_How the Mexicans defeated Cortes, and took sixty-two of his men
prisoners, who were sacrificed to their idols; our general himself
being wounded in the leg._
Cortes, finding at length that it was impossible to fill up all the
canals, gaps, and openings in the causeway, and that the Mexicans always
destroyed at night what we had completed in the day, reopening the
apertures we had filled up, and throwing up new entrenchments, called
the principal officers of his division together, to deliberate on the
present state of the siege. He told them the men would not be able to
continue this fatiguing mode of warfare much longer, and he therefore
proposed to them that the three divisions should fall upon the city at
the same moment, and fight their way up to the Tlatelulco, and there
encamp with the troops. Cortes at the same time wrote to Alvarado and
Sandoval, desiring them also to deliberate on this point with their
officers and soldiers. From that place, he added, they would be able to
attack the enemy in the streets, and not have to encounter such severe
engagements, or make those dangerous retreats every evening, nor have
everlastingly to toil in filling up the openings and canals.
As it always happens in such cases, opinions were very different. Some
pronounced this plan to be altogether unadvisable, and were for pursuing
the present plan of operation, which was, to pull down the houses as we
advanced, and fill up the openings. Those of us who were of this opinion
gave as our principal reason for so thinking, that if we fortified
ourselves in the proposed way on the Tlatelulco, the causeways must fall
into the hands of the Mexicans, who, with the vast number of men at
their command, would undoubtedly reopen the hollows we had filled up,
and make other fresh apertures in the causeways. In this great square we
should night and day be assailed by the enemy; while our brigantines
would not be able to come to our assistance, on account of the stakes
driven in the water. In short, we should be surrounded on all sides, and
the Mexicans would be masters of the town, of the lake, and of the
surrounding neighbourhood.
This, our opinion,[23] we took care to draw up in writing, to avoid a
recurrence of what took place on our unfortunate retreat from Mexico.
Cortes indeed listened to our reasons for objecting to his plan, but
nevertheless determined that the three divisions, including the cavalry,
should make an attempt on the following day to fight their way up to the
Tlatelulco, and that the Tlascallans, with the troops of Tezcuco, and
of the towns which had recently subjected themselves to our emperor,
should cooperate with us; the latter were more particularly to assist us
with their canoes.
The following morning, accordingly, after we had heard mass, and
commended ourselves to the protection of God, the three divisions
sallied forth from their respective encampments.
On our causeway we had forced a bridge and an entrenchment, after some
very hard fighting, for Quauhtemoctzin sent out terrific masses to
oppose us; so that we had great numbers of wounded, and our friends of
Tlascalla above one thousand. We already thought victory was on our
side, and we kept continually advancing.
Cortes, with his division, had fought his way across a very deep
opening, of which the opposite sides were merely connected by an
extremely narrow path, and which the artful Mexicans had purposely so
contrived, as they justly foresaw what would take place.
Cortes, with the whole of his division, now sure of victory, vigorously
pursued the enemy, who from time to time faced about, to fly their
arrows and lances at him; but all this was a mere stratagem on their
part, to entice Cortes further into the city; and this object was
entirely accomplished.
The wheel of fortune now suddenly turned against Cortes, and the joyous
feelings of victory were changed into bitter mourning; for while he was
eager in pursuit of the enemy, with every appearance of victory, it so
happened that his officers never thought to fill up the large opening
which they had crossed. The Mexicans had taken care to lessen the width
of the causeway, which in some places was covered with water, and at
others with a great depth of mud and mire. When the Mexicans saw that
Cortes had passed the fatal opening without filling it up, their object
was gained. An immense body of troops, with numbers of canoes, which lay
concealed for this purpose in places where the brigantines could not get
at them, now suddenly rushed forth from their hiding places, and fell
upon this ill-fated division with incredible fierceness, accompanied by
the most fearful yells. It was impossible for the men to make any stand
against this overwhelming power, and nothing now remained for our men
but to close their ranks firmly, and commence a retreat. But the enemy
kept rushing on in such crowds, that our men, just as they had retreated
as far back as the dangerous opening, gave up all further resistance,
and fled precipitately. Cortes indeed strove to rally his men, and cried
out to them, "Stand! stand firm, gentlemen! is it thus you turn your
backs upon the enemy?" But all his commands were fruitless here, and
every one strove to save his own life. Now the awful consequences of the
neglect to fill up the opening in the causeway began to show
themselves. In front of the narrow path, which the canoes had now broken
down, the Mexicans wounded Cortes in the leg, took sixty Spaniards
prisoners, and killed six horses. Several Mexican chiefs had already
laid hands on our general, but with great exertion he tore himself from
their grasp, and at the same moment the brave Christobal de Olea (who
must not be confounded with Christobal de Oli) came up to his
assistance, cut down one of the Mexican chiefs who had seized hold of
Cortes, and rescued his general, by cutting his way through the enemy
sword in hand, assisted by another excellent soldier, called Lerma. But
this heroic deed cost Olea his life, and Lerma was very nigh sharing a
like fate. During this dubious conflict for the rescue of our general's
person several other of our men had by degrees hastened up to his
assistance, who, though themselves covered with wounds, boldly risked
their lives for Cortes. Antonio de Quinones, the captain of his guards,
had likewise hastened up; they now succeeded in dragging Cortes out of
the water, and, placing him on the back of a horse, he reached a place
of safety. At this instant his major-domo, Christobal de Guzman, came up
with another horse for him; but the Mexicans, who had become excessively
daring, took him prisoner, and instantly carried him into the presence
of Quauhtemoctzin. The enemy in the meantime pursued Cortes and his
troops up to their very encampment, hooting and yelling most fearfully.
