern of the brigantines, whose quickly-set
sails swelled with the freshening breeze, bearing
them with impetuous force into the very midst
of the Mexican canoes. The frail craft were
smashed to splinters, overturned and sunk by
the superior size and weight of the Spanish
boats, from whose decks a rapid fire of mus-
ketry and the discharge of the falconets created
terrible havoc among the wreckage of boats and
the drowning Aztecs. The few who managed
to escape the general destruction were pursued
for a distance of three leagues, until they took

346 Fernando Cortes

refuge in the canals of the city, where the brig-
antines were unable to penetrate. The opera-
tions on the water being plainly visible to the
Spanish garrison at Coyohuacan, Cristobal de
Olid took advantage of the confusion that had
overtaken the enemy, to march his entire force
out onto the causeway leading to the capital
and, in spite of the determined resistance of the
Mexican troops, he managed to capture several
bridges and to kill and scatter their defenders.
Night was falling when the brigantines anchored
off the little fortress of Xolofc that stood, as has
been said, at the point where the causeways
leading to Coyohuacan joined the main road
to Iztapalapan.

The strategic value of the position at once
struck Cortes, who changed his original plan,
which was to use Coyohuacan as the station for
his fleet, and decided then and there to make
Xoloc his headquarters; the anchorage for the
ships was good and the roads were open to both
Iztapalapan and Coyohuacan, while just before
him lay the city. The fortress being small, its
Aztec garrison was not numerous and was dis-
lodged with little difficulty. The heavy gnns
were so mounted as to command the causeway
leading into Mexico, half a league distant, while
the brigantines prevented the enemy's approach
in canoes. Orders were sent to Olid to advance
with one half of his force to Xoloc, while San-
doval was instructed to abandon Iztapalapan^

The Siege of the Imperial City 347

now practically destroyed, and, after sending
fifty of his men to reinforce the camp on the
causeway, to proceed with the remainder to the
garrison in Coyohuacan. Thus Cortes proceeded
to lay siege to Mexico-Tenochtitlan.

The fortifications of Xoloc were improved and
strengthened, a channel was dug across the
causeway to allow the , brigantines to pass
through to the other side and, after five or six
days of incessant fighting, by day and night,
the great southern and western causeways were
in absolute possession of the Spaniards. The
northern causeway, leading to Tepeyaca, was still
open, affording facilities for provisioning the
city or of escaping from it, were the Mexicans
so inclined. Gonzalo de Sandoval was sent to
occupy a position on that avenue of approach,
after which the isolation of the capital became
complete, save for the coming and going of
the swift canoes which, in spite of the activity
and vigilance of the brigantines, frequently
managed to escape capture.

Sunday, the ninth of June, was fixed for the
first general assault on the city, by the united
forces of Spaniards and allies, sustained by the
fleet. Mass was said at an early hour, and from
each of the three positions the attacking forces
advanced along the causeway. The column led
by Cortes found the bridges spanning the ditches
that divided the causeway at intervals destroyed,
and at each of these open canals a barricade

348 Fernando Cortes

defended by Mexicans had been erected ; the first
was captured and crossed with little difficulty;
at the second the fighting was sharper and more
prolonged but, with comparatively little effort,
the Spaniards succeeded, after two hours, in
penetrating to the main square of the city. The
artillery and brigantines had rendered the great-
est services up to this point, for one discharge
of the guns would sweep the street from end to
end, while from the ships, which moved along
each side of the causeway, a merciless fire was
poured into the Aztec entrenchments at the
bridges.

It will be remembered that the chief temple
surrounded by the coatepantli, or wall of ser-
pents, and dominated by the great teocalli,
stood in this square. Placing a piece of ar-
tillery at the entrance, Cortes raised his battle
cry of " Santiago " and led a charge that drove
the Aztecs pell-mell before him into the sacred
enclosure of the temple. From the terraces of
the pyramid, the priests called on the god of war
and animated the warriors fighting below in the
court-yard, while over the noise of the battle was
heard the ominous booming of their great drum
of serpents' skins that stood on the summit of
the teocallL Vain was the effort to defend their
temples; the inadequate weapons of the Mexi-
cans could not withstand the Spanish steel, and
after a brief but fierce struggle, the Christians
reached the top of the pyramid and, for the

The Siege of the Imperial City 349

second time, smashed the idols, hurling them
down into the stone-paved court-yard, accom-
panied by the bodies of the priests who served
their blood-stained altars. As though galva-
nised into new courage by the sacrilegious de-
struction of their deities, the Mexicans fell with
unexampled fury on the Spaniards as they de-
scended from the pyramid and, taking them
somewhat by surprise, they drove them out from
the court-yard into the square, where fresh troops
attacked them, thus taking them between two
fires. Bewildered by the suddenness of the on-
slaught, the Spaniards lost their presence of
mind; their ranks were broken and they were
hopelessly scattered, each one flying for his life
amidst the crowd of foes. The allies became
panic-stricken, thus adding to the general rout,
which all the efforts of their leaders were unable
to check.

The threatened disaster was only stayed by the
opportune arrival of a small body of horsemen ;
no familiarity had sufficed to quite disillusion-
ise the Mexicans about the horses and, failing
on this occasion to realise their insignificant
number, they yielded to their unreasoning fears
and the conviction that a large body of cavalry
was upon them ; they abandoned their victorious
onslaught and fled from the square.

The long day of incessant flghting, with vary-
ing fortune, was drawing to its close, and Cor-
tes ordered the trumpets to sound the retreat.

3 so Fernando Cortes

which was effected in good order, the allies
taking the lead, followed by the Spanish foot-
soldiers while the rear was protected by the
horsemen. The operations of Alvarado and
Sandoval on the other causeways were less suc-
cessful, owing largely to the fact that they had
no brigantines to sustain them and, in part also,
to the greater number of barricades that had
to be captured. Thus ended the first general
assault on the beleaguered city.

Cortes in reporting this day's fighting to
Charles V. imperturbably assures the Emperor
that neither the Spaniards nor their allies sus-
tained any loss, though he admits there were
some wounded.^ It seems, however, incredible
that both Spaniards and allies should have suf-
fered no loss in this long day's fighting, which,
though it ended to their advantage, had wit-
nessed their utter rout and the capture of the
field-gun on the square. Bemal Diaz, who was
fighting under Alvarado, on the causeway from
the Tacuba side, gives a more convincing de-
scription of the daily losses and the wounds,
which the men had to dress as best they could
when they returned at night to their camp.
There was a soldier, Juan Catalan, who was re-
puted to have the gift of healing by prayer and
charms and wlio had his hands full, as the In-
dians also placed faith in him and brought him

1 Letters of Cortes, torn, ii., p. 77.

The Siege of the Imperial City 35 ^

all their wounded. " I say ^^ the soldier-chroni-
cler piously adds, "that it pleased our Lord
Jesus Christ, in His mercy, to give us strength,
and to speedily heal us."

CHAPTER XV

THE FALL OF THE AZTEC EMPIRE

Progress of the Siege — Aztec Victories — Attack on Tlate-
lolco — The Great Disaster — Sotelo's Catapult — Last
Days — Quauhtemotzin Captured and Tortured — The
Victory and the Losses — Fruits of Conquest

ALTHOUGH the first general assault on the
city had not resulted in a complete vic-
tory for the Spaniards, the destruction of the
great temple had dealt the prestige of the
Mexicans a telling blow. Observant caciques
in the neighbourhood, who had still wavered,
hesitated no longer, but hastened to Xoloc to
ofifer their allegiance to Malintzin. The peo-
ple of their tribes were chiefly useful in build-
ing huts for the soldiers, bringing in provisions,
and performing the menial labours of the
camp. Prince Ixtlilxochitl of Texcoco pro-
vided a fresh force of fifty thousand warriors,
and the infiuence of his action on the lesser
caciques of the valley was immediately ap-
parent. The defection of the lake-towns cut
off the source of the city's supplies.

Cortes followed up his first attack by a
second on the following day, penetrating again

to the great square, where he burned one

352

The Fall of the Aztec Empire 3 53

of the most interesting and beautiful buildings
in Mexico, — the imperial aviary. The fighting
was always of the same character, the Span-
iards storming the barricades erected at the
open ditches on the causeways, then struggling
through the water to the opposite side to
pursue the retreating foe. The brigantines
raked the causeways with a cross fire and
penetrated each day a little farther into the
larger of the city's numerous canals. The large
guns were fearfully destructive, but the horse-
men were even more dreaded by the natives,
who could not entirely divest themselves of
their superstitious terror of the cavaliers.

At the hour of vespers, the Spaniards re-
treated to their several quarters and, on enter-
ing the city the following morning, they
invariably found that the water courses they
had filled up with earth, adobes, and other
available rubbish, had been dug out again during
the night and the barricades rebuilt. One by
one the few remaining tribes and cities of
Ankhuac abandoned the beleaguered capital to
its fate.

The perfidy of these people dealt a terrible
blow to Quauhtemotzin and the defenders of
Tenochtitlan for, to their defection, they added
treachery of the blackest complexion. Their
cliiefs appeared before the Emperor with offers
of assistance, which were gratefully accepted
by the hard-pressed sovereign. Their troops
33

354 Fernando Cortes

were assigned places, and when the fighting be-
gan, made a feint at first of attacking their
Spanish allies, but afterwards suddenly turned
their arms against the Mexicans, who were
taken completely by surprise; their chiefs
quickly rallied, however, and bringing up fresh
troops, the traitors were soon severely punished,
and leaving many dead and prisoners, the re-
mainder fied from the city and rejoined the
besiegers. The prisoners were upbraided by
Macehuatzin, lord of Cuitlahuac, who decapi-
tated four of the principal ones with his own
hand and delivered the others to Quauhtemotzin,
who ordered them to be sacrificed in the tem-
ples of Mexico and Tlatelolco.^ One of the
worst effects of the defection of the lake-towns
was to cut off the supplies of fresh water and
food, which, in spite of the vigilance of the
brigantines, they had found means to transport
into the blockaded city. Henceforth hunger
was added to the horrors of the siege, while
the Spanish camp was enriched by supplies of
fresh provisions.

The force at the disposal of Cortes was too
small to admit of establishing a night-watch to
protect the ditches and barricades captured
during the day; his men were exhausted by the
day's fighting, and the allies were of little avail
unless led by Spaniards. He therefore reluc-

^ Sahagun, lib. ^xii., cap. xxxiv.; Torquemada, lib. iy,,
cap. cxiii.

The Fall of the Aztec Empire 355

tantly ordered that all the buildings of the city
should be destroyed, street by street, as the troops
advanced; the Mexicans were thus forced, little
by little, towards the Tlatelolco quarter of the
town, of which the central point was the great
market-place. Alvarado adopted other tactics
on the Tacuba causeway and mounted a guard
of forty soldiers, relieved at regular intervals
during the night, to defend the positions he
had captured.

Quauhtemotzin showed himself as resourceful
as he was determined, and for more than two
months he held the mighty force of the be-
siegers at bay. Though attacked from three
different positions, he not only maintained an
able defence, but, departing from the Aztec
custom of never fighting after nightfall,
he organised night attacks on the Spanish
camps that kept the exhausted Christians con-
stantly on the alert. In his reports to Charles
v., Cortes says nothing of the losses suffered
by the Spaniards during the operations of
these days, though they were considerable
enough to merit notice. The Mexicans had
arranged a clever device for capturing the
brigantines, which was partially successful.
They stationed thirty of their largest canoes,
filled with warriors, amongst some rushes, and
after driving a number of stakes into the bottom
of the lake in such wise as to impede the move-
ments of the brigantines, some smaller canoes.

3S6 Fernando Cortes

such BB nsnally carried supplies, were then sent
into the open, where tliey were quickly dis-
covered by tlie Spaniards, who gave chase,
allowing themselves to be decoyed into the
trap, where the stakes interfered with their
movements. The captain of one of the brig-
antines, Portillo, was killed and Pedro Barbo
was mortally wounded; many others were
wounded and the Mexicans carried off one
brigantine in triumph. They paid dearly for
their victory, however, for Cortes was so much
mortified by this disaster that a counter-
ambuscade was prepared, which drew the Mexi-
cans successfully, and in which they suffered
severe loss of many canoes, a number of slain,
and others prisoners.

The Aztecs had one formidable warrior of
giant stature called Tzilacatzin, who was won-
derfully skilful with his sling, every stone he
sent bringing down its man. He was made
the aim of all the Spanish archers and musket-
eers, his great stature making him easily
distinguishable, but they could never hit him.
On one of these days, eighteen Spaniards were
captured alive and sacrificed, their bodies be-
ing afterwards cut up and distributed to be
eaten. Another day, a furious assault led by
a daring warrior of Tlatelolco called Tlapane-
catl, almost succeeded in capturing the ensign.
Corral, who carried the Spanish standard, and
did carry off no less than fifty-three Castilian

The Fall of the Aztec Empire 357

prisoners, besides numerous of the allies and
four horses, all of whom were sacrificed in
various temples. Alvarado's division was de-
coyed by the Mexicans into a cleverly devised
trap between two waterways, and completely
routed. In this disaster, which Cortes only
mentioned briefly in his Third Letter of Re-
lation, five more Spaniards were taken alive,
besides many Indian prisoners; a horseman
and his horse were drowned and the survivors,
all badly wounded and utterly demoralised,
drew off to their camp amidst the victorious
shouts of the Mexicans. The latter pursued
them up to the very camp, but were repulsed
with loss by a small battery stationed there,
which was worked by an able engineer, named
Medrano. The guns were so placed that they
raked the entire causeway and as the brigan-
tines used their falconets on both sides, the
camp was effectively protected.^ Alvarado was
an intrepid commander, and, nothing daunted
by his repulse, he continued for four days to
renew his attack at the same point, until on
Friday, June 28th, he finally captured the bridge.
Six more Spaniards perished in these combats,
besides the wounded and allies, whose dead were
unnumbered.

The market-place of Tlatelolco had become
the objective point towards which the attacks

iBemal Diaz, cap. cii.; Sahagun, lib. xii., cap. xxvi.;
Torquemada, lib. iv., cap. xciii.

35^ Fernando Cortes

from the three Spanish camps were directed,
and its capture became a matter of rivalry be-
tween the men of the different divisions, for all
were persuaded that with its fall, the city must
make terms and capitulate. Yielding to the
importunities of his impatient troops, Cortes
called a council of war in which he allowed his
own judgment to be overruled, and a concen-
trated effort to reach the market-place was
decided upon. The day fixed was Sunday,
June 30th, and, after the celebration of
mass, Cortes left Xoloc with his entire force,
the fleet of seven brigantines and some three
thousand canoes of the Indian allies having
already moved off towards the canals leading
into the city, from whence they were to sus-
tain their part in the approaching combat
Halting at the Tacuba causeway, he pro-
ceeded to outline his plan of action and to
assign to each officer his position. Alderete,
in command of seventy foot-soldiers, and some
twenty thousand allies, with a rear-guard of
eight horsemen, was ordered to advance along
the main street leading directly to the market-
place. His force was accompanied by a large
number of Indians, whose business it was to
fill in the ditches crossing the streets, from
which the bridges had been removed. Andres
de Tapia and Jorge de Alvarado, a brother of
Pedro, were in command of eighty soldiers and
ten thousand allies and, after planting two

The Fall of the Aztec Empire 3 59

heavy guns at the entrance of one of the streets,
were also to advance towards Tlatelolco; eight
horsemen were left to protect the gunners.
Cortes himself commanded one hundred foot-
soldiers, eight horsemen, and an infinite host
of auxiliaries; the horsemen were posted at the
entrance of the street, with orders to remain
there and on no account to advance. Recall-
ing the lesson of Alvarado's repulse, Cortes had
laid the strictest injunctions on each of the
commanders never to advance one pace after
capturing a waterway, until the opening was
solidly filled in so as to assure their retreat.

The Spanish columns advanced along the
three roads and, although there was the usual
resistance, one barricade after another was
taken; so rapid was the advance and so slight
the opposition of the enemy that the wary com-
mander began to suspect some ruse; messages
from Alderete reported that he was rapidly
nearing the market-place, but these communica-
tions, instead of reassuring Cortes, only aug-
mented his misgivings and, in answer, he always
sent back a reminder of his orders to fill up
the ditches before advancing beyond them. He
was repeatedly assured that this was being
seen to, but as he still seemed sceptical, it was
suggested that if he did not believe what he
was told, he might come and see for himself.
Acting on this petulant suggestion, his worst
fears were speedily confirmed at the very first

360 Fernando Cortes

ditch, which was ten or twelve paces wide, and
two fathoms deep. In their eagerness to be the
first to reach the market-place, the men had
hastily thrown enough timber and rubbish into
the chasm, on which to scramble across to the
opposite bank, but had neglected the order to
fill it solidly with earth. Convinced that
Alderete had allowed himself to be decoyed
into some trap, Cortes ordered his men to
make all possible haste in filling up the water-
course, but hardly had they begun their work,
when the fierce war-cries of the Aztecs, in
which his practised ear detected the note of
triumph, announced the success of the sus-
pected stratagem. Standing on the opposite
bank, Cortes helplessly beheld the wild rush of
his men in full retreat towards the yawning
chasm, so closely pressed by thousands of the
exultant enemy that the compact mass of hu-
manity seemed to be rolling onwards to sure
destruction. In vain he called and signed to
his men to halt; they neither saw nor heard,
nor could they have withstood the mass of
struggling friends and foes that pressed them
to their death. The watercourse was soon
choked with floundering men; some, over-
weighted by their armour, were dro\nied, others
were killed by the arrows and javelins of the
enemy, while others were seized alive, dragged
into canoes and carried off for sacrifice. A
few managed to struggle across to where the

The Fall of the Aztec Empire 361

commander and his companions pulled them,
half dead, from the water.

Cortes again owed his escape from instant
death to the determination which obsessed the
Mexicans to take him alive for the sacrifice.
His rescuer was the same Cristobal de Olea^
who had once before come to his aid in a mo-
ment of peril at Xochimilco; with one blow of
his sword he cut oflf the arm of the warrior
who had seized on the general, falling dead
himself the next moment. Bernal Diaz says
that Olea slew four chiefs before he himself
fell.

This was the last victorious day for the
Mexicans and witnessed their culminating ef-
fort against their foes. Quauhtemotzin was
everywhere present amongst his troops, urging
them to a supreme struggle and sounding his
trumpet of conch-shell " upon hearing which
signal " Bernal Diaz says, " it is impossible to
describe the fury with which they closed upon
us." 2 Dominating the shouts of " Santiago," the
screams of the wounded, the crash of arms, and
the fierce war-cries of the Mexicans, was heard
the lugubrious roll of the sacred tlapanhuehuetl
of serpents' skins, which the priests beat with
inspired frenzy before the war-god on the
teocalli of Tlatelolco.

1 Both Herrera and Torquemada give his name as Fran-
cisco.

2 Historia Verdadera, cap, ciii.

362 Fernando Cortes

Seven horses were killed, seventy Spaniards
were captured alive, Cortes was badly wounded
in the leg, Sandoval likewise in three places,
and both his division and that of Alvarado,
suffered serious reverses. When an account
came to be taken of the extent of the disaster,
dismay filled the sinking hearts of the Span-
iards, and the Indian allies began to doubt the
power of the teules and to ask themselves
whether they were not, after all, fighting on
the wrong side.

Cortes threw the blame for this catastrophe
on Alderete, who had disobeyed his order never
to advance without first securing his retreat.
Alderete denied that he had ever had such an
order, and declared that it was Cortes who had
urged the troops forward. Recriminations and
censures were thus exchanged, for nobody would
accept responsibility for such a calamity; it
appears certain that Cortes had not been in
favour of the assault, but had allowed his better
judgment to be overruled by his companions,
who were weary of the daily fighting and
thought they could storm the Tlatelolco market-
place and so end the siege.

While gloom reigned in the Spanish camp,
there was exultation amongst the Mexicans,
whose waning hopes of victory were revived by
their success. That night, the sanguinary rites
of Huitzilopochtii were celebrated with all the
pomp of the Aztec ritual, and amidst the files

The Fall of the Aztec Empire 363

of priests bearing smoking censers, that
mounted the terraces of the pyramid, the
glare of torches and the sacred fires revealed
to the horrified Spaniards the white, naked
bodies of their comrades led, flower-crowned,
to the stone of sacrifice. The priests pro-
claimed that the war-god was appeased by the
oblation of so many Spanish victims, and that
within eight days he would give his faithful
a complete victory over the impious invaders.
This oracle was published amongst the allies
and shook their wavering faith in the Span-
iards; they saw that the city stubbornly held
out; they perceived that the strangers were
neither invincible nor immortal, and, as their
ancient, superstitious fear of their gods re-
asserted itself, tens of thousands quietly de-
tached themselves from the Spanish camp and
marched off homewards. Cortes used every ef-
fort to hold them and urged that they should
at least wait eight days and see whether the
prophecy was fulfilled, before deciding against
him. The Tlascalan general, Chichimecatecle,^
and Prince Ixtlilxochitl of Texcoco remained
steadfast to their sworn allegiance. The latter
was naturally an object of peculiar hatred to
the Mexicans, who reviled him and heaped im-
precations on him as a renegade from his race
and a traitor to his country. If he felt these
taunts, he did not betray his feelings but, day

1 Also spelled Chichimecatecuhtll.

364 Fernando Cortes

after day, joined in the scenes of carnage,
facing both danger and obloquy unmoved. For
five days there was some respite, the Spaniards
nursing their wounds and preparing for a re-
sumption of hostilities, while the Mexicans were
engaged in making overtures to win back their
faithless subjects and allies.

