1497-1521.
While the Spanish and the English expeditions had failed to find the
attractive shores of Cathay by sailing westwardly across the Atlantic,
the Portuguese were more fortunate in their long-continued attempts to
reach the dominions of the Grand Khan by sailing eastwardly. Restricted
by the papal decree to the prosecution of her voyages of discovery on
the east side of the line of demarkation, Portugal zealously persisted
in seeking along the coast of Africa a way to the Orient. Vasco da Gama,
an intrepid navigator, was placed in command of an expedition, and
sailed from Lisbon, in March, 1497, in the path marked out by Bartolomeu
Dias, in 1487. When Da Gama came to the Cape of Good Hope, or the Stormy
Cape (Cabo Tormentoso), he realized that the windy headland was rightly
named. The hazardous attempts which he repeatedly made to pass the stormy
promontory so impressed his sailors with his extreme venturesomeness that
they endeavored to persuade him to turn back. It is said that this made
Da Gama comport “himself very angrily, swearing that if they did not
double the cape, he would stand out to sea again as many times until the
cape was doubled, or there should happen whatever should please God.”
Having achieved his bold purpose, on the twenty-second of November, 1497,
Da Gama made himself famous in reaching the remote coast of India, on
the seventeenth of May, 1498, and entered the harbor of Calicut,[270]
three days afterward. Returning on the homeward voyage, he arrived at
Lisbon, about the beginning of September, 1499.
To perfect and enjoy the privileges of her inaugurated commerce with
India, Portugal immediately fitted out a fleet of merchantmen to carry
her commodities to the distant country over the sea-path explored
by her daring navigators. Pedro Alvarez Cabral was given command of
thirteen ships, with which he sailed on the ninth of March, 1500, with
instructions to hold his course out at sea at some distance from the
coast of Africa, in order to avoid the troublesome currents and delaying
winds which had previously deterred mariners from encountering the perils
of the unexplored route near the main-land. Cabral proceeded southward,
but near the Cape Verd Islands lost sight of one of his ships, and while
seeking her he lost his course. Fortunately, on Wednesday afternoon,
on the twenty-second of April, he descried the summit of a round and
high mountain on the eastern coast of Brazil, which he called Monte
Pascoal.[271] Perceiving the next morning that he had anchored opposite
the mouth of a river, he sent Nicolao Coelho to examine it. From this
anchorage he sailed in search of a safe harbor, and on Saturday, the
twenty-fifth of April, found the roadstead which he called Porto Seguro,
which was in seventeen degrees of south latitude, according to the
observation made there. On the first of May a large wooden cross was
erected to which was affixed the declaration of Cabral’s discovery of
the country for the king of Portugal. Cabral, having dispatched Gaspar
de Lemos with a small vessel to Lisbon with the report of his discovery,
set sail, on the third of May, for India. Cabral called the discovered
country Terra de Vera Cruz (Land of the True Cross), which name was
shortly afterward changed to Terra de Santa Cruz (Land of the Holy
Cross), and subsequently Brazil was substituted for it.[272]
In the year 1500 the Portuguese sailed in a different direction to seek
a short route to Cathay. The Portuguese historian, Galvano refers to
the expedition, saying: “In this same year 1500 it is said that Gaspar
Cortereal[273] begged permission of King Emmanuel to discover the New
Land (Terra Nova). He departed from the island Terceira with two ships
equipped at his own expense, and he sailed to that region which is in the
north in fifty degrees of latitude, which is a land now called after his
name. He returned home in safety to the city of Lisbon. Sailing a second
time on this voyage the ship was lost in which he went, and the other
vessel came back to Portugal. His brother Miguel went to seek him with
three ships at his own cost, and when they came to that coast, and found
so many entrances of rivers and havens, each ship entered a different
river, with this regulation and command, that they all three should meet
again on the twentieth of August. The other two ships did as commanded,
and they, seeing that Miguel Cortereal came not on the appointed day
nor afterward in a certain time, returned to this realm and never heard
any thing more concerning him.... But that country is called Terra dos
Cortereals unto this day.”[274]
Damião de Góes, the Portuguese historian, says Cortereal called this
region Terra Verde (Greenland), on account of its remarkable verdure, and
the vast forests stretching all along the coast.[275]
Ramusio, speaking of the exploration of the coast of North America says:
“In the part of the New World, which runs toward the north and northwest,
opposite our habitable part of Europe, many captains have navigated, and
the first (by that which one knows), was Gaspar Cortereale, a Portuguese,
who, in 1500, went with two caravels intending to find some strait of the
sea whence by a shorter voyage than that taken around Africa he would be
able to go to the Spice Islands. He sailed so far forward that he came
to a place where it was extremely cold, and he found, in the latitude
of sixty degrees, a river closed with snow, to which he gave the name,
calling it Rio Nevado. But he had not sufficient courage to pass much
beyond it. The whole of this coast, which runs two hundred leagues from
Rio Nevado as far as to the port of Malvas, in fifty-six degrees, he saw
full of people and along it many dwellings.”[276]
The earliest account of Gaspar Cortereal’s voyage of 1501, from which he
never returned, is contained in a letter written by Pietro Pasqualigo,
the Venetian ambassador at the court of Portugal, to his brothers in
Italy, dated October 19, 1501. The writer says: “On the eighth of the
present month, one of the two caravels which his most serene majesty sent
the past year under the command of Gaspar Corterat, arrived here, and
reports the finding of a country distant west and northwest, two thousand
miles, heretofore quite unknown.
“They ran along the coast between six hundred and seven hundred miles
without arriving at its termination, on which account they concluded
it to be the same continent that is connected with another land which
was discovered last year in the north, but which the caravel could not
reach on account of the ice and the vast quantity of snow, and they are
confirmed in this belief by the multitude of great rivers they found,
which certainly could not proceed from an island. They report that this
land is thickly peopled, and that the houses are built of very long
beams of timber, and covered with the skins of fishes. They have brought
hither along with them seven of the inhabitants, including men, women,
and children; and in the other caravel, which is looked for every hour,
they are bringing fifty more. These people, in color, figure, stature,
and expression, greatly resemble gypsies. They are clothed with the skins
of different beasts, but chiefly of the otter, wearing the hair outside
in summer, and next to the skin in winter. These skins, too, are not
sewed together, nor shaped to the body in any fashion, but wrapped around
the arms and shoulders as they were taken from the animals.... On this
account their appearance is wholly barbarous; yet they are very sensible
to shame, gentle in their manners, and better made in their arms,
legs, and shoulders than can be expressed. Their faces are punctured in
the same manner as the Indians; some have six marks, some eight, some
fewer. They use a language of their own, but it is understood by no one.
Moreover, I believe that every possible language has been addressed to
them. They have no iron in their country, but manufacture knives out of
certain kinds of stones, with which they point their arrows.
“They have also brought from this island a piece of a broken sword inlaid
with gold, which we can pronounce undoubtedly to have been made in
Italy; and one of the children had in his ears two pieces (_todini_) of
silver, which likewise appear to have been made in Venice, a circumstance
inducing me to believe that their country belongs to the continent, since
it is evident that if it were an island where any vessel had touched
before this time we should have heard of it.[277]
“They have plenty of salmon, herring, cod, and other fish of the same
kind. They have an abundance of timber, principally pine, fitted for
masts and yards of ships, on which account his serene majesty anticipates
the greatest profit from this country, both in providing timber for
ships, of which he, at present, stands in great need, and from the men
that inhabit it, who appear admirably fitted to endure labor, and will
probably be the best slaves which have been found up to this time.
“This arrival appeared to me to be an event of which it was right
to inform you; and if on the arrival of the other caravel I receive
any additional information, it shall be transmitted to you in like
manner.”[278]
Gaspar Cortereal, who was expected to return to Lisbon in the second
caravel, never reached Portugal. Miguel, his brother, sailed from Lisbon
in May 1502, with three ships, to search for Gaspar and the missing
vessel, but he was never heard of again, and it was conjectured that both
of the brothers had been slain by the savages from whom they had taken so
many of their relatives to serve as slaves in Portugal.
No little enthusiasm was created at the court of Portugal by Cabral’s
report of the discovery of the Land of the True Cross. King Emmanuel at
once ordered three vessels to be equipped to sail to the new country.
Having heard of the voyages made by Amerigo Vespucci to the Land of
Pearls (Terra delle Perle), he wrote to Vespucci in Seville, and
solicited him to enter his service. The illness of the explorer did not
then permit him to accept the tempting offer of the king of Portugal.
However, when he was afterward visited by the king’s ambassador, Giuliano
di Bartolomeo del Giocondo, Vespucci consented to go to Lisbon and to be
commissioned by King Emmanuel to accompany the fleet that was prepared
to sail to Terra de Vera Cruz. His departure from Spain, he says, was a
matter of regret to all who knew him, because there he was honored, and
there the king had a right to claim his services.[279] Narrating the
incidents of his third voyage to the New World, Vespucci writes:
“We departed from the port of Lisbon, three ships in company, on the
tenth of May, 1501, and took our course directly for the Grand Canary
Islands.... From there we sailed to the coast of Ethiopia, and arrived at
the port called Beseneghe, in the torrid zone.... We left this port of
Ethiopia and steered to the southwest.... In sixty-seven days we reached
land lying seven hundred leagues southwest of that port.... The season
was very unfavorable for the voyage, particularly when we approached the
equator, where, in the month of June, it is winter.... It pleased God,
however, to show us a new country on the seventeenth of August. Then we
anchored at the distance of a half league from the coast. We got out our
boats and went on land to see if the country were inhabited, and if it
were, by what class of people. We found that it was inhabited by a people
of a lower condition than that of beasts.... We took possession of it in
the name of his majesty. It lies five degrees south of the equator....
We sailed in a southeasterly direction, on a line parallel with the
coast, making many landings, but never discovering any natives who could
converse with us. Running on this course, we found the land made a turn
to the southwest. As soon as we doubled the cape, which we named the Cape
of St. Augustine, we began to sail to the southwest.... This cape is
eight degrees south of the equator.”[280]
While the explorers were sailing along the east coast of Brazil, they
arrived at a place where they anchored five days. “Here,” says Vespucci,
“we found carmine stems very large and green, and some already dry on the
tops of the trees. We left this port, always sailing to the southwest in
sight of the land, making many anchorages and treating with innumerable
people. We went so far toward the south that we were beyond the tropic
of Capricorn where the south pole is elevated thirty-two degrees above
the horizon. We had entirely lost sight of the Little Bear, and the Great
Bear was very low, almost on the verge of the horizon.[281] We steered
by the stars of the south pole, which are many, and much larger and
brighter than those of our pole. I traced the figures of the greater part
of them, particularly those of the first and greater magnitude, giving
an explanation of the circuits which they made around the pole, together
with a description of their diameters and semi-diameters, as may be seen
in my four journeys. We ran about seven hundred and fifty leagues along
this coast.... We saw a great number of redwood (verzino) and cassia
trees, and of those which produce myrrh.... We found ourselves in such
a high southern latitude, that the south pole was elevated above the
horizon fifty-two degrees.... The cold [on the seventh of April, 1502]
was so severe that no one in the fleet could endure it.... We agreed
that the superior captain[282] should make signals for the fleet to turn
about, and that we should depart from this land and steer our course in
the direction of Portugal.”