We under Alvarado had likewise advanced along our causeway with like
confidence of victory; but, when we least expected it, an immense body
of Mexicans, completely clothed in their military costume, rushed out
upon us with the most dissonant howls, and threw at our feet five bloody
heads of our countrymen, whom they had captured of Cortes' division.
"See these heads!" they cried; "we mean to kill you all in the same way
we have Malinche and Sandoval, with the whole of their troops! These are
some of their heads; you will certainly know them again." Under these
and similar threats they continued to surround us on all sides, and fell
so furiously upon us that all our courageous fighting was to no purpose:
yet they were unable to break through our firmly closed ranks, and we
began to retreat with a steady step, after we had sent the Tlascallans
in advance to clear the causeway and the dangerous passages. The
Tlascallans, at the sight of the five bleeding heads, had really
credited the enemy's shout of triumph, that Malinche, with Sandoval and
all their teules, had been killed; and they were seized with sudden
terror.
As we were thus retreating, we continually heard the large drum beating
from the summit of the chief temple of the city. Its tone was mournful
indeed, and sounded like the very instrument of Satan. This drum was so
vast in its dimensions that it could be heard from eight to twelve miles
distance. Every time we heard its doleful sound, the Mexicans, as we
subsequently learnt, offered to their idols the bleeding hearts of our
unfortunate countrymen. But we had not near accomplished our retreat;
for the enemy attacked us from the house-tops, from out their canoes,
and from the mainland at the same time, while fresh troops were
constantly pouring in. At this moment Quauhtemoctzin commanded the large
horn to be sounded, which was always a signal to his troops that he
allowed them no choice but death or victory. With this at the same time
was mingled the melancholy sound of the drum from the temple top, which
filled the Mexicans with terrific fury, and they ran headlong against
our swords. It was really a horrible sight, which I am unable to
describe, though even at this moment it comes vividly to my mind. If the
Almighty had not lent us additional strength, we must all have perished,
as the whole of us were wounded. To Him alone we are indebted for our
preservation, and without His aid we should never again have reached our
quarters. Indeed, I cannot sufficiently praise God, who this time again,
as on so many other occasions, rescued me out of the hands of the
Mexicans. When we had reached our encampment, a brisk charge of our
cavalry upon the enemy made somewhat open space for us; but we were
mostly indebted to our two brass cannon mounted in front of our camp,
which were continually fired among the dense crowds of the enemy on the
causeway, each shot mowing numbers of them down. But the Mexicans,
confident of victory, kept continually advancing to the attack, and
poured showers of stones and lances into our very quarters. No one
rendered more effectual service on this day than a cavalier named Pedro
Moreno, who is still living in Puebla: for, at this moment of imminent
danger, he himself served our cannon, as our artillerymen were all
either killed or unable to serve from their wounds. This Pedro Moreno
had indeed, on all occasions, proved himself an excellent warrior, yet
it was particularly on this day that we were so much indebted to his
assistance. The severity of our numerous wounds, and the distress we
were in, was all rendered more terrible from the uncertainty we were in
respecting the fate of Cortes' and Sandoval's divisions, as the distance
between us was full two miles. The words the Mexicans had uttered when
they threw the five bleeding heads at our feet, that Malinche and
Sandoval, with all their teules, had been cut to pieces, still rung in
our ears, and we suffered intense anxiety. Though we had firmly closed
our ranks, and were able to defend ourselves against the furious attacks
of the enemy, yet we thought we should be obliged to succumb in the end.