The situation of the Spaniards was well-nigh
desperate, but that of the Mexicans was hardly
better, for famine stalked their streets, claim-
ing as many victims as the Spanish cannon,
and terribly weakening the defenders of the
city. The besiegers tenaciously held their posi-
tions on the causeways and, aided by the brig-
antines on the lakes were unceasingly vigilant
in maintaining the blockade.

Throughout the siege there were a few Span-
ish women, — some of them described as " wives '*
of the soldiers, — in camp, who displayed scarcely
less courage than the men, for not only did
they occupy themselves in the nursing, which
is women's natural function in war-time, but
they even mounted guard to relieve the weary
soldiers who needed rest, and instances are
given of their joining in the actual fighting.
Cortes had intended leaving all these women at
Tlascala, but his proposed order to that effect
aroused such opposition, especially among the
women themselves, who declared that Castilian
wives, rather than abandon their husbands in
danger, would die with them, that it was never

The Fall of the Aztec Empire 365

issued. Little has been said of the courage and
devotion of these obscure heroines, but Herrera
has recorded the names of five, Beatriz de
Palacios, Maria de Estrada, Juana Martin,
Isabel Rodriguez, and Beatriz Bermudez, as
meriting honourable mention in the annals of
the conquest.

The eight days appointed by the priests for
the destruction of the besiegers expired, and
the prophecy remained unfulfilled, seeing
w hich the vacillating allies returned once more
to the Spanish camp, where the politic general
received them with his customary urbanity
and, after reproaching them for their faithless
desertion in a panic of foolish superstition, de-
clared that he pardoned their fault and accepted
them again as vassals of Spain and his allies.

The timely arrival at Vera Cruz of a Spanish
ship, belonging to Ponce de Leon, carrying a
cargo of powder and ammunition which the
captain of the port bought and forwarded to
the besiegers, infused new courage into them.
The actual situation could not be prolonged
and Cortes continued his plan of systematic de-
struction so diligently that not a building re-
mained standing in the quarters of the city
held by the Spaniards, while the canals became
so solidly filled in with the masses of stone and
other materials from the demolished houses,
that they were never again reopened. While
this work was going forward, the Mexicans still

366 Fernando Cortes

found spirit to taunt the labouring allies, their
former vassals, saying: "Go ahead with your
work of destruction; no matter how this ends
you will have to rebuild the city, for if we con-
quer, you will do it for us, and if Malintzin is
victorious, you will be forced to do it for him/'
The logic of this jibe struck Cortes at the
time, and he reported it to the Emperor, adding,
" and it has pleased God that the latter shonld
happen, for it is indeed they [the allies] who
are rebuilding the city."

Even after the market-place was stormed and
occupied by the Spaniards, and the temple with
its idols had been destroyed, the daily offers
of peace were rejected by Quauhtemotzin, and
there still remained about one eighth part of
the city into which the remnant of its inhabi-
tants was crowded.

At this time a soldier named Sotelo, a na-
tive of Seville, who claimed to have seen much
service in Italy and to know all about the con-
struction of engines of warfare, proposed to
Cortes to make a catapult, for hurling huge
stones into the midst of the enemy. Bemal
Diaz says that this man was eternally talking
about the wonderful military machines he could
build, with which he promised to destroy in
two days the remaining quarter of the city
where Quauhtemotzin held out. The com-
mander consented to the trial, and stone, lime,
timber, cables, and all the necessary materials

The Fall of the Aztec Empire 367

were furnished, together with carpenters and
masons, to carry out Sotelo's instructions.
The machine was erected on the platform of
masonry known as the mumuztli^ a sort of
theatre that stood in the square, and the pro-
cess of its construction was watched with
exultant expectation by the Indian allies, who
foresaw the wholesale destruction of their
enemies by means of the mysterious machine.
They indulged in jubilant prophecies and called
on the Mexicans to observe the growth of the
engine destined to accomplish their overthrow.
The Mexicans were equally impressed by the
strange monster and watched its construction
with the feelings of one in the condemned cell,
who hears the workman building the scaffold
on which he is to perish at dawn. The day of
the trial (August 6th) arrived and a huge stone
was fired, which, instead of flying over to the
Indian quarter where it was aimed, shot
straight up into the air and fell back into ex-
actly the place from whence it had departed.
Cortes was furious with Sotelo and ashamed
of the failure in the presence of the gazing
multitude; the luckless inventor was in dis-
grace, and the catapult remained one of the
standing jokes in the army. Infusing some
gaiety into the company at such a dismal mo-
ment, this invention may be said to have served
some good purpose, even though not exactly the
one expected of it

368 Fernando Cortes

In the last desperate days^ a final appeal was
made by Quauhtemotzin to the national gods.
Choosing one of his most valiant soldiers, a
youth called Tlapaltecatlopuclitzin,^ from the
quarter of Coatlan, he caused him to be vested
with the armour of his dead father, the Em-
peror Ahuitzotl, giving him also the bow and
arrows which adorned the statue of the god of
war and were regarded as the most sacred em-
blems preserved in the temple. Thus accoutred,
the young warrior with the formidable name
went forth, accompanied by a chief called Cihua-
coatlucotzin who acted as his herald, and who
exhorted all the people in the name of the god
from whom they now, in their extremity, de-
manded a sign. The effort was vain and the
god was silent ; this was on the tenth of August*
On the night of the eleventh, there burst over
the city a terrific storm, in the midst of which
the affrighted Mexicans beheld a whirlwind of
blood-red fire, throwing out sparks and flashes
of light, which seemed to start from the direc-
tion of Tepeaca, and, passing over the small
quarter of Tenochtitlan still left to them, buried
itself in the black waters of the lake. This
ominous apparition, which was probably a
meteor, was interpreted by the Aztecs as a
portent, symbolising the downfall of the em-
pire and the extinction of their power.

1 The bearer of such a formidable name merits imperish-
able renown in the annals of the conquest.

The Fall of the Aztec Empire 369

The description penned by Cortes of the
final assault, the fall of the last entrenchment
and the capture of Quauhtemotzin, is not em-
bellished by rhetoric but his terse language
gave Charles V. a faithful picture of that
dreadful massacre. Neither does Bernal Diaz
enlarge upon details and, indeed, no language
could do justice to the horror of the fall of
the Aztec city, amidst the crash of battle, the
smoke and flame of burning houses, the wails
of the vanquished, and the shouts of the victors.
The living and the dead choked the canals, the
wounded and the dying were trampled together
with putrefying corpses, in the sea of bloody
mire into which the streets had been converted;
the stifling August air reeked with the mingled
smell of fresh carnage and decaying bodies,
while amidst these human shambles the emaci-
ated forms of women and children, destitute
of any refuge, tottered pitifully under the
merciless weapons of the savage allies, who
gave no quarter but hunted all alike through
this hell of despair, like demons set upon the
ghosts of the eternally damned.

The courage of the defenders never flagged;
under the leadership of their young sovereign,
who kept his serenity throughout and exercised
his best generalship, these naked barbarians,
weakened by famine and confronted by inevi-
table defeat, fought against a steel-clad foe,
armed with guns, both on land and on their

37o Fernando Cortes

ships, which mowed down a very harvest of
death at every discharge. Never did they so
much as name surrender, thus verifying liter-
ally the words with which Quauhtemotzin an-
swered the Spanish overtures for i)eace, that
they would all perish to the last man in the
city, and he would die fighting.

Cortes dailv renewed his offers of hononrable
terms for the Emperor and his people, if the
city would surrender; day after day, with in-
finite patience, he made appointments which
Quauhtemotzin never kept; time after time he
wasted hours in waiting for better counsels to
prevail, but nothing he could say or do sufficed
to allay the distrust of Quauhtemotzin, or to
bring the Mexicans to terms. Their choice was
made; they had had enough of the Spaniards,
whose semi-divine character was an exploded
myth and whose presence in the land was felt
to be incompatible with the Aztec sovereignty.
Cortes protests throughout the greatest reluc-
tance to destroy the city and declares rei)eatedly
that the necessity of so doing filled him with
inexpressible grief. The fate known to be in
store for every Spaniard taken alive and the
sight of the hideous rites of sacrifice, performed
under the very eyes of the soldiers, helpless to
intervene, followed by the cannibal feasts, in
which the mangled members of their comrades
furnished the banquet, were certainly sufficient
to arouse the Spaniards to a very frenzy against

The Fall of the Aztec Empire 371

such inhuman foes, and yet, there is nowhere
found any hint that the spirit of vengeance
prompted reprisals on the prisoners who fell
into their hands. Such remains of the Spanish
victims as could be found were afterwards col-
lected and reverently buried, a chapel dedicated
to the Martyrs being erected over the spot,
which was afterwards replaced by the Church of
San Hipolito.^

Cortes thus describes the capture of Quauhte-
motzin and the end of the siege:

It pleased God that the captain of a brigantine,
called Garci Holguin, overtook a canoe in which
there were some distinguished people, and as he
had two or three crossbowmen in the prow of the
brigantine and was crossing in front of the canoe,
they signalled to him not to shoot, because their
sovereign was there. The canoe was quickly cap-
tured and he took Quatamucin and the Lord of
Tacuba and the other chiefs who were with him;
and the said captain, Garci Holguin, immediately
brought the said sovereign of the city and the other
chief prisoners to the terrace where I was, which
was near the lake. When I invited them to sit
down, not wishing to show any rigour, he ap-
proached me and said to me in his language that
he had done all that on his part he was bound to
do, to defend himself and his people, until he was
reduced to that state, and that I now might do
with him as I chose; and placing his hand on a
dagger which I wore, he bade me stab him with it

^ Orozco y Berra, lib. iii., cap. viii.

372 Fernando Cortes

and kill him. I mconraged hiniy and told him not
to be afraid; and this lord having been made
prisoner, the war immediately ceased, which God
Onr Lord was pleased to bring to its end on this
day, the Feast of San Hipolito, which was the 13th
of August in the year 1521. So that from the day
when we laid the si^e to the city, which was the
30th of May ^ of the said year, until it was taken,
seventy-five days passed, in which Your Majesty
may perceive the hardships, dangers, and cruelties^
which these, your vassals, suffered, and in which
they so exposed themselves that their deeds will
bear testimony of them. In all these seventy-five
days of the siege, n<«e passed without more or less
fighting.2

Quauhtemotzin, seeing that escape was hox)e-
less, stood up in the canoe saying : " I am the
King of Mexico and of this country, take me
to Malintzin. I onlv ask that mv wife and
children and the women be spared." Some
twenty i)ersons were with him, all of whom
Holguin brought back to the city. While the
brigantine carrying the royal captive and his
fellow-prisoners was returning across the lake,
Sandoval came on board and demanded that
Quauhtemotzin be delivered to him, as he was
commander of that division of the fleet, but Hol-
guin claimed the honour of the capture and

^ The first active operations against the city really be-
gan with the destruction of the aqueduct, a few days
earlier.

2 Letters of Cortes, torn IL, p. 127.

The Fall of the Aztec Empire 373

refused to yield to his superior. The dispute
that ensued, delayed matters, but Cortes, who
was informed of the dissension, sent Luis Marin
and Francisco Lugo with peremptory orders to
cease wrangling and bring the prisoners to him.

Bernal Diaz relates that the commander after-
wards called the two claimants and cited to
them, by way of example, the incident from
Roman history of the capture of Jugurtha, and
the dispute between Marius and Scylla as to
the honour of that feat, productive of civil wars
which devastated the state. He calmed them
with the assurance that the circumstance should
be fully laid before the Emperor, who would
decide which of the two should have the action
emblazoned in his arms. Two years later the
imperial decision was given and ignored both
the contestants, granting instead to Cortes the
device of seven captive kings linked with a
chain and representing Montezuma, Quauhte-
motzin, and the rulers of Texcoco, Tlacopan,
Iztapalapan, Cuyohuacan, and Matolzingo.

There is little to add to the passage cited
from Cortes describing what passed on that
historic occasion, except that he gave orders
that the Princess Tecuichpo, the youngest
daughter of Montezuma and recently married
to her cousin Quauhtemotzin, should receive
every consideration. Humboldt, commenting on
Quauhtemotzin's choice of instant death, com-
mends the unfortunate young sovereign's con-

374 Fernando Cortes

duct in the following terms: ^^Ce trait est
digne du plus heau temps de la Grdce et de
Rome. Sous toutes les zones y quelle que soit
la couleur des hommes^ le langage des Ames
fortes est le meme lorsqu^elles luttent contre le
malheur.^^ ^ The captive monarch was not de-
ceived by the suave manner and honied words
of his captor, and his forebodings were realised
when, a few days later, upon his protesting
that there was no treasure left in the city,
Cortes consented to the use of torture to force
him to speak. Bernal Diaz seeks to excuse his
commander's part in this unworthy proceeding.
It may be said, in extenuation, that he yielded
to the angry clamours of his disappointed
soldiers, and sought to disprove the insinuation
that he had arranged with Quauhtemotzin to
conceal the treasure so as later to appropriate
it for himself. The custodian of the royal
fifth, Alderete, seems to have insisted on the
use of torture. The King bore the pain un-
flinchingly and rebuked the groans of his
fellow-suflferer, saying : " Do you think I am
taking my pleasure in my bath?" His feet
were almost burned off, and he remained a
cripple until his death. The anniversary of his
capture and the fall of the city were celebrated
as a public holiday all during the period of
Spanish rule in Mexico, but the Republic has
abolished this observance.

^ Essai Politiquey p. 192, 4to ed.

The Fall of the Aztec Empire 375

The eleventh and last of the Aztec sovereigns
was a young man of great personal bravery and
energy, in all things the opposite of his supersti-
tious uncle, Mountezuma. He worked indefatig-
ably to win allies, organise an effective defence,
and save the tottering kingdom and city; he
galvanised the timid into something like courage,
he confirmed the waverers, and encouraged the
patriots; large stores of arms and provisions
were laid in, the useless, aged men and women
and the children, were sent off to safe places in
the mountains, while the city was filled with war-
riors. The kings of Texcoco and Tlacopan (Ta-
cuba) joined in these plans, co-operating with
their fellow-sovereign. Had like zeal and har-
mony existed a year earlier, Cortes and his men
would never have reached the capital, save as vic-
tims to be offered to Huitzilopochtli. Quauhte-
motzin arrived too late. Nothing could ward
off the impending disaster. The powerful states
of Tlascala, Cholula, and others, had openly gone
over to the Spaniards, blind to the inevitable
destruction they were preparing for themselves ;
the allies of Mexico were doubtful and faint-
hearted,— some of them merely neutrals, await-
ing the issue, to declare for the victor. Never
did prince die for duty's sake, choosing death
with open eyes, and making a last stand for
a forlorn cause, more nobly than did the heroic
Quauhtemotzin.

Riotous celebrations of the city's fall natu-

376 Fernando Cortes

rally followed, the opportnne arrival of some
casks of wine and pork from Cnba famishing
the substance for a banquet, which was followed
by dancing. Bemal Diaz remarks that the
^^ plant of Noah was the cause of many fool-
eries and worse/' and that he refrains from
mentioning the names of those who disgraced
themselves by overindulgence and unseemly
antics. Fray Bartolom6 de Olmedo was much
scandalised at this profane celebration and
quickly asserted his spiritual authority over
the men. The next morning a solemn mass of
thanksgiving was said, and the good friar de-
livered a sermon on the moral and religious
duties of the conquerors. Cortes and others
received the sacraments, and these becoming rites
ended decorously with a procession, in which
the crucifix and an image of the Blessed Vir-
gin, accompanied by the military standards,
were carried to the sound of drums, alternating
with chanted litanies.

These vinous and pious festivities over, the
first great disappointment of the conquest had
to be faced. The fabulous treasure was no-
where to be found, nor did tortures succeed in
producing it The place of its alleged burial
in the lake, indicated by Quauhtemotzin, was
searched by divers who, after many efforts,
recovered only about ninety crowns' worth of
gold.^ Bemal Diaz states hi^ opinion that^

1 Bemal Diaz, cap. clvii.

The Fall of the Aztec Empire 377

though it was rumoured that vast treasures
had been thrown into the lake four days be-
fore the end of the siege, the amount had
doubtless already been greatly diminished be-
fore it came into Quauhtemotzin's hands, and
moreover, that the value of it had from the
first, seemed double what it really was found
to be when it came to be accurately estimated.
The discontent amongst the soldiery was great
and expressed itself in several ways, one of
which, more original than the others, was the
writing' of pasquinades on the white walls of the
officers' quarters at Cuyohuacan, some of which
were witty, some insolent, and others not fit
for print. Cortes even deigned to reply to
some of them in the same vein, and on the same
wall, for he rather prided himself on his ready
wit and skill at verse making, but Fray Bar-
tolom6, perceiving that the limits of propriety
were being overstepped, advised him to stop
the practice, which he did by publishing severe
punishments for any further writing on the
walls.

Positive data, on which to base the computa-
tion of the numbers engaged during the siege and
the lives lost are wanting. Cortes estimates that
sixty-seven thousand Mexicans fell in the last
three assaults on the city and that fifty thou-
sand died of starvation and disease, without
taking any account of all those who perished
during the earlier days of the siege. Bemal

37S Fernando Cortes

l>iaz viives no fignres, but both he and the
husu>riaii Oviedo state their conviction that
uoi m*.>re lives were lost at the siege of Jemsa-
lem than in Mexico. The Jewish historian,
.Ji»sephus, computes the losses of his people
at 1,100,000 souls! The comparison with these
appalling figures is so obviously exaggerated
that these two authorities may safely be dis-
I'egarded. Writing from the Mexican stand-
point, Ixtlilxochitl puts the number of the dead
from all causes at 240,000 persons, which greatly
exceeds the estimate of Cortes. The same dis-
crepancy api)ears in the counting of the forces
which laid down their arms when Quauhte-
motzin was captured. Oviedo leads again with
70,000, Ixtlilxochitl follows with 60,000, and
Herrera, who agrees with Torquemada, puts
the number at 30,000 fighting men.^ Whatever
the exact number may have been, the Mexican
empire was destroyed, its capital annihilated,
and a vast number of people butchered amidst
scenes of unexcelled ferocitv and horror. The
annals of no great siege record deeds of greater
bravery, and had the justice of their cause
equalled the heroism of their defence, the down-
fall of the Aztecs would be forever sung in song
and story wherever brave deeds are remembered.
As has been elsewhere explained, the laurels

1 Herrera, Hist, Gen., lib. ii., cap. vii.; Torquemada^
Monarchia Ind., lib. iv., cap. ci.; Ixtlilxochitl, Venida de
lo8 Espanoles, p. 49; Oviedo, lib. xxxiii.

The Fall of the Aztec Empire 3 79

of the conquest are not exclusively for Spanish
brows. The superlative generalship and per-
sonal qualities of Cortes, the superior arms and
knowledge of military tactics possessed by the
Spaniards, and their indomitable courage, con-
stituted their contributions to the successful
issue of the long campaign. In the ready
hatred of its neighbours and the quick deser-
tion of its dependencies and allies, is read the
proof of tlie inherent weakness of the Aztec
empire. All that these peoples possessed, —
their knowledge of the country, their labour,
their treasure, their fighting-men, and their
thirst for vengeance, — were placed at the dis-
position of Cortes, and thus the conquest was
accomplished. Even admitting the most and
the worst that has been said of his methods
in carrying on this war of invasion, the result
commands our applause in the name of hu-
manity.

The Mexican civilisation, even granting that
it had reached the high perfection claimed for
it by some writers, was chaotic, stationery, and
barren; it rested upon despotic power, and its
many crimes were expiated in the blood of their
perpetrators. Whatever culture and refinement
of living there were, centred in the capital and
its immediate neighbourhood, the outlying pro-
vinces being peopled by aboriginal, not to say
savage tribes, which justified their existence by
the tribute of men and money they paid, with-

380 Fernando Cortes

out being sharers in the learning and Inxnry
their labours sustained. Humanum paucis vivat
genus.^

The arrival of the Spaniards in the midst of
this chaos of tyranny and disloyalty, shattered
the loosely joined organisation, whose inferior
character foredoomed it to destruction when
brought into contact with a higher and more
progressive type of civilisation. The substitu-
tion of the Christian religion for the horrors
of human sacrifices and the revolting cannibal
feasts is, of itself, a sufficient justification for
the overthrow of an empire whose bloody and
degrading rites were of the very essence of its
religious system. Upon the ruins of the old
order, a new civilisation has been founded from
which has developed a nation, still in the pro-
cess of formation, in which Spanish and Indian
blood are mingled, and which is advancing on
the road of human progress to what destiny we
know not, but in which the humblest Indian has
his place, living in a securer present, and mov-
ing towards a higher future, than any his
own race could have shaped for him. Many of
the best men in modem Mexico trace, with
pride, their descent from Aztec kings and nobles.
A uniform and rich language with its system
of phonetic writing, the introduction of beasts
of burden, the use of iron and leather, improved
systems of mining, and agriculture which have

1 " The human race exists for the few."