After touching at the port of Sierra Leone, and at the Azores, the
explorers reached the port of Lisbon on the seventh day of September,
1502.[283]
Vespucci was again sent by the king of Portugal, in 1503, with a fleet
of six ships commanded by Gonçalo Coelho, to discover an island “toward
the east called Melaccha, which we know lies in the sea,” says Vespucci,
“thirty-three degrees from the south pole.” Departing from the port of
Lisbon on the tenth of May, the vessels stood for the Cape Verd Islands.
After going to Sierra Leone on the coast of Africa, the fleet sailed
toward the southwest. On this course one of the vessels struck on a rock,
and was abandoned by the crew. On the east coast of Brazil, the fleet
entered the harbor which the Portuguese called the Bay of All Saints
(Bahia de todos os Santos). At a harbor two hundred and sixty leagues
farther south, or in eighteen degrees south latitude, a fortress was
erected, and garrisoned with twenty-four men. The fleet then sailed for
Portugal, and entered the port of Lisbon on the eighteenth of June,
1504.[284]
The opinion of Columbus that a strait could be found to the south or
southwest of Cuba through which ships might sail to Cathay, induced
Vicente Yañez Pinzon and Juan Diaz de Solis in 1506 to search along the
coast bordering the Bay of Honduras for a navigable passage to the Indian
Ocean.[285] They held the same course as the admiral, says Herrera, “and
sailing as far as the islands Guanajos steered westward as far as Golfo
Dulce, but did not see it, for it lies hid. However, they observed the
inlet the sea makes between the land that forms the bay and the coast of
Iucatan.... From where they descried the Sierras of Caria, they steered
northward and discovered a great part of the main-land of Iucatan.”[286]
The unique and peculiarly shaped map made by the German cartographer,
Johann Ruysch, contained in the edition of Claudius Ptolemy’s geography,
printed at Rome, in 1508,[287] is the earliest engraved chart on which
appear the fields of discovery, in the western hemisphere, entered by
Columbus, Cabot, Cortereal, Cabral, Vespucci, and other early explorers
of the coast of the new continent.
Geographically ignorant of the longitude of the discovered part of
North America, then called the New Land (Terra Nova), Ruysch represents
it as if it were a part of the eastern coast of Asia, between the
two hundred and eightieth and the three hundredth meridians. Better
informed respecting its latitude, he delineates it as extending from
the forty-fifth to the fifty-fifth parallel of north latitude.[288]
Immediately north of the New Land is the Greenland Sea (Sinus
Grvenlantevs), and beyond it, Greenland (Grvenlant), discovered by the
Northmen. South of the New Land, between the fortieth and twenty-fifth
parallels is the unnamed and falsely represented island of Cuba, on the
west side of which is a scroll bearing the information: “As far as this
the ships of Ferdinand, king of Spain, have come.” South of this island
and that of Española (Spagnola) is the discovered part of South America,
then denominated the Land of the Holy Cross or the New World (Terra
Sancti Crucis sive Mundus Novus). The inscription on the represented
territory embraces the following information: “At different places this
region is inhabited, and it is supposed by many to be another world.
Women and men appear either entirely naked or clad with interwoven leaves
and the feathers of birds of various colors. They live together in
common without any religion or king. They are continually at war among
themselves. They eat the human flesh of captives. They exercise so much
in the salubrious air that they live more than one hundred and fifty
years. They are rarely sick, and then they cure themselves solely with
the roots of plants. Here lions are born, and serpents and other terrible
monsters found in the forests. Very large quantities of pearls and gold
are in the mountains and rivers. From here Brasil-wood, or verzini, and
cassia are carried away by the Portuguese.” Below this inscription is
another which contains the following statement: “Portuguese navigators
have inspected this part of this land, and have sailed as far as the
fiftieth degree of south latitude without seeing the southern limit of
it.”
On the scroll on the western part of the delineated territory of
South America this information is inscribed: “As far as this Spanish
navigators have come, and they have called this land, on account of its
greatness, the New World. Inasmuch as they have not wholly explored it
nor surveyed it farther than the present termination, it must remain thus
imperfectly delineated until it is known in what direction it extends.”
On the upper part of the right margin of the map the following fiction
respecting the configuration of the earth at the north pole is inscribed.
“It is said in the book concerning the fortunate discovery[289] that at
the arctic pole there is a high magnetic rock, thirty-three German miles
in circumference. A surging sea surrounds this rock, as if the water
were discharged downward from a vase through an opening. Around it are
islands, two of which are inhabited.”
North of Greenland is another inscription containing a popular fiction
of the dangers besetting ships in the Arctic Ocean: “Here a surging
sea begins; here the compasses of a ship do not hold, nor are ships
which have iron about them able to turn about.” Among the perils of the
Greenland Sea were the deceptions practised by the savages inhabiting the
islands in it: “It is said that those who came formerly in ships among
these islands for fish and other food were so deceived by the demons that
they could not go on land without danger.”
The four voyages of Amerigo Vespucci had acquainted him with so many
unknown peoples and places in the New World that he was induced by his
own inclinations and the suggestions of his friends to write an account
of the explorations of the different expeditions with which he had been
sent by the sovereigns of Spain and Portugal. In his letter, dated in
Lisbon, the fourth of September, 1504,[290] he speaks of the intended
publication of his voyages in a volume in the style of a geography (_un
uolume in stilo geografia_), and calls the composition (_zibaldone_), “Le
Quattro Giornate” (The Four Journeys).
The earliest known work containing an account of Vespucci’s four voyages
is entitled “Cosmographiae introductio” (Introduction to geography),
printed in St. Dié, in Lorraine, on the twenty-sixth of April, 1507.[291]
This rare Latin book was the work of a German scholar named Martin
Waldseemüller, a professor of geography in the gymnasium in St. Dié,[292]
who having translated his surname into Hylacomylus[293] affixed this
Greek pseudonym to his writings. On the reverse page of the fifteenth
leaf of Hylacomylus’s Introduction to geography is the notable suggestion
that the land in the western hemisphere visited by Amerigo Vespucci
should be called Amerige or America. The enthusiastic geographer, having
described Europe, Asia, and Africa, remarks:
“And as now these parts have been more widely surveyed, and another
fourth part has been found by Americus Vesputius (as will be perceived
by what follows), I can not see why any one can justly forbid the calling
of this part Amerige or America, that is, the land of Americus, from
Americus, the discoverer, an intelligent man, as Europe and Asia have
taken their names from women.”[294]
The name America in a short time became a popular designation for the
continent in the western hemisphere.[295]
Although Vespucci repeatedly mentions in his letter that he held
subordinate positions under the superior captains commanding the
different fleets with which he had sailed to the New World, twenty-one
years after his death he was unjustly accused by Johannes Schoner, in
a little geographical work, as having contrived to have the continent
called by his name.[296] Schoner’s imputation was evidently caused by
a spirit of ill-will, for he attempted, it would seem, to lessen the
importance of the discoveries made by Spain and Portugal, by placing on a
globe, made by him in 1520, this inscription designating South America:
“America vel Brasilia sive papagalli terra” (America or Brasil or the
land of parrots).[297] Later still a number of writers in turn undertook
to defame Vespucci by asserting that he did not make the voyage of 1497,
and to support their arguments quoted the erroneous statements of the
different versions of his letter. The assumptions of these writers,
however, are not corroborated by the Italian text of Vespucci’s letter,
in part presented on the preceding pages, nor are they verified by later
researches in the archives of Spain and Portugal.[298]
[Illustration: Map of the New World in the Latin work, “Legatio
Babylonica, Oceani Decas,” by Pietro Martire d’Anghiera, printed in
Seville in 1511. (Size of the original, 7½ × 11 inches.)]
When the Spaniards were exploring the West India archipelago a report
became current that on one of the more northward islands there was a
fountain, the water of which possessed extraordinary virtues. Peter
Martyr heard the rumor, and wrote, in 1511, to the bishop of Rome,
saying: “There is an island about three hundred and twenty-five leagues
from Española, as they say who have searched for it, named Boiuca or
Agnaneo, on which is a never-failing spring of running water of such
marvelous efficacy that when the water is drunk, perhaps, with some
attention to diet, it makes old people young again. And here I must beg
your holiness not to think that this is said jestingly or thoughtlessly,
for they have reported it everywhere as a fact, so that not only all the
common people but also the educated and the wealthy believe it to be
true.”[299]
The island of Boiuca appears to be partly outlined on the small map in
Peter Martyr’s “Legatio Babylonica,” printed at Seville in 1511. It is
designated on the latter as a part of the island of Beimeni,—“Isla de
beimeni parte.”[300]
Among those who gave credence to the fiction of the marvellous virtues
of the spring of Boiuca was Juan Ponce de Leon, a Spanish cavalier,
who had attained considerable military fame in the West Indies.[301]
He had sailed from Spain in 1493 to Española in one of the ships of
Columbus’s second expedition. In 1509 he took part in the subjugation of
the Island of Borriquen, afterward called Porto Rico, of which he was
made governor. Beguiling himself with the hope that he could renew the
vigor of his youth by bathing in the stream of life-giving water, and at
the same time add honor to his name by becoming the discoverer of the
island on which the fountain was said to be, Juan Ponce fitted out three
vessels and sailed from the port of St. German, Porto Rico, on Thursday,
the third of March, 1512, to search for the island Boiuca, which some
called Bimini. “It is certain,” says Herrera, the Spanish historian,
“that Juan Ponce de Leon besides intending to make new discoveries,
as all the Spaniards at that time aspired to do, was also intent on
finding the fountain of Bimini and a river in Florida; the Indians of
Cuba and Española affirming that old people bathing themselves in them
became young again, and it was a fact that many Indians of Cuba, firmly
believing that there was such a stream, had found that island not long
before the Spaniards, and had passed over to Florida in search of the
river, and there built a town, where their descendants reside to this
day. This report so affected all the princes and caciques in those parts
that it was a hobby to find a river which wrought such a wonderful change
as made old people young, so that there was not a river or a brook,
scarcely a lake or a puddle, in all Florida, in which they did not bathe
themselves.”[302]
The explorations and discoveries of Juan Ponce are thus described by
Herrera: “On Sunday, the twenty-seventh of March, the day of the Feast
of the Resurrection, commonly called the Feast of Flowers, (_que era Dia
de Pascua de Resurreccion, que comunmente dicen de Flores_,) they saw an
island and passed by it. On Monday, the twenty-eighth, they steered in
the same direction, fifteen leagues, until Wednesday, when the weather
became foul. They then stood west-northwest until the second of April.
The water grew shallower until they came into nine fathoms, a league
from the land, which was in thirty degrees and eight minutes. Thinking
this land was an island they called it La Florida, because it had a very
pretty landscape of many green groves, and it was level and regular,
and because they discovered it at the time of the Floral Feast (_Pascua
Florida_).[303] Juan Ponce wished the name to conform to these two facts.
He went on land to learn the language and to take possession.
“On Friday, the eighth, they sailed again the same way, and on Saturday,
south by east, until the twentieth, when they saw some Indian huts from
the place where they had cast anchor. The next day the three ships sailed
along the coast and entered a current which was so swift that it drove
them back, although they had the wind strong.[304] The two ships, near
the land, dropped their anchors, but the force of the stream was so
great that it strained the cables. The third vessel, a brigantine, being
farther out, either found no bottom or was not sensible of the current,
which carried her so far from the shore that they lost sight of her,
although the day was bright and the weather fine.
