_How Cortes orders the aqueduct of Chapultepec to be restored; and
of various other matters._
The first duty which Cortes imposed upon Quauhtemoctzin was to repair
the aqueduct of Chapultepec, in order to supply Mexico with fresh water;
also to bury the dead and all other putrid remains of flesh; to clean
the streets, repair the causeways and bridges, and build up the houses
and palaces which had been pulled down during the siege. After the space
of two months the inhabitants were to return to the city, and the
quarter which they and that we were to inhabit was marked out. Besides
these, many other regulations were made, but which I have now forgotten.
Quauhtemoctzin and all his officers, after a time, complained to Cortes
that many of our officers and soldiers had carried off their wives and
daughters, whom they begged might now be restored to them. Cortes, in
answer to this request, told them it would be a difficult matter to get
the women out of the hands of the soldiers again, but promised he would
do his best for them. He then gave them permission to go in search of
the females they spoke of, and to bring those they found into his
presence, that he might see how many of them had become converts to
Christianity, and which of them felt a desire to return to their parents
and husbands, as he would restore all those to them who felt inclined to
leave. Cortes then issued orders to all three divisions to deliver up
all those females who felt any inclination to return to their families.
The Mexicans did not fail to profit by this permission; they went from
one quarter to another, and found most of the women again; but there
were only three that showed any desire to return to their homes; the
rest all remained with our soldiers. Many even concealed themselves on
hearing that their relations were coming in search of them; others
declared they would never again return to the worship of idols; and many
of them were with child.
We now likewise constructed a secure harbour for our brigantines, and
built a fort, to which a special alcalde was appointed, in the person of
Alvarado (if I remember rightly), who filled this command until it was
subsequently bestowed upon a certain Salazar de la Petrada, who came
from Spain for that purpose.
The next thing which Cortes did was to collect all the gold, silver, and
jewels that had been found in Mexico, of which, however, there was very
little; for Quauhtemoctzin, it was said, had ordered all the treasures
to be thrown into the lake four days previous to his capture. A great
quantity had likewise been purloined by the Tlascallans, Tezcucans,
Huexotzincans, Cholullans, and other auxiliary troops which had assisted
us in the siege, besides what had fallen into the hands of the troops on
board the brigantines.
The crown officials were positive that Quauhtemoctzin had concealed the
greater part, and asserted that Cortes was very pleased that the monarch
refused to say a word where it was hidden; for he would then be able to
get the whole treasure into his own possession.
The officers then proposed that Quauhtemoctzin and the king of Tlacupa,
his most intimate friend and cousin, should be put to the torture, in
order to extort from them a confession as to what had become of the
treasures: but Cortes could not make up his mind to insult so great a
monarch as Quauhtemoctzin, whose territory more than trebled that of
Spain, and that for mere lust after gold.[30] Moreover, the monarch's
household assured us they had given up all the gold they possessed to
the officers of the crown, which, it was well known, amounted to 380,000
pesos, the whole of which had been melted into bars; and one thing is
certain, that the emperor's and Cortes' fifths were deducted from that
sum; but the conquistadores were not at all satisfied, and considered
this sum much below the real amount, and several expressed their
suspicion to Alderete, the royal treasurer, that Cortes' only reason for
not wishing to put the monarch to the torture was, that he might
secretly take possession of all his riches. Cortes, not willing that
such a suspicion should any longer lie upon him, or that he should
afterwards be called to an account on this score, at last consented that
both should be put to the torture. Boiling hot oil was then applied to
their feet; upon which they confessed that, four days prior to
Quauhtemoctzin's capture, all the gold, with the cannon, crossbows, and
muskets, which we had lost in the night of sorrows, when we retreated
from Mexico, besides those which had been taken in Cortes' last defeat
on the causeway, had been thrown into the lake. A number of good
swimmers were then sent to dive for the treasure in the spot they
pointed out, but nothing was found. Yet there was some truth in the
statement; for I was myself present when Quauhtemoctzin led us to a
large and deep reservoir of water, built of stone, which lay near his
palace. From this reservoir we fished up a sun of gold similar to the
one sent us by Motecusuma, besides many jewels and other trinkets,
though all of little value. The king of Tlacupa also informed us that he
had hidden all manner of valuable things in some large houses, about
twelve miles from Tlacupa, and he would accompany us there to point out
the spot where he had buried them.
Alvarado was then despatched thither with six soldiers, among which
number I also was; but when we arrived at the spot, this king assured us
he had merely invented all this in the hopes that we would have killed
him in a moment of anger at our disappointment. We consequently returned
without the treasure, and thus there was no more smelting of gold into
bars for the present. But it is an undoubted fact that there was very
little left in the treasury of Motecusuma when it came into the hands of
Quauhtemoctzin; for by far the greater part had been taken out as a
present for our emperor.