The Fall of the Aztec Empire 381

brought under civilisation vast tracts of land,
increasing the variety and quality of the crops,
— these and countless other resources, unknown
and unknownable to the Aztecs, have revolution-
ised the present conditions of their existence
beyond anything their ancestors could have
dreamed.

Even at the price it cost, the conquest must
be approved, though it obliterated an interest-
ing and wonderful civilisation so entirely, that
the few surviving relics serve but to stimulate
enquiries, to which few answers are forthcoming.

With the destruction of the archives of Tex-
coco, the sponge was passed over the tablets of
Aztec history; unwise laws destroyed the native
arts and crafts, whose products had astonished
the foremost artisans of Europe, while the secrets
of the lapidaries, of the gold- and silversmiths,
and of the deft workers in feathers, and of
other unique crafts, perished for ever, leaving
the civilisation of Andhuac a mystery for all
time.

as

CHAPTER XVI

RBOOXSTBUCmON

Position of Cortes — ^The Great Strait — ^Rebuilding

— Cristobal de Tapia, Francisco de Graray and San-
doval in Panuco — The Silver Cannon — Rebellion of
Olid — Expedition to Yucatan — Death of Quauhte-
motzin — Return to Mexico.

TWO years and three months had elajwed
since the departure of the t^'o procura-
tors, Puertocarrero and Montejo bearing the
letters from Vera Cruz, to Charles V., during
which lapse of time no direct word or sign of
recognition had reached Cortes from Spain.
He found himself absolute master of a vast em-
pire that he had subdued without assistance
from his sovereign, who continued to ignore
the existence of both the conqueror and his con-
quest. The position was a unique one, nor does
history furnish another parallel to it.

In his letter from Segura della Frontera, he
had recounted all that had happened to him
and his men during their first visit to the Aztec
capital and had declared his firm intention of
returning thither to recapture the city and re-
duce the entire empire to His Majesty's obe-
dience. This magnificent announcement fell on
uncompreliending ears and had provoked no

resjwnse. The authority of Cortes still had, for

382

Reconstruction 3 83

its sole basis, his election as chief -justice and
captain-general of the colony, by the munici-
pality of Vera Cruz which he himself had
created. In reality, it rested on the control he
exercised over his men and on their voluntary
obedience to his will.

The ruins of the capital being unhabitable
because of the numbers of unburied dead, the
impossibility of obtaining provisions, fresh water,
and other necessaries, Cortes had established his
headquarters at Coyohuacan, from whence he
began the work of rebuilding the city. His con-
duct in consenting to the torture of Quauhte-
motzin at this time, has been compared with
that of the Emperor Otho, as described by
Tacitus, when he permitted the execution of
Galba's ministers and friends. Othoni non-
du7n auctoritas inerat ad prohibendum scelus;
jubere jam poterat.^ Though his reluctance
to assent to this barbarous proceeding was
doubtless sincere, and he even interfered to cut
short his captive's sufferings, it is not likely
that the use of torture to extract a confession
•from an unwilling witness revolted Cortes. Not
merely at tliat time, but for two centuries or
more afterwards, the use of torture was ap-
proved, not only as a punishment, but to force
confession of unprovable guilt or to obtain

1 " Otho had sufficient authority to order the crime but
not enough to prevent it." The historical comparison is
made by Senor Alaman in the third of his Disertticiones.

384 Fernando Cortes

evidence or information against suspected per-
sons.

Tt\'0 other procurators were now chosen to
carry the royal fifth of the booty to Spain, and
again Cortes invited his followers to renounce
their shares in the curious objects of gold, silver,
and feather-work, of which the workmanship
was so remarkable that it eclipsed the value
of the precious metal. Divided amongst so
many, no one man would receive anything of
consequence, while offered intact to the Em-
peror these treasures would constitute a gift
worthy of royalty. The renunciation was
easily made; the taste of the men was for crude
metal.

This treasure never reached its destination.
Alonso de Avila and Antonio de Quinones, the
two officers charged to carry the gifts and the
letters to the Emperor, first stopped at the
Island of Santa Maria, one of the Azores, where
Quinones was killed in a brawl; Avila was cap-
tured off Cape St. Vincent by a French corsair.
Florin, who, after robbing the ship of its
precious freight, allowed it to continue its voy-
age to Seville, where it arrived on November
7, 1522. Avila was carried by Florin to La
Rochelle, but found means to send his de-
spatches to the Emperor. The Aztec spoils
went to enrich the treasury of Francis I. of
France, who justified their capture by saying
he knew of no provision in Father Adam's will

Reconstruction 385

that made his brother of Spain sole heir to all
the earth's treasures.

The news of the downfall of the great Aztec
empire spread throughout the neighbouring
states, whose rulers, one by one, sent their en-
voys or came in person to offer their allegiance
to the conqueror, and to solicit his protection.
Mechoacan was the most important of these
lesser kingdoms and possessed a long strip of
coast on the Pacific. Cortes sent Spaniards
with the envoys of Catzolcin, the ruler of
Mechoacan, to explore the country and discover,
if possible, a good harbour on the South Sea.
The dream of the great strait uniting the two
oceans was ever in his mind ; its discovery meant
opening the way to the Indies, Cathay, and
the Spice Islands, by which untold wealth
would pour into Spain from those fabulous
regions. Through all the later letters of Cor-
tes, is discernible this, his chief preoccu-
pation, as may be seen from the following
passages taken from his Fourth Letter of Re-
lation :

In the past chapters, Most Powerful Lord, I have
told Your Excellency to what points I had sent
people, both by sea and land, believing that with
God's guidance, Your Majesty would be well served
by them; and, as I always take great care and be-
think me of all possible means to carry out my
desires for the advancement of the royal service
of Your Majesty, it seemed to me that it only

386 Fernando Cortes

remained to explore the coast from Pannco to the
coast of Florida, which was discovered by Jnan
Ponce de Leon, and from there to follow the ooast
of Florida towards the north as far as the Ba-
callaos.^ For it is believed absolutely, that there
is a strait on that coast, leading to the South Sea;
and if it should be found, according to a certain
drawing which I have of that coast, it must lead
very near to where the Archipelago was discovered
by Magel lanes under Tour Highness's commands.
And should it please Ood, our Lord, that the said
strait be found there, it would open a good and
short passage from the Spiceries to these dominions
of Your Majesty, quite two-thirds shorter than that
which is at present followed, and one which will
be free from risks and dangers to the ships; for
they would then always go and come through the
dominions of Your Majesty, having facilities for
repairs in any port they choose to enter. I am
thinking over to myself the great service that would
be rendered to Your Majesty, though I am quite
wasted and exhausted by all I have done and spent
in the expeditions I have fitted out by land and
sea, and in providing ammunition and artillery in
this city, and in many other expenses and outlays
which daily occur; for all our provisions are ex-
ix?nsive and of such excessive prices that, although
the country is rich, the income I obtain does not
correspond to my outlays, costs, and expenses; yet,

^ This is the first known project for finding the north-
west passage. Bacallaoa, or the sea of codfish, was so
called from the vast numbers of these fish which have
since become such an important article of commerce on
our North Atlantic coasts.

Reconstruction 387

repeating all I have said before and setting all per-
sonal interest aside, I have determined to prepare
three caravels and a brigantine, of which the cost
will reach more than ten thousand pesos of gold,
which I swear to Your Majesty I shall have to
borrow. I add this new service to those I have
already rendered, for I hold it to be the most im-
portant, hoping as I do to find the strait; and
even if this should not be found, certainly many
good and rich countries will be discovered, where
Your Caesarian Majesty may draw profits from the
Spicelands and other countries bordering on them.
Thus I hold myself at Your Majesty's service, very
happy if you will so command me and, in the ab-
sence of the strait, I hope to conquer these coun-
tries at less expense than any one else; but I pray
Our Lord, nevertheless, that my armada may at-
tain the object I pursue, which is to discover the
strait, for that would be the happiest of all results.
Of this I am well convinced, because, to the royal,
good fortune of Your Majesty, nothing can be de-
nied; and diligence and good preparation and
zeal shall not be wanting on my part to achieve
it.

I likewise expect to send out the ships I have
built on the South Sea, which vessels, — Our Lord
being willing, — will sail down the coast at the end
of July of this year, 1524, in search of the same
strait; for if it exists, it cannot escape both those
who go by the South Sea and those who go by the
North; for the South Sea Expedition will go till
they either find it or reach the country discovered
by MagellanesJ and those of the North, as I have al-
ready said, until they reach the Bacallaos. Thus on

388 Fernando Cortes

one side or the other we cannot fail to discover the

secret.

Visions of the great waterway to the East
were not suffered to interfere with the reorgani-
sation of the shattered empire, and the work of
rebuilding the destroyed city on its ancient site
was actively begun. A plan was drawn, in
which each concession of ground was marked;
one lot was given to any one who applied, on
the condition that he should build a housei and
live there for four consecutive years: each of
the conquerors was entitled to two lots. Tlate-
lolco and Popotla were the quarters of the new
town assigned to the Indians, and the native
market occupied its former place in the great
square where the last desperate battles of the
siege had been fought, while another market
for the Spaniards was established before the site
where the vice-regal palace was afterwards built.

The Indians either speedily forgot their arts
and handicrafts or concealed them; unwise laws
were enacted which tended also to suppress
them. Archbishop Lorenzana relates an in-
cident illustrating the extraordinary ability of
the Indians in executing the most delicate work
with primitive tools. A native counterfeiter
was arrested, and his whole outfit was found
to consist of nothing but thorns from the ma-
guey or cactus plant. The viceroy was so
amazed that he offered the man his life if he

Reconstruction 389

would show how he worked, but the Indian
preferred to die.

A municipal council was created in 1522 and,
for the better control of the Indian population,
Cortes revived the office of ciguacoat^ or royal
lieutenant; the authority of the Aztec emperors
had been directly exercised through the holder
of this office, whom the people were therefore
accustomed to obey. Other princes and ca-
ciques were restored to the rank and dignities
they or their families had formerly enjoyed,
and were given jurisdiction over their subjects
and dependents. They were required to fur-
nish levies of workmen for the capital, and
were held responsible for the good conduct of
their people and for the amount of the taxes
assessed by the government. A fortress, so de-
signed as to shelter the brigantines and to de-
fend the city, was constructed, and in his
fourth letter , dated October 25, 1524, Cortes as-
sured Charles V. that within five years Mexico
would be the largest and handsomest town in
all his vast dominions. The Bishop of Burgos
had prohibited the shipment of artillery and
munitions for the army, and Cortes was thus
thrown upon his own resources to produce
these much needed things in a country where
they had never before existed. Iron was un-
known to the Mexicans and, though copper was
plentiful, there was neither zinc nor tin to fuse
with it for making bronze; tin was opportunely

390 Fernando Cortes

discovered in Tasco, where it was used as
money,^ and within a reasonable space of time
the total number of pieces of artillery reached
the respectable figure of ninety-five. Powder
was still wanting, but the resourceful com-
mander, remembering that sulphur had been
seen in the crater of Popocatei)etl, sent thither
a party of his men of whom one, Montana, was
lowered into the mouth of the fiery mountain
and brought back tlie required quantity. This
I)erilous undertaking was never repeated as,
with the removal from office of the obnoxious
bishop, supplies were no longer withheld from
Cortes.

Cristobal de Tapia, after being detained in
Hispaniola by the viceroy and the audiencia,
arrived at Vera Cruz in December and pre-
sented his full-powers from the Cardinal-regent
to the municipality of that port. While recog-
nising his official character, pretexts were dis-
covered for deferring the execution of his
orders, and Cortes was meanwhile notified of
the commissioner's arrival. He selected Fray
Pedro Melgarejo de Urrea as his ambassador
and sent him to Vera Cruz to treat with Tapia,
to whom he TVTote an affectionate letter ex-
pressing his pleasure at his arrival and his
regret that an illness prevented him from com-

^ Humboldt was struck with this mention of tin money
and notes: ** Le passage remarquable dans lequel Cortes
parle de Vetain covime monnaie" (Essai Politiqiie,)

Reconstruction 391

ing to welcome him. The Mercedarian was a
prudent negotiator, and he succeeded in con-
vincing Tapia that his wisest course was to
return immediately and without attempting to
carry out his mission. The friar's diplomacy
was backed up by the golden arguments that
had been so profitably employed in former and
similar circumstances, and the commissioner
re-embarked for the Islands, after disposing of
his horses, slaves, and stores at the highest
market prices. If his reputation suffered in
this transaction, he doubtless consoled himself
with the profits to his fortune.

The Tapia incident being thus easily disposed
of, Cortes resumed his labours for extending and
affirming his rule throughout the empire; using
Montezuma's tribute rolls as his guide, he de-
spatched his captains into different provinces
to found settlements, search for harbours and
mines, and to report to him on the resources of
the country. Alvarado was sent to Guatemala,
Sandoval to Tuxtepeque where he founded a town
named Medellin in honour of his commander's
birthplace in Spain; Olid to Mechoacan, Villa-
fuerte to Zacutula, and Juan Velasquez to
Colima. Cortes himself headed an expedition
to the Panuco region for the purpose of op-
posing the pretentions of Francisco de Garay
to exercise jurisdiction in those parts.

At the conclusion of a successful campaign,
the town of Santestevan del Puerto was founded

392 Fernando Cortes

on a narrow strip of land between the lake of
Chila and the seacoast, and was provided with
a small garrison and the usual municipal gov-
ernment. The peace in Panuco was destined to
be soon again disturbed by the arrival of Fran-
cisco de Garay in person, at the head of nearly
six hundred men.

Cardinal Adrian's regency had meanwhile
come to an end with his election to the papal
chair under the title of Adrian VI., and Charles
V. had returned to Spain and resumed the
government of his kingdom. While the enemies
of Cortes were as diligent as they were insidi-
ous in their efforts to prejudice the young
sovereign against him, his friends, amongst
whom the most zealous were the Duke of Bejar,
the Count of Medellin and his own father,
Martin Cortes, were equally assiduous in defend-
ing his character and explaining the value of his
services. The King appointed a commission to
investigate the disputed merits of th^ conqueror
and, acting on the report of this body, Charles
approved his acts in Mexico and appointed him
Governor, Captain-General, and Chief Justice
of New Spain. Diego Velasquez and the Bishop
of Burgos were rendered henceforth powerless
to interfere in Mexico. The royal letters con-
firming this appointment were dated from
Valladolid, October 15, 1522. The Emperor
wrote an autograph letter praising and thank-
ing the members of the force for their serviceSy

Reconstruction 393

and honours, grants of land, and other accept-
able favours were liberally bestowed on both the
officers and the men.

Francisco de Garay based his claims to Pa-
nuco on a royal appointment as adelantado ^ of
a certain extent of country which he had ex-
plored and in which he considered that Panuco
was included. Fortunately for Cortes, his ap-
pointment as Captain-General and Chief Justice,
arrived from Spain by the same ship that
brought him news of the machinations of Garay,
who was acting in concert with Diego Velasquez,
thus enabling him to confront his adversary
with the royal cedula that rendered Garay
powerless. Being thus worsted, the latter's
prestige amongst his own followers was hope-
lessly damaged, and meanwhile their imagi-
nations had been so fired by the alluring tales
of Alvarado and Ocampo, that the majority de-
cided to abandon their leader and remain in
Mexico. They had the technical excuse that
they had engaged, under certain stipulated con-
ditions, for an expedition to Panuco, but for

1 The title given to the Governor of a province and
which, in the case of Spanish discoverers, meant the leader
of an exploring expedition who was empowered to colonise
and establish a government of which he should be the
head, in any countries he might discover. Las Casas
sarcastically explained the etymology of the title, saying,
porque se adelantaron en hacer males y danos tan gravis-
simos a gentes pacificos, " because they took the lead in
perpetrating such great evils and injuries on peaceful
people."

394 Fernando Cortes

nowhere else, and as to Panuco Garay could
not go, their contract no longer bound thenu
Ocampo, to whom Garay appealed to uphold
his authority, made a show of beating the
country for fugitives, but was careful to col-
lect only the least desirable men, those known
as adherents of Velasquez, whom he was glad
to see leave the country. Reduced to these
straits, Garay went to Mexico, where Cortes
played the magnanimous, receiving him as an
old friend and arranging a marriage between his
daughter, Catalina, and Garay^s eldest son.

On Christmas eve, Garay assisted at midnight
mass with Cortes and afterwards breakfasted
with him; the same day he was seized with
violent pains and died a few days later; so
opportune did his death seem to some people,
that whisi)ers of poison were not wanting. The
rising of the Indians of Panuco provoked by
Garay's lawless followers under command of his
son, whose authority they ignored, was one of
the most formidable of its kind, and its suj)-
pression by Alvarado was marked by the
ferocious cruelty characteristic of him.

The proposed marriage between Dofia Cata-
lina and the son of Garay never took place, for
she is mentioned in the Bull of Legitimisation
in 1529, as a maiden and in her father's will,
made in 1547, she is mentioned as being in a
convent in Coyohuacan. It is difficult to iden-
tify her mother, for Archbishop Lorenzana says

Reconstruction 395

she was the daughter of the first wife, Cata-
lina Xuarez, while other writers affirm that her
mother was Marina de Escobar, and still others
assert that she was the daughter of Dofia Elvira
(daughter of Montezuma), in which case she
would have been an infant at the time of her
bethrothal to young Garay.

To quell the disturbances amongst the Indians
of Panuco, provoked by the members of Garay's
scattered force, Gonzalo de Sandoval was sent
tliither and, by the capture and burning of four
hundred chiefs, established peace in that region.
The better to drive home the lesson, he forced
the Indians to assemble and witness the fright-
ful execution of their kinsmen.

Some authors have sought to cast doubts on
the number burned, and Herrera even reduces
it to thirty, but the language of Cortes himself
is unhappily too explicit to admit of doubt^
Sandoval was a fellow-townsman of Cortes and
was the youngest of his captains; he was his
commander's favourite, and his character, as it
is discerned in contemporary records, shows him
to have been chivalrous, kindly, and the soul of
fidelity to Cortes, who trusted both his loyalty
and his prudence, absolutely. His conduct in
Panuco, however repugnant to our standards
of humanity, would have encountered the un-
reserved approval of the collective military
opinion of Europe at that time. The Duke of

1 Letters of Cortes, torn, ii., p. 193.

396 Fernando Cortes

Alva, many years later, was instructed by
Charles IX. of France to murder all the prison-
ers he had taken at Genlis and Mons and, lest
the French King's order might not constrain
him to that measure, his own sovereign, Philip
II., wrote that if for any reason he had failed
to obey, he should delay no longer, adding the
significant phrase, that his conduct would do
both himself and all Christendom grave injury.
St. Bartholomew, the Nones of Haarlem, and
the Glencoe massacre, considered as repressive
or punitive measures, equalled in ferocity the
wholesale execution of the chiefs in Panuco.
The guilt of such deeds of cruelty may be more
justly assigned to the pliant jurists who forged
such weapons, ready for their sovereign's hand,
and most of all to the priestly casuists who
salved the royal conscience and even blessed the
blow. The rude soldiers who executed the deed
were the least culpable amongst the guilty.

News of the seizure by French pirates of the
treasure sent to Charles V. having reached
Mexico, Cortes had collected another hoard of
gold, silver, feather-work, rich stuffs, and cu-
rious ornaments. Being just then engaged in
casting guns, he indulged in an extravagant
fancy destined to impress the Emperor and his
court with the magnificent resources of New
Spain. This was the casting of a silver cannon^
or falconet, for his sovereign's acceptance. It
weighed about twenty-three hundred- weight ; the

Reconstruction 397

ornamentation, executed by the best native silver-
smiths, displayed a phenix, underneath which
was the following inscription:

Aquesta nacio sin par,

Yo en serviros sin segundo;

Vos, sin igual en el mundo.

The Jesuit historian, Cavo, says this legend pro-
voked much invidious comment at the Spanish
court.

The appointment of their commander as cap-
tain-general and chief-justice was hailed with
enthusiasm by the men who had accomplished
the conquest, for, with the arrival of the royal
commission, all past irregularities were wiped
out, their semi-piratical and mutinous conduct
towards the colonial officials was condoned, and
both Cortes and his men might congratulate
themselves on finally occupying a legally sound
and royally recognised status under the Spanish
crown. The Emperor's promises of recompense,
though vague, were sufficient to feed the hopes
of the veterans for some time to come, while
his words of praise reconciled them to a further
postponement of more substantial rewards.

During this period of the reconstruction of
the Mexican State, Cortes proved himself a
painstaking and capable ruler, and nothing that
could attract colonists, promote their welfare,
and develop the resources of the country es-
caped his attention. In March. 1524, he pub-
ad

398 Fernando Cortes

lished a set of Ordinances for the goyernment
of the country, whose provisions furnish incon-
testable proof of his wisdom as a lawmaker.
Some of his enactments were as strict as any
Puritan could have prescribed. Married colo-
nists were obliged to bring their wives to their
plantations within eighteen months, under pain
of forfeiting the grant; those who were unmar-
ried were given the same period within which
to find wives.^ Sumptuary laws regulated the
wearing of velvets, silks, and brocades, and their
use for saddles, shoes, and sword-belts, as well
as the display of jewels, gold ornaments, and
embroideries.^

Sunday observance was very rigid and all
shops were closed; trades of every kind were
suspended during the hours of religious services,
while attendance at mass was compulsory on
Sundays and great feast days. Gambling was
the hardest vice to control, and the enemies of
Cortes were not slow to criticise his own fond-
ness for cards and dice, alleging that he pri-
vately practised and encouraged what he publicly
condemned.