While we were thus assailed by the enemy by land, numerous canoes
attacked the brigantines, from one of which the enemy succeeded in
carrying off one man alive, besides killing three others, and wounding
the captain, with all the men on board. This brigantine would certainly
have fared much worse if the one under the command of Juan Xaramillo had
not come up to its assistance.
One of these brigantines, under Juan de Limpias Carvajal, had got so
jammed in between the stakes that it was with difficulty she was got
afloat again. It was on this occasion that Carvajal lost his hearing, by
over exertion of his strength. He now lives at Puebla, and fought on
that day so courageously, and knew so well how to spur on the men at the
oars, that he succeeded in breaking through the stakes and rescuing the
brigantine from falling into the enemy's hands. This was the first of
our brigantines which had succeeded in breaking through the stakes.
By this time, Cortes, with his division, had also reached his
encampment; but here the enemy fell upon him anew, threw three of our
countrymen's heads among his troops, crying out, at the same time, that
these were some of the heads of Sandoval's and Alvarado's men, whom they
had put to death, with all their teules!
At this sight Cortes was completely dismayed; nevertheless he strove to
hide his feelings, and commanded his officers to keep the ranks firmly
closed, and oppose a solid front to the enemy. At the same time he
despatched Tapia, with three horse, to Tlacupa, to see how matters stood
with our division, and, in case we had not suffered an entire defeat, to
keep in a firm body together, and observe the utmost vigilance both
night and day; but this we had of course done without requiring to be
reminded of it.
Tapia and his companions fulfilled their commands with the utmost
expedition; and, though they had a skirmish in a dangerous pass where
Quauhtemoctzin had posted a strong detachment, intending thereby to cut
off our line of communication, yet they arrived safe in our camp, though
all four were wounded. They still found us hotly engaged with the enemy,
but rejoiced exceedingly to see how courageously we defended ourselves.
After conveying Cortes' instructions to us, they related what had taken
place with his division, but took care not to tell the whole truth, for
they said there were only twenty-five killed, and that all the rest of
the troops were in excellent condition.
We must now turn to Sandoval, who was advancing victoriously along the
causeway, until the Mexicans, after Cortes' defeat, turned the great
body of their troops against him, and he was soon obliged to commence a
retreat. Two of his men were killed, and all the others wounded, he
himself in three different places, on the head, thigh, and arm. The
enemy likewise threw in among his men six bleeding heads of our fellow
soldiers, crying out that those were the heads of Malinche, Alvarado,
and other officers, and that he and his men would share a similar fate.
They then fell upon him with increased fury: but the brave Sandoval was
not to be discouraged by this; he ordered his men to close their ranks
more firmly, and, as the causeway was very narrow, he first ordered the
Tlascallans, who were in great numbers in his division, to march off the
causeway, and then commenced his retreat under cover of his brigantines,
the musketeers, and crossbow-men. It was, however, no easy task, as his
men were terribly wounded and altogether disheartened. As soon as
Sandoval had reached the end of the causeway, the Mexicans surrounded
him on all sides; but he emboldened his officers and soldiers so, that
they kept in a body together, cut their way through the enemy, and
arrived safely in their camp, where they were able to adopt every
military precaution for its defence.
Sandoval, now considering his troops out of danger, gave the command of
his division to captain Luis Marin; and, after his wounds were bandaged
up, he set off, accompanied by two horse, for Cortes' head-quarters. On
his road he was continually harassed by bodies of the enemy; for, as I
have above mentioned, Quauhtemoctzin had everywhere stationed troops in
order to cut off our communication.
Sandoval, on coming up to Cortes, said to him, "Alas! general, what a
shocking business this has been! Thus miserably have your great schemes
terminated!" At these words, tears started from Cortes' eyes, and he
cried out, "O! my son Sandoval! if this misfortune has befallen us for
my sins, I have not been so entirely the cause of it as you suppose. The
royal treasurer Juan de Alderete neglected to do his duty, and did not
obey my orders to fill up the opening in the causeway. The man is not
accustomed to war, nor does he know how to obey."
Alderete was standing by when Cortes uttered these words, and he could
not restrain himself from retorting the guilt upon Cortes, and
maintained that when the latter was advancing victoriously forward, he
had spurred his men on to follow quickly at his heels, and cried out,
"Forward, cavaliers!" Nothing had at all been mentioned about filling up
the opening in the causeway, otherwise he, with the company under his
command, would certainly have attended to it. Others again reproached
Cortes for not having sooner ordered off the numerous body of allies
from the causeway; and, in short, many disagreeable remarks were made on
both sides, which I would rather not repeat here.