Among the things which were collected together on this occasion, there
were various objects of beautiful workmanship, which it would be too
tedious to describe. One thing however is certain, and many were bold
enough to assert it, that the emperor's fifths were not taken of a third
part of what there really was.
I said above that there was some truth in what was stated by
Quauhtemoctzin with regard to his having ordered a quantity of gold and
other things to be thrown into the lake. I, with many of my companions
proved this to be a fact, for we frequently dived to the bottom of the
water in the spot which had been pointed out by the monarch. Each time
we brought up some trifling trinket or other, which were afterwards
demanded of us by Cortes and the royal treasurer. On one occasion they
both accompanied us to this spot, and took a number of good divers with
them, who brought up various ornaments of gold, worth altogether about
one hundred pesos; but this was nothing in comparison to the treasure
which was said to have been thrown in by the command of the monarch.
When the gold we took on this occasion came to be divided, the officers
and all our men were of opinion that what would fall to each one's share
would scarcely be worth accepting; wherefore father Olmedo, Avila,
Alvarado, and other cavaliers proposed to Cortes, that the whole should
be distributed among the invalids, the blind, the lame, the deaf, and
those who had been accidentally burnt by powder; assuring him that we
others who enjoyed good health, would gladly accede to this. Their
object in making this proposal was to induce Cortes to add so much to
each one's share as to make it worthy of our acceptance; for the
suspicion was become pretty general that he had concealed the greater
part of Quauhtemoctzin's treasure.
In answer to this Cortes said he would first see how much each man's
share amounted to, and he would try if he could not satisfy all
parties. Our officers and men now insisted that this calculation should
instantly be gone into, when it was found that every cavalry soldier
would have to receive 100 pesos, and the musketeers and crossbow-men I
forget how much. None of the men would accept of this miserable
pittance, and they began to throw out bitter complaints against Cortes
and the royal treasurer, who excused himself by saying, that there was
nothing more for them, as Cortes had deducted for himself an equal
portion with the crown, and had besides claimed large sums in payment
for the horses which had been killed, and such like; also, many curious
objects of value had not at all been added to the common stock, but had
been set apart as particular presents for the emperor. They should not,
therefore, concluded Alderete, cavil with him about it, but with Cortes.
As there were friends and partisans among our troops of the governor of
Cuba, and soldiers of Narvaez's corps who were besides this ill inclined
towards Cortes, they obstinately refused to accept of the gold which was
offered them, saying, they were entitled to much more.
About this time Cortes was staying at Cojohuacan, and inhabited a large
palace, the walls of which had been recently fresh plastered and
white-washed, so that they were well adapted for writing on with
charcoal or other colours. Every morning that came, a couple of biting
epigrams or satires were found written on these walls, either in prose
or rhyme. One time for instance you would read: _The sun, moon, stars,
firmament, the sea and the earth have their fixed course, and if ever
they do diverge from their regular course, they always correct
themselves again; may Cortes, in his love of power, take this as a
precept._ At another time: _We are much more conquered ourselves than
conquerors, and should not be called the conquerors of New Spain, but
the conquered of Cortes._ Then again: _Cortes is not content with taking
his share of the gold as general, but must also have his royal fifths._
Again: _Alas! how my heart does grieve, ever since I have seen my share
of the booty!_ And then again: _Diego Velasquez has spent all his
fortune to discover the coast up to Panuco, but Cortes has reaped the
harvest._ Such like sayings were numerous, many of which I should not
wish to repeat here.
Cortes never neglected to read these epigrams as soon as he rose in the
morning; the greater part of which were in rhyme, and not exactly so
homely as those above quoted. As he was himself a bit of a poet, he
wrote answers in verse beneath them, which had always reference to his
deeds of arms, and tended to lower those of Diego Velasquez, Grijalva,
and of Narvaez. These, his answers, were so pointed, that each day the
epigrams became more severe, when Cortes at length wrote: _White wall,
the paper of fools!_ And the following morning was found under it: _And
of the wise and honest!_ Our general very well knew who were the writers
of these verses; namely, a certain Tirado, one of Velasquez's partisans,
and son-in-law of the elder Ramirez, who lived in la Puebla; a certain
Villalobos, who returned afterwards to Spain; and one Mansilla, with
others, who were always ready to oppose Cortes in everything. These
verses grew at length of so scandalous a nature, that father Olmedo told
Cortes he ought to put a stop to them. Our general followed this good
advice, and ordered that no one henceforth should presume to dirty the
walls with any beastly sayings, under threats of severe punishment.
For the rest we were all deeply in debt. A crossbow was not to be
purchased for less than forty or fifty pesos, a musket cost one hundred,
a sword fifty, and a horse from 800 to 1000 pesos, and above. Thus
extravagantly had we to pay for everything! A surgeon, who called
himself Mastre Juan, and who had cured some very severe wounds, demanded
most exorbitant fees for his cures. There was also an apothecary and
barber, named Murcia, who likewise cured wounds. Various other
impositions were practised, and payment was demanded of the men as soon
as they had obtained their shares of the booty.