Unfortunately the Spaniards introduced the
most reprehensible of all " sports " if such it
can be honestly called, the bull-fight, as early
as 1526.^ Dancing was not discouraged, and

1 Gomara, Hist, Mex. Ordenanzas apud Paehseo and
Cardenas,

2 Puya, Cedulario.
*Vetancourt, Teatro Mexicano.

Reconstruction 3 99

religious festivals were celebrated with gorgeous
processions, so life was not quite so colourless
as it was afterwards made in the New England
colonies.

To provide for the conversion of the natives
and the maintenance of Christian instruction
and practices amongst the Spaniards, was
amongst the chief cares of Cortes, and to this
end, he begged the ^Jniperor to send men of
the religious Orders to Mexico. He objected to
bishops, as being too fond of good living and
too lazy to devote themselves to such labours,
while their lax morals would only provoke
scandals and discredit the Christian religion.
He asked that the Emperor obtain episcopal
faculties for the priors of the Orders and thus
obviate the necessity of having bishops. Charles
V. acted on this suggestion and the Pope, at
liis instance, gave to Padre Toribio de Bene-
vente (Motolinia) power to give confirmation
but not to consecrate holy oils. The first su-
perior of the Franciscans was Friar Martin de
Valencia, and of the Dominicans, Friar Vetan-
zos, who built the first convent near Texcoco,
at a place called Tepetlaxtoc.^

Cortes was somewhat sweeping in his con-
demnation of bishops, and his strictures may
only be admitted with reservations. Arch-
bishop Lorenzana agrees with other authorities
tliat there were bishops and canons in Spain,

^ Lorenzana, Fourth Letter, note.

400 Fernando Cortes

who led lives that were far from exemplary,
bnt says that this state of things was fortu-
nately brought to a close by the disciplinary
enactments of the Council of Trent With such
examples of apostolic virtues and missionary
zeal as are found in the lives of Spanish bishops
like Las Casas, Zumarraga, and Diego Landa
before us, it seems evident that Cortes too
easily despaired of finding men of episcopal
rank adapted for spiritual labours in Mexico.
He also objected to doctors and more especiaUy
to la^-yers, and earnestly begged the Emperor
to forbid members of these learned professions
to come to Mexico, saying that the doctors would
only bring new diseases with them, while fail-
ing to cure the old ones, and that the lawyers
would flourish by augmenting the contentions
and dissensions which, though already too fre-
quent, the colonists managed to settle amicably
amongst themselves.

In October of 1524, it seemed to Cortes, as
he expressed it in his Fifth Letter to Charles V.,
that he ^^ had been a long time inactive and
without undertaking anything in Tour Majesty's
service." Cristobal de Olid had been sent in
1523 to establish a settlement in Honduras and
his expedition left Vera Cruz on January 11,
1524, stopping first at Cuba, where the com-
mander fell under the infiuence of Diego Velas-
quez, who incited him to throw oflE the authority
of Cortes and act independently. When the

Reconstruction 401

first news of his insubordination was brought
to Cortes by Gonzalo de Salazar, he despatched
his kinsman, Francisco de Las Casas, to recall
Olid to his obedience. Olid had sent a part of
his forces against Gonzalo de Avila, who was
also exploring in that country, and upon the ar-
rival of Las Casas, he temporised, seeing that he
could not successfully resist, and while thus
gaining time, he sent hurriedly to recall his
men. A violent storm having driven the ships
of Las Casas on to the coast, he and his men
were easily captured, and as Gonzalo de Avila
was likewise taken at the same time, Olid's
star was in the ascendant. His triumph was
short-lived, however, for he had rendered him-
self unpopular in the colony, of which fact his
prisoners, who had complete liberty to go about,
with the sole restriction that they were not to
carry arms, took advantage to plan a success-
ful rebellion against him. He was captured
and, after a summary trial, was beheaded in
the public square of Naco. The audiencia of
San Domingo had sought to forestall these
conflicts amongst Spaniards, by sending their
agent, the bachelor Moreno, with full powers
to order Las Casas back to Vera Cruz, hoping
to put an end to the contests between Olid and
Avila, and to stop Pedro de Alvarado who,
by order of Cortes, was marching overland
against Olid. Moreno's proceedings and those
of his companion, Ruano, are recounted in the

402 Fernando Cortes

memorial read by the colonists to Cortes, which
the latter transcribed in his Fifth Letter for
the Emperor's information.

It was the news of the shipwreck of Las
Casas, and of the troubled state of the Hon-
duras colony that prompted Cortes to undertake
his remarkable expedition through Yucatan,
which forms the subject of his Fifth Letter to
Charles V. In spite of the royal favour shown
him, and the rank and powers conferred upon
him in Mexico, Cortes began at this time to
suffer from attacks on all sides. The Spanish
officials formed, in reality, a band of spies on
his every act. Gonzalo de Salazar, Pero Ap-
mildez Chirino, Alonso de Estrada, and Bodrigo
de Albomoz were sent as revenue officers to
Mexico in 1524 and empowered to establish a
court of accounts. Estrada was treasurer, Al-
bornoz was accountant, Salazar, factor, and
Chirino, inspector. Their expectations of find-
ing immense treasures ready at hand, were
disappointed, and the only explanation which
seemed adequate was that Cortes had concealed
or made way with them. In their joint despatch
to the Emperor, they accused him of possessing
great riches, and of having hidden the treasure
of Montezuma instead of accounting for it to
the crown. They described him as tyrannical,
disloyal, and engaged in plotting to establish
his authority independently in the country.
This despatch was closely followed by two other

Reconstruction 403

letters, one signed by all of them and the other
by Salazar alone. Salazar stated that Cortes
had collected three hundred and four million
castellanos, without counting Montezuma's
treasure which was buried in various secret
places; that he had retained for himself some
thirty-seven or forty provinces, some of them
as large as all Andalusia; that he was com-
monly believed to have poisoned Francisco de
Garay; and that the ships he pretended were
preparing - for the expedition to the Spice
Islands were really for the purpose of carry-
ing himself and his treasure in safety to
France.

It was doubtless a relief to the harassed spirit
of Cortes to escape from the trials of the gov-
ernorship and the attacks of his enemies, and
to betake himself to the wilderness in search
of the secrets of the lands and seas to the un-
known South. In setting forth on this expedi-
tion, which was to cover a distance of five
hundred leagues through savage lands, he af-
fected the pomp of an Oriental satrap, taking
with him, besides the necessary soldiers, guides,
Indian allies, and camp-followers, a complete
household of stewards, valets, pages, grooms,
and other attendants, all under the command
of a major-domo of the household. Gold and
silver plate for his table was provided, also
musicians, jugglers, and acrobats to amuse the
company. Spanish muleteers and equerries

404 Fernando Cortes

were taken along to have charge of the car-
riages and horses and, in addition to the usual
provender, a supply of meat was ensured by
an immense drove of pigs driven along, which
could not have accelerated the march. He had
a map painted on cloth by native artists, which
showed, after their fashion, the rivers and
mountain chains to be crossed. This and his
compass were all he could rely upon to guide
him during his perilous undertaking. DoSa
Marina, went as chief interpreter, but Geronimo
de Aguilar did not accompany this expedition,
though he was not dead, as Bernal Diaz states,
for in 1525 he applied for a piece of land on
which to build a house in the street now called
Balvanera.^ The record of these events, how-
ever noteworthy, may seem tame reading after
the exciting chronicle of the siege and fall of
Mexico, — a war drama of the most intense kind,
— but in forming a correct estimate of the char-
acter of Cortes we must not restrict ourselves
to a study of the qualities he displayed in the
course of the conquest, and which prove him a
most resourceful genius. At five and thirty
years of age he had successfully completed as
daring and momentous an undertaking as his-
tory records, and it is as conqueror of Mexico
that he takes his place among the world's great
heroes. M. D6sir6 Charnay, in the preface to
his French translation of the Five Letters says :

1 Alaman, Diasertazione iv.

Reconstruction 405

^^ La conquete de Cortes . . . couta au Mexique
de dix millions d^etres humains emportes par

la guerre^ les maladies et les mauvais traite-
ments: de sorte que cet homme de genie pent
entrer sans conteste dans la redoutahle phalange
ilcs fleaux de VhumaniteJ^ ^

This journey through Yucatan, that would
have won renown for another, added nothing
to his reputation, rather may it be said that
the darkest stain his name bears was inflicted
on it amidst the labyrinthine forests of that
distant land. The hardships endured by him-
self and his men challenge credibility; the
country was intersected with vast rivers and
overgrown with such extensive forests that for
days they marched in a subterranean gloom,
unable to see the sky and hardly able to find
their footing. Dismal swamps, stretching away
indefinitely, intercepted their march, over the
greatest of which the persevering commander
built a bridge composed of one thousand tree
trunks, each sixty feet long and as large round
as a man's body. The Spaniards being so re-
duced by hunger, fatigue, and despair of ever
getting out of the wilderness alive, were on the
verge of open mutiny and refused to undertake
the titanic labour, but their leader was not
merely undaunted by the difficulties of the task
and undismayed by their refusal to work, he

^ Just what M. Chamay means these figures to inalude,
is not clear.

4o6 Fernando Cortes

accomplished his purpose and, at the same time,
administered a stinging rebuke to their Cas-
tilian pride, for he called together the Indians
of his expedition and confided the work ex-
clusively to them, excluding his own men, who
were thus little by little shamed into lending a
hand towards completing the bridge.

Beyond this great morass, new difficulties of
a different kind awaited them, for the whole
country seemed but one shaky quagmire in
which the horses sank to their girths, or as
Cortes wrote " to their very ears." At the be-
ginning of Lent in 1525 a halt was made in the
province of Acalan, during which Quauhte-
motzin and his fellow captives were executed.
Cortes related the incident in his Fifth Letter
to the Emperor as follows:

An event happened in this province which it is
well Your Majesty should know. An honourable
citizen of Temixtitan, by name Mexicalcingo, but
now called Cristobal, came to me one night privately,
bringing certain drawings on a piece of the paper
used in that country and explained to me what it
meant. He told me that Guatemucin whom, since
the capture of this city, I have held a prisoner on
account of his turbulent nature, carrying, him as
well as other chiefs and lords whom I thought the
cause of revolt in this country, with me was con-
sjiiring against me. Besides Guatemucin, the King
of Texcoco and Tetej)anguecal, King of Tacuba
and a (pertain Tacatelz who had lived formerly in

Reconstruction 407

Mexico in the quarter of Tatelulco, all of whom
many times conversed among themselves, had told
this Mexicalcingo how they had been dispossessed
of their land and authority and were ruled over by
the Spaniards, and that it would be well to seek
some remedy so that they might recover their au-
thority and possessions; and, in speaking thus dur-
ing this expedition, they had thought the best way
would be to kill me and my people and afterwards
to call on the natives of these provinces to rise and
kill Cristobal de Olid and all his people ; after that,
they would send their messengers to Temixtitan to
incite the people to kill all the Spaniards, which
thing they thought could easily be done, as many
were newly arrived and untrained to warfare.
After that, they would raise the whole country and
kill all the Spaniards wherever they might be
found, putting strong garrisons of natives in all the
seaports so that none might escape nor any vessel
coming from Castile take back the news. By these
means they would rule again as before, and they
had already distributed the different provinces
amongst themselves, giving one to this same Mexi-
calcingo. I gave many thanks to Our Lord for
having revealed this treachery to me and at day-
break I imprisoned all those lords, each one by
himself, and then inquired of them, one by one, about
the plot; and to each I said that the others had
revealed it to me (for they could not speak with
one another). Thus they were all constrained to
confess that it was true that Guatemucin and Tete-
panguecal had invented the plot and that, though
the others had heard it, they had never consented
to take part. These two, therefore, were hanged

4o8 Fernando Cortes

and I set the others free because it appeared they
were to blame for nothing more than having listened,
although this alone was sufficient for them to
deserve death; their case, however, remained open
so that at any time they relapse they may be pun-
ished accordingly, though it is not probable that
they will again conspire for they think that I dis-
covered this by some magic, and that nothing can
be hidden from me; for they have noticed that to
direct the making of the road I often consult the
map and compass, especially when the road ap-
proaches the sea, and they have often said to the
Spaniards that they believed I learned it by that
compass ; also they have sometimes said, wishing to
assure me of their good disposition, that I might
know their honest intentions by looking into the
glass and on the map, and that there I would see
their sincerity since I knew everything by this
means. I allowed them to think that this was true.

The Indian version of Quauhtemotzin^s execU"
tion copied by Torquemada from a Mexican
manuscript, is quite different from the one
Cortes gives to the Emperor. Cohuanacox,
King of Texcoco, spoke privately at Izancanac
with his fellow-prisoners, saying that were their
people not what they were, their kings would
not be so easily reduced to slavery and marched
about behind the Spanish commander, and that
it would in reality be easy enough to repay
Cortes for burning Quauhtemotzin's feet. At
this point tlie others stopped him, but a Mexi-
can who is called Mexicalcin and was baptised

Reconstruction 409

as Cristobal had overheard and reported the
words to Cortes, who, without more ado, hanged
the three princes that night on a ceiba tree.
Torquemada expresses the opinion that Cortes
was weary of guarding the royal captives yet
dared not free them, and was glad to use the
first pretext to kill them.

Bernal Diaz states that both Quauhtemotzin
and Tetlepanquezatl protested their entire in-
nocence and that all the Spaniards disapproved
the execution. Cortes dared much, and there was
little articulate public opinion in Mexico whose
voice he could not control, but it is doubtful if
he would have dared to hang the last three
native kings on such vague charges, reported
by a camp servant, with all Mexico looking on.
The king whom Cortes served, offered five
thousand crowns for the assassination of an
enemy, and there was not a contemporary
sovereign in Europe who, in case of necessity,
would have hesitated to follow his example.

It were not strange that the royal captives
should have talked of their misfortunes and
sufferings, when they thought they were alone,
or have discussed how it all might have been
prevented, or even repaired, but it is a far cry
from such communings over their camp-fire to
the organisation of a plot to kill their captor
and raise a general insurrection against the
Spaniards. . There seems no discoverable justi-
fication for this barbarous and treacherous act.

41 o Fernando Cortes

It needed no gift of prophecy for Qnauhtemotzin
to foresee his fate when he feU into the hands of
Cortes, and the choice he then expressed for
immediate death proved that he cherished no
illusions as to what the future held for him.
Prescott, in describing the inglorious end of
the last Aztec emperor says : " Might we not
rather call him the last of the Aztecs, since
from this time, broken in spirit and without a
head, the remnant of the nation resigned itself
almost without a struggle to the stem yoke of
its oppressors."

It is said that Cortes was disquieted in his
conscience after this " execution " and for a long
time could not sleep. The murdered captives
were: Qnauhtemotzin, Emperor of Mexico,
Cohuanacox, King of Texcoco; Tetlepanquetzal,
King of Tlacopan; Oquizi, King of Atzcapot-
zalco ; Vehichilzi, brother of Qnauhtemotzin and
King of Mechoacan, and the two Indian generals,
Xihmocoatl and Tlacatle. Humboldt ^ describes
an Indian picture-writing representing the hang-
ing of these prisoners by their feet to prolong
their sufferings, which he saw in Mexico.

Everywhere during his progress through the
wilds, Cortes proclaimed his religious and poli-
tical dogmas; the natives were instructed in
the faith, crosses and altars replaced the de-
molished idols in their teocalli, and the uni-
versal sovereignty of the King of Spain over

^ Essai Polit., lib. iii., cap. viii.

Reconstruction 41 1

all the American nations was asserted. He
reported hopefully to the Emperor on the ef-
fects of his propaganda, but his optimism rested
on shadowy foundations. At Peten-Izta, an
island city in the lake of Peten, where the ca-
cique seemed an unusually enthusiastic convert,
a horse belonging to Cortes was found to be
so badly lamed that it had to be left behind.
Charging the willing cacique to look to its
welfare, the expedition moved on. The fate of
this animal proved indeed a strange one. Villa-
gutierra ^ relates that some Franciscan monks,
who visited Peten-Itza in 1614, with Don Martin
Ursua, landed with the intention of building
a church on the island and found there a large
temple, in which stood the image of a horse
very well carved in stone. They discovered
that the lame horse had later become an object
of great veneration to the natives who fed him
on flowers, birds, and similar delicacies, with
the natural result that the poor animal starved
to death, after which he was ranked amongst
the native deities and worshipped under the
title of Tziminchak, god of thunder and light-
ning. It would appear from this that the
Christian doctrines had not been so clearly
understood by the chief and his people as Cortes
imagined.

On his arrival at the Spanish settlement on
the Golfo Dulce, Cortes learned of the fate of

1 Hist, de la Conquista del Itza,

412 Fernando Cortes

Olid, and of all the adventures and afflictions
that had befallen the colonists; he was wel-
coiueil by the miserable, fever-stricken remnant
of the i)eople, witli what enthusiasm they could
still muster. After listening to the recital of
their vicissitudes and grievances, he turned
his attention to planning an exploring ex-
jHHlition through the neighbouring province of
Nicaragua, which he felt must be conquered be-
fore he returned to Mexico. At this juncture,
however, there arrived a letter from the licen-
tiate Zuazo, recounting the misrule in Mexico
that had followed close upon the departure of
Cortes from the city. The men composing the
Provisional Government had fallen to wrang-
ling,— even drawing their swords in the council
chamber, — and, after persecuting, imprisoning,
or exiling most of his friends, these men had
seized and sold his property and were per-
petrating such outrages that the Franciscans
had left the city and the entire populace lived
in daily apprehension of a mutiny of the
Indians.

The report of the absent commander's death
was so persistently spread and with such de-
tails of the time and place of his decease, that
his own friends and servants began to believe
it. To confirm the impression requiem masses
were celebrated for the repose of his souL
Diego de Ordaz started with four brigantines
on the Xicalaugo River, which empties into the

Reconstruction 413

gnlf, to ascertain, if possible, the truth of the
rumours; he met several Indian traders, who
assured him that Cortes had been dead for seven
or eight moons, having been captured after a
battle, in which he was wounded in the throat,
by the cacique of Cuzamilco, a town on the
lake seven days' distant from Xicalango; and
that the cacique had sacrificed him to the prin-
cipal deity of the place called Uchilobos.^
Zuazo's report convinced Cortes that only his
presence would suffice to restore order out of
the chaos prevailing in the capital. His first
two efforts to embark for Vera Cruz were de-
feated by severe gales, and it was not until
April 25, 1526, that he was able to set sail from
Honduras. His vessel was driven to the island
of Cuba where he remained until May 16th,
when he re-embarked and, .after a voyage of
eight days, landed near San Juan de Ulua.
His arrival was unexpected and he landed un-
noticed, proceeding directly to Medellin where he
repaired to the church and was engaged in his
devotions when the news of his presence became
public. He was so broken by the fatigues of his
expedition and so wasted by fever and wounds
that he was scarcely recognisable, and many
could hardly persuade themselves that the ema-
ciated man they saw was the gallant Malintzin.
He was received with the wildest rejoicing, the

1 Letter of Albomoz to Charles V., December 26, 1526,
apud Muiioz, torn. Ixxvii., fol. clxix.

414 Fernando Cortes

Indians outdoing the Spaniards in their en-
thusiasm; for despite the sufferings he had
brought ui)on them, he understood how to be
kind to them and, compared with the cold
brutality and insatiable rapacity of the mean-
spirited officials who had oppressed the natiyes
during his absence, the treatment of them by
Cortes seemed to this poor people that of a pa-
ternal benefactor. The Jesuit historian, Cavo,
in recounting the events of this period says that

these were surely among the happiest days of
Cortes's life, for he could hardly proceed on his
march on account of the constant demonstrations
of the crowds of Indians who came, some of them
even a distance of sixty leagues to see him and
bring him presents, so that, had he been their own
king Montezuma, they could not have behaved dif-
ferentlv. Cortes was more than once moved to tears
by such unexpected demonstrations of joy from this
simple people.

On his arrival in the capital, Cortes retired
for six days to the Franciscan monastery " to
give an account of my sins to God " as he
wrote to the Emperor. During his absence of
nearly two years, his enemies, both hidden and
declared, had sent complaints of him to Spain
by every ship; he was accused of murdering his
wife, Catalina, who had died within a few
months after her arrival in Mexico where,
though her presence was uninvited and probably

Reconstruction 415

unwelcome, she was received with the honour due
to her husband's exalted position.^ He was ac-
cused of defrauding both the royal treasury and
his companions in arms, by taking an undue
share of the spoils of war for himself, and,
finally, the accusation of plotting to set up an
independent government with himself as king
was preferred against him. These ceaseless in-
trigues decided the Emperor to send a high
commissioner with ample powers, not only to
investigate all the charges against the captain-
general, but also to report upon the general
condition of affairs in New Spain. This was the

1 This accusation, though at first adopted by Juan
Xuarez, was afterwards dropped, nor did the Xuarez
family in subsequent claims against the estate of Cortes
ever make use of it. Aleman, in the fifth of his Disertor
cionea, observes that the circumstances under which it was
made discredited it, and that it was neither considered
by the second audienda, nor did it prevent Cortes from
forming an alliance with one of the noblest families of
Castile. In the Pesquiaa Seer eta, published in the Docu-
mentoa Ineditoa de Indiaa, may be found whatever evi-
dence could be collected to establish this charge. Carefully
weighed and with due consideration of the methods em-
ployed to elicit testimony and the character and purposes
of his accusers, even the strongest points in the evidence
appear, to say the least, unconvincing.

