Great was the amazement of the good citizens of St. Jago when, at dawn,

they saw that the fleet, which they knew was so ill prepared for the

voyage, had left its moorings and was busily getting under way. The

tidings soon came to the ears of his Excellency, who, springing from his

bed, hastily dressed himself, mounted his horse, and, followed by his

retinue, galloped down to the quay. Cortés, as soon as he descried their

approach, entered an armed boat, and came within speaking-distance of

the shore. “And is it thus you part from me?” exclaimed Velasquez; “a

courteous way of taking leave, truly!” “Pardon me,” answered Cortés;

“time presses, and there are some things that should be done before they

are even thought of. Has your Excellency any commands?” But the

mortified governor had no commands to give; and Cortés, politely waving

his hand, returned to his vessel, and the little fleet instantly made

sail for the port of Macaca, about fifteen leagues distant. (November

18, 1518.) Velasquez rode back to his house to digest his chagrin as he

best might; satisfied, probably, that he had made at least two

blunders,--one in appointing Cortés to the command, the other in

attempting to deprive him of it. For, if it be true that by giving our

confidence by halves we can scarcely hope to make a friend, it is

equally true that by withdrawing it when given we shall make an

enemy.[517]

This clandestine departure of Cortés has been severely criticised by

some writers, especially by Las Casas.[518] Yet much may be urged in

vindication of his conduct. He had been appointed to the command by the

voluntary act of the governor, and this had been fully ratified by the

authorities of Hispaniola. He had at once devoted all his resources to

the undertaking, incurring, indeed, a heavy debt in addition. He was now

to be deprived of his commission, without any misconduct having been

alleged or at least proved against him. Such an event must overwhelm him

in irretrievable ruin, to say nothing of the friends from whom he had so

largely borrowed, and the followers who had embarked their fortunes in

the expedition on the faith of his commanding it. There are few persons,

probably, who, under these circumstances, would have felt called tamely

to acquiesce in the sacrifice of their hopes to a groundless and

arbitrary whim. The most to have been expected from Cortés was that he

should feel obliged to provide faithfully for the interests of his

employer in the conduct of the enterprise. How far he felt the force of

this obligation will appear in the sequel.

From Macaca, where Cortés laid in such stores as he could obtain from

the royal farms, and which, he said, he considered as “a loan from the

king,” he proceeded to Trinidad; a more considerable town, on the

southern coast of Cuba. Here he landed, and, erecting his standard in

front of his quarters, made proclamation, with liberal offers to all who

would join the expedition. Volunteers came in daily, and among them more

than a hundred of Grijalva’s men, just returned from their voyage and

willing to follow up the discovery under an enterprising leader. The

fame of Cortés attracted, also, a number of cavaliers of family and

distinction, some of whom, having accompanied Grijalva, brought much

information valuable for the present expedition. Among these hidalgos

may be mentioned Pedro de Alvarado and his brothers, Cristóval de Olid,

Alonso de Avila, Juan Velasquez de Leon, a near relation of the

governor, Alonso Hernandez de Puertocarrero, and Gonzalo de

Sandoval,--all of them men who took a most important part in the

Conquest. Their presence was of great moment, as giving consideration to

the enterprise; and, when they entered the little camp of the

adventurers, the latter turned out to welcome them amidst lively strains

of music and joyous salvos of artillery.

Cortés meanwhile was active in purchasing military stores and

provisions. Learning that a trading-vessel laden with grain and other

commodities for the mines was off the coast, he ordered out one of his

caravels to seize her and bring her into port. He paid the master in

bills for both cargo and ship, and even persuaded this man, named

Sedeño,[519] who was wealthy, to join his fortunes to the expedition. He

also despatched one of his officers, Diego de Ordaz, in quest of another

ship,[520] of which he had tidings, with instructions to seize it in

like manner, and to meet him with it off Cape St. Antonio, the westerly

point of the island.[521] By this he effected another object, that of

getting rid of Ordaz, who was one of the governor’s household, and an

inconvenient spy on his own actions.

While thus occupied, letters from Velasquez were received by the

commander of Trinidad, requiring him to seize the person of Cortés and

to detain him, as he had been deposed from the command of the fleet,

which was given to another. This functionary communicated his

instructions to the principal officers in the expedition, who counselled

him not to make the attempt, as it would undoubtedly lead to a commotion

among the soldiers, that might end in laying the town in ashes. Verdugo

thought it prudent to conform to this advice.[522]

As Cortés was willing to strengthen himself by still further

reinforcements, he ordered Alvarado with a small body of men to march

across the country to the Havana,[523] while he himself would sail

round the westerly point of the island and meet him there with the

squadron. In this port he again displayed his standard, making the usual

proclamation. He caused all the large guns to be brought on shore, and,

with the small arms and cross-bows, to be put in order. As there was

abundance of cotton raised in this neighborhood, he had the jackets of

the soldiers thickly quilted with it, for a defence against the Indian

arrows, from which the troops in the former expeditions had grievously

suffered. He distributed his men into eleven companies, each under the

command of an experienced officer; and it was observed that, although

several of the cavaliers in the service were the personal friends and

even kinsmen of Velasquez, he appeared to treat them all with perfect

confidence.

His principal standard was of black velvet, embroidered with gold, and

emblazoned with a red cross amidst flames of blue and white, with this

motto in Latin beneath: “Friends, let us follow the Cross; and under

this sign, if we have faith, we shall conquer.” He now assumed more

state in his own person and way of living, introducing a greater number

of domestics and officers into his household, and placing it on a

footing becoming a man of high station. This state he maintained through

the rest of his life.[524]

Cortés at this time was thirty-three, or perhaps thirty-four, years of

age. In stature he was rather above the middle size. His complexion was

pale; and his large dark eye gave an expression of gravity to his

countenance, not to have been expected in one of his cheerful

temperament. His figure was slender, at least until later life; but his

chest was deep, his shoulders broad, his frame muscular and well

proportioned. It presented the union of agility and vigor which

qualified him to excel in fencing, horsemanship, and the other generous

exercises of chivalry. In his diet he was temperate, careless of what he

ate, and drinking little; while to toil and privation he seemed

perfectly indifferent. His dress, for he did not disdain the impression

produced by such adventitious aids, was such as to set off his handsome

person to advantage; neither gaudy nor striking, but rich. He wore few

ornaments, and usually the same; but those were of great price. His

manners, frank and soldier-like, concealed a most cool and calculating

spirit. With his gayest humor there mingled a settled air of resolution,

which made those who approached him feel they must obey, and which

infused something like awe into the attachment of his most devoted

followers. Such a combination, in which love was tempered by authority,

was the one probably best calculated to inspire devotion in the rough

and turbulent spirits among whom his lot was to be cast.

The character of Cortés seems to have undergone some change with change

of circumstances; or, to speak more correctly, the new scenes in which

he was placed called forth qualities which before lay dormant in his

bosom. There are some hardy natures that require the heats of excited

action to unfold their energies; like the plants which, closed to the

mild influence of a temperate latitude, come to their full growth, and

give forth their fruits, only in the burning atmosphere of the tropics.

Such is the portrait left to us by his contemporaries of this remarkable

man; the instrument selected by Providence to scatter terror among the

barbarian monarchs of the Western World, and lay their empires in the

dust.[525]

Before the preparations were fully completed at the Havana, the

commander of the place, Don Pedro Barba, received despatches from

Velasquez ordering him to apprehend Cortés and to prevent the departure

of his vessels; while another epistle from the same source was delivered

to Cortés himself, requesting him to postpone his voyage till the

governor could communicate with him, as he proposed, in person. “Never,”

exclaims Las Casas, “did I see so little knowledge of affairs shown, as

in this letter of Diego Velasquez,--that he should have imagined that a

man who had so recently put such an affront on him would defer his

departure at his bidding!”[526] It was, indeed, hoping to stay the

flight of the arrow by a word, after it had left the bow.

The Captain-General, however, during his short stay, had entirely

conciliated the good will of Barba. And, if that officer had had the

inclination, he knew he had not the power, to enforce his principal’s

orders, in the face of a resolute soldiery, incensed at this ungenerous

persecution of their commander, and “all of whom,” in the words of the

honest chronicler who bore part in the expedition, “officers and

privates, would have cheerfully laid down their lives for him.”[527]

Barba contented himself, therefore, with explaining to Velasquez the

impracticability of the attempt, and at the same time endeavored to

tranquillize his apprehensions by asserting his own confidence in the

fidelity of Cortés. To this the latter added a communication of his own,

couched “in the soft terms he knew so well how to use,”[528] in which he

implored his Excellency to rely on his devotion to his interests, and

concluded with the comfortable assurance that he and the whole fleet,

God willing, would sail on the following morning.

Accordingly, on the 10th of February, 1519, the little squadron got

under way, and directed its course towards Cape St. Antonio, the

appointed place of rendezvous. When all were brought together, the

vessels were found to be eleven in number; one of them, in which Cortés

himself went, was of a hundred tons’ burden, three others were from

seventy to eighty tons; the remainder were caravels and open

brigantines. The whole was put under the direction of Antonio de

Alaminos, as chief pilot; a veteran navigator, who had acted as pilot to

Columbus in his last voyage, and to Cordova and Grijalva in the former

expeditions to Yucatan.

Landing on the Cape and mustering his forces, Cortés found they amounted

to one hundred and ten mariners, five hundred and fifty-three soldiers,

including thirty-two crossbowmen, and thirteen arquebusiers, besides two

hundred Indians of the island, and a few Indian women for menial

offices. He was provided with ten heavy guns, four lighter pieces called

falconets, and with a good supply of ammunition.[529] He had besides

sixteen horses. They were not easily procured; for the difficulty of

transporting them across the ocean in the flimsy craft of that day made

them rare and incredibly dear in the Islands.[530] But Cortés rightfully

estimated the importance of cavalry, however small in number, both for

their actual service in the field, and for striking terror into the

savages. With so paltry a force did he enter on a conquest which even

his stout heart must have shrunk from attempting with such means, had he

but foreseen half its real difficulties!

Before embarking, Cortés addressed his soldiers in a short but animated

harangue. He told them they were about to enter on a noble enterprise,

one that would make their name famous to after-ages. He was leading them

to countries more vast and opulent than any yet visited by Europeans. “I

hold out to you a glorious prize,” continued the orator, “but it is to

be won by incessant toil. Great things are achieved only by great

exertions, and glory was never the reward of sloth.[531] If I have

labored hard and staked my all on this undertaking, it is for the love

of that renown which is the noblest recompense of man. But, if any among

you covet riches more, be but true to me, as I will be true to you and

to the occasion, and I will make you masters of such as our countrymen

have never dreamed of! You are few in number, but strong in resolution;

and, if this does not falter, doubt not but that the Almighty, who has

never deserted the Spaniard in his contest with the infidel, will

shield you, though encompassed by a cloud of enemies; for your cause is

a _just cause_, and you are to fight under the banner of the Cross. Go

forward, then,” he concluded, “with alacrity and confidence, and carry

to a glorious issue the work so auspiciously begun.”[532]

The rough eloquence of the general, touching the various chords of

ambition, avarice, and religious zeal, sent a thrill through the bosoms

of his martial audience; and, receiving it with acclamations, they

seemed eager to press forward under a chief who was to lead them not so

much to battle, as to triumph.

Cortés was well satisfied to find his own enthusiasm so largely shared

by his followers. Mass was then celebrated with the solemnities usual

with the Spanish navigators when entering on their voyages of discovery.

The fleet was placed under the immediate protection of St. Peter, the

patron saint of Cortés, and, weighing anchor, took its departure on the

eighteenth day of February, 1519, for the coast of Yucatan.[533]

CHAPTER IV

VOYAGE TO COZUMEL--CONVERSION OF THE NATIVES--GERÓNIMO DE

AGUILAR--ARMY ARRIVES AT TABASCO--GREAT BATTLE WITH THE

INDIANS--CHRISTIANITY INTRODUCED

1519

Orders were given for the vessels to keep as near together as possible,

and to take the direction of the _capitanía_, or admiral’s ship, which

carried a beacon-light in the stern during the night. But the weather,

which had been favorable, changed soon after their departure, and one of

those tempests set in which at this season are often found in the

latitudes of the West Indies. It fell with terrible force on the little

navy, scattering it far asunder, dismantling some of the ships, and

driving them all considerably south of their proposed destination.

Cortés, who had lingered behind to convoy a disabled vessel, reached the

island of Cozumel last. On landing, he learned that one of his captains,

Pedro de Alvarado, had availed himself of the short time he had been

there, to enter the temples, rifle them of their few ornaments, and, by

his violent conduct, so far to terrify the simple natives that they had

fled for refuge into the interior of the island. Cortés, highly incensed

at these rash proceedings, so contrary to the policy he had proposed,

could not refrain from severely reprimanding his officer in the presence

of the army. He commanded two Indian captives, taken by Alvarado, to be

brought before him, and explained to them the pacific purpose of his

visit. This he did through the assistance of his interpreter,

Melchorejo, a native of Yucatan, who had been brought back by Grijalva,

and who during his residence in Cuba had picked up some acquaintance

with the Castilian. He then dismissed them loaded with presents, and

with an invitation to their countrymen to return to their homes without

fear of further annoyance. This humane policy succeeded. The fugitives,

reassured, were not slow in coming back; and an amicable intercourse was

established, in which Spanish cutlery and trinkets were exchanged for

the gold ornaments of the natives; a traffic in which each party

congratulated itself--a philosopher might think with equal reason--on

outwitting the other.

