THE BURYING OF MONTEZUMA’S TREASURE
Cuitlahua was crowned Emperor of the Aztecs in succession to his
brother Montezuma, while I lay sick with the wound given me by the
sword of de Garcia, and also with that which I had received on the
altar of sacrifice. This hurt had found no time to heal, and in the
fierce fighting on the Night of Fear it burst open and bled much.
Indeed it gave me trouble for years, and to this hour I feel it in the
autumn season. Otomie, who nursed me tenderly, and so strange is the
heart of woman, even seemed to be consoled in her sorrow at the loss of
her father and nearest kin, because I had escaped the slaughter and won
fame, told me of the ceremony of the crowning, which was splendid
enough. Indeed the Aztecs were almost mad with rejoicing because the
Teules had gone at last. They forgot, or seemed to forget, the loss of
thousands of their bravest warriors and of the flower of their rank,
and as yet, at any rate, they did not look forward to the future. From
house to house and street to street ran troops of young men and maidens
garlanded with flowers, crying, “The Teules are gone, rejoice with us;
the Teules are fled!” and woe to them who were not merry, ay, even
though their houses were desolate with death. Also the statues of the
gods were set up again on the great pyramid and their temples rebuilt,
the holy crucifix that the Spaniards had placed there being served as
the idols Huitzel and Tezcat had been served, and tumbled down the
sides of the _teocalli_, and that after sacrifice of some Spanish
prisoners had been offered in its presence. It was Guatemoc himself who
told me of this sacrilege, but not with any exultation, for I had
taught him something of our faith, and though he was too sturdy a
heathen to change his creed, in secret he believed that the God of the
Christians was a true and mighty God. Moreover, though he was obliged
to countenance them, because of the power of the priests, like Otomie,
Guatemoc never loved the horrid rites of human sacrifice.
Now when I heard this tale my anger overcame my reason, and I spoke
fiercely, saying:
“I am sworn to your cause, Guatemoc, my brother, and I am married to
your blood, but I tell you that from this hour it is an accursed cause;
because of your bloodstained idols and your priests, it is accursed.
That God whom you have desecrated, and those who serve Him shall come
back in power, and He shall sit where your idols sat and none shall
stir Him for ever.”
Thus I spoke, and my words were true, though I do not know what put
them into my heart, since I spoke at random in my wrath. For to-day
Christ’s Church stands upon the site of the place of sacrifice in
Mexico, a sign and a token of His triumph over devils, and there it
shall stand while the world endures.
“You speak rashly, my brother,” Guatemoc answered, proudly enough,
though I saw him quail at the evil omen of my words. “I say you speak
rashly, and were you overheard there are those, notwithstanding the
rank we have given you, the honour which you have won in war and
council, and that you have passed the stone of sacrifice, who might
force you to look again upon the faces of the beings you blaspheme.
What worse thing has been done to your Christian God than has been done
again and again to our gods by your white kindred? But let us talk no
more of this matter, and I pray you, my brother, do not utter such
ill-omened words to me again, lest it should strain our love. Do you
then believe that the Teules will return?”
“Ay, Guatemoc, so surely as to-morrow’s sun shall rise. When you held
Cortes in your hand you let him go, and since then he has won a victory
at Otompan. Is he a man, think you, to sheathe the sword that he has
once drawn, and go down into darkness and dishonour? Before a year is
past the Spaniards will be back at the gates of Tenoctitlan.”
“You are no comforter to-night, my brother,” said Guatemoc, “and yet I
fear that your words are true. Well, if we must fight, let us strive to
win. Now, at least, there is no Montezuma to take the viper to his
breast and nurse it till it stings him.” Then he rose and went in
silence, and I saw that his heart was heavy.
On the morrow of this talk I could leave my bed, and within a week I
was almost well. Now it was that Guatemoc came to me again, saying that
he had been bidden by Cuitlahua the emperor, to command me to accompany
him, Guatemoc, on a service of trust and secrecy. And indeed the nature
of the service showed how great a confidence the leaders of the Aztecs
now placed in me, for it was none other than the hiding away of the
treasure that had been recaptured from the Spaniards on the Night of
Fear, and with it much more from the secret stores of the empire.