“Juan Ponce being called by the Indians went ashore and the latter at
once undertook to possess themselves of the boat, the oars, and the
arms. This was tolerated till one of the Indians stunning a sailor with
a stroke of a cudgel on the head, when the Spaniards were compelled to
fight. They had two of their men wounded with darts and arrows pointed
with sharp bones, and the Indians received little injury. Night parting
them, Juan Ponce, with considerable difficulty, got his men together
and sailed thence to a river, where they wooded and watered, and waited
for the brigantine. Sixty Indians came to attack them, one of whom was
taken to give information and to learn the Spanish language. The river
they called Rio de la Cruz, (River of the Cross), planting there a stone
cross, bearing an inscription.”[305]
On the twenty-third of September, after having coasted in different
directions along the Flowery Land, Juan Ponce determined to return to
Porto Rico. Before he set sail, he sent Juan Perez de Ortubia to make a
further search for the rejuvenating fountains on the island of Bimini.
Not long after Juan Ponce’s return to Porto Rico, Ortubia arrived
there and reported that he had found the island, but not the wonderful
spring.[306]
Juan Ponce de Leon went to Spain and obtained from the crown the
appointment of adelantado of Bimini and Florida. When he heard, while
living at Porto Rico, the reports of the success of Hernando Cortes in
Mexico, he fitted out, in 1521, two ships, and sailed to Florida to take
possession of it and to settle a colony on its attractive shores. But the
natives valiantly opposed the occupation of their country and drove the
ambitious invader, with the loss of many men, to his ships. Juan Ponce
was wounded in the thigh by an arrow. The vessels sailed to Cuba, where
the impoverished and disabled Spaniard not long after died.[307]
The exploration of Central America was continued in 1511 by Vasco
Nuñez de Balboa, a native of Xeres de los Caballeros, Spain, who had
accompanied Rodrigo de Bastidas when he sailed on his voyage of discovery
to the New World, in October, 1500. In 1510 the Indian village on the
isthmus of Darien, west of the Gulf of Uraba, was made the seat of the
government of this part of the continent by the Spaniards, and called
Santa Maria de la Antigua del Darien. Vasco Nuñez de Balboa was appointed
alcade of the new colony. This ambitious and avaricious adventurer
penetrated the dense forest belting the northern coast of the isthmus,
and invaded the interior, where he found a wealthy cacique, named
Comogre. The Indian chief entertained Vasco Nuñez and his fourscore
followers with generous hospitality in his large and attractive palace,
a wooden building one hundred and fifty paces long and eighty wide.
He presented his indigent guest with four thousand ounces of golden
ornaments and sixty slaves. “This gold, with as much more obtained
at another place,” says Peter Martyr, “our men weighed on the porch
of Comogre’s palace, to separate the fifth part due to the king’s
exchequer, for it was a law that the fifth part of the gold, pearls,
and precious stones should be given to the royal treasurer, and the
remainder be divided among the discoverers. While our men were wrangling
and contending about the division of the gold, the eldest son of Comogre,
the cacique, who was present and whom we commended for wisdom, approached
with some appearance of anger him who was weighing the treasure, and
struck the balances with his fist, scattering the gold all over the
porch.” Pointing southward toward the mountains, he told them that beyond
those _sierras_ was a great sea, on which people sailed with ships as
large as theirs, and that the adjacent country contained great quantities
of gold.
Balboa heard this surprising announcement with delight, and, ambitious to
be honored as the discoverer of the unnamed sea and the country abounding
with rich mines, began to plan to go there and achieve the notoriety
that would make his name forever famous. On the first of September,
1513, Vasco Nuñez, with one hundred and ninety men and a number of
Indian guides, embarked at Santa Maria de la Antigua and set sail in a
brigantine for the Indian village of Coyba. Here he began his toilsome
and dangerous march across the isthmus. After enduring untold hardships
the pertinacious Spaniard and his small body of wayworn followers arrived
at the foot of the Sierra de Quarequa, intercepting the view of the
unseen ocean.[308] While climbing the rugged slope of the intervening
mountain, on the twenty-fifth of September, Balboa commanded his men
to halt and to remain where they were until he had reached the summit
and surveyed the wide expanse of the great ocean billowing between the
isthmus and the remote shores of India. When the enthusiastic Spaniard
ascended to the top of the mountain and beheld the Mar del Sur (Sea of
the South), he fell upon his knees and thanked God for honoring him as
its discoverer, “as he was a man of moderate ability, little knowledge,
and humble birth.” Calling to his men to come to him, he ordered them,
after surveying the discovered sea, to construct a wooden cross, and to
plant it where he had kneeled and rendered thanks for the honor conferred
on him. A mound of stones was built near the cross as a monument to
commemorate the discovery of the ocean and the adjacent country for
his majesty, the king of Spain. Descending the southern slope of the
mountain, Balboa and his followers made their way to the shore of the
bay, which he called San Miguel, where the proud discoverer, with a
banner embellished with the picture of the Holy Virgin and Child and
the insignia of Spain, marched into the sea, and took possession of it
in the name of his sovereign, King Ferdinand. Having explored a part of
the southern coast of the isthmus, Vasco Nuñez and his men reëntered the
wilderness and arrived at Santa Maria de la Antigua on the nineteenth of
January, 1514.
In the following year Gaspar Morales and Francisco Pizarro crossed the
isthmus with sixty men, and visited the island which Balboa had called
Isla Rica. In 1516, Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, ambitious of obtaining
greater fame, and having two hundred men and considerable money at his
command, transported the timber, rigging, and other appendages of two
brigantines across the isthmus, and after putting the vessels in sailing
condition, launched them upon the recently discovered ocean. After a
short cruise among the islands near Isla Rica, Balboa returned to the
Spanish settlement at Acla, on the north coast, where he was arrested on
some false charges and put in irons by Pedrarias Davila, “as a traitor
and an usurper of the territories of the crown of Spain.” The enmity of
Pedrarias was so bitter toward the innocent officer that the Spanish
governor of Darien ordered Balboa to be executed. In 1517, at the age of
forty-one years, in the _plaza_ of Acla, the discoverer of the South Sea
was publicly beheaded.[309]
To further explore the coast of Brazil, it is said that Juan Diaz de
Solis sailed from Lepe, Spain, on the eighth of October, 1515. Descrying
the continent at Cape San Roque, in five degrees south latitude, he
steered southward along the coast to Rio de Janeiro, (River of January,)
in twenty-three degrees south latitude. Thence he coasted farther
southward and entered a large bay of fresh water, which he called Mar
Dulce, that was afterward called Rio de la Plata. While exploring this
stream, De Solis, with some of his crew, went on land, and while ashore
was attacked by the natives, and falling into their hands he and his men
were roasted and devoured. The vessel returned to Cape St. Augustine,
and having loaded with Brazil-wood, sailed to Spain.[310]
The greed of gold, silver, and pearls,—the master passion governing
Spanish capitalists and the horde of moneyless adventurers at this time
in the New World,—was the cause of the fitting out of three vessels, in
1517, to go in search of new countries west of the island of Cuba. This
fleet, under the command of Francisco Hernando de Cordoba, set sail,
with one hundred and ten soldiers, about the beginning of February, from
San Cristobal, on the north side of the island, and after a voyage of
twenty-one days came in sight of the northeastern part of the peninsula
of Yucatan, where an Indian town was seen, to which the Spaniards gave
the name El Gran Cairo. Near this place three temples, built of stone
and lime, were found, in which were many clay idols “some of them having
terrible shapes, seemingly representing Indians committing horrible
offences. In these temples,” says Bernal Diaz del Castillo,[311] who was
connected with the expedition, “we also found wooden boxes containing
other gods with hellish faces, several small shells, some ornaments,
three crowns, and a number of trinkets, some in the shape of fish, others
in the shape of ducks, all made of an inferior kind of gold. Seeing all
these things, the gold and the good architecture of the temples, we
felt overjoyed at the discovery of the country.” At a town, which the
Spaniards called San Lazaro, although they were aware that the Indians
called it Campeachy, they were invited to land by the inhabitants, “who
wore fine mantles made of cotton.” “They took us” Diaz remarks “to some
large edifices, which were strongly built of stone and lime and were in
many ways attractive. These were temples, the walls of which were covered
with figures representing snakes and all kinds of gods. About an altar we
saw several fresh spots of blood. On some of the idols there were figures
like crosses. There were some paintings representing groups of Indians.
All these greatly astonished us, for we had neither seen nor heard of
such things before.”
While the explorers were taking in water, near a village called
Potonchan, now Champoton, on the western side of the peninsula, where
there were some wells, maize-plantations, and stone buildings, the
inhabitants visited them. “They all wore cotton cuirasses which reached
to their knees. They were armed with bows, lances, shields, and swords.
The latter,” Diaz further remarks, “were shaped like our broad swords,
and are wielded with both hands.” They also had slings for throwing
stones. They had bunches of feathers on their heads, and had their bodies
decorated with white, brown, and black colors. Speaking of an engagement
which the Spaniards had with the natives, Diaz says: “As soon as it was
daylight we saw more companies of armed natives moving toward the coast
with flags. They wore feather head-dresses, and were provided with drums,
bows, lances, and shields. They joined themselves to the others who had
arrived in the night. They divided themselves into corps, surrounded us
on all sides, and began to assail us with so many arrows, lances, and
stones, that more than eight of our men were wounded in the first onset.
They then rushed furiously forward and attacked us man to man; some
with their lances, others with their swords and arrows, and with such
terrible impetuosity that we were compelled to show them opposition. We
dealt them many a good thrust and blow, continuing at the same time an
incessant fire with our matchlocks and crossbows; for while some loaded
others fired. At last, by heavy blows and thrusts we forced them back,
but they did not retreat farther than was necessary to keep us strongly
surrounded.... Perceiving how closely we were hemmed in on all sides by
the enemy, who not only kept getting fresh troops but were plentifully
supplied in the field with meat, drink, and numbers of arrows, we soon
concluded that all our valiant fighting would not benefit us. All of
us were wounded. Many were shot through the neck, and more than fifty
of our men were killed. In this critical position we determined to cut
our way manfully through the enemy’s ranks and get to the boats, which
fortunately lay on the coast near us. We therefore resolutely closed our
ranks and broke through those of the enemy. You should then have heard
the whizzing of their arrows, the terrible yells of the Indians, and how
they incited one another to fight.... Many of our men were wounded while
climbing into the vessel, especially those who clung to its side, for the
Indians pursued us in their canoes, and persistently assailed us. With
the utmost exertion and the help of God we escaped from the hands of this
people.”
“Our vessels,” Diaz further relates, “were taken to Santiago of Cuba,
where the governor [Diego Velasquez] resided. Here the two Indians were
brought on shore whom we had taken with us from Punta de Cotoche, as
already related, called Melchorejo and Juanillo. When, however, we
brought forth the box with the crowns, the golden ducks, the fish, the
idols, more noise was made about them than they really merited, so that
they became the common topics of conversation throughout the islands of
St. Domingo and Cuba; indeed, the report concerning them reached Spain.