The first object of Cortés was to gather tidings of the unfortunate

Christians who were reported to be still lingering in captivity on the

neighboring continent. From some traders in the island he obtained such

a confirmation of the report that he sent Diego de Ordaz with two

brigantines to the opposite coast of Yucatan, with instructions to

remain there eight days. Some Indians went as messengers in the vessels,

who consented to bear a letter to the captives informing them of the

arrival of their countrymen in Cozumel with a liberal ransom for their

release. Meanwhile the general proposed to make an excursion to the

different parts of the island, that he might give employment to the

restless spirits of the soldiers, and ascertain the resources of the

country.

It was poor and thinly peopled. But everywhere he recognized the

vestiges of a higher civilization than what he had before witnessed in

the Indian islands. The houses were some of them large, and often built

of stone and lime. He was particularly struck with the temples, in which

were towers constructed of the same solid materials, and rising several

stories in height. In the court of one of these he was amazed by the

sight of a cross, of stone and lime, about ten palms high. It was the

emblem of the god of rain. Its appearance suggested the wildest

conjectures, not merely to the unlettered soldiers, but subsequently to

the European scholar, who speculated on the character of the races that

had introduced there the sacred symbol of Christianity. But no such

inference, as we shall see hereafter, could be warranted.[534] Yet it

must be regarded as a curious fact that the Cross should have been

venerated as the object of religious worship both in the New World and

in regions of the Old where the light of Christianity had never

risen.[535]

The next object of Cortés was to reclaim the natives from their gross

idolatry and to substitute a purer form of worship. In accomplishing

this he was prepared to use force, if milder measures should be

ineffectual. There was nothing which the Spanish government had more

earnestly at heart than the conversion of the Indians. It forms the

constant burden of their instructions, and gave to the military

expeditions in this Western hemisphere somewhat of the air of a crusade.

The cavalier who embarked in them entered fully into these chivalrous

and devotional feelings. No doubt was entertained of the efficacy of

conversion, however sudden might be the change or however violent the

means. The sword was a good argument, when the tongue failed; and the

spread of Mahometanism had shown that seeds sown by the hand of

violence, far from perishing in the ground, would spring up and bear

fruit to aftertime. If this were so in a bad cause, how much more would

it be true in a good one! The Spanish cavalier felt he had a high

mission to accomplish as a soldier of the Cross. However unauthorized or

unrighteous the war into which he had entered may seem to us, to him it

was a holy war. He was in arms against the infidel. Not to care for the

soul of his benighted enemy was to put his own in jeopardy. The

conversion of a single soul might cover a multitude of sins. It was not

for morals that he was concerned, but for _the faith_. This, though

understood in its most literal and limited sense, comprehended the whole

scheme of Christian morality. Whoever died in the faith, however immoral

had been his life, might be said to die in the Lord. Such was the creed

of the Castilian knight of that day, as imbibed from the preachings of

the pulpit, from cloisters and colleges at home, from monks and

missionaries abroad,--from all save one, whose devotion, kindled at a

purer source, was not, alas! permitted to send forth its radiance far

into the thick gloom by which he was encompassed.[536]

No one partook more fully of the feelings above described than Hernan

Cortés. He was, in truth, the very mirror of the time in which he lived,

reflecting its motley characteristics, its speculative devotion and

practical license, but with an intensity all his own. He was greatly

scandalized at the exhibition of the idolatrous practices of the people

of Cozumel, though untainted, as it would seem, with human sacrifices.

He endeavored to persuade them to embrace a better faith, through the

agency of two ecclesiastics who attended the expedition,--the licentiate

Juan Diaz and Father Bartolomé de Olmedo. The latter of these godly men

afforded the rare example--rare in any age--of the union of fervent zeal

with charity, while he beautifully illustrated in his own conduct the

precepts which he taught. He remained with the army through the whole

expedition, and by his wise and benevolent counsels was often enabled to

mitigate the cruelties of the Conquerors, and to turn aside the edge of

the sword from the unfortunate natives.

These two missionaries vainly labored to persuade the people of Cozumel

to renounce their abominations, and to allow the Indian idols, in which

the Christians recognized the true lineaments of Satan,[537] to be

thrown down and demolished. The simple natives, filled with horror at

the proposed profanation, exclaimed that these were the gods who sent

them the sunshine and the storm, and, should any violence be offered,

they would be sure to avenge it by sending their lightnings on the heads

of its perpetrators.

Cortés was probably not much of a polemic. At all events, he preferred

on the present occasion action to argument, and thought that the best

way to convince the Indians of their error was to prove the falsehood of

the prediction. He accordingly, without further ceremony, caused the

venerated images to be rolled down the stairs of the great temple,

amidst the groans and lamentations of the natives. An altar was hastily

constructed, an image of the Virgin and Child placed over it, and mass

was performed by Father Olmedo and his reverend companion for the first

time within the walls of a temple in New Spain. The patient ministers

tried once more to pour the light of the gospel into the benighted

understandings of the islanders, and to expound the mysteries of the

Catholic faith. The Indian interpreter must have afforded rather a

dubious channel for the transmission of such abstruse doctrines. But

they at length found favor with their auditors, who, whether overawed by

the bold bearing of the invaders, or convinced of the impotence of

deities that could not shield their own shrines from violation, now

consented to embrace Christianity.[538]

While Cortés was thus occupied with the triumphs of the Cross, he

received intelligence that Ordaz had returned from Yucatan without

tidings of the Spanish captives. Though much chagrined, the general did

not choose to postpone longer his departure from Cozumel. The fleet had

been well stored with provisions by the friendly inhabitants, and,

embarking his troops, Cortés, in the beginning of March, took leave of

its hospitable shores. The squadron had not proceeded far, however,

before a leak in one of the vessels compelled them to return to the same

port. The detention was attended with important consequences; so much

so, indeed, that a writer of the time discerns in it “a great mystery

and a miracle.”[539]

Soon after landing, a canoe with several Indians was seen making its way

from the neighboring shores of Yucatan. On reaching the island, one of

the men inquired, in broken Castilian, “if he were among Christians,”

and, being answered in the affirmative, threw himself on his knees and

returned thanks to Heaven for his delivery. He was one of the

unfortunate captives for whose fate so much interest had been felt. His

name was Gerónimo de Aguilar,[540] a native of Écija, in Old Spain,

where he had been regularly educated for the Church. He had been

established with the colony at Darien, and on a voyage from that place

to Hispaniola, eight years previous, was wrecked near the coast of

Yucatan. He escaped with several of his companions in the ship’s boat,

where some perished from hunger and exposure, while others were

sacrificed, on their reaching land, by the cannibal natives of the

peninsula. Aguilar was preserved from the same dismal fate by escaping

into the interior, where he fell into the hands of a powerful cacique,

who, though he spared his life, treated him at first with great rigor.

The patience of the captive, however, and his singular humility, touched

the better feelings of the chieftain, who would have persuaded Aguilar

to take a wife among his people, but the ecclesiastic steadily refused,

in obedience to his vows. This admirable constancy excited the distrust

of the cacique, who put his virtue to a severe test by various

temptations, and much of the same sort as those with which the devil is

said to have assailed St. Anthony.[541] From all these fiery trials,

however, like his ghostly predecessor, he came out unscorched.

Continence is too rare and difficult a virtue with barbarians, not to

challenge their veneration, and the practice of it has made the

reputation of more than one saint in the Old as well as the New World.

Aguilar was now intrusted with the care of his master’s household and

his numerous wives. He was a man of discretion, as well as virtue; and

his counsels were found so salutary that he was consulted on all

important matters. In short, Aguilar became a great man among the

Indians.

It was with much regret, therefore, that his master received the

proposals for his return to his countrymen, to which nothing but the

rich treasure of glass beads, hawk-bells, and other jewels of like

value, sent for his ransom, would have induced him to consent. When

Aguilar reached the coast, there had been so much delay that the

brigantines had sailed; and it was owing to the fortunate return of the

fleet to Cozumel that he was enabled to join it.

On appearing before Cortés, the poor man saluted him in the Indian

style, by touching the earth with his hand and carrying it to his head.

The commander, raising him up, affectionately embraced him, covering him

at the same time with his own cloak, as Aguilar was simply clad in the

habiliments of the country, somewhat too scanty for a European eye. It

was long, indeed, before the tastes which he had acquired in the

freedom of the forest could be reconciled to the constraints either of

dress or manners imposed by the artificial forms of civilization.

Aguilar’s long residence in the country had familiarized him with the

Mayan dialects of Yucatan, and, as he gradually revived his Castilian,

he became of essential importance as an interpreter. Cortés saw the

advantage of this from the first, but he could not fully estimate all

the consequences that were to flow from it.[542]

The repairs of the vessels being at length completed, the Spanish

commander once more took leave of the friendly natives of Cozumel, and

set sail on the fourth of March. Keeping as near as possible to the

coast of Yucatan, he doubled Cape Catoche, and with flowing sheets swept

down the broad bay of Campeachy, fringed with the rich dye-woods which

have since furnished so important an article of commerce to Europe. He

passed Potonchan, where Cordova had experienced a rough reception from

the natives; and soon after reached the mouth of the _Rio de Tabasco_,

or _Grijalva_, in which that navigator had carried on so lucrative a

traffic. Though mindful of the great object of his voyage,--the visit to

the Aztec territories,--he was desirous of acquainting himself with the

resources of this country, and determined to ascend the river and visit

the great town on its borders.

The water was so shallow, from the accumulation of sand at the mouth of

the stream, that the general was obliged to leave the ships at anchor

and to embark in the boats with a part only of his forces. The banks

were thickly studded with mangrove-trees, that, with their roots

shooting up and interlacing one another, formed a kind of impervious

screen or net-work, behind which the dark forms of the natives were seen

glancing to and fro with the most menacing looks and gestures. Cortés,

much surprised at these unfriendly demonstrations, so unlike what he had

had reason to expect, moved cautiously up the stream. When he had

reached an open place, where a large number of Indians were assembled,

he asked, through his interpreter, leave to land, explaining at the same

time his amicable intentions. But the Indians, brandishing their

weapons, answered only with gestures of angry defiance. Though much

chagrined, Cortés thought it best not to urge the matter further that

evening, but withdrew to a neighboring island, where he disembarked his

troops, resolved to effect a landing on the following morning.

When day broke, the Spaniards saw the opposite banks lined with a much

more numerous array than on the preceding evening, while the canoes

along the shore were filled with bands of armed warriors. Cortés now

made his preparations for the attack. He first landed a detachment of a

hundred men under Alonso de Avila, at a point somewhat lower down the

stream, sheltered by a thick grove of palms, from which a road, as he

knew, led to the town of Tabasco, giving orders to his officer to march

at once on the place, while he himself advanced to assault it in

front.[543]

Then, embarking the remainder of his troops, Cortés crossed the river in

face of the enemy; but, before commencing hostilities, that he might

“act with entire regard to justice, and in obedience to the instructions

of the Royal Council,”[544] he first caused proclamation to be made,

through the interpreter, that he desired only a free passage for his

men, and that he proposed to revive the friendly relations which had

formerly subsisted between his countrymen and the natives. He assured

them that if blood were spilt the sin would lie on their heads, and that

resistance would be useless, since he was resolved at all hazards to

take up his quarters that night in the town of Tabasco. This

proclamation, delivered in lofty tone, and duly recorded by the notary,

was answered by the Indians--who might possibly have comprehended one

word in ten of it--with shouts of defiance and a shower of arrows.[545]

Cortés, having now complied with all the requisitions of a loyal

cavalier, and shifted the responsibility from his own shoulders to those

of the Royal Council, brought his boats alongside of the Indian canoes.

They grappled fiercely together, and both parties were soon in the

water, which rose above the girdle. The struggle was not long, though

desperate. The superior strength of the Europeans prevailed, and they

forced the enemy back to land. Here, however, they were supported by

their countrymen, who showered down darts, arrows, and blazing billets

of wood on the heads of the invaders. The banks were soft and slippery,

and it was with difficulty the soldiers made good their footing. Cortés

lost a sandal in the mud, but continued to fight barefoot, with great

exposure of his person, as the Indians, who soon singled out the leader,

called to one another, “Strike at the chief!”

At length the Spaniards gained the bank, and were able to come into

something like order, when they opened a brisk fire from their

arquebuses and cross-bows. The enemy, astounded by the roar and flash of

the fire-arms, of which they had had no experience, fell back, and

retreated behind a breast-work of timber thrown across the way. The

Spaniards, hot in the pursuit, soon carried these rude defences, and

drove the Tabascans before them towards the town, where they again took

shelter behind their palisades.