The enemies of Cortes were at that time restrained by
no scruples in their determination to discredit him in
Spain and break his power in Mexico. In his letter to
Charles V., dated October 15, 1524, he somewhat forgot
his habitual self-control and betrayed his irritation in
immoderate language that could hardly fail to awaken
the monarch's distrust, but he prudently resisted every
provocation to acts of violence that might give colour to
the more serious accusations against him.

41 6 Fernando Cortes

means usually employed in such eases and did not
necessarily constitute any indignity to Cortes, to
whom the Emperor took occasion to write, noti-
fying him of his decision and assuring him that
it was in no sense prompted by suspicions
of his loyalty or honesty, but rather to furnish
him with the opportunity of silencing his ca-
lumniators once for all by proving his innocence.
Don Luis Ponce de Leon, a young man of high
character and unusual attainments, was charged
with this delicate mission and his appointment
was universally applauded as an admirable one.
He was received upon his arrival in Mexico by
Cortes and all the authorities with every dis-
tinction due to him, but his untimely death of
a fever, within a few weeks after his arrival,
defeated the good results expected from his
labours and also furnished the enemies of Cortes
with another accusation against him, — that of
poisoning the royal commissioner.

His powers devolved upon Marcos de Aguilar,
who was not only too old for such an arduous
post but was ill of a disease which, it was said,
obliged him to take nourishment by suckling,
for which purpose wet-nurses and she-goats
were daily furnished him. The speedy death
of this harmless old man started another story
of poisoning and was followed by the supreme
disaster of Estrada's succession to the ill-
starred commissionership, under whom the bait-
ing of Cortes went on apace, while the entire
population, Spanish as well as native, groaned

Reconstruction 417

under oppressions and vexations innumerable.
The slave-trade was carried on shamelessly with
nameless cruelties, chiefly by the brutal Nunez
de Guzman, a partisan of Diego Velasquez, who
had been placed by the latter's influence as
governor of Panuco, for the express purpose of
tormenting Cortes and fomenting cabals against
his authority. This petty tyrant committed
barbarities never before heard of in Mexico.

Wearied out with persecutions and insults,
and hopeless of obtaining justice from such
officials as Estrada and his subordinates, Cor-
tes decided to go to Spain and lay his own
case before the Emperor. His decision created
some consternation amongst his opponents, and
Estrada realised that it was a great blunder to
drive the captain-general to make a personal
appeal to the sovereign. If opposition or con-
cessions could have stopped him, Cortes would
have relinquished his pl^n, for overtures were
made through the Bishop of Tlascala, and
promises of satisfaction were not spared; but
his preparations were well under way and,
though perhaps somewhat mollified by the
changed tone of Estrada, he remained firm in
his purpose. The news of his father's death
reached him in Vera Cruz, where he had gone
to embark on his homeward voyage, and, bur-
dened with this sorrow, he sailed for the his-
toric port of Palos, where he arrived after an
unusually brief and prosperous passage, in the
month of May, 1528.

CHAPTER XVII

CLOSING SCENES — TRIUMPHS AND DISAPPOINT-
MENTS— ^THE DEATH OP CORTES

The Home-Coming — Dignities and Privileges — Second
Marriage — Nunez de Guzman — Arrival in Vera Cruz
— Marquisate of Oaxaca — ^The South Sea — Return to
Spain — Voltaire's Legend — Death of Cortes — ^Burial
of Cortes — Funeral in Mexico^Last Resting Place —
The Palermo Legend

CORTES had arranged that his arrival at
the Spanish Court should be of the nature
of a veritable pageant. Different estimates of
the treasure he took with him are given by dif-
ferent authorities, but these are mere matters
of figures; the amount was fabulous, and in
addition to this he carried a perfect museum of
Mexican objects, such as the unique feather-
work in which the Indians excelled, arms,
embroideries, implements of obsidian, rare
plants; indigenous products such as chocolate,
tobacco, vanilla, and liquid amber; gorgeous
parrots, herons, jaguars, and other beautiful
birds and animals unknown in Spain, were
carried or led by Indians, wearing the ^reaa of
their tribes. That nothing might be wanting,
he took with him many skilful jugglers, acrobats,

dwarfs, albinos, and human monstrosities, which

418

Closing Scenes 419

were much the fashion at that time, and
these curiosities made such a sensation that
Charles V. could think of no fitter destina-
tion for them than to send them on to His
Holiness Clement VII., before whom they per-
formed and showed themselves to the delight
and wonder of the pontifical court. In the
personal suite of the Conqueror, besides the
numerous officials of his household, there went
about forty Indian princes in their most gor-
geous robes and jewels, amongst whom were the
sons of Montezuma and of the Tlascalan chief,
Maxixcatzin.

The arrival of this magnificent cortege at
Palos was unannounced, and hence no fitting re-
ception had been prepared there, but accident
supplied a more remarkable grouping of in-
teresting men of the century than design could
have provided. Within the modest walls of
Santa Maria la Babida, where Columbus had
found hospitality, there met with Cortes, who
was accompanied by Gonzalo de Sandoval and
Andres de Tapia, Francisco Pizarro, whose bril-
liant career in South America, rivalling his
own in the North, was just dawning; and
by a fateful coincidence, there was also in the
suite of Cortes, the Spanish soldier, Juan de
Rada, by whose hand Pizarro was destined to
perish in Peru. The date of his arrival at
Palos is given by Bernal Diaz as December,
1527, but Herrera's authority for the later date

420 Fernando Cortes

has been followed by Prescotti Alaman, and
other historians.

The triumphal home-coming was marred at
the very outset by the death of Qonzalo de San-
doval at Palos, a few days after their landing.
For none of his captains did Cortes cherish the
affection he felt for this gallant young soldier,
who was his fellow-to\^Tisman and loyal friend.
Sandoval was buried at La Rabida, and Cortes
first went on a pilgrimage to the shrine of
Guadeloupe, where he spent some days in
mourning his loss and having masses cele-
brated for the departed soul. This pious duty
accomplished, he set out for Toledo, where the
Court then was, and, as the news of his arrival
had spread and had also been announced by
his own letter to the Emperor, he was every-
where accorded a veritable triumph by the peo-
ple, who flocked from all sides to see the hero
of the great conquest and to gaze upon the
marvellous trophies which he brought; so that
since the first return of Columbus no snch
demonstrations had been seen in Spain.

A brilliant group of nobles comprising the
Duke of Bejar, the Counts of Aguilar and
Medellin, the Grand Prior of St. John, and
many of the first citizens of Toledo, rode out
from the city to meet the conqueror on the
plain, and the next day the Emperor received
him with every mark of favour, raising him up
when he would have knelt in the royal presence,

Triumphs and Disappointments 421

and seating him by his side. The moment was
an auspicious one, for influences had been at
work in his favour. Since the appointment of
the new commission of residencia^ presided over
by the infamous Nunez de Guzman, which had
already left Spain, the Emperor's information
as to the real state of things in Mexico, and the
respective merits of the contending parties, had
been much extended and perfected. He con-
sulted Cortes during his stay at Court upon
everything pertaining to the new realm; its re-
sources, the natives, their customs, the Spanish
colonists, and especially concerning the best
means for establishing a stable government, and
developing industries and agriculture.

Besides full power to continue his explora-
tions, and the confirmation of his rank of Cap-
tain-General, the title of Marques del Valle de
Oaxaca was conferred upon Cortes and his
descendants, by patents dated July 6, 1529, to
which was joined a vast grant of lands, com-
prising twenty-eight towns and villages; one
twelfth of all his future discoveries was to be
his own. He received the knighthood and habit
of Santiago, and when he was confined to his
lodgings by illness, the Emperor visited him in
person ; this latter being such a singular honour
that, as Prescott caustically observes, the Span-
ish writers of the time seemed to regard it as
ample recompense for all he had done and
suffered. It does not seem certain that he ac-

422 Fernando Cortes

cepted the knighthood of Santiago, though
Herrera says that he had already possessed it
since 1525. His reason for his alleged refusal
was that no commenda was attached to the
dignity, and Alaman ^ says that, while his name
is on the rolls of the order, the insignia do
not appear either in his arms or his portraits,
nor is any mention found of his possession of
this grade in the list of his honours.

It is good to note that Cortes did not forget
his friends while he was at Court, but profited
by the Emperor's hour of graciousness to obtain
countless favours for them, especially for the
Indians. The Tlascalans, in recognition of their
loyalty, were exempted for ever from taxes and
tribute; the Cempoallans were granted a like
exemption for a period of two years; a college
for the sons of Mexican nobles, and another for
girls, were endowed. Money was awarded to
the Franciscan Order for building churches and
schools; tithes were established to maintain the
Bishop Zumarraga; various privileges were se-
cured for the original "conquerors" who had
settled in the country. Generous doweries were
also appointed to the four daughters of Monte-
zuma, who were being educated in a convent in
Texcoco, as well as to the daughters of Mexican
nobles who married Spaniards.

During his stay in Spain, Cortes married his
second wife Dona Juana de Zuiliga, a daughter

^ Dissertazione v.

Triumphs and Disappointments 423

of the Count of Aguilar and niece of the Duke
of Bejar. His gifts to his bride were of such
magnificence as to arouse even the Queen's envy,
especially the five large stones described as
emeralds, which excelled any jewels ever seen
and were worth a nation's ransom. There were
no emeralds in Mexico, and these stones were
probably a kind of jade or serpentine of great
brilliancy and value, which were easily con-
founded with emeralds. One of these stones
was cut as a bell, whose tongue was formed of
a large pear-shaped pearl, and which bore the
inscription henedito sea el que te crio ^j another
was shaped like a fish with golden eyes; the
third was in the form of a rose; the fourth in
that of a trumpet; and the fifth was fashioned
into a cup, surmounted by a superb pearl and
standing on a base of gold, on which was the
inscription, inter natos mulierum non surexit
major.^ For this last jewel alone, some Genoese
merchants who saw it at Palos offered forty thou-
sand ducats. The fame of these jewels was
such that the Queen expressed a wish to have
them, and, had not Cortes forestalled the royal
desire by presenting them to Dona Juana de
Zuniga as a marriage gift, they would doubtless
have passed into the crown jewels of Spain.

In the meantime, while Cortes was being
lionised and honoured in Spain, his enemies in

^ " Blessed be thy maker."

2 " Amongst men bom of women no greater has arisen."

424 Fernando Cortes

Mexico were not idle, for Nunez de Guzman
from the moment of arriving there had begun
secretly to collect information against him
and, by unscrupulous and inquisitorial methods,
easily succeeded in forming a voluminous bud-
get of accusations, among which figured the
alleged poisoning of Luis Ponce de Leon, the
conspiracy to establish himself as independent
sovereign in Mexico, defrauding the royal fisc,
and incitement of the Indians to rebel against
the royal authority while he was absent in
Spain. Encouraging the enemies of Cortes to
depose against him on the one hand, Guzman
found excuses for persecuting his friends on
the other, even to the extent of imprisoning,
torturing, and hanging them, on one pretext or
another. Things reached such a pass through
the violence of the President's conduct, that the
Bishop, Fray Juan Zumarraga, a man whose
exemplary life gave him great influence, and
the Franciscan monks, sent a vigorous protest
to Spain against Guzman and his auditors,
praying that the former be deposed. .This peti-
tion provoked an order from the Empress-Regent
and the Royal Council, to take their residencia
and that they be imprisoned if found guilty of
the abuses imputed to them. The Bishop him-
self was api)ointed, ad inter im^ President of the
new audiencia^ which was composed of Quiroga,
Salmeron, and Ceynos, pending the arrival of
the permanent President, Don Sebastian Ra-

Triumphs and Disappointments 425

mirez de Fuenleal, then Bishop of San Domingo
and afterwards of Cuenca.

Nuiiez de Guzman sought to evade the issue by
organising against the Chichimecas an expedi-
tion which he conducted with characteristic bru-
tality. He left the city of Mexico at the head of
five hundred Spaniards, and over two thousand
Indians, between auxiliaries and camp servants,
before Cortes returned from Spain.

The powers conceded to Cortes as Captain-
General, and for the continuation of his explora-
tions and discoveries, were so large, and so
ill-defined, that they could hardly fail to con-
flict with those of the royal audiencia, and this
came to pass immediately after his arrival at
Vera Cruz on July 15, 1530. The Marques, as
he was henceforward called, was accompanied
by his wife and his mother, and was received
upon landing with jubilation by Spaniards and
Indians alike, who flocked in thousands from
all parts to welcome him and to present their
grievances for his adjustment. The new audi-
encia was not yet constituted, and the auditors,
Matienzo and Delgadillo, sent strict orders to
Vera Cruz that the people assembled there to
honour Cortes should disperse to their homes,
while to Cortes himself, who had meanwhile
marched amidst ovations by the way of Tlascala
to Texcoco, they delivered a prohibition to enter
the capital. This order was in conformity with
the instructions given him before leaving Spain,

426 Fernando Cortes

so he was obliged to respect it and to establish
himself at Texcoco until the arrival of the new
audienciUy which took place in December of the
same year, 1530. At the outset everything went
well, and the new auditors rendered justice in
several pending claims and took counsel with
Cortes concerning affairs and the measures to be
adopted. This promising state of things, how-
ever, was of brief duration, and, in their letter
of February 22, 1531, to the Emperor they made
complaints of his pretensions and mentioned,
among other things, that the Bishops in reading
the prayers for the King and royal family added
after the words cum prole regia ^^ et duce exer-
citus nostri" and that they had corrected him
for doing so.

Another of their letters, in August, 1532, com-
plains of his great influence over the natives and
of his using his powers as Captain-General to
revenge himself on his enemies, adding, " He
says he will resign the Captaincy General and
return to Spain. Oh if he would only do it ! '' ^
The auditors at other times advised that he be
called to Spain on some pretext, — the more so
as he wanted to go.

The conquest finished, the Conqueror's occu-
pation was gone. His proud spirit and active
temperament could ill brook the checks of the
audiencia and the limitations set to his enter-
prises by men who neither understood nor sym-

1 Muiioz, torn. Ixxix., fol. 118.

Triumphs and Disappointments 427

pathised with them. At one time he retired in
disgust from the capital, intending to devote
himself to the administration of the affairs of his
vast marquisate of Oaxaca. In the picturesque
town of Cuernavaca he had built himself a hand-
some palace and a large church, both of which
are still standing, though in a lamentable state
of advancing dilapidation. As a planter in Cuba
he had already shown initiative and capacity,
and he profited by his former experience to
introduce successfully the sugar-cane, the silk-
worm culture, new breeds of the merino sheep,
and various other kinds of cattle. Mills for
the handling of raw products were established
in various places, and these new industries with
which Cortes endowed Mexico have continued
to be among her chief sources of wealth. But
this was insufficient to occupy his restless ac-
tivities, which, by the news of events in Peru,
and of the rich countries discovered in the South
Sea and along the Gulf of California, were
constantly excited to plan fresh enterprises. In
May, 1532, he fitted out two vessels which sailed
from Acapulco under command of his cousin
Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, one of which, with
the commander on board, was never heard of
again, while the other reached Jalisco after
many perils. The misfortunes of this expedi-
tion began with a mutiny.

Two years later (1534) he built two more
vessels at Tehuantepec which he entrusted to

428 Fernando Cortes

Hernando Grijalba and Diego de Bezerra de
Mendoza (a relative) respectively, with Ortun
Jimenez as pilot The ships got separated the
first night out and never saw one another again.
The one commanded by Grijalba discovered a
deserted island called Santo Tom6, somewhere
off the point of Lower California, and returned
thence to Teh uan tepee; the fate of the other
was tragical, for Bezerra was murdered in his
sleep by the pilot Jimenez, who took command,
and, after coasting along Jalisco, landed at the
Bay of Santa Cruz where he, with twenty Span-
iards, was killed by the natives. The remain-
ing sailors got back to the port of Chiametla
where Nunez de Guzman, who was then in
Jalisco, took possession of the vessel.

These two fruitless ventures decided Cortes
to take command himself, and in 1536 he sent
three ships from Tehuantepec to the port of
Chiametla where he joined them, marching over-
land from Mexico. He regained possession of
the ship which Guzman had seized from the
sailors of Jimenez, refitted it and set out on his
voyage, exploring the coast for some fifty leagues
beyond Santa Cruz (or La Paz), during which
trip he suffered innumerable hardships and lost
many of his men from sickness. The news of
his own death reached Mexico, and his wife sent
two ships and a caravel to look for him and
bring him back. His wife's letters, together
with others from the royal audiencia and the

Triumphs and Disappointments 429

Viceroy, Don Antonio de Mendoza, urging his
return as very necessary, decided him to
abandon further explorations and, after leav-
ing Francisco de UUoa in California, he re-
turned to Acapulco in the early part of 1537.

He sent three ships, the Santa Agueda^ La
Trinidad^ and the Santo Tomas, back to Fran-
cisco de UUoa in May of that same year, which,
after some fruitless cruising about, returned to
Acapulco, the whole venture having cost him
some two hundred thousand ducats.^ A royal
cedula, dated April 1, 1539, from Saragossa,
provided for the payment of this claim, but re-
mained ineffective.^

Thus the only results obtained from these
various undertakings were debts, and he com-
plained that he had so many that he was obliged
to raise money, even on his wife's jewels. He
wrote in despair to the Emperor that it was
easier to fight the Indians than to contend with
his Majesty's officials, and after years of litiga-
tion, during which the royal authorities seemed
to study how best to vex and circumvent him,
and after the series of useless but costly ex-
peditions in the Pacific, he started on his second
journey to Spain, which was to be his last.

A very different reception from the former one
awaited him, for the Emperor was coldly civil

^ Noticia Historica, Lorenzana Cartas de Cortes, edi-
tion 1776.
2 Alaman, Diaaertazione v. Italian translation, 1859.

430 Fernando Cortes

and the Court in consequence was colder. His
constant complaints and demands for satigfae*
tion fell upon deaf or weary ears, for Conrt
favours usually reckon more with present than
with past services, and there was nothing more
to be obtained from Cortes, who was broken
in health and no longer young. At this time,
too, Spain was all aflame with excitement over
the brilliant achievements of Pizarro in Pern,
wliich eclipsed the familiar exploits in MexiGO
now gro\ni stale.

He joined the unsuccessful expedition sent
against Algiers in 1541, in which the ship on
which he and his sons Martin and Luis sailed
was wrecked, together with eleven galleys of
Andrea Doria. They barely escaped with their
lives, and the five famous emeralds, which con-
stituted an important item in his fortune and
which he always carried on his person, were lost.

The supreme slight of leaving him out of the
council of war, summoned to consider the plan
of the campaign, was at this time put upon him,
and, to his boast that with his Mexican veterans
he could take Algiers, one of the generals super-
ciliously replied that fighting the Moors was
different work from killing naked Indians. His
situation became less and less worthv, and an
anecdote, dramatically illustrating the depth to
which he sunk, relates tliat after vain efforts
to get a hearing from tlie Emperor, he thrust
himself forward to the steps of the royal car-

Triumphs and Disappointments 431

riage where, upon perceiving him, the sovereign
haughtily exclaimed, " And who are you? " To
which Cortes proudly answered, " Sire, I am
a man who has given your Majesty more pro-
vinces than you possessed cities." What hap-
pened next we are not told. If it were true,
the incident would picture eloquently the de-
gradation of the greatest captain of his age,
forced to waylay his sovereign at his carriage
steps like the meanest beggar. There is no
evidence forthcoming, however, to show that
any such dialogue was ever spoken. Those who
have believed and repeated this story — and
they are many — have done so on the sole au-
thority of Voltaire, with whom it apparently
originated.^ He does not indicate from what
source the information reached him. The scene
as described seems to epitomise a very tragedy
of disappointment and humiliation, so, despite
the staring stamp of fiction it bears, it will
doubtless continue to pass for history when less
dramatic facts are consigned to forgetfulness.

The marriage arranged for his daughter with
a son of the Marquis of Astorga was broken oflf,
the bridegroom withdrawing because the full
amount of the stipulated dowTy was not forth-
coming, and after this mortification, Cortes ob-
tained permission to return to Mexico, travelling
first to Seville, where he was accorded a public
reception. His rapidly failing health made it

^ Esaai aur lea Mceura, cap. 147.

432 Fernando Cortes

apparent that his end was approaching, and
prompted him to withdraw for quiet to Castel-
leja de la Cuesta, a small town near Seville,
where he died in the house of a magistrate,
Juan Rodriguez, in the Calle Real, on the 2d
of December, 1547, attended by his son Don
Martin.