There it was said that none of the discovered countries were as rich as
this one, and in none had there been found houses built of stone. The
earthen gods, it was said, were the heathen relics of ancient times;
others ventured to affirm that they [the people of Yucatan] were the
descendants of the Jews who had been shipwrecked off this coast, whom
Titus and Vespasian had driven from Jerusalem.... Diego Velasquez closely
questioned the two Indians whether there were any gold-mines in their
country. They answered in the affirmative; and when they were shown some
of the gold-dust found in the island of Cuba, they said there was an
abundance of it in their country. This was not true, for it is well known
that there are no gold-mines on the Punta de Cotoche, or anywhere in the
whole of Yucatan. They were likewise shown the beds in which the seeds
of that plant are sown from whose root the cassava-bread is made, which
in Cuba is called _yuca_. They assured us that the same plant grew in
their country, and was called by them _tale_. As the cassava-root in Cuba
is called _yuca_, and the ground in which it is planted by the Indians
_tale_, so from these two words originated the name of the country,
Yucatan; for the Spaniards, who were standing around the governor at the
time that he was speaking to the two Indians, said: ‘You see, sir, they
call their country Yucatan.’ And from this circumstance the country
retained the name of Yucatan, although the natives call it by a different
name.”[312]
“It was in the year of our Lord 1518,” says Diaz, “after Diego Velasquez
had heard the good account we gave of the newly-discovered country called
Yucatan, that he determined to send another expedition to it. For this
purpose he selected four vessels, among which were the two in which we
soldiers had accompanied Cordoba on our late voyage to Yucatan, purchased
at our expense.... Our account that the houses in the newly-discovered
country were built of stone and lime had originated an extraordinary
conception of its riches, besides the Indian Melchorejo had indicated
by signs that it contained gold-mines. All these things created a great
desire among the inhabitants and soldiers on the island [Cuba] who
possessed no official authority over the Indians to go in search of
a rich country like this one; consequently, in a very short time, we
mustered two hundred and twenty men.”
Commanded by Juan de Grijalva, the vessels sailed on the first of May,
1518, from the port of Santiago, Cuba. After touching at different
points, the fleet at last arrived off the coast of Champoton, on the
west side of Yucatan, where the Indians had attacked the Spaniards on
the last voyage and had driven them to their vessels. Here they had
another engagement with the natives, but the Spaniards were victorious
and put the enemy to flight. They then proceeded southward to the bay
called La Boca de Terminos, where Diaz relates “we found temples built of
stone and lime, full of idols made of wood or clay, with other figures,
some representing women, some serpents; also the horns of various kinds
of wild animals. We concluded that an Indian village was near it....
We have, however, deceived ourselves, for the district was entirely
uninhabited.”
At a promontory, beyond the bay, toward the west, about thirty Indians
visited the explorers, bringing with them broiled fish, fowl, fruit, and
maize-bread. “They also,” Diaz relates, “brought pans filled with red-hot
embers, on which they strewed incense, and perfumed us all. After this
ceremony was ended they spread some mats on the ground, over which they
laid a piece of cotton cloth. On this they put some trifling ornaments
of gold in the shape of ducks and lizards, with three necklaces made of
gold.... They next presented us with some mantles and waistcoats, such as
they wore, and begged of us to accept them, saying that they had no more
gold to give us, but that farther toward the setting of the sun there was
a country where it was found in great abundance, at the same time often
repeating the word Culba, and Mexico. We however did not understand what
they meant.”
At a town called Aguajaluco they saw Indians hurrying to and fro
with large shields made of large tortoise-shells, which glittered so
brilliantly in the sun that some of the Spaniards thought that they were
of inferior gold. At an island, beyond one which they called Isla Blanca,
Diaz relates: “We found two houses which were strongly built of stone and
lime. Both were ascended by flights of steps, and had altars, on which
stood several abominable idols, to which, on the previous evening, five
Indians had been sacrificed. Their dead bodies still lay there, cut open,
with the arms and legs chopped off, while every thing near was besmeared
with blood. We contemplated this sight in utter astonishment, and gave
the island the name of Isla de los Sacrificios.”
At another island farther to the west, Diaz says: “We found a temple
on which stood the great and abominable-looking god Tetzcatlipuca,
surrounded by four Indians, dressed in wide, black cloaks, their hair
hanging as our canons or Dominicans wear it. These were the priests, who
had that very day sacrificed two boys, whose bodies they had cut open
and then offered their bleeding hearts to this horrible idol. They were
about to perfume us in the same way they had done their gods; but though
the perfume smelled like our incense, we would not permit them so shocked
we were at the sight of the two boys whom they had recently killed,
and we were disgusted with their abominations. Our captain questioned
Francisco, the Indian whom we had brought with us from the Rio de
Banderas, concerning the purport of all these things, for he seemed to be
an intelligent person, we having, at that time, as I have already stated,
no interpreter. Our captain interrogated him by signs. Francisco answered
that this sacrifice had been ordered by the people of Culua; but, as it
was difficult for him to pronounce this word, he repeatedly said, Olua,
Olua. In honor of our commander, whose Christian name was Juan, and as
the day was the feast of St. John, we gave this small island the name of
San Juan de Ulua.”
Sailing northward along the coast of Mexico, “we first came,” says Diaz,
“in sight of Tusta, and two days after, of the more elevated mountains
of Tuspa, both of which take their names from two towns close to these
mountains. Along this part of the coast we saw a number of towns lying
from six to nine miles inland. It is now the province of Panuco.” On
account of the approach of winter, the scarcity of provisions, and the
leaky condition of one of the vessels, the explorers determined to return
to Cuba; Pedro de Alvarador having previously set sail for the island.
Speaking of their subsequent explorations in the vicinity of the mouth
of the Guacasualco River (now called Rio Coatzacoalcos, in Tehuantepec),
the Spanish writer says: “As soon as the inhabitants of Guacasualco and
the neighboring districts learned that we offered our goods for barter,
they brought us all their golden ornaments, and took in exchange green
glass beads, on which they set a high value. Besides ornaments of gold,
each Indian had with him a copper axe, which was very highly polished,
with the handle curiously carved, that served equally as an ornament
and, on the field of battle, as a weapon. At first we thought that these
axes were made of an inferior kind of gold. Therefore we began to take
them in exchange, and in the space of two days collected more than six
hundred, with which we were no less pleased, as long as we were ignorant
of their real value, than the Indians were with our glass beads.... We
set sail for Cuba, and arrived there in the space of forty days.... We
were most graciously welcomed by the governor, Diego Velasquez, who was
highly delighted with the additional gold we brought him. Altogether, it
was well worth 4,000 _pesos_; so that, with the 16,000 brought over by
Alvarado, the whole amounted to 20,000 _pesos_.[313] Some made this sum
greater, some less; but one thing is certain, the crown officials took
only the fifth of the last-mentioned sum. When they were about to take
the fifth also of the Indian axes, which we had mistaken for gold, they
grew exceedingly angry on finding them only to be of a fine quality of
copper. This caused the people to laugh at our trading transactions.”[314]
Immediately after the return of Juan de Grijalva, in 1518, from
this voyage, Diego Velasquez, the governor of Cuba, issued orders
for the fitting out of a larger fleet than the one commanded by the
former officer. Respecting the person who was to have command of this
expedition, Diaz says that “the matter was secretly settled with Hernando
Cortes, by two confidants of Diego Velasquez, Andres de Duero, secretary
to the governor, and Almador de Lares, the royal treasurer.... Duero
and the royal treasurer, therefore, employed all their cunning to
influence the governor. They took every opportunity of placing Cortes
in the most favorable light, extolling his great courage, in a word,
declared him to be the most capable person whom he could intrust with
the command.... Their efforts were crowned with success, for Diego
Velasquez conferred the appointment of captain-general of the expedition
on that gentleman.... After Hernando Cortes had been appointed captain,
he immediately began to collect all kinds of arms and ammunition, as
matchlocks, crossbows, powder, and the like. With the same diligence
he took care to provide a large stock of goods to barter, and other
necessaries for our expedition.” On the eighteenth of February, 1519,
the fleet was on its way toward the west. On the island of Cozumel,
near the eastern coast of Yucatan, Cortes reviewed his troops. “Without
counting the pilots and marines,” says Diaz, “our number amounted to
five hundred and eight men. There were one hundred and nine sailors,
and sixteen horses.... Our squadron consisted of eleven vessels of
different tonnage.... The number of crossbow men was thirty-three, and
of those bearing matchlocks thirteen. To these add our heavy guns and
four falconets, and a great quantity of powder and balls. Respecting
the precise number of crossbow men I cannot aver, though it matters not
whether there were a few more or less.... I have now said all that need
be respecting our armament; indeed, Cortes was very particular about the
merest trifles in these preparations.
“As Cortes paid attention to every circumstance, he ordered me and Martin
Camos of Biscay into his presence, and asked us what our opinion was
of the word _Castilan_, _Castilan_, which the Indians of Campeachy had
so often repeated when we landed there, under the command of Francisco
Hernandez de Cordoba. We again informed him of every transaction that
had taken place there. He said that he had often turned this matter
over in his mind, and could not help thinking but that the inhabitants
must have some Spaniards among them, and he thought it would not be
amiss to question the caciques of Cozumel upon this subject. This Cortes
accordingly did, and desired Melchorejo, who by this time had gained
some little knowledge of the Spanish, and perfectly understood the
language of Cozumel, to question the chiefs about it. The statements
made by them were alike, and plainly indicated that there were several
Spaniards in the country, whom they had seen; that they as slaves served
the caciques, who lived a march of two days inland; and that it was
within a few days that some Indian merchants had talked to them.” Some
days afterward Cortes learned that the two Spaniards were Geronimo de
Aguilar and Gonzalo Guerrero. Aguilar being informed of the presence of
the Spaniards joined them and served Cortes in the important position of
an interpreter.[315]
When the Spaniards were in camp at the island of San Juan de Ulua,
Cortes was visited, on Easter-day, by one of the farmer-generals of
the Mexican empire, named Teuthlille. “He was accompanied” says Diaz,
“by another person of distinction called Quitlalpitoc. We subsequently
learned that they were governors of the provinces of Cotastlan, Tustepec,
Guazpaltepec, Tlatateteclo, and other districts lately subdued. They were
followed by a great number of Indians carrying presents of fowls and
plants. Teuthlille, having ordered the others to stand aside, advanced to
Cortes and bowed three times very reverentially in the Indian fashion,
which he did when he turned toward us standing nearest him. Cortes
cordially welcomed them, after which he embraced them. He desired them to
tarry a while and told them that he would give them a definite answer [in
reply to the question which their sovereign, the great Montezuma,[316]
had sent them to ask: who the Spaniards were and what they came to seek
in his country]. Meanwhile Cortes ordered the altar to be arranged as
prettily as possible. Francisco Bartolomé and Father Juan Diaz performed
mass. The two governors and the principal personages of their _suite_
were present during the services, after which Cortes partook of dinner
with them.
“After the table had been cleared, Cortes assisted by Aguilar and Doña
Marina[317] entered into conversation with the Mexican officials and the
caciques, telling them, that we were Christians, the subjects of the
greatest monarch of the world, named Emperor Charles,[318] that he had
many great personages among his subjects and servants, that we had come
by his command to their country, of which and its powerful sovereign,
who then reigned, his majesty had long before heard. Cortes speaking
of himself said that he was desirous to become the friend of their
sovereign, and had to disclose many things to him, in the name of his
majesty, the emperor, which their monarch would listen to with delight.