During this sharp altercation, two of the brigantines which had
accompanied Cortes as he advanced along the causeway, made their
reappearance. Nothing had been seen or heard of these for a length of
time, and they had been given up as lost. It appears they had become
jammed in between the stakes, in which awkward position they were
attacked by numbers of canoes. At length, after a great deal of hard
fighting, they succeeded, with the assistance of a strong breeze, and
the utmost exertions of their oars, to break through the stakes and gain
the deep water, but the whole of the men on board were wounded. Cortes
was exceedingly rejoiced at their safe return, for he had given them up
for lost, but had not mentioned this to his troops, that they might not
become more disheartened than they already were.
Upon this Cortes despatched Sandoval in all haste to Tlacupa to see how
matters stood with our division, to assist us in the defence of our
encampment, if, at least, we were not totally overthrown. Francisco de
Lugo was ordered to accompany him thither, as it was naturally to be
supposed that small detachments of the enemy were everywhere dispersed.
Cortes acquainted Sandoval at the same time that he had previously
despatched Tapia with three horse there for the same purpose, but feared
they must have been killed on the road.
When Sandoval was about to mount his horse, Cortes embraced him, with
these words: "Go, for heaven's sake! You see I cannot be everywhere at
the same moment: to you I intrust the chief command of the three
divisions for the present, as I am wounded and almost exhausted with
fatigue. I beg of you rescue our three divisions from destruction. I
doubt not that Alvarado and his troops have defended themselves like
brave warriors; yet I cannot help fearing he has been forced to succumb
to the overwhelming numbers of these dogs, for you see how I have fared
with my division, and it may have gone worse with his."
Upon this Sandoval and Lugo threw themselves on horseback and galloped
off for our encampment, where they arrived about the hour of vespers,
but we had received intelligence of Cortes' defeat many hours
beforehand. They still found us engaged with the Mexicans, who were
doing their utmost to storm our camp from that side of the causeway
where we had pulled down several houses, while, at the same time, they
attacked us with their canoes from the side towards the lake. They had
driven one of our brigantines between the stakes, killed two of the men,
and wounded all the rest.
When Sandoval saw how I and many of my comrades stood up to our middles
in the water to get the brigantine clear of the stakes, he applauded our
courage, and bid us do our utmost to save the vessel from falling into
the hands of the enemy, as the Mexicans had already fastened many ropes
to her, and were trying to tow her off into the town behind their
canoes. Sandoval's encouraging words were not lost upon us, and we
fought with such determination that at length we rescued the vessel. On
this occasion I was wounded by an arrow.
While we were fighting for the possession of this brigantine, fresh
bodies of the enemy kept continually crowding up the causeway. We
received many more wounds, and even Sandoval was hit in the face by a
stone at the moment Alvarado was coming up to his assistance with
another small body of the cavalry; and when Sandoval saw how daringly I,
with many of my comrades, opposed the enemy, he ordered us to retreat
slowly, that all our horses might not be sacrificed. As we did not
immediately obey his commands, he cried out to us, "Are we then all to
perish for your sakes? For heaven's sake, my brave companions, make good
your retreat!" These words were scarcely out of his mouth when both he
and his horse were again wounded. We now ordered our Indian allies to
move off the causeway, and we began to retreat slowly but with our faces
always turned towards the enemy. Our musketeers and crossbow-men kept up
a continued fire upon them; the cavalry at intervals charged the enemy's
line at half speed, and Pedro Moreno thundered away with the cannon. But
whatever number of the infuriated enemy we might mow down, it mattered
not, they still continued to follow us, for they had made up their minds
to overcome us that very night and sacrifice us to their idols.
After we had at last, with excessive toil, crossed a deep opening, and
had arrived at our encampment, where we were pretty secure from the
enemy's attacks, Sandoval, Lugo, Tapia, and Alvarado stood together
relating what had befallen each of the respective divisions, when all in
a moment the large drum of Huitzilopochtli again resounded from the
summit of the temple, accompanied by all the hellish music of shell
trumpets, horns, and other instruments. The sound was truly dismal and
terrifying, but still more agonizing was all this to us when we looked
up and beheld how the Mexicans were mercilessly sacrificing to their
idols our unfortunate companions, who had been captured in Cortes'
flight across the opening.