One of the most notable things in his last will
is the mention of his doubts about the right of
holding slaves. He admonished his eldest son
to look well into the question, and if it should
be decided by competent opinion that the prac-
tice was T\Tong, he must act in accordance with
strict justice; meanwhile he must give great
attention to the welfare and education of his
people. He left a foundation and endowment
fund for the hospital of Jesus {la Concepcion)
in Mexico, and for a college and monastery at
Coyohuacan, but the funds ran short and only
the hospital was really established according to
his intention. Masses were directed to be said
at his father's tomb, and two thousand masses
were provided for the souls of those who had
fought with him in the conquest, a provision
that cannot be considered in excess of their
probable spiritual necessities.

In his will it was also provided that his body
should be buried wherever he died for a period
of ten years, at the expiration of which time
it was to be taken to Mexico, to be there
entombed in the monastery he had founded in

The Death of Cortes 433

Coyohuacan; his remains were consequently
first laid to rest with fitting ceremonies in the
family chapel of the Dukes of Medina Sidonia,
in the Church of San Isidro at Seville.

The following epitaph was composed by his
son Martin:

Padre, cuya suerte impropiamente
Aqueste l)ajo mundo poseia,
Valor que nuestra edad enriquecia

Descansa ahora en paz, eternamente.^

There his body lay, until by order of his son
Don Martin Cortes, second Marques del Valle,
it was removed in 1562 to Mexico, but, contrary
to the provisions in the will, the place of se-
pulture was chosen in the monastery of St.
Francis in Texcoco, where his mother and one
of his daughters were already buried.

In 1629 Don Pedro Cortes, fourth Marques
del Valle, died in Mexico, and with his death
the line of male descendants of Cortes came to
an end.

It was decided between the Viceroy, the Mar-
ques de Serralbo, and the Archbishop of Mexico,
D. Francisco Manso de Zuniga, to transfer the
body of the conqueror to the capital and bury it
with that of his last descendant in the Church
of St. Francis.

An elaborate funeral procession was organ-
ised, which set forth from the Cortes palace

1 Andres Calvo, Loa Trea Sighs de Mexico,

a8

434 Fernando Cortes

headed by all the religions associations and con-
fraternities, carrying their respective banners^
after which followed the civil tribunals. Next
came the Archbishop accompanied by the cathe-
dral chapter in full canonicals. The body of
Don Pedro Cortes was exposed to view in an
open coffin carried by Knights of the Chapter pf
Santiago, while the coffin of his great ancestor,
covered with a black velvet pall, was borne by
the royal judges, escorted by standard bearers
carrying a white banner on which were em-
broidered the figures of the Blessed Virgin and
St. John; another displaying the royal arms of
Spain and a third of black velvet showing the
arms of the Marques del Valle. Members of
the university followed, and the procession
closed with the Viceroy and all his court with
an escort of soldiers carrying arms reversed and
banners trailing. This funeral pageant — ^prob-
ably the most magnificent ever seen in the new
world — advanced to the accompaniment of
muffled drums and solenm chantings, halting at
six diflferent places for brief religious rites.

During more than a century and a half the
bones of Cortes were left undisturbed, until in
1794 they were moved once more, and this time
to the hospital of Jesus of Nazareth, which he
had founded and endowed and in whose chapel
a tomb was prepared to receive the body,
which was coffined in a crystal case riveted with
silver bars. Would that this change had been

The Death of Cortes 435

the last, and that the pilgrimages of this poor
body had ended within the walls its owner's
piety had built.

During the period of unrest that followed
immediately upon the establishment of Mexican
independence, a design was said to have been
formed by some "patriots" to rifle the tomb
and scatter the conqueror's ashes to the winds,
of which profanation the authorities were said
to be aware; but seem to have been either un-
willing or unable to prevent. Others contrived
to forestall the threatened violation, and from
1823 the body of Cortes disappeared. Senor
Garcia Icacbalceta wrote to Mr. Henry Harrisse
upon the subject saying:

The place of the present sepulture of Cortes is
wrapped in mystery. Don Lucas Alaman has told
the history of the remains of this great man. With-
out positively saying so, he lets it be understood
that they were taken to Italy.

It is generally believed that the bones of Cortes
are in Palermo. But some persons insist that they
are still in Mexico, hidden in some place absolutely
unknown. Notwithstanding the friendship with
which Seflor Alaman has honoured me, I never could
obtain from him a positive explanation; he would
always find some pretext to change the conversation.

SeSor Alaman's description of what occurred
in 1823 is substantially as follows:

Early in the year 1822 discussions began in

436 Fernando Cortes

the Mexican Congress, in which the pFoject
of destroying the monument in the hospital (of
Jesus) chapel was mooted; in the month of
August of that year, Father Mier, in the hope
of forestalling the intended desecration, pro-
posed that the monument should be transferred
to the National Museum. The following year,
1823, was marked by the transi)ort to the capi-
tal of the remains of the patriots who had
proclaimed the independence of 1810, and cer-
tain newspapers published violent articles, in-
citing the people to celebrate this event by rifling
the tomb of the conqueror, and burning his
body at St. Lazaro. Fearing the execution of
this threat, which would have left an indelible
stain on the national honour, the Vicar-General
directed the chaplain of the hospital to conceal
the body in a secure place, and both Sefior
Alaman himself and Count Fernando Lucchesi,
who represented the Duke of Terranova's in-
terests in Mexico at that time, assisted at the
temporary hiding away of the remains under
the steps of the altar. The bust and arms of
gilded bronze were sent to the Duke of Terra-
nova in Palermo, and the dismantled monument
remained in the chapel until 1833, when it also
disappeared.^

Thus far Senor Alaman is as explicit as pos-
sible, but concerning the final resting place of

1 Alaman, Diaaertazione v. Italian translation by Pelaez,
1859.

The Death of Cortes 43 7

the body he says nothing whatever on his own
account, closing the subject by introducing a
quotation from Dr. Mora (who, he says, was
the first to publish these facts), which states
that " afterwards the remains were sent to his
family.'^

In the collaborated work published under the
special direction of Don Vincente Riva Palacio,
entitled Mexico a Traves los Siglos, it is stated
in a note on page 353 of the second volume
that the remains were sent to the Duke of Mon-
teleone in Italy in 1823 {^^fueren rimitidos a
Italia a la casa de los Duques de Monteleone^^).
In the chapters of the fourth volume, which
chronicle the events of the year 1823, no men-
tion is made of this occurrence, which it would
surely seem was of sufficient importance to
merit notice.

If the remains of the conqueror were taken
to Palermo or consigned to the family of the
Dukes of Monteleone, there is no record of the
transaction, nor is any tradition of it known,
even by hearsay, to the present members of the
family, or to the keepers of the family archives.

Not the least of the glories of the Pignatelli
family, which has kept its place among the fore-
most of Sicily and Naples, is their descent from
the Spanish conqueror of Mexico, and it seems
inadmissible that the body of this illustrious
ancestor should arrive at Palermo as recently
as 1823, be buried nobody knows where, and no

43 8 Fernando Cortes

record of any sort be kept of snch an important
and interesting event in the annals of the family.
The absence, therefore, of any record, or even
oral tradition, of such an event seems to be at
least a negative proof that it never took place.
It is qnite thinkable that the custodians of the
hospital chapel, where the body lay in 1823,
should have invented and circulated the fiction
of its transport out of the country to convince
the intending desecrators that it had been put
beyond their reach; meanwhile it was easy to
hide the coffin in some secret place, doubtless
within the walls of the hospital itself, where it
may still lie in a forgotten grave. The l^end
of the transport to Italy and the burial in Pa-
lermo being thus started and doubtless dili-
gently spread with a puri)ose, encountered no
contradiction, and, with the death of the neces-
sarily few persons who possessed the secret, all
knowledge of the facts was lost, while the in-
vention passed from legend into history, and
has been commonly accepted and quoted.

The Republic of Mexico has emerged from its
period of infancy, and has successfully survived
the trials, and perilous struggles, which all new
nations must traverse to reach the state of per-
manent and prosperous peace, indisi)ensable to
national greatness. The four hundredth anniver-
sary of the discovery and conquest, which looms
in sight, will find her in the foremost ranks of
the republics of the New World, and these great

The Death of Cortes 439

events will doubtless be commemorated by be-
coming celebrations, which shall suitably revive
the memory of the great conqueror, and his
intrepid allies of Tlascala. If there be any clue
or trace by which the body of Cortes can be
found, it should be diligently followed up, until
the remains are recovered and restored to the
place of honour in the national pantheon.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE MAN

Appearance and Habits of Cortes — Comparison with
Caesar — His Piety — ^Alleged Cruelty — His Morals —
Judgment of Slavery — Conclusion

FERNANDO CORTES was a man of medium
height, deep chested and slender limbed;
his complexion was rather pale, and his expres-
sion was serious — even sad, though the glance
of his eyes, which in repose were impenetrable,
could be kindly and responsive. His hair and
beard were dark and rather scanty.

Trained from his youth to the exercise of
arms, he was a most dexterous swordsman, Tery
light on his feet, and at home in the saddle.

His speech was calm, nor did he ever use
oaths or strong language, nor give way to ex-
hibitions of temper, though a mounting flush
and the swelling veins of his forehead betrayed
his mastered passion, when he was vexed, while
a characteristic gesture of annoyance or im-
patience was the casting aside of his cloak.

He dressed with exquisite care and great
sobriety, eschewing any excess of ornament.
One splendid jewel adorned his hand, a gold
medal of the Blessed Virgin, with St. John on

the reverse, hung from a finely wrought gold

440

The Man 441

chain around his neck, and just under the
feathers of his cap was also a gold medal ; these
were his only ornaments. He had some know-
ledge of Latin, and many of the psalms, hymns,
and parts of the Church liturgy, which he knew
by heart, he was fond of reciting.

Though careless of his food, he was a great
eater, but moderate in drinking and no one
could better withstand privations than he, as
was constantly shown on his long marches.
His chief relaxation was games of chance, in
which he indulged habitually, but dispassion-
ately, making either his winnings or losses a
subject for jokes and laughter. When strict
laws were enacted suppressing gambling in
Mexico, his enemies alleged that he himself
violated the law, and that the tables and cards
were always ready in his own house.

The absence, or control of impulse in Cortes
saved him from many a disaster which daring
alone would have brought upon a leader of
equal boldness but less wisdom, placed as he
was. Perhaps the most supremely audacious
act which history records is the seizure of Mon-
tezuma in the midst of his own court, and his
conveyance to the Spanish quarters; an under-
taking so stupefying in its conception and so
incredible in its execution that only the multi-
tude and unanimity of testimony serve to re-
move it from the sphere of fable into that of
history. This, however, was not an act of mere

442 Fernando Cortes

daring, but, as he explains to the Emperor in his
second letter, a measure of carefully pondered
policy.

The strength, also, of his position invariably
lay in the identity of his ambitions with the
interests of the crown; he was always right.
By no other conceivable policy could he have
accomplished what he did. The men whom
Velasquez, in his helpless rage, sent to super-
sede or overthrow him, were mere playthings
for his far-seeing statecraft and his overpower-
ing will. The story of these events appears in
all its wonderful simplicity and astounding
significance, told in his own words in his
letters to Charles V., which have been compared
with the Commentaries of Caesar on his
campaigns in Gaul, without suffering by the
comparison.

Gaul, when overrun and conquered by Julius
Csesar, possessed no such political organisation
as did the Aztec Empire when it was subdued
by Cortes. There were neither cities comparable
with Tlascala and Cholula, nor was there any
central military organisation corresponding to
the triple alliance of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and
Tlacopan, with their vast dependencies, from
which countless hordes of warriors were drawn.
On the other hand, while Capsar led the flower
of the Roman legions, Cortes captained a mixed
band of a few hundred men, ill-trained, undis-
ciplined, indifferent to schemes of conquest and

The Man 443

bent only on their own individual aggrandise-
ment; of whom man;j^ were also disaffected
towards the commanders and required alter-
nate cajoling and threats to hold them in hand.
The very men who were sent under Narvaez to
depose him and bring him back in chains to
Cuba, deserted their commander and remained
in Mexico, fighting under his victorious banner.
The mission of Cristobal de Tapia and its in-
glorious failure illustrate the deplorable conflict
of authorities which rendered the Spanish colo-
nial administration of that time almost farcical.
The confusion and uncertainty prevailing in the
direction of colonial aflfairs left many loop-
holes of escape for all who wished to disregard
unpalatable orders.

The foundations of a liberal and indepen-
dent colonial administration already existed in
Mexico, on which a stable system of govern-
ment might have been built up, but unfortu-
nately these principles, which were better known
to Spaniards in that century than to any other
continental people, were in their decadence.
Under Charles V., began the disintegration of
the people's liberties, which affected likewise
the government of all the dependencies, and the
system of rule by Viceroys and a horde of ra-
pacious bureaucrats was initiated, which lasted
in Latin- America until the last Spanish colony
disappeared with the proclamation of Cuba's
independence.

444 Fernando Cortes

Cortes was a man of unfeigned piety, of tbe
stuff of which martyrs are made; nor did his
conviction that he was leading a holy crusade
to win lost souls to salvation ever waver. He
says in his Ordenanzas at Tlascala that, were
the war carried on for any other motive than
to overthrow idolatry and to secure the salvation
of so many souls by converting the Indians to
the holy faith, it would be unjust and obnoxious,
nor would the Emperor be justified in reward-
ing those wlio took part in it.

Among other ordinances govemiog the moral
and religious welfare of the people in Mexico
after the conquest, was one which prescribed,
under pain of stripes, attendance at the instrne-
tions in Christian doctrine, given on Sundays
and feast days. The Jesuit historian Cavo *
says that on one occasion, when Cortes had him-
self been absent, he was reprimanded from
the pulpit on the following Sunday, and, to the
stupefaction of the Indians, submitted to the
prescribed flogging in public. He resembled
the publican who struck his breast and invoked
mercy for his sins, rather than the Pharisee
who found his chief cause for thankfulness in
the contemplation of his own superior virtues.
Prescott was uncertain whether this submission
to a public whipping should be attributed to
"bigotry" or to "policy." It seems to have
been first of all an act of simple consistency^

> Loa Tree Stgloa de Mexico, torn. 1-

4

The Man 445

by which the commander sanctioned the law he
had himself established. Precept is ever plenti-
ful but example is the better teacher, and a more
striking and unforgetable example of the equal-
ity of all under the law, it would indeed be
difficult to find in history.

His religious zeal was sometimes intemperate,
nor was it always guided by prudence, but he
usually showed wisdom in submitting to the re-
straining influence of some handy friar, whose
saner and more persuasive methods promised
surer results than his own strenuous system of
conversion would have secured. The restraints
the commander placed on the license of his
soldiers might well have been prompted by his
policy of winning the friendly confidence of the
Indians, but his measures for repressing pro-
fanity of every sort, gambling and other camp
vices, and his insistence upon daily mass, prayer
before, and thanksgivings after battle, are trace-
able to no such motive, and it is more than
once recorded that the Indians were profoundly
impressed by the decorous solemnity of the
religious ceremonies they witnessed and the
devotion shown by the Spaniards.

Shortcomings in the practice of the moral
precepts of religion, either in that century or
in this, are not confined to men who find them-
selves cut adrift from the usual restraints of
civilised society, isolated and paramount amidst
barbarians, whose inferior moral standard pro-

446 Fernando Cortes

Tides COD Stan t and easy temptations to lapse;
and, while it were as difficult as it is unneces-
sary to attempt a defence of tlie excesses which
the Spaniards undoubtedly committed in Mex-
ico, it is equally impossible to condemn them
as exceptional. Prescott acquits Cortes of the
imputation of insincerity, and declares that no
one who reads his correspondence, or studies
the events of his career, can doubt that he
would have been the first to lay down his life
for the faith.

To the scoffing philosopher of the eighteenth
century, these crusading buccaneers in whose
characters the mystic and the sensualist fought
for the mastery seemed but knaves, clumsily
masquerading as fools. The fierce piety, which
furnished entertainment to the age of Voltaire,
somewhat puzzles our own. Expeditions now
set forth into dark continents unburdened with
professions of concern for the spiritual or
moral welfare of the natives. Indeed, nothing
is deemed more foolish than attempts to inter-
fere with the religious beliefs and practices of
barbarians, and the commander in our times
who would overturn an idol merely to set up a
wooden cross, thereby exposing his followers to
the risk of being massacred, would be court-
martialled and degraded, if, indeed, he ventured
to return to civilisation.

The accusation of cruelty, too lightly brought
against Cortes, has been diligently propagated

The Man 447

by the interested and complacently accepted
by the indiscriminating, until dissent from it
awakens incredulous surprise. Nevertheless, all
that can be learned of his character proves that
he was not by nature cruel, nor did he take
wanton pleasure in the sufferings of others.
Conciliation and coercion were both amongst
his weapons, his natural preference being for
the former, as is seen by his never once failing,
in his dealings with the Indians, to exhaust
peaceful methods before resorting to force. The
secret of carrying on a war of conquest merci-
fully has not yet been discovered, and recent
reports from Africa and the Philippines do not
show much advance on the policy of the Span-
iards in Mexico four hundred years ago, though
it cannot be pretended that our modern expedi-
tions are attended by the perils, known, and
most of all unknown, which awaited the igno-
rant adventurers in the New World at every
turn.

There were three ends which, according to
the ethics of Cortes, justified any measures for
their accomplishment, 1st, the spread of the
faith, 2d, the subjugation of the Indians to
Spanish rule, and 3d, the possession of their
treasures; and as the narrative of the conquest
unfolds itself, it is seen that his resolution
stopped at nothing for the achievement of these
ends. But there is no instance of tortures and
suffering being treated by him as a sport.

448 Fernando Cortes

Whether he might not have accomplished all he
did with less bloodshed, is a purely speculative
question. Acosta^ states that so entirely were
the Mexicans imbued with the belief that
the Spaniards came in fulfilment of the pro-
phecy of their most beneficent deity, Quetzalcoatl,
that Montezuma would have abdicated and the
whole empire have passed into their hands with-
out a struggle, had Cortes but comprehended
the force of the prevailing superstition and met
the popular expectation by rising consistently
to his role of demigod. There are facts which
tend to lend weight to this argument, and had
Cortes but realised the possibilities, he might
have been equal to the part, though his fol-
lowers fell so lamentably short that it is doubt-
ful if the illusion could have been long sustained.
As it was, the awful tragedy of the Sorrotoful
Nighty and the downfall, amidst bloodshed and
suffering unspeakable, of Mexico, was precipi-
tated by the brutal folly of Alvarado, — ^not of
Cortes. 2

In his relations with women, Cortes reveals a
primitive, polygamous temperament. Even at
the age of sixteen in his native Medellin, we
find him falling from a wall and all but losing
his life in an amorous adventure with an anony-

1 Historia de las Indtas, lib. vii., cap. xxv.

2 One of the neatest blunders of judfi^nent recorded of
CorteSy is his selection of the impetuous Alvarado for
such a delicate command.

The Man 449

mous fair one, and throughout his life these
intrigues succeeded one another unbrokenly;
but his loves were so entirely things " of his
life apart," that their influence upon his mo-
tives or his actions is never discernible. He
belonged to the type of universal lover on whom
women exert no influence. In Cuba his role of
Don Juan brought him into a conflict with the
Governor, which was the origin of their life-
long duel for supremacy in the colonies. But
Catalina Xuarez, about whom the trouble first
began, is quickly lost sight of; she passes like
a pale shade across that epoch of her husband's
existence and is never heard of again, until her
uninvited presence in Mexico, followed quickly
by her unlamented death, is briefly mentioned.
The most important woman in his life was his
Indian interpreter, Marina, and some writers
have sought to weave a romance into the story
of their relations, for which there seems, upon
examination, to be little enough substantial ma-
terial. During the period when she was indis-
pensable to the business in hand, she was never
separated from Cortes, but we know that he
was not faithful to her even then, while, as soon
as she ceased to be necessary, she was got rid
of as easily as she had been acquired.

Montezuma gave him his daughter, who first
received Christian baptism to render her worthy
of the commander's companionship and was

known as Dona Ana. She lived openly with

29

450 Fernando Cortes

Cortes in his quarters, and had her two sisters,
Inez and Elvira with her, and a sister of the
King of Texcoco who was called Dona P>an-
cisca. Doiia Ana was killed during the retreat
on the Sorrowful Xight, and was pregnant at the
time. A fourth daughter of the Emperor, Dofia
Isabel, married Alonso de Grado, who shortly
afterwards died, when she also passed into the
household of the conqueror, to whom she bore
a daughter.^ According to Juan Tirado, two of
Montezuma's daughters bore sons to Cortes, and
one bore a daughter.^

In his last will, Cortes mentions another
natural daughter, whose mother was Leonor
Pizarro, who afterwards married Juan de
Saucedo.

It is thus positively known that besides Ma-
rina there were four other ladies who shared
in his affections during this period of the
conquest, and meanwhile his first wife Catalina
Xuarez la Marcaida was alive in Cuba. These
undisguised philanderings must have somewhat
blighted Marina's romance.

His marriage with Dona Juana de Zu&iga
took place when he was at the zenith of his
fame. The advantages such an alliance with a
noble and powerful family of Castile seemed to

1 Bemal Diaz, cap. evil. ; Bemaldino Vasquez de Tapia,
torn, ii., pp. 244, 305-306; Gonzalo Mejia, torn, ii., pp.
240-241.