Meanwhile Avila had arrived from the opposite quarter, and the natives,

taken by surprise, made no further attempt at resistance, but abandoned

the place to the Christians. They had previously removed their families

and effects. Some provisions fell into the hands of the victors, but

little gold, “a circumstance,” says Las Casas, “which gave them no

particular satisfaction.”[546] It was a very populous place. The houses

were mostly of mud; the better sort of stone and lime; affording proofs

in the inhabitants of a superior refinement to that found in the

Islands, as their stout resistance had given evidence of superior

valor.[547]

Cortés, having thus made himself master of the town, took formal

possession of it for the crown of Castile. He gave three cuts with his

sword on a large _ceiba_-tree which grew in the place, and proclaimed

aloud that he took possession of the city in the name and behalf of the

Catholic sovereigns, and would maintain and defend the same with sword

and buckler against all who should gainsay it. The same vaunting

declaration was also made by the soldiers, and the whole was duly

recorded and attested by the notary. This was the usual simple but

chivalric form with which the Spanish cavaliers asserted the royal title

to the conquered territories in the New World. It was a good title,

doubtless, against the claims of any other European potentate.

The general took up his quarters that night in the court-yard of the

principal temple. He posted his sentinels, and took all the precautions

practised in wars with a civilized foe. Indeed, there was reason for

them. A suspicious silence seemed to reign through the place and its

neighborhood; and tidings were brought that the interpreter, Melchorejo,

had fled, leaving his Spanish dress hanging on a tree. Cortés was

disquieted by the desertion of this man, who would not only inform his

countrymen of the small number of the Spaniards, but dissipate any

illusions that might be entertained of their superior natures.

On the following morning, as no traces of the enemy were visible, Cortés

ordered out a detachment under Alvarado, and another under Francisco de

Lujo, to reconnoitre. The latter officer had not advanced a league,

before he learned the position of the Indians, by their attacking him in

such force that he was fain to take shelter in a large stone building,

where he was closely besieged. Fortunately, the loud yells of the

assailants, like most barbarous nations seeking to strike terror by

their ferocious cries, reached the ears of Alvarado and his men, who,

speedily advancing to the relief of their comrades, enabled them to

force a passage through the enemy. Both parties retreated, closely

pursued, on the town, when Cortés, marching out to their support,

compelled the Tabascans to retire.

A few prisoners were taken in this skirmish. By them Cortés found his

worst apprehensions verified. The country was everywhere in arms. A

force consisting of many thousands had assembled from the neighboring

provinces, and a general assault was resolved on for the next day. To

the general’s inquiries why he had been received in so different a

manner from his predecessor, Grijalva, they answered that “the conduct

of the Tabascans then had given great offence to the other Indian

tribes, who taxed them with treachery and cowardice; so that they had

promised, on any return of the white men, to resist them in the same

manner as their neighbors had done.”[548]

Cortés might now well regret that he had allowed himself to deviate from

the direct object of his enterprise, and to become entangled in a

doubtful war which could lead to no profitable result. But it was too

late to repent. He had taken the step, and had no alternative but to go

forward. To retreat would dishearten his own men at the outset, impair

their confidence in him as their leader, and confirm the arrogance of

his foes, the tidings of whose success might precede him on his voyage

and prepare the way for greater mortifications and defeats. He did not

hesitate as to the course he was to pursue, but, calling his officers

together, announced his intention to give battle the following

morning.[549]

He sent back to the vessels such as were disabled by their wounds, and

ordered the remainder of the forces to join the camp. Six of the heavy

guns were also taken from the ships, together with all the horses. The

animals were stiff and torpid from long confinement on board; but a few

hours’ exercise restored them to their strength and usual spirit. He

gave the command of the artillery--if it may be dignified with the

name--to a soldier named Mesa, who had acquired some experience as an

engineer in the Italian wars. The infantry he put under the orders of

Diego de Ordaz, and took charge of the cavalry himself. It consisted of

some of the most valiant gentlemen of his little band, among whom may be

mentioned Alvarado, Velasquez de Leon, Avila, Puertocarrero, Olid,

Montejo. Having thus made all the necessary arrangements, and settled

his plan of battle, he retired to rest,--but not to slumber. His

feverish mind, as may well be imagined, was filled with anxiety for the

morrow, which might decide the fate of his expedition; and, as was his

wont on such occasions, he was frequently observed, during the night,

going the rounds, and visiting the sentinels, to see that no one slept

upon his post.

At the first glimmering of light he mustered his army, and declared his

purpose not to abide, cooped up in the town, the assault of the enemy,

but to march at once against him. For he well knew that the spirits rise

with action, and that the attacking party gathers a confidence from the

very movement, which is not felt by the one who is passively, perhaps

anxiously, awaiting the assault. The Indians were understood to be

encamped on a level ground a few miles distant from the city, called the

plain of Ceutla. The general commanded that Ordaz should march with the

foot, including the artillery, directly across the country, and attack

them in front, while he himself would fetch a circuit with the horse,

and turn their flank when thus engaged, or fall upon their rear.

These dispositions being completed, the little army heard mass and then

sallied forth from the wooden walls of Tabasco. It was Lady-day, the

twenty-fifth of March,--long memorable in the annals of New Spain. The

district around the town was checkered with patches of maize, and, on

the lower level, with plantations of cacao,--supplying the beverage, and

perhaps the coin, of the country, as in Mexico. These plantations,

requiring constant irrigation, were fed by numerous canals and

reservoirs of water, so that the country could not be traversed without

great toil and difficulty. It was, however, intersected by a narrow path

or causeway over which the cannon could be dragged.

The troops advanced more than a league on their laborious march, without

descrying the enemy. The weather was sultry, but few of them were

embarrassed by the heavy mail worn by the European cavaliers at that

period. Their cotton jackets, thickly quilted, afforded a tolerable

protection against the arrows of the Indians, and allowed room for the

freedom and activity of movement essential to a life of rambling

adventure in the wilderness.

At length they came in sight of the broad plains of Ceutla, and beheld

the dusky lines of the enemy stretching, as far as the eye could reach,

along the edge of the horizon. The Indians had shown some sagacity in

the choice of their position; and, as the weary Spaniards came slowly

on, floundering through the morass, the Tabascans set up their hideous

battle-cries, and discharged volleys of arrows, stones, and other

missiles, which rattled like hail on the shields and helmets of the

assailants. Many were severely wounded before they could gain the firm

ground, where they soon cleared a space for themselves, and opened a

heavy fire of artillery and musketry on the dense columns of the enemy,

which presented a fatal mark for the balls. Numbers were swept down at

every discharge; but the bold barbarians, far from being dismayed, threw

up dust and leaves to hide their losses, and, sounding their

war-instruments, shot off fresh flights of arrows in return.

They even pressed closer on the Spaniards, and, when driven off by a

vigorous charge, soon turned again, and, rolling back like the waves of

the ocean, seemed ready to overwhelm the little band by weight of

numbers. Thus cramped, the latter had scarcely room to perform their

necessary evolutions, or even to work their guns with effect.[550]

The engagement had now lasted more than an hour, and the Spaniards,

sorely pressed, looked with great anxiety for the arrival of the

horse--which some unaccountable impediments must have detained--to

relieve them from their perilous position. At this crisis, the farthest

columns of the Indian army were seen to be agitated and thrown into a

disorder that rapidly spread through the whole mass. It was not long

before the ears of the Christians were saluted with the cheering warcry

of “San Jago and San Pedro!” and they beheld the bright helmets and

swords of the Castilian chivalry flashing back the rays of the morning

sun, as they dashed through the ranks of the enemy, striking to the

right and left, and scattering dismay around them. The eye of faith,

indeed, could discern the patron Saint of Spain, himself, mounted on his

gray war-horse, heading the rescue and trampling over the bodies of the

fallen infidels![551]

The approach of Cortés had been greatly retarded by the broken nature of

the ground. When he came up, the Indians were so hotly engaged that he

was upon them before they observed his approach. He ordered his men to

direct their lances at the faces of their opponents,[552] who,

terrified at the monstrous apparition,--for they supposed the rider and

the horse, which they had never before seen, to be one and the

same,[553]--were seized with a panic. Ordaz availed himself of it to

command a general charge along the line, and the Indians, many of them

throwing away their arms, fled without attempting further resistance.

Cortés was too content with the victory to care to follow it up by

dipping his sword in the blood of the fugitives. He drew off his men to

a copse of palms which skirted the place, and under their broad canopy

the soldiers offered up thanksgivings to the Almighty for the victory

vouchsafed them. The field of battle was made the site of a town,

called, in honor of the day on which the action took place, _Santa María

de la Victoria_, long afterwards the capital of the province.[554] The

number of those who fought or fell in the engagement is altogether

doubtful. Nothing, indeed, is more uncertain than numerical estimates of

barbarians. And they gain nothing in probability when they come, as in

the present instance, from the reports of their enemies. Most accounts,

however, agree that the Indian force consisted of five squadrons of

eight thousand men each. There is more discrepancy as to the number of

slain, varying from one to thirty thousand! In this monstrous

discordance the common disposition to exaggerate may lead us to look for

truth in the neighborhood of the smallest number. The loss of the

Christians was inconsiderable; not exceeding--if we receive their own

reports, probably, from the same causes, much diminishing the truth--two

killed and less than a hundred wounded! We may readily comprehend the

feelings of the Conquerors, when they declared that “Heaven must have

fought on their side, since their own strength could never have

prevailed against such a multitude of enemies!”[555]

Several prisoners were taken in the battle, among them two chiefs.

Cortés gave them their liberty, and sent a message by them to their

countrymen “that he would overlook the past, if they would come in at

once and tender their submission. Otherwise he would ride over the land,

and put every living thing in it, man, woman, and child, to the sword!”

With this formidable menace ringing in their ears, the envoys departed.

But the Tabascans had no relish for further hostilities. A body of

inferior chiefs appeared the next day, clad in dark dresses of cotton,

intimating their abject condition, and implored leave to bury their

dead. It was granted by the general, with many assurances of his

friendly disposition; but at the same time he told them he expected

their principal caciques, as he would treat with none other. These soon

presented themselves, attended by a numerous train of vassals, who

followed with timid curiosity to the Christian camp. Among their

propitiatory gifts were twenty female slaves, which, from the character

of one of them, proved of infinitely more consequence than was

anticipated by either Spaniards or Tabascans. Confidence was soon

restored, and was succeeded by a friendly intercourse, and the

interchange of Spanish toys for the rude commodities of the country,

articles of food, cotton, and a few gold ornaments of little value. When

asked where the precious metal was procured, they pointed to the west,

and answered, “Culhua,” “Mexico.” The Spaniards saw this was no place

for them to traffic, or to tarry in. Yet here, they were not many

leagues distant from a potent and opulent city, or what once had been

so, the ancient Palenque. But its glory may have even then passed away,

and its name have been forgotten by the surrounding nations.

Before his departure the Spanish commander did not omit to provide for

one great object of his expedition, the conversion of the Indians. He

first represented to the caciques that he had been sent thither by a

powerful monarch on the other side of the water, for whom he had now a

right to claim their allegiance. He then caused the reverend fathers

Olmedo and Diaz to enlighten their minds, as far as possible, in regard

to the great truths of revelation, urging them to receive these in

place of their own heathenish abominations. The Tabascans, whose

perceptions were no doubt materially quickened by the discipline they

had undergone, made but a faint resistance to either proposal. The next

day was Palm Sunday, and the general resolved to celebrate their

conversion by one of those pompous ceremonials of the Church, which

should make a lasting impression on their minds.

A solemn procession was formed of the whole army, with the ecclesiastics

at their head, each soldier bearing a palm-branch in his hand. The

concourse was swelled by thousands of Indians of both sexes, who

followed in curious astonishment at the spectacle. The long files bent

their way through the flowery savannas that bordered the settlement, to

the principal temple, where an altar was raised, and the image of the

presiding deity was deposed to make room for that of the Virgin with the

infant Saviour. Mass was celebrated by Father Olmedo, and the soldiers

who were capable joined in the solemn chant. The natives listened in

profound silence, and, if we may believe the chronicler of the event who

witnessed it, were melted into tears; while their hearts were penetrated

with reverential awe for the God of those terrible beings who seemed to

wield in their own hands the thunder and the lightning.[556]

The Roman Catholic communion has, it must be admitted, some decided

advantages over the Protestant, for the purposes of proselytism. The

dazzling pomp of its service and its touching appeal to the

sensibilities affect the imagination of the rude child of nature much

more powerfully than the cold abstractions of Protestantism, which,

addressed to the reason, demand a degree of refinement and mental

culture in the audience to comprehend them. The respect, moreover, shown

by the Catholic for the material representations of Divinity, greatly

facilitates the same object. It is true, such representations are used

by him only as incentives, not as the objects of worship. But this

distinction is lost on the savage, who finds such forms of adoration too

analogous to his own to impose any great violence on his feelings. It is

only required of him to transfer his homage from the image of

Quetzalcoatl, the benevolent deity who walked among men, to that of the

Virgin or the Redeemer; from the Cross, which he has worshipped as the

emblem of the god of rain, to the same Cross, the symbol of salvation.

These solemnities concluded, Cortés prepared to return to his ships,

well satisfied with the impression made on the new converts, and with

the conquests he had thus achieved for Castile and Christianity. The

soldiers, taking leave of their Indian friends, entered the boats with

the palm-branches in their hands, and, descending the river, re-embarked

on board their vessels, which rode at anchor at its mouth. A favorable

breeze was blowing, and the little navy, opening its sails to receive

it, was soon on its way again to the golden shores of Mexico.