At the fall of darkness we started, some of the great lords, Guatemoc
and I, and coming to the water’s edge, we found ten large canoes, each
laden with something that was hidden by cotton cloths. Into these
canoes we entered secretly, thinking that none saw us, three to a
canoe, for there were thirty of us in all, and led by Guatemoc, we
paddled for two hours or more across the Lake Tezcuco, till we reached
the further shore at a spot where this prince had a fair estate. Here
we landed, and the cloths were withdrawn from the cargoes of the
canoes, which were great jars and sacks of gold and jewels, besides
many other precious objects, among them a likeness of the head of
Montezuma, fashioned in solid gold, which was so heavy that it was as
much as Guatemoc and I could do to lift it between us. As for the jars,
of which, if my memory serves me, there were seventeen, six men must
carry each of them by the help of paddles lashed on either side, and
then the task was not light. All this priceless stuff we bore in
several journeys to the crest of a rise some six hundred paces distant
from the water, setting it down by the mouth of a shaft behind the
shelter of a mound of earth. When everything was brought up from the
boats, Guatemoc touched me and another man, a great Aztec noble, born
of a Tlascalan mother, on the shoulder, asking us if we were willing to
descend with him into the hole, and there to dispose of the treasure.
“Gladly,” I answered, for I was curious to see the place, but the noble
hesitated awhile, though in the end he came with us, to his
ill-fortune.
Then Guatemoc took torches in his hand, and was lowered into the shaft
by a rope. Next came my turn, and down I went, hanging to the cord like
a spider to its thread, and the hole was very deep. At length I found
myself standing by the side of Guatemoc at the foot of the shaft, round
which, as I saw by the light of the torch he carried, an edging of
dried bricks was built up to the height of a man above our heads.
Resting on this edging and against the wall of the shaft, was a massive
block of stone sculptured with the picture writing of the Aztecs. I
glanced at the writing, which I could now read well, and saw that it
recorded the burying of the treasure in the first year of Cuitlahua,
Emperor of Mexico, and also a most fearful curse on him who should dare
to steal it. Beyond us and at right angles to the shaft ran another
passage, ten paces in length and high enough for a man to walk in,
which led to a chamber hollowed in the earth, as large as that wherein
I write to-day at Ditchingham. By the mouth of this chamber were placed
piles of _adobe_ bricks and mortar, much as the blocks of hewn stone
had been placed in that underground vault at Seville where Isabella de
Siguenza was bricked up living.
“Who dug this place?” I asked.
“Those who knew not what they dug,” answered Guatemoc. “But see, here
is our companion. Now, my brother, I charge you be surprised at nothing
which comes to pass, and be assured I have good reason for anything
that I may do.”
Before I could speak again the Aztec noble was at our side. Then those
above began to lower the jars and sacks of treasure, and as they
reached us one by one, Guatemoc loosed the ropes and checked them,
while the Aztec and I rolled them down the passage into the chamber, as
here in England men roll a cask of ale. For two hours and more we
worked, till at length all were down and the tale was complete. The
last parcel to be lowered was a sack of jewels that burst open as it
came, and descended upon us in a glittering rain of gems. As it
chanced, a great necklace of emeralds of surpassing size and beauty
fell over my head and hung upon my shoulders.
“Keep it, brother,” laughed Guatemoc, “in memory of this night,” and
nothing loth, I hid the bauble in my breast. That necklace I have yet,
and it was a stone of it—the smallest save one—that I gave to our
gracious Queen Elizabeth. Otomie wore it for many years, and for this
reason it shall be buried with me, though its value is priceless, so
say those who are skilled in gems. But priceless or no, it is doomed to
lie in the mould of Ditchingham churchyard, and may that same curse
which is graved upon the stone that hides the treasure of the Aztecs
fall upon him who steals it from my bones.
Now, leaving the chamber, we three entered the tunnel and began the
work of building the _adobe_ wall. When it was of a height of between
two and three feet, Guatemoc paused from his labour and bade me hold a
torch aloft. I obeyed wondering what he wished to see. Then he drew
back some three paces into the tunnel and spoke to the Aztec noble, our
companion, by name.