2 Orozco y Berra, Conquisto de Mexico, lib. ii., cap. vL,
note.

The Man 451

promise, though many, were perhaps not as tan-
gible as the ambitious conqueror had hoped.
The marriage was negotiated before he and the
lady had met, but it does not appear to have
been less happy for this conformity to a cus-
tom which at that time was universal in noble
families. DoSa Juana could have seen but little
of her restless husband, who was perpetually
engaged elsewhere, but she was a good wife
and loved him, just as did Catalina Xuarez and
all his mistresses, while his uxorious instincts
made it easy for him to be equally happy with
each of them. He was affectionate and tender,
devoted to all of his children, distinguishing but
little between his legitimate and his natural off-
spring in a truly patriachal fashion. For the
latter he secured Bulls of legitimacy from the
Pope, and provided generously in his will. Not
less strong was his filial piety, and among the
first treasure sent to Spain, there went gifts to
his father and mother in Medellin, and, after
his father's death, he brought his mother to
Mexico where she died and was buried in the
vault at Texcoco, where his own body was
afterwards laid.

His undertakings subsequent to the fall of
Mexico called for the exercise of qualities
hardly less remarkable, though of a different
order, and it was absence of productive success
which has caused them to be overlooked in a
world where results count for more than effort.

452 Fernando Cortes

It was never the policy of the Spanish crown
to entrust tlie government of dependencies to
tlieir discoverers or conquerors, and when power-
ful friends at court sought in 1529 to prevail
upon Charles V. to grant Cortes supreme
power in Mexico, under the crown, his Majesty
was not to be persuaded; and in refusing he
pointed out that his royal predecessors had
never done this, even in the case of Columbus,
or of Gonsalvo de Cordoba, the conqueror of
Naples. Had it been possible, however, for the
Emperor to free himself from the suspicions
fomented by the persistent intrigues of the
enemies of Cortes, especially from the jealous
fear of a possible aspiration to independent
sovereignty, it cannot be doubted that the wisest
thing, both for Mexico and for the royal inter-
ests, would have been the installation of Cortes
in as independent a vice-royalty as was com-
patible with the maintenance of the royal su-
premacy. While Cortes, in common with all
his kind, loved gold, he was not a mere vulgar
plunderer, seeking to hastily enrich himself, at
no matter what cost to the country, in order to
retire to a life of luxury in Spain. Moreover,
even granting that he had started with no larger
purpose, it is plain that he was himself at the
outset unconscious, both of his own powers and
of the strange drama about to unfold, in which
destiny reserved him the first part By the
time the conquest was completed, his know-

The Man 453

ledge of the possibilities of Mexico had so
expanded, that his views on all questions
connected with the occupation, the government,
and the future welfare of the country had de-
veloped from the hazardous schemes of a
mere adventurer into the matured policy of
a statesman. The* constantly revived accusa-
tion of aspiring to independent sovereignty
was a myth, for the Emperor had no more
faithful subject than Cortes, in whom the dual
mainsprings of action were religion and
loyalty.

His better judgment condemned the system of
encomiendas and only admitted slavery as a
form of punishment for the crime of rebellion,
even then to be mitigated by every possible safe-
guard. Far from driving the natives from their
homes or wishing to deport them to the islands,
he used every inducement to encourage them to
remain in their towns, to rebuild their cities,
and resume their industries, realising full well
that the true strength of government, as well
as the surest source of revenue, lay in a pacific
and busy population. To this end he adopted
the system of restoring or maintaining the na-
tive chiefs in their jurisdiction and dignity, im-
posing upon them the obligation of ruling their
tribes, — and persuading those who had been
frightened away to the mountains to return to
their villages. The exceptions to this policy
were in the cases of certain rebellious princes,

454 Fernando Cortes

whom he considered powerful enough to be
dangerous.

That he understood the Indians and had
a kindly feeling for them, is proven many times
over, while the proofs of their affection fop him
are even more numerous. Malintzin was a name
to conjure with amongst them, and while familiar
relations with most of the other Spaniards speed-
ily bred contempt, their attachment to Cortes in-
creased as time went on. The iron policy which
used massacres, torture, and slavery for its in-
struments of conquest did not revolt the In-.
dians, since it presented no contrast to the usage
common among themselves in time of war; va
victis comprised the ethics of native kings who,
in addition to wars for aggrandisement of terri-
tory and increase of glory, also waged them
solely to obtain victims for the sacrificial altars
of their gods. This ghastly levy ceased with the
introduction of Malintzin's religion, and he
brought no hitherto unfamiliar horror as a
substitute for it.

Except the independent Tlascalans, all the
other peoples of An^huac were held in stem
subjection by the Aztec Emperor; heavy taxes
were collected from them, human life was with-
out value, torture was in common use; their
sons were seized for sacrifice, their daughters
replenished the harems of the confederated
kings and great nobles, so that Cortes was wel-
comed as the liberator of subject peoples, the

The Man 455

redresser of wrongs. He had procured them
the sweets of a long nourished, but despaired of,
vengeance, and, though it was but the exchange
of one master for another, they tasted the satis-
faction of having squared some old scores with
their oppressors. The conquest completed, Cor-
tes bent all his efforts to creating systems of
government under which the different peoples
might live and prosper in common security, and,
with the disappearance of the need for them, the
harsher methods also vanished. Few of his
cherished intentions were realised, however, and
the power which would have enabled him to
bring his wiser plans to fruition was denied
him.

The fruits of conquest are bitterness of spirit
and disappointment, though Cortes fared better
than his great contemporaries Columbus, Bal-
boa, and Pizarro, who, after discovering con-
tinents and oceans and subduing empires, were
requited with chains, the scaffold, and the trai-
tor's dagger. True, he saw himself defrauded
of his deserts, while royal promises were found
to be elastic ; and in his last years he was even
treated as an importunate suppliant, being ex-
cluded from the presence of the sovereign to
whose crown he had given an empire.

Lesser men would have been content with the
world-wide fame, the great title and vast estates
to which, from modest beginnings, Cortes had
risen in a few brief years, but a lesser man

456 Fernando Cortes

would never have aceomplislied such vast un-
dertakings, and it was his curse that his am-
bition kept pace with his achievements. Prom
the fall of Mexico until his death, his life was
a series of disappointments, unfulfilled am-
bitions, and petty miseries, due to the malice
of rivals and the faitlilessness of friends, re-
lieved only by some brief periods of splendid
triumph, illumined by royal favour.

In reviewing his career, the quality that most
conspicuously shines forth and inost impera-
tively commands our unqualified admiration is
his genius for leadership. With inadequate
means, he undertook and successfully accom-
plished one of the greatest military enterprises
of which we have knowledge. If we but con-
sider the inharmonious elements composing his
forces, we may in some measure realise the im-
mense and resistless power of his gift of com-
mand over others. To the motley collection of
gentlemen adventurers, gold-seekers, piratical
sailors, and amnestied criminals who composed
his force, he added hordes of savage allies drawn
from tribes divided by generations of blood-feud,
and it was over such warring elements that he
exercised a masterful leadership in which he
blended astute elasticity with inflexible firmness.
Bravery, constancy, and patience are numbered
among his virtues; an opportunist in veracity,
he was neither more nor less unscrupulous in
his statecraft than were the opponents whom

The Man 457

he encountered and defeated in the game of
diplomacy.

Great feats of arms are only accomplished
at the cost of infinite suffering and much blood-
shed, involving whole nations, and the fame
of military heroes is commensurate with the
magnitude of the devastation they accomplish.
It is, therefore, within the boundaries of per-
missible evil that we must keep, in judging
these scourges of humanity who, from time to
time, discharge their mysterious mission amidst
the tears and lamentations of the innocent, upon
whom the horrors of war fall most heavily.
Wars of invasion, however unjust in principle
and desolating in their effects, may be waged
by methods and for ends that compel our ulti-
mate approval, however much our humane sen-
timents may deplore their beginnings.

Judged by the moral standard of his times,
the religious and patriotic motives that swayed
Cortes, blended though they were with personal
ambition and greed, sanctified the end for which
he fought; judged by the military standard of
that age, he conducted his conquest by such
means as the rules of warfare sanctioned.
Greatest, by far, of all the Spanish conquerors
wlio baptised the New World with blood, the
legend on his emerald cup might well serve as
the epitaph of Fernando Cortes:

Inter nates mulierum
Non surrexit major.

INDEX

Acamapatzin VIIL, the
reign of, 47, 48

Acolhua, the tribe of, 47

Acolhuacan, the throne of,
308; the capture of the
capital of, 311

Acolman, the dispute at, 343

Aculhua Tecutl, the title of,
208

AdelantadOf 2l royal ap-
pointment as, 392

Adrian, Cardinal, the re-
gent of Spain, 333

Aguilar, Geronimo de, a
native of Encija, 32

Aguilar, Marcos de, the
death of, 416

Ahuilizapan, the delay at,
235

Ahuitzotl, the human sac-
rifices ordered by, 212;
mentioned, 314

Alaman, Senor, the opinion
of, 2, 43

Alaminos, the pilot, 69

Albornoces, the garment
called, 169

Albornoz, Rodrigo de, as
revenue officer, 402

Alcantara, an hidalgo of,
271

Alderete, Julian de, the

royal treasurer, 321
Altamirano, Catalina Piz-
arro, the wife of Fer-
nando Cortes, 41
Alva, the Duke of, 396
Alvarado, Alonso de, be-
comes regidor, 86
Alvarado, Jorge de, men-
tioned, 359
Alvarado, Pedro de, the cap-
tain, 17; the expedition
of, 86, 88
Alvarez, Juan, the pilot, 78
Amecameca, the arrival at,

178
Anacoana, the Queen of, 6
Anahuac, the altars at, 155,
212; the civilisation of,
381
Andhuacs, the nations of,

44 ff
Anales de Aragon, by Tor-
res, 2
Aniguayagua, the province

of, 6
Apan, the halt at, 283
Architecture, the, of Mex-
ico, 52
Argensola, the genealogist, 1
Aristotle, the belief of, 44
Arms of Charles V., the, as
a battle standard, 138

459

460

Index

AstorgsL, the Marquis of,
mentioned, 431

Audiencia, the, of San Do-
mingo, 225, 333

Avila, Alonso de, gasLrds the
treasure, 272; the mission
of, 384

Avila, Francisco de, the
captain, 17

Axayacatl, the Emperor, 49,
197; the palace of, 191

Ayachapichtla, the fight at,
321

Ay 11 on, Lucas Vasquez de,
the power entrusted to,
225

Azcapozalco, the town of,
319

Aztec capital, the approach
to the, 174 ff

Aztec Empire, the extent of,
43 ff; civilisation, 47; in-
stitutions, 58; the weak-
ness of the, 379

Aztec language, the, 81

Azua, the town of, 6

B

Bacallaos, the sea of cod-
fish, 386

Banderas River, the naming
of the, 18

Baoruca, the province of, 6

Barbo, Pedro, the lieu-
tenant-governor, 26; com-
mand of, 296; the death
of, 356

Batitismo de Monteuhzoma
II., by Remirez, 270

Bejar, the Duke of, the
friendship of, for Cortes,
392, 420

Benevente, Padre Toribio
de, 399

Bermudez, Beatriz, the hero-
ism of, 365

Berra, Orozco y, the writ-
ings of, 35

Boca de Terminos, the ex-
ploration of, 33

Botello, Bias, the astrologer,
265

Boumous, a variety of man-
tle, 169

Brass in Mexico, 191

Brigantines, plan to con-
struct, on Lake Tezeoco,
207; the launching of, 839

Bull, the papal, the provi-
sions of, 36

Caballero, Pedro, the cap-
tain of the port, the wiles
of, 296

Cacamatzin, the King, as an
envoy, 179; the election
of, 208; the plan of, 253

Calle de la Feria, the house
of Cortes in, 2

Calpulalpan, invitation to
Cortes to visit, 156

Caltanmic, the lord of, 121

Calzada de Iztapalapan, the
road known as the, 182

Camargo, Diego Munoz, the
opinion of, 270; the
pedition of, 297

Index

461

Camargo, Munoz, the his-
torian, 154
Cannon, the silver, 396
Cano, Juan, estimate of the

Spanish losses, 277
Carbajal, Dr., deposition

taken before, 109
Carta de Relacion, the, of

the magistrates, 106
Carta de Relacion, the 2d,

to Charles V., 298
Casa de Contractacion, a

complaint lodged with the,

108
Castellano, the value of the,

77, 181
Castellija de la Cuesta, Cor-
tes at, 432
Castillo, Bernal Diaz del,

the account of, 6; the

writing of, 11
Catalina, the daughter of

Cortes, 394
Catapult, the trial of the,

367
Catholic faith, the extent of,

in Mexico, 190
Catoche, Cape, 30
Catoche, the battle at, 16
Catzolcin, the envoys sent

to, 385
Causeways, the admirable

construction of the, 50,

179
Ceibatris, the, 36
Celebration, the, after the

fall of Mexico, 376
Cempoal, the people of,

187
Cempoalla, the city of, 81,

92

Cermeno, Diego, the death

of, 110
Cervantes, Alonso de, the

letter of, 221
Ceutla, the village of, 37;

the battle of, 38
Chalchuich, a name given to

Cortes, 154
Chalco, the tribe of, 47; the

province, 179
Chichimeca period, the

length of the, 47
Chichimecas, the migrations

of the, 47
Chila, the lake of, 392
Chimalhuacan-Chalco, the

town of, 324
Ckinampua, the floating

gardens, 179
Chinantla, the Spaniards in,

222
Chirino, Pero Armildez, sent

as revenue officer, 402
Cholula, the city of, 157,

159; the entry into, 160;

the fate of, 294
Cholula pyramid, the, 157
Cholulan conspiracy, the,

155 ff
Christian religion, the sub-
stitution of the, 380
Churutecal, the city of,

151
Cihuacoathicotzin, the

herald, 368
Cisnero, Cardinal Ximenez

de, 20
Clemencin, Senor, the com-
putations of, 76
Coanacochtzin, the King of

Texcoco, 310

462

Index

Coatepantli, the temple wall,
215; the wall of serpents
at, 348

Coatzacoalco River, the
settlement on the, 211

Coatzin, a strong garrison
under, 325

Codex Ramirez, by Berra,
258

Cofre del Perote, the ex-
tinct volcano, 120

Cohuanacox, the King of
Texcoco, after the in-
vasion, 408; the death of,
411

Colhua, the gold from, 39

Colima, the expedition to,
391

Columbus, Don Diego, the
Viceroy of the avdiencia,
6, 333

Conquest of Mexico, by
Prescott, 114

Conquista de Mexico, by
Berra, 269

Copalco, Montezuma's body
at, 269

Copper in Mexico, 192

Cordoba, Francisco Her-
mandez de, the rich
planter, 15; the death of,
16; the expedition of, 68

Cordoba, Gonzalvo de, a
military leader, 3

Coria, Bernaldino de, the
conspirator, 110

Corrol, the ensign bearer,
356

Cortes, Don Martin, the son
of Fernando Cortes, 433

Cortes, Fernando, early

years of, 1 ff; takes a de-
gree of bachelor of laws,
2, 3; receives an eneth
mienda, 8; the marriage
of, 12; becomes alcalde,
14; becomes coxmnander
of the expedition, 21; the
disobedience of, 25 ff;
first great battle of, 40 if;
hailed as liberator, 48;
first interview of, 78;
resigns from autliority
granted by Velasques, 86;
diplomacy of, 94; lelig-
ious sincerity of, 101; de-
scribed as a rebel, 108;
foils Garay, 118; sup-
presses dissatisfaction
among his troops, 147;
religious zeal of, 164;
I>osition at-Cholula, 167;
enters Mexico, 182; meets
Montezuma, 184; the bar-
barity of, 206; in Mexico,
220 ff; attacks Narvasi,
239; second march to
Mexico, 249; the forti-
tude of, during: the Sor-
rowful Night, 278; after
the Sorrowful Night, 290;
his recovery, 292; receives
welcome reinforcements,
298; breaks with his
friend Sandoval, 820; be-
fore Cuauhnahuac, 826;
sadness of, 881; the es-
cape of, 336; preparation
for the siege, 889; the
strategic ability of, 846;
escapes death for a sec-
ond time, 861; leads an

Index

463

Cortes, Fernando—

Continued
expedition to Panuco, 391 ;
the extravagance of, 397;
the expedition through
Yucatan, 403; the plot
against, 407; the illness
of, 413; the return of, to
Spain, 417; receives title
of Marques del Valle de
Oaxaca, 421; the enemies
of, 426; withdraws to
Castelleja de la Cuesta,
432; death of, De-
cember 2, 1547, 432; ap-
pearance and habits of,
440 ff

Cortes, Martin, the inter-
vention of, 109

Cortes, Monry y, the father
of Fernando, 1

Couriers, the, of Mexico, 55

Coyohuacon, the causeway
to, 50; the town of, 183;
the march near, 329;
headquarters at, 383; the
convent in, 394

Cozumel, the island of, 17;
the coast at, 299

Cronica de la Conquiata,
the, by Gomara, 10, 23,
38

Cruelty, the accusation of,
brought against Cortes,
446

Cuauhnahuac, the town of,
325

Cuba, the conquest of,
planned, 6 f[

Cuernavaca, the present
town of, 325, 427

Cuetlachtla, the city of, 62

Cuetlaxtla, the government
of, 88

Cuicuitzcatzin, the appoint-
ment of, 209

Cuitlahuac, the beautiful
lake of, 67, 179

Cuitlahuatzin, the libera-
tion of, 253; becomes
Emperor, 292

Cuitlalpitoc, the envoy to
Pinotl, 62, 70

Culua, the rising at, 303

Cuyohuacan, the ruler of,
373

Cuzamilco, the town of, 413

D

Daiguao, the Indians at, 6
De admirandia in natura,

by Aristotle, 44
De Insulis nuper inventia,

by Martyr, 42
De originibua Americania,

by Horn, 44
De Rebua Geatia, the chron-
icle, 1
Deities, the monstrous, of

Mexico, 213
Diaz, Juan, the exemption

of, 110; left as chaplain

in Mexico, 233
Diaertadanea, by Alaman,

2, 44
Dona Ana Papantzin, aee

Papantzin
Doria, Andrea, the eleven

galleys of, 430
Doiia Elvira, . the grand-

464

Index

Dona Elvira — Continued
daughter of Montezuma,
395

Dona Juana, the mother of
Charles V., 109

Dona Luisa, the daughter
of Xicotencatl, 154

Duero, Andres de, the in-
fluence of, 21; a mes-
senger of Narvaez, 236;
the plea of, 289

Duero, Andres de, the plea
of, 289

Duran, Father, the report
of, 266

E

El Rastro, the street of,
182

Embassies from Monte-
zuma, 68

Encomiendas, the system of,
15, 453

Epitaph, the, on the grave
of Cortes, 433

Escalante, Juan de, the
vessel of, 31; becomes
mayor, 86 ; mayor of Vera
Cruz, 115; the letter to,
147

Escobar, the attack of, 260

Escobar, Marina de, men-
tioned, 395

Escudero, Juan, the al-
guacil, 12; the death of,
110

Escudero, Pedro, the arrest
of, 87

Essai Politiq^ie stir le Roy-

aume de NouveUe E9-

pagne, by Humboldt, 43
Estrada, Alonso de, as

revenue officer, 402
Estrada, Maria de, the

heroism of, 365
Estrada, the saccession of,

416
Estramadura in the year

1485,1

Farfan, Pedro, the first to

reach Narvaez, 240
Fasco, the discovery of tin

in, 390
Fernando, King, of Spain,

35
Figueroa, Rodrigo de, the

chief judge, in His-

paniola, 24, 28, 301
First Letter of Relation to

Charles V., 29
Fleet, the building of the,

in Mexico, 336
Flight, the disordered, from

Mexico, 275
Florin, Jean de, the French

pirate, 105, 384
Fonseca, Juan Rodrigaes

de, the Bishop of Burgos,

108
Fuenleal, Don Sebastian

Ramirez de, the pro-
motion of, 425

Gage, Thomas, the visit of,
to Texcoco, 209

Index

465

Gallego, Pedro, the capture
of, 329

Garay, Francisco de, the
governor of Jamaica, 116;
the expedition of, 118

Garnica, the confidential
messenger, 26

Godnoy, Diego, as notary, 86

Gold, the lust of, in the
New World, 14

Grado, Alonso del, ap-
pointed captain of Vera
Cruz, 207; marriage of,
271

Grand Cairo, the city of, 16

Grijalba, Juan de, the com-
mand of, 17

Guacachula, see Quauhque-
chollan

Guadalupe, the shrine of,
50

Guajocingo, the halt at, 175

Guaniguanico, the fleet of
Narvaez at, 226

Guanin, a poor sort of gold,
17

Guatemucin taken as a
prisoner, 406

Guazincango, the province
of, 152

Guerrero, Alonso, the es-
cape of, 32

Guevara, Juan de, the mis-
sion of, 228; won over by
Cortes, 231

Guzman, Nunez de, the
brutality of, 416, 421

H

Harrisse, Mr. Henry, the
letter by, 435

Hayti, the island, 14

Helps, Sir Arthur, the de-
scription by, 51

Hernandez, Alonso, the
capture of, 328

Higuey, the province, 5, 6

Hipolito, the Feast of San,
372

Hispaniola, the governor of,
3 ; the appellate judges in,
13

Historia Chichimecay by
Ixtlilxochitl, 75

Historia de las Indian, by
Las Casas, 23

Historia de Nueva Espana,
by Sahagun, 149

Historia de las Ordines
Militares, by Torres, 2

Historia de Tlaxcalla, by
Camargo, 129

Historia Verdadera, the, 6

History of Chichimeca, the
death of Montezuma de-
scribed in the, 267

History de los Indios, by
Motolinia, 837

History National y Moral
de las IndiaSy 258

History Verdad, 268

History de Yucatan, the, by
Cogolludo, 18

Holguin, Garci, the cap-
tain of a brigantine,

371

Honduras, the first settle-
ment in, 400

Huchilohuchico, the cause-
way of, 183

Huehuetlapallan, the coun-
try called, 46

466

Index

Huexotzinco, see Goajo-

cingo, 175, 294
Hueyothlipan, the arrival

at, 283
Huitzilopochtli, the god of

war, 196; see Mexitli
Huitziton, the statue of,

214
Human sacrifices, 42 )7, 88

Icacbalceta, Senor Garcia,

the letter of, 435
Idols, the, overthrown, 210
Isla de las Mugeres, the, 31
Isla de las Sacrificios, the,

