LAUNCHING THE FIRST AMERICAN WARSHIPS
There was no harbor at Tezcuco where vessels the size of the
brigantines, which had been so skilfully brought thus far over leagues
of rugged mountain trails, could be put together and launched. Indeed,
the only place fitted for such work was half a league distant from the
lake shore. Here, therefore, was the shipyard located, and while the
vessels were being rebuilt, a force of eight thousand laborers were
set to work to construct a canal from it to the deep waters of the
lake. This canal, which when finished was twelve feet deep and twenty
wide, was provided with gates, and had its banks strengthened by wooden
palisades or, as was in some places necessary, by walls of masonry. The
labor of constructing it was so great that, even with the immense force
of workmen engaged, it occupied two months.
During this time, Cortes, with three hundred Spaniards and Huetzin's
entire force of Tlascalans, swept entirely around the valley, and even
penetrated into the mountains on the southeast, dispersing Aztec armies
and capturing or conciliating Aztec cities, until only the capital
remained unsubdued.
While thus engaged in cutting off the enemy's sources of supply, not a
day passed without its fighting or deeds of heroism. One of the last
cities to be thus attacked was Zochimilco, on the border of the salt
lake. After a stout resistance the enemy gave way and fled through the
city streets, pursued by almost the entire force of Christians and
their allies. Cortes, being weary, remained with but two servants near
the principal gate, to which the troops had been ordered to return.
Huetzin, who, as usual, tired of slaughter long before the vengeance
of his fierce followers was satisfied, was the first to make his way
back to the place of rendezvous. As he approached it, he was dismayed
to see a fresh body of Aztecs rush out of a neighboring lane and make a
furious attack upon the general. He defended himself valiantly, but was
quickly overpowered by numbers. His horse was thrown down, and Cortes
himself received a severe blow on the head. Ere he could rise, he was
seized by his exulting foes. As they were dragging him away Huetzin
reached the spot and sprang at them with the fury of a tiger. Almost
before the astonished Aztecs knew they were attacked, three of their
number lay dead, pierced or cut down by the young Knight's good Toledo
blade. With this timely aid, and that of his servants, the general
regained his feet, tore loose from those who still held him, vaulted
again into the saddle, and, in less time than it takes to write it,
was scattering the foes who had so nearly dragged him to the altar of
sacrifice. It was the narrowest escape of the Conqueror's career up
to that moment; and, had the Aztecs been content to kill him instead
of being fanatically determined to deliver him to their priests,
Guatamotzin might have reigned for years undisturbed.
When next the General and Huetzin met, the former dismounted to greet
the young Knight, and grasping his hand, said, earnestly:
"I am well aware of my indebtedness to thee Don Juan, and to my dying
day will I not forget it. Still, see thou to it that thy vigilance
makes me not over-confident. With such quick blades as that of thine
and of trusty Sandoval ever at hand, I am apt to lose sight of all need
for care."
At the end of this expedition, during which there was enough of
desperate fighting, hair-breadth escapes and rescues, sacking of
cities, and romantic adventures, to fill a volume of knight-errantry,
Cortes led his spoil-laden troops once more into Tezcuco, where he
heard, at once, three items of good news. His brigantines were ready
for launching; the canal was finished; and strong reinforcements, for
which he had sent to Hispaniola six months before, had arrived.
As, to his mind, the launching of his little navy would mark the
beginning of the end, he determined to inaugurate the event with due
pomp. Accordingly, on the 28th day of April, 1521, after attending the
celebration of high mass, the entire army, with sounding trumpets,
rolling drums, and waving banners, marched to the shipyard. Here the
thirteen vessels, with masts stepped, sails bent, and colors flying,
sat on their well-greased ways, awaiting the signal that should consign
them to the element for which they were intended.
At the firing of a cannon the first slid gracefully into the water.
Then came another gun and another launch; and so on, until, with the
thirteenth gun, the thirteenth brigantine entered the water, and the
first American-built navy was afloat. Now, amid a roar of artillery and
musketry, the acclamations of tens of thousands of dusky spectators,
and the sound of martial music, with the banner of Castile flying from
every mast-head, and their own guns answering the glad salute from the
shore, the fleet dropped down the canal, and spreading its white wings
to a brisk breeze, stood proudly out over the broad waters of the lake.
It was a novel spectacle to the simple natives, and a glad one to
the white conquerors; for, with the combined forces of an army and a
navy opposed to it, they felt assured that the bloody priesthood of
Tenochtitlan was destined to a speedy overthrow. So inspired were they
by these feelings, that, led by their commander, the entire Christian
army raised its voice in a grand Te Deum.