In order that a good understanding might be established between him
[Cortes] and his [Montezuma’s] subjects, they should acquaint him with
the place where this monarch resided, that he [Cortes] might pay his
respects to him and make the necessary disclosures. Teuthlille answered
in a rather imperious tone, saying: ‘Inasmuch as you have lately arrived
in this country, it would be more becoming that before desiring an
interview with my monarch, you should accept this present, which we have
brought you in his name, and then disclose your wishes to me.’ He then
took from a box, a quantity of gold-trinkets, of beautiful and artistic
workmanship, and more than twenty packages of stuffs very prettily made
of white cotton and feathers. These they presented to Cortes, besides
various other costly gifts which, on account of the number of years that
has intervened, I cannot now remember, together with provisions, as
fowl, fruit, and dried fish. Cortes accepted all these with a pleased
expression, and presented these gentlemen in return with glass beads
resembling brilliants, and other things that we had brought from Spain.
He begged them to request the inhabitants of the different districts to
begin trading with us, for we possessed various articles which we desired
to exchange for gold. This they promised to do.
“Cortes then ordered an arm-chair, beautifully painted and adorned
with inlaid work, to be brought, also some pieces of precious stones,
wrapped in cotton cloth, perfumed with musk, a necklace of imitation
pearls, a scarlet cap, with a medal, on which was represented the holy
St. George on horseback, with lance in hand, killing the dragon. Cortes
then addressed Teuthlille, and said that he presented the chair to his
monarch, Montezuma, that he might sit in it when he should pay him a
visit, and the string of pearls to wind around his head on the same
occasion, all of which presents were from our sovereign, the emperor,
who had sent them to Montezuma in token of friendship and as a proof of
the esteem in which he held him. Cortes further remarked that Teuthlille
should inform us where and when he, Cortes, could personally have an
audience with the monarch. Teuthlille accepted the presents, and said in
reply that his master, Montezuma, as he also was a great monarch, would
in turn be equally delighted to learn something about our great emperor;
that he would hasten to lay the presents before him, and to return with
his answer.
“Teuthlille had with him very skillful painters, for there were such in
Mexico, and he ordered them to paint the portrait and entire person of
Cortes, with the dress he wore; also the pictures of all the other chief
officers, the soldiers, our ships, horses, Doña Marina, and Aguilar, even
our two dogs, the cannon, the balls, in short, every thing that they
could see that belonged to us. The paintings they took along with them to
show to their monarch.”
After an absence of about six or seven days, Teuthlille returned, as Diaz
further observes, “with more than a hundred Indian porters, all heavily
laden, accompanied by a great Mexican cacique, who, in countenance,
stature, and deportment, greatly resembled Cortes, and on that account
had been selected by his monarch to accompany the deputation. For, as
it was related, when Teuthlille presented the picture representing
Cortes, all the grandees who were present with their monarch, Montezuma,
immediately observed that he resembled a person of distinction named
Quintalbor. This was the same person who now accompanied Teuthlille. We
therefore called one the Cortes of this place, and the other the Cortes
of that place. We must now, however, tell what the embassadors did
when they came into the presence of Cortes. First of all they touched
the ground at his feet with their hands. They then perfumed him and
all the Spaniards who were present, with pans made of clay. Cortes
gave them a very cordial reception, and desired them to sit down at
his side. Quintalbor, the cacique, was commissioned to discuss matters
jointly with Teuthlille. The two, therefore, told Cortes that he was
most welcome to visit their country, and after considerable talking on
both sides, they produced the presents”[319] sent him by Montezuma.
As is further related by the Spanish historian, Juan de Torquemada, a
contemporary of Diaz, “the embassador of Montezuma ordered mats to be
spread on the ground before Cortes, and over them some cotton cloth,
on which he arranged the presents, comprising many cotton shirts, and
great quantities of other cotton stuffs, beautifully manufactured, and
interwoven with feathers of the most splendid colors. There were shields
made of the purest white stuffs, decorated with feathers, gold, silver,
and pearls, surpassing everything in beauty and skilled workmanship that
ever was seen. There was also a helmet, tastefully carved out of wood,
filled with grains of gold; also a casque, made of thin plates of gold,
decorated with tassels, and with stones resembling the emerald. There
were numerous large bunches of feathers of different colors, set in
silver and gold; fans for keeping off flies, made of the rarest feathers;
a thousand lockets of gold and silver of the most curious and beautiful
workmanship; bracelets and military decorations of gold and silver,
splendidly embossed with green and bright yellow feathers; leather made
of deer skin, curried and colored in the best possible manner; shoes and
sandals of the same leather, sewed with thin gold-wire, and the soles of
beautiful white and blue stone. There were other kinds of shoes, very
tastefully made of cotton; mirrors of marcasite, globular-shaped, of the
size of one’s fist, and most ingeniously set in gold, the small frame
itself being very valuable, and worthy of the acceptance of any crowned
head; coverings and curtains to beds, manufactured of variously colored
cotton, more glossy and of a finer texture than silk; a number of other
gold and silver trinkets; a necklace of gold, decorated with more than
a hundred emeralds, rubies, and various ornaments of gold; a second
necklace of many large pearls and emeralds, all of the most exquisite
workmanship; numerous gold trinkets in the shape of frogs and animals;
jewels in the form of medals. The cases were even more valuable than
the precious stones they contained. There was also a quantity of large
and small grains of gold. The most valuable of these presents, however,
were two round plates, one of gold, on which was a sun with rays and the
zodiac. This weighed more than one hundred marks.[320] The other plate
was of silver, which in a similar manner represented the moon. It weighed
about fifty marks. The two disks were massive and of the thickness of
the Spanish coin of four silver reals, and as large as carriage-wheels.
Those who saw these splendid presents said that, without considering the
beautiful workmanship, the value of the gold and silver alone amounted to
twenty-five thousand _castellanos de oro_; so that the full value of all
these presents may rightly be estimated at fifty thousand ducats.”[321]
“When Quintalbor, the great cacique, and Teuthlille, presented these
gifts to Cortes,” as Diaz further relates, “they begged him to accept of
them in the same spirit of friendship with which their monarch sent them,
and to distribute them among his _teules_.[322] Thereupon they began to
tell what their monarch had particularly commissioned them to say, which
was as follows: ‘He, Montezuma, was delighted with the arrival of such
courageous men in his provinces, for, according to the accounts he had
received, and judging from the occurrence at Tabasco [where Cortes had
had an engagement with the natives], we certainly must be brave men. He
wished very much to see our great emperor who was so powerful, of whom,
although residing at so great a distance, he had already gained some
knowledge, and he would send him a present of some valuable stones. He
was likewise ready to furnish us with every thing we might require during
our stay. Respecting Cortes visiting him, the undertaking should not
engage our thoughts, for it was not necessary, and would be attended with
great difficulties.’
“Cortes thanked them most sincerely for their kindness, gave each several
shirts made of Holland linen, some blue beads, and other trifles, and
requested them when they returned to their great monarch to tell him
that our emperor and master would deem it very unkind, after we had
come from such distant countries and crossed such vast seas, solely
with the intention of paying our respects to Montezuma, if we returned
without accomplishing this object. He wished, therefore, to proceed to
his residence, and to receive personally his commands. The embassadors
answered that they would convey these messages to their monarch, and
that a visit to him was unnecessary. Cortes thereupon gave them out
of our poverty a cup of Florentine workmanship, gilded and ornamented
with wreaths of leaves in relief, and the shirts made of Holland linen,
and other things, all of which were to be presented to Montezuma,
together with Cortes’s message. The two emissaries then departed, while
Quitlalpitoc alone remained behind in our camp, commissioned, as it
appeared, by the two other officials of Montezuma, to provide provisions
for us from the neighboring districts.
“After the Mexican embassadors had taken their departure, Cortes ordered
two vessels to sail farther northward and explore the coast. The command
of these was given to Francisco de Montejo, with orders to follow the
same course taken by Grijalva.... Montejo departed, and sailed to the
Rio Grande, near Panuco, as far as we had gone with Grijalva. On account
of the strong currents he could not proceed any farther. He therefore
returned to San Juan de Ulua....
“One morning the Indians, who had dwelt near us in huts, and had
furnished us with provisions and brought gold to barter, secretly
departed with Quitlalpitoc. This, we subsequently learned, was done by
the orders of Montezuma. He had forbidden all intercourse with Cortes,
believing that he was obeying the commands of his idol-gods. These were
named Tetzcatlipuca and Huitzilopochtli; the former being the god of
hell, and the latter the god of war, to whom Montezuma daily sacrificed
a number of children in order that the gods might disclose to him what
he should do with us. He intended to take us prisoners should we not
re-embark—employing some to educate children, and sacrificing the others.
His idol-gods, as we afterward learned, advised him not to listen to
Cortes, and to pay no attention to the message that we had sent him
respecting the cross and the image of the Blessed Virgin. This was what
caused his men to go away so secretly.
“This being the condition of affairs, we daily expected that hostilities
would begin, and we were therefore the more vigilant. It happened one
day, while I was standing sentinel on the sand-hills with another
soldier, that we espied five Indians coming along the shore. Not to
alarm the camp with so trifling a matter, we allowed them to advance.
They all appeared very good-humored, made their obeisance to us after
their fashion, and requested us, by signs, to conduct them to the camp.
Thereupon I said to my companion: ‘I will take them there, while you
remain where you are,’ for at that time my legs were not so infirm as
they are now, in my old age. When I presented them to Cortes, they
manifested the utmost reverence, and continually repeated the word
_Lopelucio_, _Lopelucio_, which in the Totonac language means lord,
great god. In dress and language these people differed entirely from
the Mexicans whom Montezuma had sent to our camp. They had large holes
bored in their under-lips, in which they wore pieces of a speckled, blue
stone, or thin plates of gold. The holes in their ears were quite large,
from which depended similar ornaments. Neither Aguilar nor Doña Marina
understood their language. The latter asked them whether there were any
_naëyavatos_ or interpreters with them. Thereupon two of them answered
that they understood the Mexican language. Then the talking began. They
bid us welcome, and said that their ruler had sent them to inquire who we
were, and that he would be delighted to be of any use to such powerful
men as we were. They said that they would have waited on us earlier,
if they had not shunned the people of Culhua, namely, the Mexicans
(meaning as much as villains), who had been with us. It is likely that
these people had heard of our battles at Tabasco and Potonchan. They at
least knew that the Mexicans had secretly departed from us three days
before this time. Cortes learned many things from them which were of the
greatest importance to him, particularly the information respecting the
enemies and opponents of Montezuma. Cortes, therefore, was very friendly
to these people. He gave them a number of presents, and desired them to
return to their ruler and to tell him that he would in person shortly
visit him.”
The indomitable commander now advanced northward along the coast as far
as Chiahuitzla, near the roadstead where his ships were anchored. A short
distance from this place Cortes began to build the city to which he gave
the name Villa Rica de Vera Cruz (the Rich Town of the True Cross). From
the port of the new city, Cortes, on the twenty-sixth of July, 1519,
dispatched a ship to Spain, under the command of Alonso Puertocarrero
and Francisco de Montejo, carrying letters to the emperor, Charles V.,
with accounts of the invasion of New Spain. With these communications
were sent some of the presents that Cortes had received, besides several
cotton and agave-scrolls of Mexican hieroglyphics. “Our agents took
charge of the letters,” Diaz remarks, “and were bound by a promise not to
touch at the Havannah under any pretext whatever, or to enter the harbor
of El Marien, where Francisco de Montejo had possessions. This was done
in order that Diego Velasquez might not receive any intelligence of our
movements.”