18
Itzli, sharp stones called,

131
Itzocan, the allies from,

342
Itztapalapan, the road to,

50; the city of, 179; the

destruction of, 313
Ixchebeliax, the goddess, 16
Ixtaccihuatl, the volcano of,

44
Ixtlilxochitl, Prince, the

pretender to the throne

of Texcoco, 78; civil war

started by, 209 ; estimates

by, 378
Iztacmixcoatle, the son of,

18

Juana, Queen Dona, of Cas-
tile, 35
Juez de resideneia^ the, 333
Julian, the baptisan of, 16

Knighthood, the first in-
stance of, in Mexico, 300
Kukulcan, see Quetzalooatl

Jamaica, the island of, 14
Jeronymite fathers, the, 20;
the power of, 87

La Comna, the trip of the
envoys to, 109

Lady, the statue of our, 30

Lagos, Cristobal de, the al-
calde, 12

Lara, Juan de, the capture
of, 328
! La Rabida, the burial of

Sandoval at, 420
I Lares, Amador de, the in-
fiuence of, 21

Las Casas, statements by, 2

Las Casas, Francisco de,
the mission of, 401

Las Casas, Fray Bartholo-
mew de, writings of, 9,
40

Las Mugeres, the island of,
16

Las Viboras, the treach-
erous reefs of, 32

La Trinidad, the vessel, 17

Lead in Mexico, 191

Leon, Don Luis Ponce de,
the appointment of, 415

Leon, Juan Velasquez de,
overcoming the scruples

Index

467

Leon, Velasquez de —

Continued

of, 88; the departure of,

211
Letters of Cortes, by

MacNutt, 114
Lombardy, the kings of, 1
Lopez, Martin, the chief

carpenter of the expedi-
tion, 300
Lorenzana, Archbishop, the

account of, 388
Lorenzo, a name given the

son of Maxixcatzin, 300
Lugo, Francisco de, the

loyalty of, 83

M

Macaguanigua River, the,

12
Macehuatzin, the wrath of,

354
Magarino, the captain, 273
Magiscatzin, the power of

the, 151
Malinal, see Marina
Malinche, see Marina
Malintzin, see Marina
Malintzin, a name applied

to Cortes, 154
Mamexi, the chieftain, 119
Maquahuitl, Indians armed

with, 131, 328
Marcaida, Catalina Xuarez

la, the beauty of, 11
Marin, Luis, the interven-
tion of, 343; the orders

sent by, 373
Marina, of Painalla, the

slave, 40; becomes inter-
preter for Cortes, 71; the
great power of, 171, 190

Marquez, Juan, the excel-
lent work of, 307

Martin, Benito, the work of,
in Spain, 108, 109; the
influence of, 223

Martin, Juana, the heroism
of, 365

Martyr, Peter, at the court
of Charles V., 42, 108

Massacre, the, at Cholula,
165

Mata, Alonso de, as notary,
235

Matolzingo, the ruler of,
373

Maxixcatzin, the lord of
Ocotelolco, 128; the
speech of, 129; the con-
version of, 154; still
favors the Spaniards,
293; becomes a Christian,
300; the death of, 300;
the Tlascalan chief, 419

Maxixcatzin, Don Lorenzo,
the son of the elder Max«
ixcatzin, 300

Maya, the civilisation of
the, 45

Mayci, the province of, 7

Mayeques, the position of
the, 58

Mechoacan, the kingdom of,
43, 385

Medellin, the town of, Cor-
tes bom at, 1, 3, 413

Medellin, the Count of, the
friendship of the, for
Cortes, 392

468

Index

Medramo, a clever engineer
named, 357

Mejia, Gonzalo de, guard-
ian of the treasure, 272

Melchor, the baptism of, 16;
the desertion of the in-
terpreter, 36

Melgarejo, Fray Pedro, the
intervention of, 343

Mendoza, Diego Hurtado de,
cousin of Cortes, 427

Mercedarian friar, a, men-
tioned, 26

Mesicalzinco, the causeway
of, 182

Mexi, the tribe of the, 18

Mexia, Gonzalo, the pro-
motion of, 86

Mexicalcingo, the report of,
406

Mexicalzinco, the town of,
183

Mexican civilisation, the
high perfection of, 379

Mexican Cortes, the, see
Quintalbor

Mexicans, the, known as
the Colhuas, in 1196, 47

Mexican zodiac, the, 76

Mexico, the conqueror of, 2 ;
the empire of, 43 ff; the
foundation of, 47; signi-
fication of the name, 49;
the approach to the city
of, 179; the revolt of,
244, 254

Mexico-Tenochtitlan, the
founding of, 47; the siege
of, 343

Mexitli, the god of war, 49

Monarchia Indiana, the, 212

Monjaraz, Andres de, the
company of, 328

Montana, the feat of, 390

Montejo, Francisco de, the
captain, 17; the expedi-
tion of, 78

Montesinos, the ballad of.
68

Montezuma, first reports of,
18; the empire of, 43 ff;
the reign of, 48; assumes
name of Xocoyotzin, 60;
early career, 61; the tyr-
rany of, 127; opposition
wavers, 158; treachery
of, 167; the terror of,
170; meets Cortes, 184;
personality of, 190; taken
prisoner, 202; the death
of, 266

Montezuma Ilhuicamina, the
elder, 60

Moquihuix, the King of
Tlatelolco, 50

Morejon, Rodrigo, the cap-
ture of, 297

Morla, Francisco de, 25

Moron, Pedro, the death of,
134

Mumuztli^ the invention of
the, 367

Mimicipal council, the erea-
tion of a, 389

N

Nahoa, the family of, 18

Nahua, see Aztec

Nahua culture, the centre of

the, 208
Narvaez, Panfilo de, the ae-

Index

469

Narvaez — Continued

tivities of, 105; at Xa-
gua, 225; the capture and
downfall of, 241

Naulinco, the town of, 120

Nauthla, a lieutenant at,
199

New Spain of the Ocean
Sea, the name ^ven
Mexico by the Spaniards,
299

Nezahualcoyotl, King of
Texcoco, 208

Nezahualpilli, King of Tex-
coco, 208; the palace of,
310; the election of, 312

Nicaragua, the expedition
through, 412

Nicuesa, Diego de, the ex-
pedition of, 6

Nino, Francisco, the pilot, 4

Nuestra Seiiora de los Re-
medios, the church of,
279

Nunez, the ingenuity of,
109

Nyciaca, the causeway of,
182

O

Ocampo, the alluring tales
of, 393

Ojeda, Alonso de, the ex-
pedition of, 6; captain of
the rear-guard, 277; as a
drillmaster, 307

Olea, Cristobal de, the res^
cue of Cortes by, 328

Olemchs, the tribe of the,
47

Olid, Cristobal de, the vain
search of, 20; the pro-
motion of, 86; "the death
of, 401

Olintetl, the ruler of Cal-
tanmic, 121

Olmedo, Fray Bartolom^ de,
the Mercedarian friar, 26;
the instructions of, 40;
the ability of, 231

Oquizi, the death of, 411

Ordaz, Diego de, 25; the
command of, 30; the ar-
rest of, 87; exploration
of, 171; at Coatzacoalis,
244; the repulse of, 254

Ordinances, the set of, pub-
lished by Cortes, 398

Orellana, Diego de, the ap-
pearance of, 13

Orizaba, the peak of, 119;
the town of, 235; the fer-
tile land around, 296

Otho, Emperor, Cortes
compared to, 383

Ottomies, the tribe of the,
47, 130

Otumpa, the allies from,
342

Ovando, Don Nicolas de,
the expedition of, 3

Oviedo, the historian, 378

Pachuca, the mountain

chain of, 44
Palacio, Don Vincente Riva,

mentioned, 437
Palacios, Beatriz de, the

heroism of, 365

470

Index

Palenque, the town of, 46

Palm Sunday, the first cele-
bration of, in America, 41

Panuco, mentioned, 297

Papantzin, Princess, the
sister to Montezuma, 63

Paso de la Lena, the defile
of, 121

Paso del Nombre de Dios,
defile called, 120

Paso del Obispo, the pass
called, 120

Paz, Inez de, the aunt of
Cortes, 2

Penol del Marques, the
island of, 344

Perez, Alonzo, mentioned,
330

Pineda, Alonzo Alvarez de,
the command of, 116

Pinotl, the first envoys sent
to, 62

Pizarro, Francisco, the ca-
reer of, 419

Popocatepetl, the eruption
of, 44, 171

Popotla, the quarters of,
388

Porcallo, Vasco, the in-
trigues of, 23

Portillo, the death of, 356

Puertocarrero, the mission
of, 72

Puerto Rico, the island of,
14

Puntunchan, the road trom,
187

Q

Quahtli, a sort of coin, 59

Quauhpopoca, a lieutenant
to Montezuma, 199; the
pyre of, 205

QuauhquechoUan, the de-
struction of the toi¥n of.
295

Quauhtemotzin, the son of
Ahuitzotl, the last Aztec
empeiror, 314; the cap-
ture of, 369, 871; death
of, 411

Quechola, the notary at,
235

Quetzalcoatl, disaster fore-
told by, 61; the myth of,
64 ff

Quetzalli-Cohuatl, the ety-
mological name of, 64

Quinones, Antonio de, the
duty of, 273; the com-
mand of, 336; the mis-
sion of, 384

Quintalbor, the appearance
of, 7F

Quintero, Alonso, the vessel
of, 4

R

Rada, Juan de, mentioned,
419

Rangel, Rodrifi:o, the ab-
sence of, 220

Recherches Hiatoriquea by
Scherer, 44

Reinforcements, the arrival
of, at Vera Cruz, 221

Relacian, the, by Tapia, 88

Relics of the dead Span-
iards at Zoltepec, 816

Index

471

Religion, the, of Mexico, 55

Repartimientos, the system
of, 15

Retreat, the, from Mexico,
274

Ribera, Juan de, the notary
public, 805

Rio, Antonio del, the return
of, 253

Rio de Grijalba, the, 34

Rodela, Indians armed with,
131

Rodriguez, Isabel, the hero-
ism of, 365

Rodriguez, Juan, the house
of, 432

Roja, Juan de, the treach-
ery of, 108

Rojas, Manuel de, the ef-
fective work of, 333

Royal Council, the mem-
bers of, 34; for the In-
dies, the, 108

Rubio, Dr. Palacios, the
jurisconsult, 34

Salamanca, the University
of, 2

Saucedo, Juan de, the mis-
valour of, 281

Salazar, Gonzalo, the re-
port brought by, 401

Sandoval, Gonzalo de, a
lieutenant to Cortes, 189,
320; sent back to the
coast as captain of Vera
Cruz, 207; the death of,
420

San Hippolito, the church

of, 371
San Juan de Puerta Latina,

the occupation of, 17
San Juan de Ulua, the

island, 19; the arrival at,

68
San Lucar de Barrameda,

the departure from, 4
San Nicolas, Ayllon in, 226
San Sebastian, the vessel, 17
Santa Maria, the delay at,

384
Santa Maria, the vessel,

17
Santa Maria de la Victoria,

the naming of the town

of, 40
Santestevan del Puerto, the

founding of the town of,

391
Santiago, the vessel, 17
Santiago de Compostilla,

the departure for, 109
Santo Domingo, arrival at,

5
Santo Tome, the island of,

428
Saucedo, Francisco de, ar-
rival of, 104
Saucedo, Juan de, the mis-
sion of, 20
Second Letter of Relation

to Charles V,, the, 56,

123
Segura de la Frontera, the

founding of the town of,

295
Sepulture, the, of Cortes,

the mystery of, 435
Serpents, the wall of, 348

472

Index

tt

Shining Mirror," the, of

Mexico, 214
Sierra del A^a, the cross-
ing of the, 121
Sierra Madre, the ascent of

the, 119
" Silversmiths town," the,

319
Simancas, the archives of,

109
Solar system, the, of the

Mexicans, 57
Sorrowful Night, the, 272 ff
Sotelo, the inventive genius

of, 366
Spaniards, the difficulties

of, in Mexico, 40 ff; the

great courage of, 172
Spanish-Tlascalan alliance,

the, 127 ff
St. Peter, the patron saint,

2
Storia Antica del Meaaico,

the, 63, 268

Tabasco River, the, 18
Tabzcoob River, the, 18
Tacatelz, a citizen of Mex-
ico, 406
Tacuba, see Tlacopan
Tacuba, the causeway of,
259; the Spaniards at,
278
Tamalhi, a kind of maize

cake, 136
Tamalli, the chieftain, 119
Tapia, Andres de, 33
Taranto, the siege of, by
Hannibal, 302

Tasaico, the city of, 306

Tascaltecal, the assemblage
in the province of, 304

Tax-collectors, the, of Mon-
tezuma, 93

Teatro Mexicano, by Vetan-
court, 398

Teayotl, a place called, 267

Tecocoltzin, Fernando,, the
death of, 317

Tecuichpo, the daus:hter of
Montezuma, 815; the con-
sideration shown Prin-
cess, 373

Te Deum Laudatnus, the
singing of, 337

Teel-Cuzam, the statue of,
18

Tejuele^ a gold coin, 69

Telepanquetzal, the death
of, 411

Temistitan, the city of, 182

Temixtitan, the city of, 183

Tenepal, the family name
of, 71

Tenoch, the descendants of,
18

Tenochtitlan, the develop-
ment of, 48; the island
of, 49

Teocalli, the purification of
the, 153; the fall of the.
in Mexico, 349

Teozahuatl, the name pven
to smallpox, by the
Aztecs, 292

Tepanec, the tribe of, 47

Tepepolco, the island of,
344

Tepetlaxtoc, the convent at,
399

Index

473

Tepeyac, the road to, 250
Tepeyaca, .the invasion of,

289, 293; the allies from,.

^42
Tepeyacans, the revolt of

the, 294
Tetepanguecal, the King of

Tacuba, 406
Tetzmulocan, the army goes

through, 308
Teuch, the chieftain, 119
Teuhtlili, the ambassador,

70
Teulea, a name applied to

the Spaniards, 95
Teutlamacazqui, the envoy

to Pinotl, 62
Texcoc, see Acolhua
Texcoco, the rising hatred

of the kingdom of, 208;

the campaign at, 309;

the archives of, 381
Tezcatlipoca, the god, 196,

214
Tezcoco, the salt-water lake

of, 44
Tezozomoc, the reign of, 47
Tierra-caliente, the 1 u x-

uriant, 119
Tlacatle, General, the death

of, 411
Tlacopan, the causeway to,

50; the alliance with,

208
Tlahua, the lake of, 179
Tlahuica, the tribes of, 325
Tlahuichco, the tribe of,

47
Tlapanecatl, the bravery of,

356
Tlapanhuchuetl, a great

cylindrical drum, 214, 361

Tlapaltecatlopuchtzin, the
bravery of, 368

Tlascala, the tribe of, 47;
the regents of, 123; nego-
tiations with the city of,
127; the triumphal entry
into, 148; description of,
150; the bravery of the,
326

Tlatelolco, the island of,
49; the Christian baptism
in, 64; the quarter known
as, 191; the warriors of,
356; the market-place of,
357; the quarters of, 388

Tlatelolco teocalli, the visit
to the, 212

Tlehuezolotzin, the proposi-
tion of, 130

Tlepehuacan, reinforce-
ments at, 308

Toledo, Doiia Maria de,
11

Tollan, see Tula

Tollantzinco, the founding
of the city of, 46; the
allies from, 342

Toltecs, the origin of the,
44; in the year, 554 A.D.,
46; the teachings of the,
216

Tonacacuahuitl, the god,
153

Tonaiuh, a name applied
to Alvarado, 155

Torquemada, the records of,
269

Torre de la Victoria, the
camp of, 148

Torres, Juan de, becomes

474

Index

Torres, Juan de — Continued
guardian of Cempoalla,

103
Tortilla, the, a nation of

Tlascala, 264
Tortugas, the towers called,

259
Totonacs, the nation of the,

81
Toxcatl, the feast of, 245
Traditions, the conflicting

of Mexico, 46
Treasure, the saving of the,

272; the lack of, 376
Tula, the western boundary
of Mexico, 44; the city
of, in 667 A.D., 46, 47
Tunasy Mexican figs, 132
Tuscany, the kings of, 1
Tzilacatzin, the giant war-
rior of the Aztecs, 356

U

Uchilobos, the deity, 413
Umbria, Gonzalo de, the

punishment of, 110
Urrea, Fray Pedro Melga-

rejo de, the Dominican

friar, 321; as ambassador,

390
Utatlan, the town of, 46
Uxmal, the town of, 46

Valencia, Friar Martin de,

399
Valencia, the trip to, 4
Valladblid, the royal letters

from, 392
Verela, Francisco Nunez

de, 2

Vehichilzi, the death of, 411

Velasquez, Diefi:o, a native
of Cuellar, 6; friendahip
of, for Cortes, 8; char-
acter of, 9 ff: appointed
adehmtado, 104 ; the
power of, in Spain, 223

Velasquez, Juan, the arrest
of, 87

Vendabal, Francisco Mar-
tin, the capture of, 829

Venezuela, the name of, 179

Venida de lo8 Eapanoles,
the, 378

Vera Cruz, the founding of,
74 #

Verdugo, Francisco, mayor
of Trinidad, 25

Veret, Louis, keeper of the
royal jewels, 224

Vetanzos, Friar of the Do-
minicans, 399

Villa Rica de la Vera Crux,
the naming of, 86

Villafana, the conspiracy
of, 384

W

Walhalla, the, of the kings
of antiquity, 62

Women, the position of the,
365

Women's Island, the dis-
covery of, 16

Xaltocan, the fighting at,

318
Xchel, the goddess, 16

Index

475

Xicalango River, the brig-

antines on the, 412
Xicalango, the tribe of the,

47; the traders of, 71
Xicotencatl, the desertion

of, 34; the lord of Titza-

tlan, the opinion of, 129;

General, the task of, 130;

the surrender of, 145; the

reluctant admiration of,

307
Xihmocoatl, General, the

death of, 411
Xiloltepec, the allies from,

242
Xiocochimilco, the town of,

120
Xiuhtepec, the town of, 325
Xochimilco, the tribe of, 47;

the prosperous town of,

327
Xocotla, the town of, 121
Xocoyotzin, see Montezuma
Xoloc, the fortress of, 50,

329
Xolotl, the reign of, 47
Xuarez, Catalina, the first

wife of Cortes, 395; men-
tioned, 449

Xuarez, Juan, the family
of, 11

Y

Yauhtepec, the march

through, 325
Yxtacamaxtitlan, the town

of, 123
Yzompachtepetl, the camp

on the hill of, 134

Z

Zacatepec, the battle near,

294
Zacatula River, the, 44
Zinc in Mexico, 192
Zoltepec, the capture of,

316.
Zoological gardens, the,

near Mexico, 179
Zorro, Cristobal, land

sighted by, 5
Zuazo, Alonzo, the mission

of, 333; the licentiate

letter from, 412
Zumarraga, Fray Juan, the

protest of, 424
Zuiiiga, Dona Juana de, the

second wife of Cortes, 422

Heroes of the Nations.

A Series of biographical studies of the iives and
work of a number of representative historical char-
acters about whom have gathered the great traditions
of the Nations to which they belonged, and who have
been accepted, in many instances, as types of the
several National ideals. With the life of each
typical character will be presented a picture of the
National conditions surrounding him during his
career.

The narrativee are the work of writers who are
recognized authorities on their several subjects, and,
while thoroughly trustworthy as history, will present
picturesque and dramatic "stories" of the Men and
of the events connected with them.

To the Life of each "Hero" will be given one duo-
decimo volume, handsomely printed in large type,
provided with maps and adequately illustrated ac-
cording to the special requirements (rf the several
subjects.

I a", cloth, each 5/-

Half leather 6/-

For fitU list of volumes see next page.