CHAPTER V

VOYAGE ALONG THE COAST--DOÑA MARINA--SPANIARDS LAND IN

MEXICO--INTERVIEW WITH THE AZTECS

1519

The fleet held its course so near the shore that the inhabitants could

be seen on it; and, as it swept along the winding borders of the Gulf,

the soldiers, who had been on the former expedition with Grijalva,

pointed out to their companions the memorable places on the coast. Here

was the _Rio de Alvarado_, named after the gallant adventurer, who was

present also in this expedition; there the _Rio de Vanderas_, in which

Grijalva had carried on so lucrative a commerce with the Mexicans; and

there the _Isla de los Sacrificios_, where the Spaniards first saw the

vestiges of human sacrifice on the coast. Puertocarrero, as he listened

to these reminiscences of the sailors, repeated the words of the old

ballad of Montesinos, “Here is France, there is Paris, and there the

waters of the Duero,”[557] etc. “But I advise you,” he added, turning

to Cortés, “to look out only for the rich lands, and the best way to

govern them.” “Fear not,” replied his commander: “if Fortune but favors

me as she did Orlando, and I have such gallant gentlemen as you for my

companions, I shall understand myself very well.”[558]

The fleet had now arrived off San Juan de Ulua, the island so named by

Grijalva. The weather was temperate and serene, and crowds of natives

were gathered on the shore of the main land, gazing at the strange

phenomenon, as the vessels glided along under easy sail on the smooth

bosom of the waters. It was the evening of Thursday in Passion Week. The

air came pleasantly off the shore, and Cortés, liking the spot, thought

he might safely anchor under the lee of the island, which would shelter

him from the _nortes_ that sweep over these seas with fatal violence in

the winter, sometimes even late in the spring.

The ships had not been long at anchor, when a light pirogue, filled with

natives, shot off from the neighboring continent, and steered for the

general’s vessel, distinguished by the royal ensign of Castile floating

from the mast. The Indians came on board with a frank confidence,

inspired by the accounts of the Spaniards spread by their countrymen who

had traded with Grijalva. They brought presents of fruits and flowers

and little ornaments of gold, which they gladly exchanged for the usual

trinkets. Cortés was baffled in his attempts to hold a conversation with

his visitors by means of the interpreter, Aguilar, who was ignorant of

the language; the Mayan dialects, with which he was conversant, bearing

too little resemblance to the Aztec. The natives supplied the

deficiency, as far as possible, by the uncommon vivacity and

significance of their gestures,--the hieroglyphics of speech; but the

Spanish commander saw with chagrin the embarrassments he must encounter

in future for want of a more perfect medium of communication.[559] In

this dilemma, he was informed that one of the female slaves given to him

by the Tabascan chiefs was a native Mexican, and understood the

language. Her name--that given to her by the Spaniards--was Marina; and,

as she was to exercise a most important influence on their fortunes, it

is necessary to acquaint the reader with something of her character and

history.

She was born at Painalla, in the province of Coatzacualco, on the

southeastern borders of the Mexican empire. Her father, a rich and

powerful cacique, died when she was very young. Her mother married

again, and, having a son, she conceived the infamous idea of securing to

this offspring of her second union Marina’s rightful inheritance. She

accordingly feigned that the latter was dead, but secretly delivered her

into the hands of some itinerant traders of Xicallanco. She availed

herself, at the same time, of the death of a child of one of her slaves,

to substitute the corpse for that of her own daughter, and celebrated

the obsequies with mock solemnity. These particulars are related by the

honest old soldier Bernal Diaz, who knew the mother, and witnessed the

generous treatment of her afterwards by Marina. By the merchants the

Indian maiden was again sold to the cacique of Tabasco, who delivered

her, as we have seen, to the Spaniards.

From the place of her birth, she was well acquainted with the Mexican

tongue, which, indeed, she is said to have spoken with great elegance.

Her residence in Tabasco familiarized her with the dialects of that

country, so that she could carry on a conversation with Aguilar, which

he in turn rendered into the Castilian. Thus a certain though somewhat

circuitous channel was opened to Cortés for communicating with the

Aztecs; a circumstance of the last importance to the success of his

enterprise. It was not very long, however, before Marina, who had a

lively genius, made herself so far mistress of the Castilian as to

supersede the necessity of any other linguist. She learned it the more

readily, as it was to her the language of love.

Cortés, who appreciated the value of her services from the first, made

her his interpreter, then his secretary, and, won by her charms, his

mistress. She had a son by him, Don Martin Cortés, _comendador_ of the

Military Order of St. James, less distinguished by his birth than his

unmerited persecutions.

Marina was at this time in the morning of life. She is said to have

possessed uncommon personal attractions,[560] and her open, expressive

features indicated her generous temper. She always remained faithful to

the countrymen of her adoption; and her knowledge of the language and

customs of the Mexicans, and often of their designs, enabled her to

extricate the Spaniards, more than once, from the most embarrassing and

perilous situations. She had her errors, as we have seen. But they

should be rather charged to the defects of early education, and to the

evil influence of him to whom in the darkness of her spirit she looked

with simple confidence for the light to guide her. All agree that she

was full of excellent qualities, and the important services which she

rendered the Spaniards have made her memory deservedly dear to them;

while the name of Malinche[561]--the name by which she is still known in

Mexico--was pronounced with kindness by the conquered races, with whose

misfortunes she showed an invariable sympathy.[562]

With the aid of his two intelligent interpreters, Cortés entered into

conversation with his Indian visitors. He learned that they were

Mexicans, or rather subjects of the great Mexican empire, of which their

own province formed one of the comparatively recent conquests. The

country was ruled by a powerful monarch, called Moctheuzoma, or by

Europeans more commonly Montezuma,[563] who dwelt on the mountain plains

of the interior, nearly seventy leagues from the coast; their own

province was governed by one of his nobles, named Teuhtlile, whose

residence was eight leagues distant. Cortés acquainted them in turn with

his own friendly views in visiting their country, and with his desire of

an interview with the Aztec governor. He then dismissed them loaded with

presents, having first ascertained that there was abundance of gold in

the interior, like the specimens they had brought.

Cortés, pleased with the manners of the people and the goodly reports of

the land, resolved to take up his quarters here for the present. The

next morning, April twenty-first, being Good Friday, he landed, with all

his force, on the very spot where now stands the modern city of Vera

Cruz. Little did the Conqueror imagine that the desolate beach on which

he first planted his foot was one day to be covered by a flourishing

city, the great mart of European and Oriental trade, the commercial

capital of New Spain.[564]

It was a wide and level plain, except where the sand had been drifted

into hillocks by the perpetual blowing of the _norte_. On these

sand-hills he mounted his little battery of guns, so as to give him the

command of the country. He then employed the troops in cutting down

small trees and bushes which grew near, in order to provide a shelter

from the weather. In this he was aided by the people of the country,

sent, as it appeared, by the governor of the district to assist the

Spaniards. With their help stakes were firmly set in the earth, and

covered with boughs, and with mats and cotton carpets, which the

friendly natives brought with them. In this way they secured, in a

couple of days, a good defence against the scorching rays of the sun,

which beat with intolerable fierceness on the sands. The place was

surrounded by stagnant marshes, the exhalations from which, quickened

by the heat into the pestilent malaria, have occasioned in later times

wider mortality to Europeans than all the hurricanes on the coast. The

bilious disorders, now the terrible scourge of the _tierra caliente_,

were little known before the Conquest. The seeds of the poison seem to

have been scattered by the hand of civilization; for it is only

necessary to settle a town, and draw together a busy European

population, in order to call out the malignity of the venom which had

before lurked innoxious in the atmosphere.[565]

While these arrangements were in progress, the natives flocked in from

the adjacent district, which was tolerably populous in the interior,

drawn by a natural curiosity to see the wonderful strangers. They

brought with them fruits, vegetables, flowers in abundance, game, and

many dishes cooked after the fashion of the country, with little

articles of gold and other ornaments. They gave away some as presents,

and bartered others for the wares of the Spaniards; so that the camp,

crowded with a motley throng of every age and sex, wore the appearance

of a fair. From some of the visitors Cortés learned the intention of the

governor to wait on him the following day.

This was Easter. Teuhtlile arrived, as he had announced, before noon. He

was attended by a numerous train, and was met by Cortés, who conducted

him with much ceremony to his tent, where his principal officers were

assembled. The Aztec chief returned their salutations with polite though

formal courtesy. Mass was first said by Father Olmedo, and the service

was listened to by Teuhtlile and his attendants with decent reverence. A

collation was afterwards served, at which the general entertained his

guest with Spanish wines and confections. The interpreters were then

introduced, and a conversation commenced between the parties.

The first inquiries of Teuhtlile were respecting the country of the

strangers and the purport of their visit. Cortés told him that “he was

the subject of a potent monarch beyond the seas, who ruled over an

immense empire, and had kings and princes for his vassals; that,

acquainted with the greatness of the Mexican emperor, his master had

desired to enter into a communication with him, and had sent him as his

envoy to wait on Montezuma with a present in token of his good will, and

a message which he must deliver in person.” He concluded by inquiring of

Teuhtlile when he could be admitted to his sovereign’s presence.

To this the Aztec noble somewhat haughtily replied, “How is it that you

have been here only two days, and demand to see the emperor?” He then

added, with more courtesy, that “he was surprised to learn there was

another monarch as powerful as Montezuma, but that, if it were so, he

had no doubt his master would be happy to communicate with him. He would

send his couriers with the royal gift brought by the Spanish commander,

and, so soon as he had learned Montezuma’s will, would communicate it.”

Teuhtlile then commanded his slaves to bring forward the present

intended for the Spanish general. It consisted of ten loads of fine

cottons, several mantles of that curious feather-work whose rich and

delicate dyes might vie with the most beautiful painting, and a wicker

basket filled with ornaments of wrought gold, all calculated to inspire

the Spaniards with high ideas of the wealth and mechanical ingenuity of

the Mexicans.

Cortés received these presents with suitable acknowledgments, and

ordered his own attendants to lay before the chief the articles designed

for Montezuma. These were an arm-chair richly carved and painted, a

crimson cap of cloth, having a gold medal emblazoned with St. George and

the dragon, and a quantity of collars, bracelets, and other ornaments of

cut glass, which, in a country where glass was not to be had, might

claim to have the value of real gems, and no doubt passed for such with

the inexperienced Mexican. Teuhtlile observed a soldier in the camp with

a shining gilt helmet on his head, which he said reminded him of one

worn by the god Quetzalcoatl in Mexico; and he showed a desire that

Montezuma should see it. The coming of the Spaniards, as the reader

will soon see, was associated with some traditions of this same deity.

Cortés expressed his willingness that the casque should be sent to the

emperor, intimating a hope that it would be returned filled with the

gold dust of the country, that he might be able to compare its quality

with that in his own! He further told the governor, as we are informed

by his chaplain, “that the Spaniards were troubled with a disease of the

heart, for which gold was a specific remedy”![566] “In short,” says Las

Casas, “he contrived to make his want of gold very clear to the

governor.”[567]

While these things were passing, Cortés observed one of Teuhtlile’s

attendants busy with a pencil, apparently delineating some object. On

looking at his work, he found that it was a sketch on canvas of the

Spaniards, their costumes, arms, and, in short, different objects of

interest, giving to each its appropriate form and color. This was the

celebrated picture-writing of the Aztecs, and, as Teuhtlile informed

him, this man was employed in portraying the various objects for the eye

of Montezuma, who would thus gather a more vivid notion of their

appearance than from any description by words. Cortés was pleased with

the idea; and, as he knew how much the effect would be heightened by

converting still life into action, he ordered out the cavalry on the

beach, the wet sands of which afforded a firm footing for the horses.

The bold and rapid movements of the troops, as they went through their

military exercises; the apparent ease with which they managed the fiery

animals on which they were mounted; the glancing of their weapons, and

the shrill cry of the trumpet, all filled the spectators with

astonishment; but when they heard the thunders of the cannon, which

Cortés ordered to be fired at the same time, and witnessed the volumes

of smoke and flame issuing from these terrible engines, and the rushing

sound of the balls, as they dashed through the trees of the neighboring

forest, shivering their branches into fragments, they were filled with

consternation, from which the Aztec chief himself was not wholly free.

Nothing of all this was lost on the painters, who faithfully recorded,

after their fashion, every particular; not omitting the ships,--“the

water-houses,” as they called them, of the strangers,--which, with their

dark hulls and snow-white sails reflected from the water, were swinging

lazily at anchor on the calm bosom of the bay. All was depicted with a

fidelity that excited in their turn the admiration of the Spaniards,

who, doubtless, unprepared for this exhibition of skill, greatly

overestimated the merits of the execution.[568]

These various matters completed, Teuhtlile with his attendants withdrew

from the Spanish quarters, with the same ceremony with which he had

entered them; leaving orders that his people should supply the troops

with provisions and other articles requisite for their accommodation,

till further instructions from the capital.[569]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Lewis H. Morgan, Houses and House-Life of the American Aborigines,

p. 222.

[2] See vol. i. chap, iv., and, for Ximenes, Prescott’s

“Ferdinand and Isabella,” part ii. chap. vi.

[3] In this edition placed immediately after the Introduction.

[4] Extensive indeed, if we may trust Archbishop Lorenzana, who tells

us, “It is doubtful if the country of new Spain does not border on

Tartary and Greenland;--by the way of California, on the former, and by

New Mexico, on the latter”! Historia de Nueva-España (México, 1770), p.