“What is the fate of discovered traitors, friend?” he said in a voice
that, quiet though it was, sounded very terrible; and, as he spoke, he
loosed from his side the war club set with spikes of glass that hung
there by a thong.
Now the Aztec turned grey beneath his dusky skin and trembled in his
fear.
“What mean you, lord?” he gasped.
“You know well what I mean,” answered Guatemoc in the same terrible
voice, and lifted the club.
Then the doomed man fell upon his knees crying for mercy, and his
wailing sounded so awful in that deep and lonely place that in my
horror I went near to letting the torch fall.
“To a foe I can give mercy—to a traitor, none,” answered Guatemoc, and
whirling the club aloft, he rushed upon the noble and killed him with a
blow. Then, seizing the body in his strong embrace, he cast it into the
chamber with the treasure, and there it lay still and dreadful among
the gems and gold, the arms, as it chanced, being wound about two of
the great jars as though the dead man would clasp them to his heart.
Now I looked at Guatemoc who had slain him, wondering if my hour was at
hand also, for I knew well that when princes bury their wealth they
hold that few should share the secret.
“Fear not, my brother,” said Guatemoc. “Listen: this man was a thief, a
dastard, and a traitor. As we know now, he strove twice to betray us to
the Teules. More, it was his plan to show this nest of wealth to them,
should they return again, and to share the spoil. All this we learned
from a woman whom he thought his love, but who was in truth a spy set
to worm herself into the secrets of his wicked heart. Now let him take
his fill of gold; look how he grips it even in death, a white man could
not hug the stuff more closely to his breast. Ah! Teule, would that the
soil of Anahuac bore naught but corn for bread and flint and copper for
the points of spears and arrows, then had her sons been free for ever.
Curses on yonder dross, for it is the bait that sets these sea sharks
tearing at our throats. Curses on it, I say; may it never glitter more
in the sunshine, may it be lost for ever!” And he fell fiercely to the
work of building up the wall.
Soon it was almost done; but before we set the last bricks, which were
shaped in squares like the clay lump that we use for the building of
farmeries and hinds’ houses in Norfolk, I thrust a torch through the
opening and looked for the last time at the treasure chamber that was
also a dead-house. There lay the glittering gems; there, stood upon a
jar, gleamed the golden head of Montezuma, of which the emerald eyes
seemed to glare at me, and there, his back resting against this same
jar, and his arms encircling two others to the right and left, was the
dead man. But he was no longer dead, or so it seemed to me; at the
least his eyes that were shut had opened, and they stared at me like
the emerald eyes of the golden statue above him, only more fearfully.
Very hastily I withdrew the torch, and we finished in silence. When it
was done we withdrew to the end of the passage and looked up the shaft,
and I for one was glad to see the stars shining in heaven above me.
Then we made a double loop in the rope, and at a signal were hauled up
till we hung over the ledge where the black mass of marble rested, the
tombstone of Montezuma’s treasure, and of him who sleeps among it.
This stone, that was nicely balanced, we pushed with our hands and feet
till presently it fell forward with a heavy sound, and catching on the
ridge of brick which had been prepared to receive it, shut the treasure
shaft in such a fashion that those who would enter it again must take
powder with them.
Then we were dragged up, and came to the surface of the earth in
safety.
Now one asked of the Aztec noble who had gone down with us and returned
no more.
“He has chosen to stay and watch the treasure, like a good and loyal
man, till such time as his king needs it,” answered Guatemoc grimly,
and the listeners nodded, understanding all.
Then they fell to and filled up the narrow shaft with the earth that
lay ready, working without cease, and the dawn broke before the task
was finished. When at length the hole was full, one of our companions
took seeds from a bag and scattered them on the naked earth, also he
set two young trees that he had brought with him in the soil of the
shaft, though why he did this I do not know, unless it was to mark the
spot. All being done we gathered up the ropes and tools, and embarking
in the canoes, came back to Mexico in the morning, leaving the canoes
at a landing-place outside the city, and finding our way to our homes
by ones and twos, as we thought unnoticed of any.
Thus it was that I helped in the burying of Montezuma’s treasure, for
the sake of which I was destined to suffer torture in days to come.