Serious complaints were made about this, and Cortes knew no other remedy
than to appoint two men of business-like habits and of well-known
honesty, to examine each demand and tax the amount. One of these persons
was named Santclara, the other Llerena, and no debt was considered valid
unless it had been examined by them; and two years were allowed to
liquidate a debt we were unable to pay at the moment.
In the smelting of the gold there was also allowed an eighth of alloy to
every ounce, to assist the men in the purchase of the necessaries of
life, as about that time a number of vessels had arrived at Vera Cruz
with various kinds of merchandise. But we derived no advantage from
this, on the contrary it proved very prejudicial to us; for the
merchants added the same per centage to the price of their goods, and
sold for five pesos what was only worth three, and so this alloy became,
as the Indians termed it, _tepuzque_, or copper. This expression
afterwards became so common among us, that we added it to the names of
distinguished cavaliers, to express the worth of their character; as for
instance we would say, Senor Don Juan of so much tepuzque.
Complaints were now made of the excess of alloy which was mixed with
the gold; at length two gold workers were even detected in stamping the
gold mark on pure copper, in punishment for which Cortes ordered them to
be hung. But all these are stories which do not exactly belong to my
history.
Our general becoming weary of the continued reproaches which were thrown
out against him, and the everlasting petitions for loans and advance in
pay, determined at once to get rid of the most troublesome fellows, by
forming settlements in those provinces which appeared most eligible for
this purpose. He accordingly despatched Sandoval to Tuztepec, to form a
settlement there, and punish the Mexican garrison lying in that
township, for having, about the time of our unfortunate retreat from
Mexico, put to death sixty Spaniards, and six Spanish ladies, all of
Narvaez's corps. He was, first of all, to leave a settlement at
Medellin, then to proceed to the river Guacasualco, form a settlement in
the harbour there, and then subdue the province of Panuco.
Rodrigo Rangel and Pedro de Ircio were ordered off to Vera Cruz; the
younger Juan Velasquez to Colima and Villa Fuerte, in the province of
Zacatula; Christobal de Oli, who about this time married a Portuguese
lady, named Dona Filipa de Araujo, was sent to Mechoacan; and Francisco
de Horozco was commissioned with the colonization of Oaxaca.
The inhabitants of the provinces I have just mentioned would not at
first credit that Mexico had fallen; but when they found it to be a
fact, the kings and caziques of those distant provinces sent ambassadors
to congratulate Cortes on his victory, and to declare themselves vassals
of our emperor; as also to convince themselves with their own eyes that
we had really levelled that terrible city to the ground. Each of these
ambassadors brought with them valuable presents in gold, and many had
their young sons with them, to whom they pointed out the ruins of
Mexico, just as we would show our children the spot where Troy once
stood.
I will now answer a question which the curious reader will surely ask
himself, namely, why we, the true Conquistadores of New Spain, and of
the strong city of Mexico, did not settle down there, but selected other
provinces by preference? The reason is, that we had learnt from
Motecusuma's rent-rolls where those districts lay from which he derived
the greatest quantity of gold, cacao, and cotton stuffs. All our
thoughts and desires were bent upon those provinces whence the monarch
obtained the largest tribute in gold, and when we found that even
Sandoval, one of our chief officers, and a particular friend of Cortes,
likewise left Mexico for the provinces, we no longer hesitated to follow
his example; the more so, as there were no gold mines in the
neighbourhood of Mexico, nor did it produce cotton or cacao, but merely
maguey and maise, from the former of which the inhabitants prepare their
wine. We therefore considered the country surrounding the metropolis
very poor, and we consequently settled in other provinces, though we
were greatly disappointed in our expectations! This Cortes had well
foreseen, and I still remember that he said to me, when I requested his
permission to accompany Sandoval: "Upon my conscience, brother Bernal
Diaz del Castillo, you are making a great mistake. I should feel
delighted if you would stay with me in Mexico; but if you have made up
your mind to accompany your friend Sandoval, I will not oppose your
wishes, and may God be with you. You may rely upon it I will take every
opportunity to promote your welfare; but I am sure you will soon regret
having left me."
Before we commenced our march each man received an account of his share
of the booty, when it was found that all our shares of the gold were due
to the officers of the crown, in payment for the slaves we had bought at
the auctions.
I will not here trouble the reader by enumerating what number of horse,
crossbow-men, musketeers, or other soldiers left for the provinces, nor
will I give the date of the month, but merely inform him that the first
troops left a few days after the capture of Quauhtemoctzin, and the
second expedition two months later.
I must now relate the important news which arrived about this time from
Vera Cruz.