38, nota.{*}

{*}[The limits fixed by historical writers to the territories of the

Aztec Confederacy vary startlingly. Prescott’s estimate is too large.

Lewis H. Morgan (Houses and House Life of the American Aborigines,

p. 223) considers its land area to have been about that of Rhode

Island--the smallest State in the American Union--_i.e._, about 1250

square miles. Medio tutissimus ibis. The term Empire is misleading.

The states of Querétaro, Guanajuato, Michoacán, Guerrero, and much of

La Puebla, in modern Mexico, almost surround the so-called Empire of

Montezuma. Possibly the tributary pueblos may have covered an area

equal to that of the State of Massachusetts.--M.]

[5] I have conformed to the limits fixed by Clavigero. He has,

probably, examined the subject with more thoroughness and fidelity

than most of his countrymen, who differ from him, and who assign

a more liberal extent to the monarchy. (See his Storia antica del

Messico (Cesena, 1780), dissert. 7.) The abbé, however, has not

informed his readers on what frail foundations his conclusions rest.

The extent of the Aztec empire is to be gathered from the writings

of historians since the arrival of the Spaniards, and from the

picture-rolls of tribute paid by the conquered cities; both sources

extremely vague and defective. See the MSS. of the Mendoza collection,

in Lord Kingsborough’s magnificent publication (Antiquities of Mexico,

comprising Facsimiles of Ancient Paintings and Hieroglyphics, together

with the Monuments of New Spain. London, 1830). The difficulty of the

inquiry is much increased by the fact of the conquests having been

made, as will be seen hereafter, by the united arms of three powers,

so that it is not always easy to tell to which party they eventually

belonged. The affair is involved in so much uncertainty that Clavigero,

notwithstanding the positive assertions in his text, has not ventured,

in his map, to define the precise limits of the empire, either towards

the north, where it mingles with the Tezcucan empire, or towards the

south, where, indeed, he has fallen into the egregious blunder of

asserting that, while the Mexican territory reached to the fourteenth

degree, it did not include any portion of Guatemala. (See tom. i. p.

29, and tom. iv. dissert. 7.) The Tezcucan chronicler Ixtlilxochitl

puts in a sturdy claim for the paramount empire of his own nation.

Historia Chichimeca, MS., cap. 39, 53, et alibi.

[6] Eighteen to twenty thousand, according to Humboldt, who considers

the Mexican territory to have been the same with that occupied by

the modern intendancies of Mexico, Puebla, Vera Cruz, Oaxaca, and

Valladolid. (Essai politique sur le Royaume de Nouvelle-Espagne

(Paris, 1825), tom. i. p. 196.) This last, however, was all, or nearly

all, included in the rival kingdom of Michoacán, as he himself more

correctly states in another part of his work. Comp. tom. ii. p. 164.

[7] [Immediate decay follows death. All traces of a buried corpse

vanish in three or four years.--M.]

[8] The traveller who enters the country across the dreary sand-hills

of Vera Cruz will hardly recognize the truth of the above description.

He must look for it in other parts of the _tierra caliente_. Of recent

tourists, no one has given a more gorgeous picture of the impressions

made on his senses by these sunny regions than Latrobe, who came on

shore at Tampico (Rambler in Mexico (New York, 1836), chap. 1),--a

traveller, it may be added, whose descriptions of man and nature in our

own country, where we can judge, are distinguished by a sobriety and

fairness that entitle him to confidence in his delineation of other

countries.

[9] This long extent of country varies in elevation from 5570 to 8856

feet,--equal to the height of the passes of Mount Cenis or the Great

St. Bernard. The table-land stretches still three hundred leagues

farther, before it declines to a level of 2624 feet. Humboldt, Essai

politique, tom. i. pp. 157, 255.{*}

{*}[“The Continental range of Humboldt does not exist. The Andean

system ends in northern Colombia. The Rocky Mountain system ends in the

plateau south of the City of Mexico. The system between lies across

the trend of the other two systems and differs from them in origin. It

belongs to the same chain which crops up in the Antilles, i.e., to the

system appearing in Martinique and Santa Lucia.”--Robert T. Hill, of U.

S. Geological Survey, in Century Magazine, July, 1902.--M.]

[10] About 62° Fahrenheit, or 17° Réaumur. (Humboldt, Essai politique,

tom. i. p. 273.) The more elevated plateaus of the table-land, as the

Valley of Toluca, about 8500 feet above the sea, have a stern climate,

in which the thermometer, during a great part of the day, rarely rises

beyond 45° F. Idem (loc. cit.), and Malte-Brun (Universal Geography,

Eng. trans., book 83), who is, indeed, in this part of his work, but an

echo of the former writer.

[11] The elevation of the Castiles, according to the authority

repeatedly cited, is about 350 toises, or 2100 feet above the ocean.

(Humboldt’s Dissertation, apud Laborde, Itinéraire descriptif de

l’Espagne (Paris, 1827), tom. i. p. 5.) It is rare to find plains in

Europe of so great a height.

[12] Archbishop Lorenzana estimates the circuit of the Valley at ninety

leagues, correcting at the same time the statement of Cortés, which

puts it at seventy, very near the truth, as appears from the result of

M. de Humboldt’s measurement, cited in the text. Its length is about

eighteen leagues, by twelve and a half in breadth. (Humboldt, Essai

politique, tom. ii. p. 29.--Lorenzana, Hist. de Nueva-España, p. 101.)

Humboldt’s map of the Valley of Mexico forms the third in his “Atlas

géographique et physique,” and, like all the others in the collection,

will be found of inestimable value to the traveller, the geologist, and

the historian.

[13] Humboldt, Essai politique, tom. ii. pp. 29, 44-49.--Malte-Brun,

book 85. This latter geographer assigns only 6700 feet for the level of

the Valley, contradicting himself (comp. book 83), or rather Humboldt,

to whose pages he helps himself _plenis manibus_, somewhat too

liberally, indeed, for the scanty references at the bottom of his page.

[14] Torquemada accounts in part for this diminution by supposing

that, as God permitted the waters, which once covered the whole earth,

to subside after mankind had been nearly exterminated for their

iniquities, so he allowed the waters of the Mexican lake to subside,

in token of good will and reconciliation, after the idolatrous races

of the land had been destroyed by the Spaniards! (Monarchía Indiana

(Madrid, 1723), tom. i. p. 309.) Quite as probable, if not as orthodox,

an explanation, may be found in the active evaporation of these upper

regions, and in the fact of an immense drain having been constructed,

during the lifetime of the good father, to reduce the waters of the

principal lake and protect the capital from inundation.

[15] [It is perhaps to be regretted that, instead of a meagre notice

of the Toltecs with a passing allusion to earlier races, the author

did not give a separate chapter to the history of the country during

the ages preceding the Conquest. That history, it is true, resting

on tradition or on questionable records mingled with legendary and

mythological relations, is full of obscurity and doubt. But whatever

its uncertainty in regard to details, it presents a mass of general

facts supported by analogy and by the stronger evidence of language

and of the existing relics of the past. The number and diversity of

the architectural and other remains found on the soil of Mexico and

the adjacent regions, and the immense variety of the spoken languages,

with the vestiges of others that have passed out of use,--all perhaps

derived originally from a common stock, but exhibiting different stages

of development or decay, and capable of being classified into several

distinct families,--point to conclusions that render the subject

one of the most attractive fields for critical investigation. These

concurrent testimonies leave no doubt that, like portions of the Old

World similarly favored in regard to climate, soil, and situation, the

central regions of America were occupied from a very remote period

by nations which made distinct advances in civilization, and passed

through a cycle of revolutions comparable to that of which the Valley

of the Euphrates and other parts of Asia were anciently the scene. The

useful arts were known and practised, wealth was accumulated, social

systems exhibiting a certain refinement and a peculiar complexity were

organized, states were established which flourished, decayed,--either

from the effects of isolation or an inherent incapacity for

continuance,--and were finally overthrown by invaders, by whom the

experiment was repeated, though not always with equal success. Some of

these nations passed away, leaving no trace but their names; others,

whose very names are unknown, left mysterious monuments imbedded in

the soil or records that are undecipherable. Of those that still

remain, comprising about a dozen distinct races speaking a hundred

and twenty different dialects, we have the traditions preserved

either in their own records or in those of the Spanish discoverers.

The task of constructing out of these materials a history shorn of

the adornments of mythology and fable has been attempted by the Abbé

Brasseur de Bourbourg (Histoire des Nations civilisées du Mexique et de

l’Amérique-Centrale, durant les Siècles antérieurs à Christophe Colomb,

4 vols., Paris, 1857-59), and, whatever may be thought of the method

he has pursued, his research is unquestionable, and his views--very

different from those which he has since put forth--merit attention. A

more practical effort has been made by Don Manuel Orozco y Berra to

trace the order, diffusion, and relations of the various races by the

differences, the intermixtures, and the geographical limits of their

languages. (Geografía de las Lenguas y Carta etnográfica de México,

precedidas de un Ensayo de Clasificacion de las mismas Lenguas y de

Apuntes para las Inmigraciones de las Tribus, México, 1864.)--K.]

[16] [The uncertainty is not diminished by our being told that Tollan,

Tullan, Tulan, or Tula (called also Tlapallan and Huehuetlapallan)

was the original seat of this people, since we are still left in

doubt whether the country so designated--like Aztlan, the supposed

point of departure of the Aztecs--is to be located in New Mexico,

California, the northwestern extremity of America, or in Asia. M.

Brasseur de Bourbourg (whose later speculations, in which the name

plays a conspicuous part, will be noticed more appropriately in the

Appendix) found in the Quiché manuscripts mention of four Tollans, one

of them “in the east, on the other side of the sea.” “But,” he adds,

“in what part of the world is it to be placed? _C’est là encore une

question bien difficile à résoudre._” (Hist. des Nations civilisées

du Mexique, tom. i. pp. 167, 168.) Nor will the etymology much help

us. According to Buschmann, _Tollan_ is derived from _tolin_, reed,

and signifies “place of reeds,”--“Ort der Binsen, Platz mit Binsen

gewachsen, _juncetum_.” (Über die aztekischen Ortsnamen, S. 682.) He

refers, however, to a different derivation, suggested by a writer who

has made it the basis of one of those extraordinary theories which

are propounded from time to time, to account for the first diffusion

of the human race, and more particularly for the original settlement

of America. According to this theory, the cradle of mankind was the

Himalayan Mountains. “But the collective name of these lofty regions

was very anciently designated by appellations the roots of which

were _Tal_, _Tol_, _Tul_, meaning tall, high, ... as it does yet in

many languages, the English, Chinese, and Arabic for instance. Such

were _Tolo_, _Thala_, _Talaha_, _Tulan_, etc., in the old Sanscrit

and primitive languages of Asia. Whence came the Asiatic _Atlas_ and

also the _Atlantes_ of the Greeks, who, spreading through the world

westerly, gave these names to many other places and notions.... The

Talas or Atlantes occupied or conquered Europe and Africa, nay, went

to America in very early times.... In Greece they became _Atalantes_,

_Talautians_ of Epirus, _Aetolians_.... They gave name to Italy,

_Aitala_ meaning land eminent, ... to the Atlantic Ocean, and to

the great Atlantis, or America, called in the Hindu books _Atala_

or _Tala-tolo_, the fourth world, where dwelt giants or powerful

men.... America is also filled with their names and deeds from Mexico

and Carolina to Peru: the _Tol-tecas_, people of Tol, and Aztlan,

_Otolum_ near Palenque, many towns of _Tula_ and _Tolu_; the _Talas_

of Michuacan, the _Matalans_, _Atalans_, _Tulukis_, etc., of North

America.” (C. S. Rafinesque, Atlantic Journal, Philadelphia, 1832-33.)

It need hardly be added that Tula has also been identified with

the equally unknown and long-sought-for _ultima_ _Thule_, with the

simplifying effect of bringing two streams of inquiry into one channel.

Meanwhile, by a different kind of criticism, the whole question

is dissipated into thin air, _Tollan_ and _Aztlan_ being resolved

into names of mere mythical import, and the regions thus designated

transferred from the earth to the bright domain of the sky, from which

the descriptions in the legends appear to have been borrowed. See

Brinton, Myths of the New World, pp. 88, 89.--K.]

[17] Anahuac, according to Humboldt, comprehended only the country

between the fourteenth and twenty-first degrees of north latiude.

(Essai politique, tom. i. p. 197.) According to Clavigero, it included

nearly all since known as New Spain. (Stor. del Messico, tom. i. p.

27.) Veytia uses it, also, as synonymous with New Spain. (Historia

antigua de Méjico (Méjico, 1836), tom. i. cap. 12.) The first of these

writers probably allows too little, as the latter do too much, for

its boundaries. Ixtlilxochitl says it extended four hundred leagues

south of the Otomi country. (Hist. Chichimeca, MS., cap. 73.) The word

Anahuac signifies _near the water_. It was, probably, first applied

to the country around the lakes in the Mexican Valley, and gradually

extended to the remoter regions occupied by the Aztecs and the other

semi-civilized races. Or possibly the name may have been intended, as

Veytia suggests (Hist. antig., lib. 1, cap. 1), to denote the land

between the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific.{*}

{*} [This suggestion of Veytia is unworthy of attention,--refuted by

the actual application and appropriateness of the name, and by the

state of geographical knowledge and ideas at the period when it must

have originated. A modern traveller, describing the appearance of the

great plains as seen from the summit of Popocatepetl, remarks, “Even

now that the lakes have shrunk to a fraction of their former size, we

could see the fitness of the name given in old times to the Valley of

Mexico, _Anahuac_, that is, By the water-side.” Tylor, Anahuac; or

Mexico and the Mexicans, Ancient and Modern (London, 1861), p. 270.--K.]