Whether any will help to unbury it I do not know, but till I left the
land of Anahuac the secret had been kept, and I think that then, except
myself, all those were dead who laboured with me at this task. It
chanced that I passed the spot as I came down to Mexico for the last
time, and knew it again by the two trees that were growing tall and
strong, and as I went by with Spaniards at my side, I swore in my heart
that they should never finger the gold by my help. It is for this
reason that even now I do not write of the exact bearings of the place
where it lies buried with the bones of the traitor, though I know them
well enough, seeing that in days to come what I set down here might
fall into the hands of one of their nation.
And now, before I go on to speak of the siege of Mexico, I must tell of
one more matter, namely of how I and Otomie my wife went up among the
people of the Otomie, and won a great number of them back to their
allegiance to the Aztec crown. It must be known, if my tale has not
made this clear already, that the Aztec power was not of one people,
but built up of several, and that surrounding it were many other
tribes, some of whom were in alliance with it or subject to it, and
some of whom were its deadly enemies. Such for instance were the
Tlascalans, a small but warlike people living between Mexico and the
coast, by whose help Cortes overcame Montezuma and Guatemoc. Beyond the
Tlascalans and to the west, the great Otomie race lived or lives among
its mountains. They are a braver nation than the Aztecs, speaking
another language, of a different blood, and made up of many clans.
Sometimes they were subject to the great Aztec empire, sometimes in
alliance, and sometimes at open war with it and in close friendship
with the Tlascalans. It was to draw the tie closer between the Aztecs
and the Otomies, who were to the inhabitants of Anahuac much what the
Scottish clans are to the people of England, that Montezuma took to
wife the daughter and sole legitimate issue of their great chief or
king. This lady died in childbirth, and her child was Otomie my wife,
hereditary princess of the Otomie. But though her rank was so great
among her mother’s people, as yet Otomie had visited them but twice,
and then as a child. Still, she was well skilled in their language and
customs, having been brought up by nurses and tutors of the tribes,
from which she drew a great revenue every year and over whom she
exercised many rights of royalty that were rendered to her far more
freely than they had been to Montezuma her father.
Now as has been said, some of these Otomie clans had joined the
Tlascalans, and as their allies had taken part in the war on the side
of the Spaniards, therefore it was decided at a solemn council that
Otomie and I her husband should go on an embassy to the chief town of
the nation, that was known as the City of Pines, and strive to win it
back to the Aztec standard.
Accordingly, heralds having been sent before us, we started upon our
journey, not knowing how we should be received at the end of it. For
eight days we travelled in great pomp and with an ever-increasing
escort, for when the tribes of the Otomie learned that their princess
was come to visit them in person, bringing with her her husband, a man
of the Teules who had espoused the Aztec cause, they flocked in vast
numbers to swell her retinue, so that it came to pass that before we
reached the City of Pines we were accompanied by an army of at least
ten thousand mountaineers, great men and wild, who made a savage music
as we marched. But with them and with their chiefs as yet we held no
converse except by way of formal greeting, though every morning when we
started on our journey, Otomie in a litter and I on a horse that had
been captured from the Spaniards, they set up shouts of salutation and
made the mountains ring. Ever as we went the land like its people grew
wilder and more beautiful, for now we were passing through forests clad
with oak and pine and with many a lovely plant and fern. Sometimes we
crossed great and sparkling rivers and sometimes we wended through
gorges and passes of the mountains, but every hour we mounted higher,
till at length the climate became like that of England, only far more
bright. At last on the eighth day we passed through a gorge riven in
the red rock, which was so narrow in places that three horsemen could
scarcely have ridden there abreast. This gorge, that is five miles
long, is the high road to the City of Pines, to which there was no
other access except by secret paths across the mountains, and on either
side of it are sheer and towering cliffs that rise to heights of
between one and two thousand feet.
“Here is a place where a hundred men might hold an army at bay,” I said
to Otomie, little knowing that it would be my task to do so in a day to
come.