The resolute officer, having ordered his ships to be destroyed, began
about the middle of August his march toward the city of Mexico,[323]
with his small band of about five hundred followers, fifteen horsemen,
and seven pieces of artillery. He took with him thirteen hundred native
warriors from Cempoalla, besides a thousand porters to transport the
camp-baggage, provisions, and munition.
In the province of Xocotlan the invaders came to an Indian town called
by the Spaniards Castilblanco, governed by a cacique who was subject to
Montezuma. The hospitable ruler described to Cortes the situation of the
city of Mexico, which was built on an island surrounded by water, and
approachable on foot by three bridged causeways.
“A certain place in this province,” says Diaz, “I shall never forget.
Here a vast number of human skulls were piled in the best manner
imaginable. There must have been more than one hundred thousand; I
repeat, more than one hundred thousand. In the same orderly way the
remaining human bones were piled in another corner of the square. The
latter it would have been impossible to count. Besides these bones there
were human heads hanging from beams on both sides of the square.” On
the first, second, and fifth days of September, near the village of
Tehuacacinco, Cortes had victorious engagements with the Tlascallans.
“It also happened,” Diaz further remarks, “that the powerful king
of Mexico, Montezuma, either in the great goodness of his heart, or
because he began to fear our approach to his metropolis, dispatched
five men of distinction to our camp in the province of Tlascalla to
congratulate us on our advance, and to assure us of the great delight
he felt when he heard of the splendid victories we had gained over such
large armies. This message was sent with a valuable present of gold
trinkets, differently elaborated, worth about one thousand _pesos_, and
also packages of cotton stuffs, as much as twenty men could carry. He
also wished us to know, that it was his desire to become a subject of
our emperor, that he was greatly pleased to learn that we were so near
his metropolis, and that he was every way well-disposed toward Cortes
and all the _teules_, his brothers. He likewise wished to be told by us
what annual tribute in gold, silver, jewels, and cotton stuffs he was to
forward to our great emperor, which tribute would save us the trouble
of coming to Mexico, adding that he should indeed be pleased to see us,
but that our march would be a hazardous undertaking through a sterile
and rocky country, and that the fatigues which we should have to undergo
grieved him the more when he considered how impossible it was for him to
remove the hindrances from the way.”
Cortes shortly afterward marched into the city of Tlascalla, where, when
they entered it, “the streets and balconies could scarcely contain the
number of men and women” who welcomed them. “Delight was depicted on
every countenance,” and “twenty baskets full of roses” were “presented
to Cortes and the soldiers, whom the citizens thought were officers, and
particularly to those who were on horseback.” Here Cortes was told by one
of the principal men of the place “that Montezuma had strong garrisons
in every town, besides the warriors who marched out from the metropolis
to the field of battle. Every province was compelled to pay him tribute
in gold, silver, feathers, precious stones, cotton stuffs, as well as
Indians of both sexes, some of whom he took into his service, and some he
sacrificed. He was a monarch so powerful and wealthy that he accomplished
and obtained all he desired. His palaces were filled with riches and
_chalchihuis_ stones,[324] which he seized wherever he went. In short,
all the wealth of the country was in his possession.”
Cortes was further told that the city of Mexico “was abundantly supplied
with fresh water from the spring of Chapultepec, which was about two
miles from the city, whence the water was partly conveyed to the houses
by means of pipes, and partly in boats through the canals, when it was
sold in small quantities to the inhabitants. Respecting the weapons
of this nation, they included two-edged lances that were projected by
means of a thong and penetrated any cuirass. The warriors were excellent
marksmen with the bow and arrow, and carried pikes with blades of flint,
which were very ingeniously made, and were as sharp as razors. Besides
these weapons, they carried shields, and wore cotton cuirasses. There was
also a great number of slingers, who were provided with round stones,
long pikes, and sharp swords which were wielded with both hands.
“To explain all these things, the caciques exhibited large pieces of
_nequen_,[325] on which were pictured their battles and their art of
warfare. When Cortes and we considered that we had gained sufficient
information concerning these things, the conversation turned to subjects
of greater importance. Our friends told us how and whence they came
into this country, and how they settled there; how it had happened,
notwithstanding their nearness to the Mexicans, that they resembled them
so little, and lived in perpetual warfare with each other. A tradition
was also handed down from their forefathers that in ancient times a race
of men and women lived here who were immense in stature with large bones,
and who were a very bad and evil-disposed people, whom they had mostly
exterminated by continual war, and the few that had been spared, had in
the course of time died.
“In order to give us a conception of the huge frames of these people,
they dragged forth a bone, or rather a thigh-bone, of one of the giants,
which was very strong, and measured the length of a man of good stature.
This bone was still entire from the knee to the hip-joint. I measured it
with my own person, and found it to be of my own length, although I am a
man of considerable height. They showed us many similar pieces of bones,
but they were all worm-eaten and decayed. We, however, did not doubt for
a moment, that the country was once inhabited by giants. Cortes remarked
that we ought to forward these bones to his majesty in Spain at the very
earliest opportunity.”
Montezuma again sent embassadors to Cortes bearing presents. They said
“that their monarch could not but feel astonished that we” as Diaz
relates, “had made so long a stay among a poor and uncivilized people,
who were not fit for slaves, but so viciously disposed, so treacherous
and thievish, that some day or night when we least apprehended it they
would kill us merely for the sake of plunder. Montezuma begged us to
visit his city, where, at least, we might enjoy the good things it
offered, even though these should be below our deserts, and not equal
to what he could wish.... Cortes thanked the embassadors in a very
flattering manner for their civilities and the expressions of friendship
they had conveyed to him from their monarch, and he desired them to tell
their sovereign that in a short time he would pay his respects to him.”
At Cholula, to which Cortes next marched, a plot was concocted to kill
the Spaniards, but being warned, they were on their guard and severely
punished the inhabitants for their treacherous conduct. Describing the
city, Diaz says: “Cholula had more than a hundred very high towers,
they were all _cues_ or temples, in which human sacrifices were offered
and idols stood. The principal temple was even higher than the one in
the city of Mexico, though the latter was really magnificent and very
high. The temple [at Cholula] is said to have contained one hundred
courts, and an idol of enormous dimensions, (the name of which I have
forgotten), which was in great repute, and people came from various
places to sacrifice human beings to it and bring offerings for the dead.
I well remember when we first entered the city and beheld the elevated
white temples, how the whole place reminded us all of Valladolid.[326]
... I must add a word or two respecting the wooden cages we saw in this
city. They were constructed of heavy timber, and filled with grown men
and little boys, who were fattening for the sacrifices and feasts. Cortes
ordered these diabolical cages to be pulled down, and sent the prisoners
to their homes.”
While Cortes was on his way to the city of Mexico from Cholula, another
embassy from Montezuma met him, bringing him again presents of gold and
cotton fabrics. Montezuma desired the embassadors to express his regrets
for the many hardships which Cortes was compelled to endure on his
wearisome journey to see his person, that he would send to the port on
the coast a great quantity of gold, silver, and jewels for the emperor,
that he would present Cortes himself with four loads of gold, and one
load for each of his companions, but that he forbade him to enter the
city of Mexico, as all his troops were under arms to oppose him. “On
this occasion” says Diaz, “Cortes again told the embassadors that he
was surprised that their sovereign, who had called himself our friend
so often and was so powerful a monarch, should so frequently change his
mind, to desire a thing one day and not want it the next. Respecting the
presents of gold for our emperor and ourselves, Cortes told them that we
were thankful for Montezuma’s kind intentions, and also for the gifts
they brought with them, and that he would certainly some day render their
monarch valuable services in return. He asked them if it were right
after we had advanced within so short a distance of the metropolis to
return home without fulfilling our monarch’s commission. He said that
Montezuma should place himself in our position and consider, had he sent
embassadors to a monarch of his own rank, whether he would be pleased, if
they returned home after going almost to his palace without seeing that
monarch or fulfilling their commission to him.... Therefore he begged
that their monarch would not thereafter send any more embassadors with
such messages. Cortes further said that he was determined to see and
speak to Montezuma personally, and to inform him of the object of our
mission. All that we asked was only an audience, for the moment our stay
in his metropolis became irksome to him we would depart and return to the
place whence we had come.... With this answer Cortes sent the embassadors
back to their monarch, and we continued our march....
“After Montezuma learned our answer to his message he dispatched his
nephew, Cacamatzin, prince of Tezcuco, to us, in great pomp to bid us
welcome.... The conference being ended, we continued our march. We were
accompanied by the caciques and their numerous attendants, besides all
the inhabitants of the neighborhood, who had come to meet us, so that we
could hardly move for the vast crowds of people.
“The next morning we reached the broad high road of Iztapalapan, from
which we for the first time beheld the number of cities and villages
built in the lake [of Tezcuco], and the still greater number of large
towns on the main-land and along the level causeway, which ran in a
straight line to the city of Mexico. Our astonishment was exceedingly
great, and we could not but remark to one another, that all the buildings
resembled the fairy castles of which we read in Amadis of Gaul; so high,
majestically, and splendidly did the temples, towers, and houses of the
city, all built of massive stone and lime, rise above the water of the
lake. Indeed, many of our men believed what they saw was the creation
of a dream. And the reader must not be surprised at the manner in which
I have expressed myself, for it is impossible to speak composedly of
things which we have never before seen or heard of, or could have dreamed
of.... We now entered the city of Iztapalapan, where we were quartered in
palaces of large dimensions surrounded by spacious courts, and built of
hewn stone, cedar, and other sweet-scented wood. All the apartments were
curtained with cotton drapery.
“After we had seen all these things we visited the gardens adjoining the
palaces, which were so exceedingly attractive that I could not gratify
myself enough by walking about in them and contemplating the number of
trees which exhaled the most delightful odors, and the rose-bushes, the
different flower-beds, and the fruit-trees which stood along the paths.
Here was a pond of fresh water connected with the lake by a small canal.
The canal was constructed of stone of different colors, and decorated
with numerous figures, and was wide enough to hold the largest canoes.
In the basin various kinds of water-fowl were swimming to and fro, and
every thing was so charming and so beautiful that we could find no words
to express our astonishment.... But now there is not a vestige of all
these things remaining, and not a stone of the beautiful city left in
its place.... Iztapalapan was a city of considerable magnitude, built
partly in the water and partly on the land. Its site is now all dry land,
and where vessels once sailed to and fro seeds are sown and harvests
gathered. Indeed, the whole face of the country is so completely changed
that he who had not seen these places previously, would hardly believe
that waves had once rolled over the spot where fertile maize-plantations
are now, so wonderfully has every thing been changed here in a short
space of time.
“On the following morning we left Iztapalapan, accompanied by all the
principal caciques already mentioned. The road on which we marched was
eight paces wide, and, if I rightly remember, ran straight to the city
of Mexico. Notwithstanding the breadth of the causeway it was much too
narrow for the great throngs of people that were constantly arriving from
different places to gaze at us, and we could hardly move forward. Besides
the tops of all the temples and towers were crowded with spectators, and
below them the lake was covered with canoes filled with Indians, for
all the people were eager to catch a glimpse of us. And who can wonder
at this curiosity, for neither men like us nor horses had ever been seen
here before.