[18] Clavigero talks of Boturini’s having written “on the faith of

the Toltec historians.” (Stor. del Messico, tom. i. p. 128.) But that

scholar does not pretend to have ever met with a Toltec manuscript

himself, and had heard of only one in the possession of Ixtlilxochitl.

(See his Idea de una nueva Historia general de la América Septentrional

(Madrid, 1746), p. 110.) The latter writer tells us that his account

of the Toltec and Chichimec races was “derived from interpretation”

(probably of the Tezcucan paintings), “and from the traditions of old

men;” poor authority for events which had passed centuries before.

Indeed, he acknowledges that their narratives were so full of absurdity

and falsehood that he was obliged to reject nine-tenths of them. (See

his Relaciones, MS., no. 5.) The cause of truth would not have suffered

much, probably, if he had rejected nine-tenths of the remainder.{*}

{*} [Ixtlilxochitl’s language does not necessarily imply that he

considered any of the relations he had received as false or absurd,

nor does he say that he had rejected nine-tenths of them. What he has

written is, he asserts, “the true history of the Toltecs,” though it

does not amount to nine-tenths of the whole (“de lo que ello fué”),

_i.e._, of what had been contained in the original records; these

records having perished, and he himself having abridged the accounts

he had been able to obtain of their contents, as well for the sake of

brevity as because of the marvellous character of the relations (“son

tan estrañas las cosas y tan peregrinas y nunca oidas”). The sources of

his information are also incorrectly described; but a further mention

of them will be found in a note at the end of this Book.--K.]

[19] Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 2.--Idem, Relaciones, MS.,

no. 2.--Sahagun, Historia general de las Cosas de Nueva-España (México,

1829), lib. 10, cap. 29.--Veytia, Hist. antig., lib. 1, cap. 27.

[20] Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-España, lib. 10, cap. 29.

[21] Sahagun, ubi supra.--Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 1, cap. 14.

[22] Description de l’Égypte (Paris, 1890), Antiquités, tom. i. cap.

1. Veytia has traced the migrations of the Toltecs with sufficient

industry, scarcely rewarded by the necessarily doubtful credit of the

results. Hist. antig., lib. 2, cap. 21-33.

[23] Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 73.

[24] Veytia, Hist. antig., lib. 1, cap. 33.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist.

Chich., MS., cap 3.--Idem, Relaciones, MS., nos. 4, 5.--Father

Torquemada--perhaps misinterpreting the Tezcucan hieroglyphics--has

accounted for this mysterious disappearance of the Toltecs by such

_fee-faw-fum_ stories of giants and demons as show his appetite for

the marvellous was fully equal to that of any of his calling. See his

Monarch. Ind., lib. 1, cap. 14.

[25] [This supposition, neither adopted nor rejected in the text,

was, as Mr. Tylor remarks, “quite tenable at the time that Prescott

wrote,” being founded on the statements of early writers and partially

supported by the conclusions of Mr. Stephens, who believed that the

ruined cities of Oaxaca, Chiapas, Yucatan, and Guatemala dated from a

comparatively recent period, and were still flourishing at the time

of the Spanish Conquest; and that their inhabitants, the ancestors,

as he contends, of the degenerate race that now occupies the soil,

were of the same stock and spoke the same language as the Mexicans.

(Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan.) But

these opinions have been refuted by later investigators. Orozco y

Berra, in an elaborate and satisfactory examination of the question,

discusses all the evidence relating to it, compares the remains in the

southern provinces with those of the Valley of Mexico, points out the

essential differences in the architecture, sculpture, and inscriptions,

and arrives at the conclusion that there was “no point of contact or

resemblance” between the two civilizations. He considers that of the

southern provinces, though of a far higher grade, as long anterior

in time to the Toltec domination,--the work of a people which had

passed away, under the assaults of barbarism, at a period prior to all

traditions, leaving no name and no trace of their existence save those

monuments which, neglected and forgotten by their successors, have

become the riddle of later generations.{*} Geografía de las Lenguas de

México, pp. 122-131. See also Tylor, Anahuac, p. 189, et seq.--K.

{*} [Charnay (Ancient Cities of the New World) holds that both

Mitla and Palenque are of Toltec origin. He has no doubt whatsoever

concerning Palenque. This he thinks was a Holy City whose inhabitants

dispersed at the first alarm of the Conquest (p. 245). (See, further,

p. 246.) Dr. Brinton holds that Father Duran, Historia de las Indias

de Nueva España, Tezozomoc, Croníca Mexicana, and the Codex Ramirez

identify the Toltecs with the Aztecs. As John Fiske puts it, “it is

well to beware, however, about meddling much with these Toltecs.”

Mr. Fiske urges like caution concerning the Chichimecs. Bandelier

(Archæological Tour, p. 192) points out that Ixtlilxochitl, the

historian of the Chichimecs, “wrote for an interested object, and

with a view of sustaining tribal claims in the eyes of the Spanish

government.”--M.]

[26] _Tezcuco_ signifies “place of detention;” as several of the tribes

who successively occupied Anahuac were said to have halted some time at

the spot. Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 10.{*}

{*} [“Über die Etymologie lässt sich nichts sicheres sagen,” says

Buschmann, “so zuversichtlich auch Prescott, wohl nach Ixtlilxochitl,

den Namen durch _place of detention_ übersetzt.” Uber die aztekischen

Ortsnamen, S. 697.--K.]

[27] [It is difficult to reconcile the two statements that the Toltecs

“were the true fountains of the civilization which distinguished this

part of the continent in later times,” and that they “disappeared

from the land as silently and mysteriously as they had entered it,”

leaving an interval of more than a century before the appearance of the

Aztecs and the Acolhuans. If the latter received from the former the

knowledge of those arts in which they speedily rivalled them, it must

have been by more direct communication and transmission than can be

inferred from the mention of a small fraction of the Toltec population

as remaining in the country,--a fact which has itself the appearance of

having been invented to meet the difficulty. Orozco y Berra compares

this transitional period with that which followed the overthrow of the

Roman Empire; but if in the former case there was, in his own words,

“no conquest, but only an occupation, no war because no one to contend

with,” the analogy altogether fails. Brasseur de Bourbourg reduces the

interval between the departure of the Toltecs and the arrival of the

Chichimecs to a few years, and supposes that a considerable number

of the former inhabitants remained scattered through the Valley. If,

however, it be allowable to substitute probabilities for doubtful

relations, it is an easier solution to believe that no interval

occurred and that no emigration took place.--K.]

[28] The historian speaks, in one page, of the Chichimecs burrowing in

caves, or, at best, in cabins of straw, and, in the next, talks gravely

of their _señoras_, _infantas_, and _caballeros_!{*} Ibid., cap. 9, et

seq.--Veytia, Hist. antig., lib. 2, cap. 1-10.--Camargo, Historia de

Tlascala, MS.

[29] Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 9-20.--Veytia, Hist.

antig., lib. 2, cap. 29-54.

[30] [Some recent writers have contended that Mexico must have been

peopled originally by migrations from the South. Aztec names and

communities, and traces of Toltec settlements long anterior to the

occupation of Anahuac by the same people, are found in several parts

of Central America. The most primitive traditions, as well as the

remains of the earliest civilization, belong also to the same quarter.

This latter fact, however, is considered by Orozco y Berra as itself

an evidence of the migrations having been from the North, the first

comers having been naturally attracted southward by a warmer climate

and more fertile soil, or pushed onward in this direction by successive

invasions from behind. Contradictory inferences have in like manner

been drawn from the existence of Aztec remains and settlements in

New Mexico and Arizona. All that can be said with confidence is that

neither of the opposing theories rests on a secure and sufficient

basis.--K.]

[31] These were the Colhuans, not Acolhuans, with whom Humboldt, and

most writers since, have confounded them.{*} See his Essai politique,

tom. i. p. 414; ii. p. 37.

{*} [Humboldt, strictly speaking, has not confounded the Colhuans

with the Acolhuans, but has written, in the places cited, the latter

name for the former. “Letzterer Name,” says Buschmann, “ist der

erstere mit dem Zusatz von _atl_ Wasser,--Wasser Colhuer.” (Uber die

aztekischen Ortsnamen, S. 690.) Yet the two tribes, according to the

same authority, were entirely distinct, one alone--though which, he

is unable to determine--being of the Nahuatlac race. Orozco y Berra,

however, makes them both of this stock, the Acolhuans being one of

the main branches, the Colhuans merely the descendants of the Toltec

remnant in Anahuac.--K.]

[32] [This is not quite correct, since the form used in the letters of

Cortés and other early documents is _Temixtitan_, which is explained as

a corruption of Tenochtitlan. The letters _x_ and _ch_ are convertible,

and have the same sound,--that of the English _sh_. _Mexico_ is

_Mexitl_ with the place-designation _co_, _tl_ final being dropped

before an affix.--K.]

[33] Clavigero gives good reasons for preferring the etymology of

Mexico above noticed, to various others. (See his Stor. del Messico,

tom. i. p. 168, nota.) The name _Tenochtitlan_ signifies _tunal_ (a

cactus) _on a stone_. Esplicacion de la Col. de Mendoza, apud Antiq. of

Mexico, vol. iv.

[34] “Datur hæc venia antiquitati,” says Livy, “ut, miscendo humana

divinis, primordia urbium augustiora faciat.” Hist. Præf.--See, for the

above paragraph, Col. de Mendoza, plate 1, apud Antiq. of Mexico, vol.

i.,--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 10,--Toribio, Historia de

los Indios, MS., Parte 3, cap. 8,--Veytia, Hist. antig., lib. 2, cap.

15.--Clavigero, after a laborious examination, assigns the following

dates to some of the prominent events noticed in the text. No two

authorities agree on them; and this is not strange, considering that

Clavigero--the most inquisitive of all--does not always agree with

himself. (Compare his dates for the coming of the Acolhuans, tom. i. p.

147, and tom. iv., dissert. 2:)--

A. D.

The Toltecs arrived in Anahuac 648

They abandoned the country 1051

The Chichimecs arrived 1170

The Acolhuans arrived about 1200

The Mexicans reached Tula 1196

They founded Mexico 1325

See his dissert. 2, sec. 12. In the last date, the one of most

importance, he is confirmed by the learned Veytia, who differs from him

in all the others. Hist. antig., lib. 2, cap. 15.

[35] [In a somewhat similar way was founded the Italian Venice. It was

the fear of death at the hands of Attila and his Huns that caused the

peopling of the islands among the lagoons of the Adriatic. It was the

easy subsistence the lagoons afforded that caused the steady growth of

the Italian village.--M.]

[36] [This confederacy occupied one of the strongest defensive

positions ever held by Indians. It gradually extended its sway over a

large part of the Mexican territory. This “sway,” however, as Fiske

points out, was not a military occupation of the country. It was a

“system of plunder enforced by terror.”--M.]

[37] The loyal Tezcucan chronicler claims the supreme dignity for his

own sovereign, if not the greatest share of the spoil, by this imperial

compact. (Hist. Chich., cap. 32.) Torquemada, on the other hand, claims

one-half of all the conquered lands for Mexico. (Monarch. Ind., lib.

2, cap. 40.) All agree in assigning only one-fifth to Tlacopan; and

Veytia (Hist. antig., lib. 3, cap. 3) and Zurita (Rapport sur les

différentes Classes de Chefs de la Nouvelle-Espagne, trad. de Ternaux

(Paris, 1840), p. 11), both very competent critics, acquiesce in an

equal division between the two principal states in the confederacy. An

ode, still extant, of Nezahualcoyotl, in its Castilian version, bears

testimony to the singular union of the three powers:

“solo se acordarán en las Naciones

lo bien que gobernáron

las _tres Cabezas_ que el Imperio honráron.”

Cantares del Emperador

[38] See the plans of the ancient and modern capital, in Bullock’s

“Mexico,” first edition. The original of the ancient map was obtained

by that traveller from the collection of the unfortunate Boturini; if,

as seems probable, it is the one indicated on page 13 of his Catalogue,

I find no warrant for Mr. Bullock’s statement that it was the one

prepared for Cortés by the order of Montezuma.

[39] [The first man chosen to be the chief of men (tlacatecuhtli), or

superior officer of the confederacy, was Acamapichtli. His election

took place in 1375, and he is sometimes called by European writers the

“founder of the confederacy.” His name, translated, was “Handful of

Reeds.” The succession of “chiefs of men” was as follows:

1. Acamapichtli (Handful of Reeds) 1375

2. Huitzilihuitl (Humming Bird) 1403

3. Chimalpopoca (Smoking Shield) 1414

4. Izcoatzin (Obsidian Snake) 1427

5. Montezuma I (Angry Chief) 1436

6. Axayacatl (Face in the Water) 1464

7. Tizoc (Wounded Leg) 1477

8. Ahuitzotl (Water Rat) 1486

9. Montezuma II 1502

10. Cuitlahuatzin 1520

11. Guatemotzin 1520

M.]