We could plainly see the platform, with the chapel in which those
cursed idols stood; how the Mexicans had adorned the heads of the
Spaniards with feathers, and compelled their victims to dance round the
god Huitzilopochtli; we saw how they stretched them out at full length
on a large stone, ripped open their breasts with flint knives, tore out
the palpitating heart, and offered it to their idols. Alas! we were
forced to be spectators of all this, and how they then seized hold of
the dead bodies by the legs and threw them headlong down the steps of
the temple, at the bottom of which other executioners stood ready to
receive them, who severed the arms, legs, and heads from the bodies,
drew the skin off the faces, which were tanned with the beards still
adhering to them, and produced as spectacles of mockery and derision at
their feasts; the legs, arms, and other parts of the body being cut up
and devoured!
In this way the Mexicans served all the Spaniards they took prisoners;
and the entrails alone were thrown to the tigers, lions, otters, and
serpents, which were kept in cages. These abominable barbarities we were
forced to witness with our own eyes from our very camp; and the reader
may easily imagine our feelings, how excessively agonizing! the more so
as we were so near our unfortunate companions without being able to
assist them. Every one of us thanked God from the bottom of his soul for
His great mercy in having rescued us from such a horrible death!
While we were thus gazing upon this dismal scene, fresh troops of
Mexicans came storming along in great numbers, and fell upon us from all
sides with the fury of wild beasts; and continually cried, "Only look up
to the temple! such will be the end of you all! This our gods have often
promised us!" but the threats which they threw out against our
Tlascallan friends were even more terrible. They threw among them the
bones of the legs and arms of their countrymen and of ours which had
been roasted and the flesh torn off, crying out at the same time, "We
have already satiated ourselves with the flesh of your countrymen and of
the teules; you may, therefore, as well enjoy what remains on these
bones! Do you see the ruins of those houses there which you have pulled
down? you will soon have to build us up much larger and finer ones. Only
remain faithful to the teules, and we promise you you shall be with them
when we sacrifice them to our gods!"
Quauhtemoctzin, after gaining this victory, forwarded the feet and hands
of our unfortunate countrymen, with their beards and skins, as also the
heads of the horses they had killed, to all our allies and his own
relations, accompanied by the assurance that more than half of the
Spaniards had been killed, and that he would soon have the rest in his
power. He therefore ordered those towns which had entered into our
alliance immediately to send ambassadors to Mexico, otherwise he would
march against them and put the whole of the inhabitants to death.
From this moment the enemy attacked us without intermission day and
night; but as we were always upon our guard, and kept in a body
together, we gave them no opportunity of taking us by surprise.
Our officers shared the hardships with the meanest soldiers, and the
horses stood always ready saddled, one half on the causeway, the other
at Tlacupa. Whenever we filled up any opening, the Mexicans were sure to
return and open it again, and throw up more formidable entrenchments on
the opposite side. Our allies of the towns which lay in the lake, who
had up to this moment assisted us with their canoes, began to fall off
after they had lost so many of their men and numbers of their canoes,
and though they lent no aid to the Mexicans, yet they only awaited the
final issue of the siege to forsake us altogether.
Sandoval, Tapia, Lugo, and the other officers who had arrived from the
other divisions, now thought it high time to return to their own troops
and inform Cortes as to how matters stood with us. They accordingly
hastened back to our general's head-quarters, and told him how valiantly
Alvarado and his men were defending themselves, and the great vigilance
which was observed in his camp.
Sandoval, who was always a good friend to me, told Cortes on this
occasion how he had found me, with several others, up to my middle in
the water fighting away to rescue one of the brigantines; adding, that
had it not been for us, she must undoubtedly have been lost with all the
men on board. What he further added in my praise I will not mention, as
it concerns my own person, but it was often repeated by others and
sufficiently known to all the troops.
When Cortes learnt what excellent order we observed in our camp, his
heart grew lighter, and he commanded the divisions to keep out of the
way of the enemy as much as possible, and confine themselves to the
defence of the respective encampments, on which the Mexicans renewed the
attack every morning by throwing in darts, stones, and other missiles.
But after we had strengthened our encampment by a deep and broad ditch
we considered ourselves more secure, and remained quiet for the four
following days. Cortes and Sandoval allowing their troops a like period
of rest, and certainly we stood much in need of it, for we were all
wounded and quite enfeebled by continued fighting, and the little
nourishment we received. On that terrible day the loss of the three
divisions amounted to sixty men and seven horses. The short repose we
enjoyed was most beneficial to us, but we had now to deliberate on our
future plan of operation.