“When we surveyed all this splendor we scarcely knew what to think,
and we doubted whether all that we beheld were real. A succession of
large cities stretched along the banks of the lake [of Tezcuco], from
which much larger ones rose magnificently above the water. Innumerable
canoes were plying near us. At regular intervals we crossed new bridges,
and before us lay the great city of Tenustitlan Mexico in all its
grandeur.[327] And we, who were beholding this spectacle, who were
passing through this dense concourse of human beings, were a mere handful
of men, in all four hundred and fifty, our minds filled with the warnings
of the inhabitants of Huexotzinco, Tlascalla, and Tlalmanalco, and the
caution they had given us not to expose our lives to the treachery of
the Mexicans. I ask the kind reader to reflect a moment, and then to
say whether he believes any men in this world ever attempted so bold an
undertaking.
“When we had arrived at a place where another narrow causeway led
toward Cojohuacan we were met by a number of caciques and distinguished
personages, all attired in rich raiment. They had been dispatched by
Montezuma to meet us and bid us welcome in his name. As a manifestation
of their good-will they touched the ground with their hands and kissed
it. We now halted for a few minutes to permit the princes of Tezcuco,
Iztapalapan, Tlacupa, and Cojohuacan, to get in advance to meet
Montezuma, who was slowly approaching, surrounded by other grandees of
the kingdom, seated in a splendid portable chair. When we arrived at a
place near the city, where there were several towers, the monarch raised
himself in his chair, supported by a number of distinguished caciques,
who held over his head a canopy of very great value, decorated with green
feathers, gold, silver, _chalchihuis_ stones and pearls. The bordering of
the canopy ornamented with these things was exceedingly attractive.
“Montezuma, according to his habit, was richly attired. His half boots
were profusely decorated with jewels, the soles were of solid gold. The
four grandees who supported him were also richly clad. They must have
put on this clothing somewhere on the road, before they went to attend
Montezuma, for they were not so magnificently dressed when they first
came to meet us. Besides these distinguished caciques, there were many
other grandees around the monarch, some of whom held the canopy over his
head while others again occupied the road before him, and spread cotton
cloths that his feet might not touch the bare ground. No one of his
attendants ever looked at him full in the face. Every one in his presence
stood with eyes downcast, and it was only his four nephews and cousins,
who supported him, that dared to look up.
“When it was announced to Cortes that Montezuma was approaching, he
alighted from his horse and advanced to meet him. Many compliments
passed between them. Montezuma welcomed Cortes, who, through Doña
Marina, said, in turn, that he hoped his majesty was in good health.
If I still remember rightly, Cortes, who had Doña Marina next to him,
wished to concede the place of honor to the monarch, who, however, would
not accept of it, but yielded it to Cortes, who then took a necklace of
precious stones of very beautiful colors and shapes, strung upon gold
wire and perfumed with musk, and placed it on the neck of Montezuma. Our
commander was then about to embrace him, but the grandees, who surrounded
Montezuma, held back Cortes’s arms, for they considered the act improper.
Our general then desired Doña Marina to tell the monarch that he [Cortes]
congratulated himself exceedingly on his good fortune of having seen so
powerful a monarch face to face, and to thank him for the honor of coming
to meet us. Montezuma replied in very appropriate words, and ordered
his two nephews, the princes of Tezcuco and Cojohuacan, to conduct us
to our quarters. He then returned to the city, accompanied by his two
other relatives, the princes of Cuitlahuac and Tlacupa, and the other
grandees of his large retinue. As they passed, we observed how all those
who composed his majesty’s escort held their heads bent forward, no one
daring to lift up his eyes in his presence, and also the deep veneration
with which he was regarded....
“We were quartered in a large building where there was room enough for
us all.... Near it were temples and Mexican idols. This building had
been purposely selected for us because we were termed _teules_, or
were thought to be, and that we might dwell among the gods as among
our equals. The apartments and halls were very spacious, and those set
apart for our general were furnished with carpets. Each one of us had a
separate bed, which could not have been better furnished for a gentleman
of the first rank. Each apartment was swept clean, and the walls were
newly plastered and decorated.
“When we had entered into the great court-yard of this palace, Montezuma
came to Cortes, and, taking him by the hand, conducted him to the
apartments where he was to lodge, which had been prettily decorated after
the fashion of the country. He then hung about his neck a chased necklace
of gold, most curiously wrought with figures of crabs. The Mexican
grandees were greatly amazed at all these uncommon favors which their
monarch bestowed upon our general.
“Cortes returned the monarch many thanks for so much kindness, and the
latter took leave of him with these words: ‘Malinche,[328] you and your
brothers must now do as if you were at home, and take some rest after
the fatigues of the journey.’ He then returned to his palace, which
was near.” This was on the eighth of November, 1519. Later in the day
Montezuma again visited Cortes, and held a long conversation with him. On
the following day Cortes had an audience with Montezuma in his palace.
“The mighty Montezuma,” Diaz further observes, “may have been about this
time in the fortieth year of his age. He was tall, slender, and thin;
but his body was well-proportioned. His complexion was not very brown,
almost the same as that of the inhabitants. His hair was not long,
excepting where it hung thickly over his ears, which were hid by it. His
black beard, though thin, was handsome. His face was somewhat long, but
he had a cheerful countenance, and his fine eyes had an expression of
amiability or of ill-will according to his humor. He was particularly
clean in appearance, and took a bath every evening. Besides a number of
concubines, who were all daughters of note and rank, he had two lawful
wives of royal extraction, whom, however, he visited secretly without
any one daring to observe him, except his most confidential servants....
In the halls adjoining his private apartments there was always a guard
of two thousand men of high station in waiting, with whom, however, he
never held any conversation unless to give them orders or to receive some
intelligence from them.... In cold weather when he dined a large fire
was made of the charcoal of the bark of trees, which emitted no smoke
but a delightful perfume. That his majesty might not feel any discomfort
from the heat of the fire, a screen was placed between him and it, made
of gold, and adorned with the different figures of their gods. The chair
on which he sat was somewhat low. It was filled with soft cushions and
beautifully carved. The table was higher, and suited to the seat. The
former was covered with white cloths, one of which was large. Four very
neat and pretty women held before the monarch a round pitcher, called by
them _xicales_, filled with water to wash his hands. The water was caught
in other vessels, and then the young women presented him with towels to
dry his hands. Two other women brought him maize-bread baked with eggs.
Before Montezuma began to dine, a wooden screen, elaborately gilded, was
placed before him, that no one might see him while eating. Then the young
women stood at a distance. Four elderly men of high rank came to his
table, whom he addressed from time to time or asked them some question.
Sometimes he would offer them a plate of his food, which was considered
a mark of great favor. The gray-haired, aged men, that were so highly
honored, were, as we subsequently learned, his nearest relatives, his
most trustworthy counsellors, and chief justices. Whenever he ordered any
viands to be given them, they ate standing with the greatest reverence,
not daring to look at him full in the face. The dishes in which the food
was served were of variegated and black porcelain, made at Cholula. While
the monarch was at table his courtiers and those who were waiting in the
adjoining halls maintained strict silence....
“Sometimes during dinner he had ugly humpbacked dwarfs to act as buffoons
and perform antics for his amusement. At other times he had jesters to
enliven him with their witticisms. Others again danced and sung before
him. Montezuma took great delight in these entertainments, and ordered
the broken victuals and pitchers of cacao-liquor (chocolate) to be
distributed among the performers. When he had dined the four women took
away the cloths and brought him water to wash his hands. During this
interval he conversed a little with the four old men, and then left the
table to enjoy his afternoon-sleep.
“After the monarch had dined, dinner was served for the men on duty
and the other officers of his household. I often counted more than
one thousand dishes on the table of the kinds already mentioned.
Then followed, according to the Mexican custom, the frothing jugs of
cacao-liquor, as many as two thousand, after which came different kinds
of fruit in great abundance. Then the women dined who superintended the
baking department, and those who made the cacao-liquor, with the young
women who waited upon the monarch....
“Besides these servants were many butlers, house-stewards, treasurers,
cooks, and superintendents of maize-magazines.... I had almost forgotten
to mention, that while the monarch dined two other young women of great
beauty brought him small cakes, as white as snow, made of eggs and
other nourishing ingredients, on plates covered with clean napkins;
also a long-shaped loaf made of very substantial things, and _pachol_
(a wafer-cake). They then brought him three beautifully painted and
gilded tubes filled with liquid-amber and an herb called by the Indians
_tabaco_. After the dinner had been removed and the singing and dancing
ended, one of these tubes was lighted. The monarch drew the smoke into
his mouth, and after he had done this a short time he would fall asleep.
“At this time a celebrated cacique, whom we called Topia, was Montezuma’s
chief steward. He kept an account of the whole of Montezuma’s revenue,
in large books of paper which the Mexicans called _amatl_. A house was
filled with these large account-books.
“Montezuma had also two arsenals filled with arms of all kinds, many of
which were ornamented with gold and precious stones. The arms comprised
shields of different sizes, swords, and a broad-sword wielded with both
hands, the edge of flint so extremely sharp that the swords cut much
better than our Spanish ones. There were also lances, longer than ours,
pointed at the end, a fathom long, set with several sharp flints. The
pikes are so very sharp and hard that they will pierce the strongest
shield, and cut like a razor; so that the Mexicans even shave themselves
with these flints. There were also excellent bows and arrows, pikes
with single and double points, and suitable thongs to project them;
slings, with round stones purposely made for them; also large shields,
so ingeniously made that they could be rolled up when not wanted. These
shields are unrolled on the field of battle, and completely cover the
whole body from the head to the feet. We also saw a great many kinds of
cuirasses made of quilted cotton, which were adorned on the outside with
soft feathers of different colors, and looked like uniforms. We also saw
morions and helmets constructed of wood and bones, adorned with feathers.
There were artificers always at work, who continually augmented this
store of arms; and the arsenals were under the care of certain persons,
who also superintended the manufacturing departments....
“I will now advert to another subject, and acquaint my readers with the
fine arts of the Mexicans. I will first speak of the sculptors, and the
gold and silversmiths who were skillful in working and smelting gold.
The latter would have astonished the most celebrated of our Spanish
goldsmiths. They were many, and the most expert lived at a place called
Ezcapuzalco, about four miles from Mexico. The next in proficiency were
very skillful masters in cutting and polishing precious stones and the
_calchihuis_ stone, which resembles the emerald. These were followed
by the great masters in painting, and the decorators in feathers, and
the wonderful sculptors. Even now there are still living in Mexico
three Indian artists, named Marcos de Aguino, Juan de la Cruz, and El
Crespello, who severally have attained so high a place in the art of
painting and sculpture, that each may be compared to an Apelles, or to
our contemporaries, Michael Angelo and [Alonso] Berruguette.
“The women were remarkably skillful in weaving and embroidery, and they
made quantities of the finest stuffs, interwoven with feathers. The
common stuffs for daily use came from certain districts in the province
of Costatlan, which lay on the north coast, not far from Vera Cruz, where
we first landed with Cortes.