[40] Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. i. lib. 2.--Torquemada,

Monarch. Ind., tom. i. lib. 2.--Boturini, Idea, p. 146.--Col. of

Mendoza, Part 1, and Codex Telleriano-Remensis, apud Antiq. of Mexico,

vols. i., vi.--Machiavelli has noticed it as one great cause of the

military successes of the Romans, “that they associated themselves, in

their wars, with other states, as the principal,” and expresses his

astonishment that a similar policy should not have been adopted by

ambitious republics in later times. (See his Discorsi sopra T. Livio,

lib. 2, cap. 4, apud Opere (Geneva, 1798).) This, as we have seen

above, was the very course pursued by the Mexicans.

[41] Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 36.

[42] [Robertson, in his History of America, was the first man to

question the correctness of the judgment passed by the Spanish

chroniclers upon the Aztec institutions. Subsequent American writers

gave louder expression to his doubts. As has been said in the notes

upon the preceding chapter, Mr. Morgan proved conclusively that the

so-called “empire” was no empire at all, but only a confederacy of

three tribes. Mr. Morgan, however, was sometimes led into inaccuracy

and extravagance of statement because of his desire to place all the

American aborigines on the same institutional plane.

Adolf Bandelier, pupil and disciple of Morgan, persevering and accurate

scholar, investigated the subject in an entirely unprejudiced way

and with a thoroughness which forces men to place almost implicit

confidence in his conclusions. It is well here to summarize those

conclusions.

The Mexican confederacy was made up of three tribes, the Aztecs, the

Tezcucans, and the Tlacopans, who dwelt in neighboring pueblos.

Of these tribes the Aztecs and Tezcucans were superior to the

Tlacopans. Spoils of war were always divided into five portions. The

Tlacopans took one, their allies shared equally the other four parts.

The Indian pueblos generally were designed to withstand a protracted

siege, but the Mexican pueblos were almost impregnable. It is not

likely that any other Indian tribes could have captured them. Dwelling

securely in these great communal houses, which were also fortresses,

the Aztec confederacy held many other tribes in subjection. It was

only necessary for it to send its agents to other pueblos to secure

at once the specified tribute. Failure to pay this tribute brought

summary punishment at the hands of the warriors of the confederacy. The

“empire” was “only a partnership formed for the purpose of carrying

on the business of warfare, and that intended, not for the extension

of territorial ownership, but only for an increase of the means of

subsistence.” The subject peoples were never incorporated into the

confederacy. The tribe remained intact. The houses the tribe occupied

were common property, and so was the land cultivated. Neither land

nor houses could be sold, and as the tribe increased in numbers new

communal houses were built to accommodate the increase. The great

fortress-dwellings in a, for savages, well-cultivated land prevented

the subdivision of tribes which was constantly taking place in wilder

North America.

Twenty clans, organized into four phratries, made up of the Aztec

tribe. The clans were called “calpullis.” They were governed by a

council of chiefs, “tecuhtli,” elected by the clan. There was an

official head, the “calpullac,” whose duties were mainly civil, and

also a military leader, the “ohcacautin” (“elder brother”). Painful

religious ordeals accompanied the initiation of these men into office.

Clan officers held their places during good behavior. Medicinemen, or

priests, were members of the clan council. To the four phratries into

which the clan was divided four quarters of the city of Mexico, each

under its own captain, were assigned. Their titles were “man of the

house of darts,” “chief of the eagle and cactus,” “blood-shedder,” and

“cutter of men.” Of these captains the “chief of the eagle and cactus”

was chief executioner. Their principal duty was to maintain order both

within and without the pueblo. In each of these four quarters was an

armory (“house of darts”), in which the weapons of the phratry were

kept when its warriors were not engaged in warfare. The phratry was in

Mexico primarily a military organization.

Twenty members, one from each clan, made up the tribal council which

exercised supreme control over the Aztec tribe. The member who was

chosen to represent the clan was called “tlatoani,” the “speaker,” and

the council was called “tlatocan,” the “place of speech.” Sessions of

the council were regularly held every ten days, and every eighty days

an extra session was convened, to which the twenty “ohcacautins,” the

four captains of the phratries, the two civil executives of the tribe,

and some others were summoned. Its decisions were final.

As the clan had its civil head, or calpullac, so the tribe had a

corresponding officer, the cihuacoatl, or “female snake.” The “snake

woman” was always a man. He was chief judge of the clan and was

elected for life by the tribal council. The “snake woman” was second

in command to the “chief of men,” or tlacatecuhtli, the head war

chief. While at first head war chief of the Aztecs, about the year

1430 the tlacatecuhtli was made head war chief and commander of the

confederacy. Montezuma was “chief of men,” and the Spaniards saw him

surrounded with such state that they not unnaturally supposed him to

be king of the Aztecs. Montezuma’s position, however, was not at all

that of a king, and most of the royal functions fell to the lot of the

“snake woman.” Bandelier thinks the “chief of men” was only the chief

military officer. He was elected by the “elder brothers” (ohcacautins)

of the clans, the tribal council, and the leading priests, sitting in

assembly. A principle of succession seems to have confined the election

to members of a special clan. Moreover, from four officers--namely,

a member of the priesthood called the “man of the dark house,”

and the phratry captains called respectively “man of the house of

darts,” “blood-shedder,” and “cutter of men”--the “chief of men” was

always chosen. He exercised certain priestly functions after his

election. His first official act was to offer incense to the war god

Huitzilopochtli.{*} Montezuma was “priest commander” as well as “chief

of men.”

{*} [Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. ii. p. 145.]

The “chief of men” held office during good behavior. He was, ex

officio, a member of the tribal council, but he had little to do within

the tribe limits. His functions were exercised outside the confederacy,

and his special duty was to superintend the collection of tribute. His

agents, called “crop-gatherers” (calpixqui), were appointed by the

tribal council. It was their duty to visit the subject pueblos and

to gather the tribute--maize, weapons, pottery, feather-work, female

slaves, victims for sacrifice, or anything else which suited the

victor’s fancy. The prisoners were forced to carry the other tribute to

the tecpan, or tribal house, and were accompanied by couriers who saw

that the tribute was duly delivered according to the directions given

in picture-writing by the “crop-gatherers.” The office of calpixqui was

most dangerous, being practically that of spy. All these institutions

the Spanish historians noted without understanding. They supposed

that there was a standing army; but every male was born a warrior,

and so the people were the army. There was no nobility of any kind in

Mexico. Merit alone determined the appointment to office. “No office

whatever, no kind of dignity, was among the Mexicans transmissible by

inheritance.”

Above the common warriors of the clan were two higher classes,

the “distinguished braves” and the war chiefs proper. Among the

“distinguished braves” were three classes, arranged according to

attainments, none of the braves being elected, but all winning their

place by valor. The war chiefs were elected. The “snake woman,” or

“female snake,” acted as a check upon the head war chief, or “chief

of men.” The two alternately took charge of forays. The elaborate

decorations which adorned the “chief of men” in his official capacity

may be seen represented in the sculptures at Palenque, especially upon

the “tablet of the cross.”

The Aztecs conducted no long campaigns, and were not successful in

protracted sieges, while they were always able to make a successful

defence against enemies of their own class. Their pyramidal

temples--teocalli--were admirable fortresses. In Mexico itself the

causeways were essentially military constructions, and not simply

roads to connect the city with the mainland. Captives taken in forays

were “collared,” that is, they were secured by wooden collars fastened

upon their necks. If they were specially unruly, and were continually

striving to escape, the tendons of their feet were cut.

As the tribes increased new “calpullis” were formed and new communal

houses were built. The Spaniards took it for granted that the tribal

government which exercised authority over tribal soil could alienate

that soil, but this was not the case. It was not until communal soil

was done away with that private ownership was established.

Mr. Bandelier reaches the following conclusions:

1. Abstract ownership either by the state or the individual was unknown.

2. Right of possession was vested in the kin, or clan. The idea of

alienation was never entertained.

3. Individuals only held the right to use certain lots.

4. No rights of possession were attached to any office or chieftaincy.

5. For tribal business certain lands were set apart independent of

persons.

6. Conquest was followed not by annexation or apportionment, but by

tribute.

7. Feudalism could not prevail under these conditions.

Of the kin, or clan, it should be noted that, first, the kin claimed

the right to name its members; second, it was the duty of the kin to

educate its members; third, it was accustomed to regulate marriage;

fourth, one attribute of the kin was the right of common burial; fifth,

the kin had to protect its members; sixth, it exercised the right of

electing its officers and of deposing them. (Montezuma, “chief of men,”

was deposed before he died.)--M.

[43] This was an exception.--In Egypt, also, the king was frequently

taken from the warrior caste, though obliged afterwards to be

instructed in the mysteries of the priesthood: ὁ δὲ ἐκ μαχίμων

ἀποδεδειγένος εὐθὺς ἐγίνετο τῶν ίέρων. Plutarch, de Isid. et Osir.,

sec. 9.

[44] Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 2, cap. 18; lib. 11, cap.

27.--Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. p. 112.--Acosta, Naturall

and Morall Historie of the East and West Indies, Eng. trans. (London,

1604).--According to Zurita, an election by the nobles took place

only in default of heirs of the deceased monarch. (Rapport, p. 15.)

The minute historical investigation of Clavigero may be permitted to

outweigh this general assertion.

[45] [“Chief of men.”--M.]

[46] Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-España, lib. 6, cap. 9, 10, 14; lib. 8,

cap. 31, 34.--See, also, Zurita, Rapport, pp. 20-23.--Ixtlilxochitl

stoutly claims this supremacy for his own nation. (Hist. Chich., MS.,

cap. 34.) His assertions are at variance with facts stated by himself

elsewhere, and are not countenanced by any other writer whom I have

consulted.

[47] [The spacious palace in which the “chief of men” lived was the

chief communal house of the clan. The “privy council” was made up of

the clan officers specified on page 33.--M.]

[48] Sahagun, who places the elective power in a much larger body,

speaks of four senators, who formed a state council. (Hist. de

Nueva-España, lib. 8, cap. 30.) Acosta enlarges the council beyond the

number of the electors. (Lib. 6, ch. 26.) No two writers agree.

[49] [There was, according to Bandelier, no such thing as a

“body-guard.” Guards were unknown. This was evidenced when Montezuma

was captured. No “body-guard” attempted his rescue. Bandelier’s

conclusions should be kept steadily in mind in reading this chapter.

The “distinct class of nobles, with large landed possessions,” were

only the principal officers of the tribe, who were of course of the

same “kin” as the so-called Aztec monarch. The great caciques, with

thousands of vassals, were tribal officers leading tribal warriors.

The “estates” were all held by the tribe, and were all subject to

tribute.--M.]

[50] Zurita enumerates four orders of chiefs, all of whom were exempted

from imposts and enjoyed very considerable privileges. He does not

discriminate the several ranks with much precision. Rapport, p. 47, et

seq.

[51] See, in particular, Herrera, Historia general de los Hechos de los

Castellanos en las Islas y Tierra firme del Mar Océano (Madrid, 1730),

dec. 2, lib. 8, cap. 12.

[52] Carta de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, Hist. de Nueva-España, p.

110.--Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 2, cap. 89; lib. 14, cap.

6.--Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. p. 121.--Zurita, Rapport,

pp. 48, 65.--Ixtlilxochitl (Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 34) speaks of

thirty great feudal chiefs, some of them Tezcucan and Tlacopan, whom he

styles “grandees of the empire”! He says nothing of the great _tail_ of

100,000 vassals to each, mentioned by Torquemada and Herrera.

[53] _Macehual_,--a word equivalent to the French word _roturier_. Nor

could fiefs originally be held by plebeians in France. See Hallam’s

Middle Ages (London, 1819), vol. ii. p. 207.

[54] Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., ubi supra.--Zurita,

Rapport, ubi supra.--Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. pp.

122-124.--Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 14, cap. 7.--Gomara, Crónica

de Nueva-España, cap. 199, ap. Barcia, tom. ii.--Boturini (Idea, p.

165) carries back the origin of _fiefs_ in Anahuac to the twelfth

century. Carli says, “Le système politique y étoit féodal.” In the next

page he tells us, “Personal merit alone made the distinction of the

nobility”! (Lettres Américaines, trad. Fr. (Paris, 1788), tom. i. let.

11.) Carli was a writer of a lively imagination.

[55] [There was no such thing as feudalism among the Aztecs. There

could not be where the communism which the clan system implies

prevailed. Feudalism was a social-political system based upon land.

Under it there was a well-defined gradation of ranks, and each lower

was bound to the next higher order by protection given in return for

service rendered. Moreover, where feudalism prevailed the ownership

of the land was vested in one person while the occupancy belonged to

another. Feudalism exalted the individual and assured to each man his

_rights_. The clan knew nothing whatever of individual rights. When the

conception of personal ownership was developed, and kinship ceased to

be the bond which held men together, the clan system of communal living

of necessity passed away. But among the Aztecs the feudal conception

of personal property never was developed. The Spaniards, knowing

no civilization but their own, naturally supposed that the Aztec

institutions were similar to the Spanish, and historians generally

accepted that view.--M.]