At this time, exclusive of their allies, the besieging army consisted
of eight hundred and eighteen foot soldiers, and eighty-seven cavalry.
For weapons they had one hundred and eighteen muskets and crossbows,
three heavy iron guns, and fifteen falconets of brass, half a ton
of powder, fifty thousand copper-headed arrows, and a thousand long
Chinantla pikes, besides their swords and the lances of the cavaliers.
To each of the brigantines was allotted a falconet, and three hundred
of the troops were detailed to man the fleet. The remainder of the
Spaniards, together with one hundred thousand warriors from Tlascala
and other allied cities, all eager for the downfall of Tenochtitlan,
the stronghold of the oppressor, were divided into three armies,
commanded by Sandoval, Alvarado, and Olid.
By the end of May, everything being in readiness, these armies were
dispatched to their stations at the ends of the three great causeways
leading to the city, while Cortes took temporary command of the fleet.
He set sail from Tezcuco; but before he reached Istapalapan the breeze
failed, and his vessels lay becalmed. While thus helpless, they were
approached by an immense flotilla of Aztec canoes and periaguas, sent
out by Guatamotzin for their destruction. These came on boldly until
within pistol shot of the drifting fleet, and then halted, irresolute
as to how they should attack such monsters.
Just then, a light air springing up, the brigantines bore directly
down on the gathered canoes, which greeted them with a dense, but
ineffective, flight of arrows and stones. Gathering headway as they
advanced, the vessels crashed into the massed flotilla with frightful
effect, at the same time letting fly their falconets to right and
left. The rippling waters were instantly covered with the wreckage of
shattered canoes and struggling human forms. The few survivors fled,
with all speed, back to their city, and thus ended the first naval
engagement in American waters.
Continuing his way to the great dike, by which he had made his first
entry into Tenochtitlan, Cortes assaulted and captured the fort of
Xoloc, by which it was defended, midway between the mainland and the
city. Here he planted his heavy guns, and this place he made his
headquarters during the siege.
In the meantime Alvarado had succeeded, after a stubborn battle,
in cutting the aqueduct by which fresh water reached the city from
Chapultepec. He next attempted to gain possession of the fatal causeway
of Tlacopan, but was driven back, with heavy losses, after several
hours of fighting.
After a week spent in the comparative inactivity of perfecting the
blockade, the Commander resolved upon a general assault on the city
by the three armies. As Huetzin had no longer a separate command,
he asked and obtained permission to devote himself to the especial
destruction of the Aztec gods. For this purpose he carefully selected
one hundred of his most valiant warriors, and attached himself to the
division led by the General over the causeway of Iztapalapan.
Its several openings were guarded by strong barricades, behind which
the enemy made resolute stands. By the aid of the brigantines, which
attacked them on each side, these were successfully carried, one after
another, and at length the conquerors trod once more the familiar
streets of the city.
How different now was this reception from that of their first entry!
Then, myriads of eager and welcoming spectators, men, women, and
children, were gathered on the flower-roofed houses. Now, most of the
women and children had been sent from the city, and the house-tops were
thronged only with grim warriors, who showered down a continuous storm
of arrows, darts, and great stones, that stretched many a bold Spaniard
and swarthy Tlascalan in the dust.
At every canal in place of a bridge was a rampart, that must be
battered down by the heavy guns. Still, doggedly fighting, the
besiegers made their slow way to the square, on one side of which stood
the quarters they had evacuated on the _noche triste_, and on the other
the great temple of Huitzil. As the Spaniards cleared the courtyard of
the temple, Huetzin and his agile followers dashed up the long flights
of steps to its top. Here they found only a few frantic priests, whom
they pitched headlong from the lofty platform. In the shrine was a new
image of the war-god, more hideous and more lavishly covered with gold
than its predecessor. This they dragged from its pedestal, and, with
an exulting heart, the young Toltec saw it, too, go thundering and
crashing to the base of the great teocal.
Outraged and infuriated by this sacrilege, the Aztec warriors gathered
about the temple in such overwhelming numbers, that the besiegers were
forced back, down the avenue up which they had come; and only by the
most determined fighting did Huetzin and his followers escape from
being cut off, and rejoin their friends.
Although on this occasion the besiegers were driven from the city on
all sides, Huetzin at least felt that the day's fighting and losses
had not been in vain. He knew that his time for triumph was at hand,
and that, with this overthrow of their war-god, the power of the Aztec
priests had received a blow from which it would never recover.