“The concubines in the palace of Montezuma, who were all daughters of
distinguished men, were employed in manufacturing the most beautiful
stuffs, interwoven with feathers. Similar fabrics were made by certain
women who dwelt secluded in cloisters as our nuns.... Montezuma had in
his service a great number of stone-cutters, masons, and carpenters,
who were only employed about the royal palaces. Here I must not
forget to speak of his gardens for the cultivation of flowers, trees
and vegetables, of which there were various kinds. In these gardens
were many baths, wells, basins, and ponds full of limpid water, which
regularly ebbed and flowed. These gardens were made more attractive by
innumerable species of small birds, which sang among the trees. The
gardens of medicinal plants and vegetables may also be mentioned. They
were cultivated by a large body of gardeners. All the baths, wells, ponds
and buildings were substantially constructed of stone, as were also the
theatres where the singers and dancers performed.
“We had been four days in the city of Mexico,” Diaz further remarks,
“and neither our commander nor any of us had, during this time, left
our quarters, except to visit the gardens and buildings adjoining the
palace. Cortes therefore determined to view the city, and to visit the
great market and the chief temple of Huitzilopochtli. He accordingly
sent Geronimo de Aguilar, Doña Marina, and one of his pages, named
Orteguilla, who, by this time, understood a little of the Mexican
language, to Montezuma, to request his permission to inspect the
different buildings of the city. Montezuma readily granted us permission
to go where we pleased, although he was apprehensive that we might
intentionally injure the one or the other of his idols. He therefore
determined to accompany us with some of his principal officers, and, for
this purpose, left his palace with a showy retinue....
“Our commander, attended by the greater part of our horsemen and
foot-soldiers, all well armed, as we were at all times, proceeded to the
Tlatelulco. By command of Montezuma, a number of caciques met us on our
way thither. When we arrived in this immense market, we were greatly
astonished to see the vast number of people, the profusion of merchandise
exposed for sale, and the admirable police-system, and the order that
everywhere existed. The grandees who accompanied us drew our attention to
the smallest circumstance, and gave us an explanation of all we saw. Each
class of merchandise had a separate place for its sale. We first visited
those divisions of the market set apart for the sale of gold and silver
wares, jewels, cloths interwoven with feathers, and other manufactured
goods, where also slaves of both sexes were sold. The slave-market was
upon as great a scale as the Portuguese market for negro slaves at
Guinea. To prevent the slaves from running away, they were fastened by
halters around their necks, though some were allowed to walk at large.
Next to these divisions were the dealers in coarser wares, cotton,
twisted thread, and cacao. In short, all kinds of commodities produced
in New Spain [Yucatan and Mexico] were here to be found. The market
reminded me of my native town of Medino del Campo at fair-time, where
each kind of merchandise has a separate street assigned for its sale.
In one place were sold the stuffs manufactured of _nequen_, as ropes
and sandals. In another place, the sweet _maguey_ root, ready-cooked,
was offered for sale, and various other things made from this plant.
In another part of the market were exposed the skins of tigers, lions,
jackals, otters, red deer, wild cats, and of other animals of prey. Some
of the skins were tanned. A particular space was assigned to the venders
of fowls, turkeys, ducks, rabbits, hares, deer, and dogs; also a space
to the fruit-sellers, pastry-cooks, and tripe-mongers. Not far from
these were exposed all kinds of earthenware, from the largest jars to
the smallest pitchers. Next were the dealers in honey and honey-cakes,
and other sweet-meats. Next to these were the timber-merchants,
furniture-dealers, with assortments of tables, benches, cradles, and all
kinds of wooden implements, all separately arranged.... But why should I
so minutely detail every article exposed for sale in this great market?
If I enumerated every thing singly, I should never get to the end of
the list. And yet I have not mentioned the paper, which in this country
is called _amatl_, the tubes filled with liquid-amber and tobacco, the
various sweet-scented salves, and similar things, or the various seeds
which were exposed for sale in the porticoes of this market, or the
medicinal herbs.
“In the market-place there were courts of justice, to which three judges
and several constables were appointed, who inspected the goods exposed
for sale. I had almost forgotten to mention the salt, and those who made
the flint-knives; also the fish, and a kind of bread made of the mud
or scum collected from the surface of the lake, and eaten in that form,
and which has a taste similar to that of cheese.[329] Besides, there
were instruments of brass, copper, and tin; cups and painted pitchers of
wood....
“On our way to the great temple, while passing through the court-yards
adjoining the market, we saw a number of merchants, who dealt in
gold-dust as it came from the mines, which was exposed for sale in tubes
made of large goose-bones, so thin and white that the gold shone through
them. The value of these tubes of gold was estimated according to their
length and thickness, and were taken in exchange for so many mantles,
_xiquipiles_[330] of cacao-nuts,[331] slaves, or for other merchandise.
“On quitting the market, we entered the spacious court-yards surrounding
the chief temple. These appeared to include more ground than the
market-place at Salamanca, and were inclosed by a double wall constructed
of stone and lime. The yards were paved with large white flag-stones,
extremely smooth, and where there were none, a brown plaster had been
used. The court-yards were kept so very clean that there was not the
smallest particle of dust or straw to be seen anywhere.
“Before we ascended the steps of the great temple, Montezuma, who was
sacrificing on the top to his idols, sent six priests and two of his
principal officers to conduct Cortes up the steps. There were one hundred
and fourteen steps to the summit, and as they feared that Cortes would
experience the same fatigue in mounting as Montezuma had, they desired
to assist him by taking hold of his arms. Cortes, however, would not
accept the proffered aid. When we had reached the summit of the temple,
we walked across a platform where many large stones were lying, on which
those who were doomed for sacrifice were stretched out. Near these stood
a large idol, in the shape of a dragon, surrounded by various other
abominable figures, with a quantity of fresh blood in front of it....
“This infernal temple, from its great height, commanded an extensive view
of the surrounding country. From it we could see the three causeways
leading to the city,—that one from Iztapalapan, by which we had entered
the city four days before; that one from Tlacupa, along which we took our
flight eight months after, when we were driven out of the city by the new
monarch, Cuitlahuatzin; the third, the one from Tepeaquilla. We also saw
the aqueduct, which extended from Chapultepec, and supplied the city with
fresh water. We could also distinctly see the bridges across the openings
in the causeways, through which the waters of the lake ebbed and flowed.
The lake was crowded with canoes conveying provisions, manufactured
articles, and other merchandise to the city. We also observed that the
only means of intercourse between the houses in this city, and between
those of all the other towns built in the lake, was by draw-bridges
or canoes. In all these cities the beautiful white-plastered temples
rose above the smaller ones, like many of the towers and castles in our
Spanish cities. The view from the top of the temple, it may be imagined,
was a splendid sight.
“After we had sufficiently gazed upon this magnificent picture, we again
turned our eyes toward the great market, and beheld the vast number
of buyers and sellers who thronged it. The bustle and noise caused by
this multitude of human beings was so great that it could be heard at
a distance of more than four miles. Some of our men, who had been at
Constantinople and at Rome and had travelled through the whole of Italy,
said that they never had seen a market-place of such large dimensions,
or which was so well regulated, or so crowded with people as this one in
Mexico....
“We were conducted to a small temple with one room, in which we saw two
bases resembling altars, decked with coverings of extreme beauty. On each
of them stood a gigantic, bulky-looking figure. The one on the right
hand represented the god of war, Huitzilopochtli. This idol had a very
broad face with distorted and terrible eyes, and was covered with jewels,
gold, and pearls, fastened with a paste made from a certain root. Large
serpents, also, covered with gold and precious stones, wound round the
body of this monster, which held in one hand a bow, and in the other a
bunch of arrows. Another but smaller idol, its page, standing by its
side carried the monster’s short spear and golden shield, studded with
precious stones. Around Huitzilopochtli’s neck were figures representing
human faces, and hearts made of gold and silver and decorated with
blue stones. In front of him stood several perfuming pans containing
copal, the incense of the country; also the hearts of three Indians,
who had been killed that day. The hearts were consuming before him as a
burnt-offering. The walls of the temple and the whole floor were almost
black with human blood, and the stench was highly offensive.
“On the left hand stood another figure of the same size as
Huitzilopochtli. Its face resembled very much that of a bear. Its shining
eyes were made of _tetzcat_, the reflecting-glass of the country. This
idol, like its brother Huitzilopochtli, was covered with precious stones,
and was called Tetzcatlipuca. This was the god of hell.... A circle of
figures wound round its body, resembling diminutive devils with serpents’
tails. The walls and floor around this idol were also besmeared with
blood, and the stench was greater than that of a Spanish slaughter-house.
Five human hearts had that day been offered to him. On the very top
of this temple stood another; the wood-work of which was exceedingly
elaborate and richly carved. In this temple there was another idol, half
man and half lizard, completely covered with precious stones; half of
this figure was hidden from view. We were told that the concealed half
was covered with the seeds of every plant on the earth, for this idol
was the god of seeds and fruits.... In the temple was a drum of enormous
dimensions, the sound of which was so deep and solemn that it was
appropriately called the drum of hell. The drum-head was made from the
skin of an enormous serpent. The sound of the drum could be heard eight
miles. The platform of the temple was covered with a variety of hellish
objects,—large and small trumpets, great slaughtering knives, the burnt
hearts of Indians who had been sacrificed,—every thing being clotted with
coagulated blood, terrible to view and filling the mind with horror....
“If I remember rightly, this temple occupied a space of ground on which
we could have placed six of the largest buildings commonly found in our
country. The building had the form of a pyramid, on the summit of which
was the small temple with the idols....
“Cortes and the rest of us at last grew weary with the inspection of so
many idols and the implements used for sacrifices, and we returned to our
quarters accompanied by a great number of the chief men and caciques,
whom Montezuma had ordered to attend us.”
It is unnecessary here to follow farther the movements of the conquerors
(_conquistadores_) of New Spain. The beautiful and famous metropolis of
Mexico, twenty-two months after Cortes and his followers had entered
it, was in ruins, filled with the innumerable dead bodies of its heroic
defenders. The siege of the city lasted ninety-three days, ending the
13th of August, 1521. When the terrible drama ended, Cortes permitted
those of its inhabitants who had not been killed, starved, or stricken
with disease, to leave the charnel city. “The causeways,” says Diaz,
“were crowded for three days and nights with men, women, and children, on
their way to the main-land. These poor beings were much emaciated, and
had a deathlike appearance.... The houses were found filled with dead
bodies.... The soil in the city looked as if it had been ploughed, for
the famished inhabitants had dug every root out of the ground, and had
even peeled the bark from the trees to appease their hunger. We did not
find any fresh water in the city, for that in all the wells was salty.
During the horrible famine the Mexicans had not eaten the flesh of their
countrymen, although they greedily devoured that of the Tlascallans
and Spaniards. Certainly no people in this world ever suffered so much
from hunger, thirst, and the horrors of war, as the inhabitants of this
great city.” As the emperor’s share of the booty, Cortes sent to Spain
two vessels carrying eighty-eight thousand _pesos_ of gold in bars, and
the wardrobe of Montezuma. “The latter,” Diaz observes, “was a valuable
present, and well worthy of our great emperor’s acceptance, for it
embraced jewels of the greatest value, pearls of the size of hazel-nuts,
and various precious stones, the number of which my memory will not
permit me to designate. At the same time were sent the bones of the
giants which we found in the temple of Cojohuacan, which were similar
to those given to us by the Tlascallans that we had previously sent to
Spain.”[332]