[56] [See summary of Bandelier’s studies, p. 36.--M.]

[57] This magistrate, who was called _cihuacoatl_,{*} was also to

audit the accounts of the collectors of the taxes in his district.

(Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. p. 127.--Torquemada, Monarch.

Ind., lib. 11, cap. 25.) The Mendoza Collection contains a painting of

the courts of justice under Montezuma, who introduced great changes

in them. (Antiq. of Mexico, vol. i., Plate 70.) According to the

interpreter, an appeal lay from them, in certain cases, to the king’s

council. Ibid., vol. vi. p. 79.

{*} [This word, a compound of _cihuatl_, woman, and _coatl_, serpent,

was the name of a divinity, the mythical mother of the human species.

Its typical application may have had reference to justice, or law, as

the source of social order.--K.]

[58] Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. pp. 127, 128.--Torquemada,

Monarch. Ind., ubi supra.--In this arrangement of the more humble

magistrates we are reminded of the Anglo-Saxon hundreds and tithings,

especially the latter, the members of which were to watch over the

conduct of the families in their districts and bring the offenders to

justice. The hard penalty of mutual responsibility was not known to the

Mexicans.

[59] Zurita, so temperate, usually, in his language, remarks that, in

the capital, “Tribunals were instituted which might compare in their

organization with the royal audiences of Castile.” (Rapport, p. 93.)

His observations are chiefly drawn from the Tezcucan courts, which in

their forms of procedure, he says, were like the Aztec. (Loc. cit.)

[60] Boturini, Idea, p. 87.--Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 11, cap.

26.--Zurita compares this body to the Castilian córtes. It would seem,

however, according to him, to have consisted only of twelve principal

judges, besides the king. His meaning is somewhat doubtful. (Rapport,

pp. 94, 101, 106.) M. de Humboldt, in his account of the Aztec courts,

has confounded them with the Tezcucan. Comp. Vues des Cordillères et

Monumens des Peuples indigènes de l’Amérique (Paris, 1810), p. 55, and

Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. pp. 128, 129.

[61] “If this should be done now, what an excellent thing it would be!”

exclaims Sahagun’s Mexican editor. Hist. de Nueva-España, tom. ii. p.

304, nota.--Zurita, Rapport, p. 102.--Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., ubi

supra.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 67.

[62] [There is a hint here of the “Compurgators” of the Germanic

tribes.--M.]

[63] Zurita, Rapport, pp. 95, 100, 103.--Sahagun, Hist. de

Nueva-España, loc. cit.--Humboldt, Vues des Cordillères, pp. 55,

56.--Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 11, cap. 25.--Clavigero says

the accused might free himself by oath: “il reo poteva purgarsi col

giuramento.” (Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. p. 129.) What rogue, then,

could ever have been convicted?

[64] Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 36.--These various objects

had a symbolical meaning, according to Boturini, Idea, p. 84.

[65] [Compare the “codes” of the Germanic races.--M.]

[66] Paintings of the Mendoza Collection, Pl. 72, and Interpretation,

ap. Antiq. of Mexico, vol. vi. p. 87.--Torquemada, Monarch. Ind.,

lib. 12, cap. 7.--Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. pp.

130-134.--Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.--They could scarcely have

been an intemperate people, with these heavy penalties hanging over

them. Indeed, Zurita bears testimony that those Spaniards who thought

they were greatly erred. (Rapport, p. 112.) M. Ternaux’s translation of

a passage of the Anonymous Conqueror, “aucun peuple n’est aussi sobre”

(Recueil de Pièces relatives à la Conquête du Mexique, ap. Voyages,

etc. (Paris, 1838), p. 54), may give a more favorable impression,

however, than that intended by his original, whose remark is confined

to abstemiousness in eating. See the Relatione, ap. Ramusio, Raccolta

delle Navigationi et Viaggi (Venetia, 1554-1565).

[67] In ancient Egypt the child of a slave was born free, if the father

were free. (Diodorus, Bibl. Hist., lib. 1, sec. 80.) This, though more

liberal than the code of most countries, fell short of the Mexican.

[68] In Egypt the same penalty was attached to the murder of a slave

as to that of a freeman. (Ibid., lib. 1, sec. 77.) Robertson speaks of

a class of slaves held so cheap in the eye of the Mexican law that one

might kill them with impunity. (History of America (ed. London, 1776),

vol. iii. p. 164.) This, however, was not in Mexico, but in Nicaragua

(see his own authority, Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 3, lib. 4, cap.

2), a distant country, not incorporated in the Mexican empire, and with

laws and institutions very different from those of the latter.

[69] [A “collared” slave was fastened at night to a wall by his wooden

collar.--M.]

[70] Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 12, cap. 15; lib. 14, cap. 16,

17.--Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-España, lib. 8, cap. 14.--Clavigero, Stor.

del Messico, tom. ii. pp. 134-136.

[71] Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 38, and Relaciones,

MS.--The Tezcucan code, indeed, as digested under the great

Nezahualcoyotl, formed the basis of the Mexican, in the latter days of

the empire. Zurita, Rapport, p. 95.

[72] In this, at least, they did not resemble the Romans; of whom

their countryman could boast, “Gloriari licet, nulli gentium mitiores

placuisse pœnas.” Livy, Hist., lib. 1, cap. 28.

[73] [For “crown lands” read “subject tribes”; for “king’s palaces,”

“communal houses.”--M.]

[74] The Tezcucan revenues were, in like manner, paid in the produce

of the country. The various branches of the royal expenditure were

defrayed by specified towns and districts; and the whole arrangements

here, and in Mexico, bore a remarkable resemblance to the financial

regulations of the Persian empire, as reported by the Greek writers

(see Herodotus, Clio, sec. 192); with this difference, however, that

the towns of Persia proper were not burdened with tributes, like the

conquered cities. Idem, Thalia, sec. 97.

[75] Lorenzana, Hist. de Nueva-España, p. 172.--Torquemada, Monarch.

Ind., lib. 2, cap. 89; lib. 14, cap. 7.--Boturini, Idea, p.

166.--Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.--Herrera, Hist. general, dec.

2, lib. 7, cap. 13.--The people of the provinces were distributed

into _calpulli_, or tribes, who held the lands of the neighborhood in

common. Officers of their own appointment parcelled out these lands

among the several families of the _calpulli_; and on the extinction

or removal of a family its lands reverted to the common stock, to be

again distributed. The individual proprietor had no power to alienate

them. The laws regulating these matters were very precise, and had

existed ever since the occupation of the country by the Aztecs. Zurita,

Rapport, pp. 51-62.

[76] The following items of the tribute furnished by different cities

will give a more precise idea of its nature:--20 chests of ground

chocolate; 40 pieces of armor, of a particular device; 2400 loads of

large mantles, of twisted cloth; 800 loads of small mantles, of rich

wearing-apparel; 5 pieces of armor, of rich feathers; 60 pieces of

armor, of common feathers; a chest of beans; a chest of chian; a chest

of maize; 8000 reams of paper; likewise 2000 loaves of very white

salt, refined in the shape of a mould, for the consumption only of

the lords of Mexico; 8000 lumps of unrefined copal; 400 small baskets

of white refined copal; 100 copper axes; 80 loads of red chocolate;

800 _xícaros_, out of which they drank chocolate; a little vessel of

small turquoise stones; 4 chests of timber, full of maize; 4000 loads

of lime; tiles of gold, of the size of an oyster, and as thick as the

finger; 40 bags of cochineal; 20 bags of gold dust, of the finest

quality; a diadem of gold, of a specified pattern; 20 lip-jewels of

clear amber, ornamented with gold; 200 loads of chocolate; 100 pots

or jars of liquid-amber; 8000 _handfuls_ of rich scarlet feathers; 40

tiger-skins; 1600 bundles of cotton, etc., etc. Col. de Mendoza, part

2, ap. Antiq. of Mexico, vols. i., vi.{*}

{*} [From those too poor to pay the regular taxes, snakes, scorpions,

centipedes, and vermin were exacted. “It is related that soon after

Cortés arrived in the city of Mexico certain cavaliers of his force

... were roaming through the royal palace, ... when they came across

some bags filled with some soft, fine, and weighty material.... They

hastened to untie one of the sacks and found its contents to consist

of nothing but lice, which had been paid as a tribute by the poor.”

Bancroft, Native Races, vol. ii. p. 235. Torquemada, Monarch. Ind.,

tom. i. p. 461.--M.]

[77] Mapa de Tributos, ap. Lorenzana, Hist. de

Nueva-España.--Tribute-roll, ap. Antiq. of Mexico, vol. i., and

Interpretation, vol. vi., pp. 17-44.--The Mendoza Collection, in the

Bodleian Library at Oxford, contains a roll of the cities of the

Mexican empire, with the specific tributes exacted from them. It is

a copy made after the Conquest, with a pen, on European paper. (See

Foreign Quarterly Review, No. XVII. Art. 4.) An original painting

of the same roll was in Boturini’s museum. Lorenzana has given us

engravings of it, in which the outlines of the Oxford copy are filled

up, though somewhat rudely. Clavigero considers the explanations

in Lorenzana’s edition very inaccurate (Stor. del Messico, tom.

i. p. 25), a judgment confirmed by Aglio, who has transcribed the

entire collection of the Mendoza papers, in the first volume of the

Antiquities of Mexico. It would have much facilitated reference to his

plates if they had been numbered;--a strange omission!

[78] The caciques who submitted to the allied arms were usually

confirmed in their authority, and the conquered places allowed to

retain their laws and usages. (Zurita, Rapport, p. 67.) The conquests

were not always partitioned, but sometimes, singularly enough, were

held in common by the three powers. Ibid., p. 11.

[79] [Very few garrisons were ever quartered in subject pueblos. The

warriors Cortés encountered in his second attack upon Mexico were not

the garrisons of the cities, but special bodies sent out to meet the

Spaniards. The “calpixqui,” or tax-gatherers, were spies as well as

officers, and were hated as were the “publicans” in all lands where

the taxes were “farmed.” The “chief of men” had many subordinates. His

couriers were not infrequently outcasts. Bearing in mind the class

of persons with whom he had to deal officially, and the fact that it

was his function to represent the majesty of the clan on all public

occasions, it is not remarkable that he should have conducted himself

with such haughtiness as to lead the Spaniards to suppose that he was

an absolute king. That he had really no kingly power was manifested

when Montezuma was a prisoner in the hands of the Spaniards. His

special duty was to execute the commands of the tribal council.--M.]

[80] Col. of Mendoza, ap. Antiq. of Mexico, vol. vi. p. 17.--Carta de

Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, Hist. de Nueva-España, p. 110.--Torquemada,

Monarch. Ind., lib. 14, cap. 6, 8.--Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2,

lib. 7, cap. 13.--Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-España, lib. 8, cap. 18, 19.

[81] The Hon. C. A. Murray, whose imperturbable good humor under real

troubles forms a contrast, rather striking, to the sensitiveness of

some of his predecessors to imaginary ones, tells us, among other

marvels, that an Indian of his party travelled a hundred miles in

four-and-twenty hours. (Travels in North America (New York, 1839),

vol. i. p. 193.) The Greek who, according to Plutarch, brought the

news of victory to Platæa, a hundred and twenty-five miles, in a day,

was a better traveller still. Some interesting facts on the pedestrian

capabilities of man in the savage state are collected by Buffon, who

concludes, truly enough, “L’homme civilisé ne connaît pas ses forces.”

(Histoire naturelle: De la Jeunesse.)

[82] Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 14, cap. 1.--The same wants led

to the same expedients in ancient Rome, and still more ancient Persia.

“Nothing in the world is borne so swiftly,” says Herodotus, “as

messages by the Persian couriers;” which his commentator Valckenaer

prudently qualifies by the exception of the carrier-pigeon. (Herodotus,

Hist., Urania, sec. 98, nec non Adnot. ed. Schweighäuser.) Couriers

are noticed, in the thirteenth century, in China, by Marco Polo. Their

stations were only three miles apart, and they accomplished five days’

journey in one. (Viaggi di Marco Polo, lib. 2, cap. 20, ap. Ramusio,

tom. ii.) A similar arrangement for posts subsists there at the present

day, and excites the admiration of a modern traveller. (Anderson,

British Embassy to China (London, 1796), p. 282.) In all these cases,

the posts were for the use of government only.

[83] Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-España, lib. 3, Apend., cap. 3.

[84] [The general council of the tribe.--M.]

[85] Zurita, Rapport, pp. 68, 120.--Col. of Mendoza, ap. Antiq. of

Mexico, vol. i. Pl. 67; vol. vi. p. 74.--Torquemada, Monarch. Ind.,

lib. 14, cap. 1.--The reader will find a remarkable resemblance to

these military usages in those of the early Romans. Com. Liv., Hist.,

lib. 1, cap. 32; lib. 4, cap. 30, et alibi.

[86] [“Distinguished braves,” see note, p. 35.--M.]

[87] Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 14, cap. 4, 5.--Acosta, lib. 6,

ch. 26.--Col. of Mendoza, ap. Antiq. of Mexico, vol. i. Pl. 65; vol.

vi. p. 72.--Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.

[88]

“Their mail, if mail it may be called, was woven

Of vegetable down, like finest flax,

Bleached to the whiteness of new-fallen snow.

* * * * *