Presently the gorge took a turn and I reined up amazed, for before me
was the City of Pines in all its beauty. The city lay in a wheelshaped
plain that may measure twelve miles across, and all around this plain
are mountains clad to their summits with forests of oak and cedar
trees. At the back of the city and in the centre of the ring of
mountains is one, however, that is not green with foliage but black
with lava, and above the lava white with snow, over which again hangs a
pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night. This was the
volcan Xaca, or the Queen, and though it is not so lofty as its sisters
Orizaba, Popo, and Ixtac, to my mind it is the loveliest of them all,
both because of its perfect shape, and of the colours, purple and blue,
of the fires that it sends forth at night or when its heart is
troubled. The Otomies worshipped this mountain as a god, offering human
sacrifice to it, which was not wonderful, for once the lava pouring
from its bowels cut a path through the City of Pines. Also they think
it holy and haunted, so that none dare set foot upon its loftier snows.
Nevertheless I was destined to climb them—I and one other.
Now in the lap of this ring of mountains and watched over by the mighty
Xaca, clad in its robe of snow, its cap of smoke, and its crown of
fire, lies, or rather lay the City of Pines, for now it is a ruin, or
so I left it. As to the city itself, it was not so large as some others
that I have seen in Anahuac, having only a population of some five and
thirty thousand souls, since the Otomie, being a race of mountaineers,
did not desire to dwell in cities. But if it was not great, it was the
most beautiful of Indian towns, being laid out in straight streets that
met at the square in its centre. All along these streets were houses
each standing in a garden, and for the most part built of blocks of
lava and roofed with a cement of white lime. In the midst of the square
stood the _teocalli_ or pyramid of worship, crowned with temples that
were garnished with ropes of skulls, while beyond the pyramid and
facing it, was the palace, the home of Otomie’s forefathers, a long,
low, and very ancient building having many courts, and sculptured
everywhere with snakes and grinning gods. Both the palace and the
pyramid were cased with a fine white stone that shone like silver in
the sunlight, and contrasted strangely with the dark-hued houses that
were built of lava.
Such was the City of Pines when I saw it first. When I saw it last it
was but a smoking ruin, and now doubtless it is the home of bats and
jackals; now it is “a court for owls,” now “the line of confusion is
stretched out upon it and the stones of emptiness fill its streets.”
Passing from the mouth of the gorge we travelled some miles across the
plain, every foot of which was cultivated with corn, _maguey_ or aloe,
and other crops, till we came to one of the four gates of the city.
Entering it we found the flat roofs on either side of the wide street
crowded with hundreds of women and children who threw flowers on us as
we passed, and cried, “Welcome, princess! Welcome, Otomie, princess of
the Otomie!” And when at length we reached the great square, it seemed
as though all the men in Anahuac were gathered there, and they too took
up the cry of “Welcome, Otomie, princess of the Otomie!” till the earth
shook with the sound. Me also they saluted as I passed, by touching the
earth with their right hands and then holding the hand above the head,
but I think that the horse I rode caused them more wonder than I did,
for the most of them had never seen a horse and looked on it as a
monster or a demon. So we went on through the shouting mass, followed
and preceded by thousands of warriors, many of them decked in
glittering feather mail and bearing broidered banners, till we had
passed the pyramid, where I saw the priests at their cruel work above
us, and were come to the palace gates. And here in a strange chamber
sculptured with grinning demons we found rest for a while.
On the morrow in the great hall of the palace was held a council of the
chiefs and head men of the Otomie clans, to the number of a hundred or
more. When all were gathered, dressed as an Aztec noble of the first
rank, I came out with Otomie, who wore royal robes and looked most
beautiful in them, and the council rose to greet us. Otomie bade them
be seated and addressed them thus:
“Hear me, you chiefs and captains of my mother’s race, who am your
princess by right of blood, the last of your ancient rulers, and who am
moreover the daughter of Montezuma, Emperor of Anahuac, now dead to us
but living evermore in the Mansions of the Sun. First I present to you
this my husband, the lord Teule, to whom I was given in marriage when
he held the spirit of the god Tezcat, and whom, when he had passed the
altar of the god, being chosen by heaven to aid us in our war, I wedded
anew after the fashion of the earth, and by the will of my royal
brethren. Know, chiefs and captains, that this lord, my husband, is not
of our Indian blood, nor is he altogether of the blood of the Teules
with whom we are at war, but rather of that of the true children of
Quetzal, the dwellers in a far off northern sea who are foes to the
Teules. And as they are foes, so this my lord is their foe, and as
doubtless you have heard, of all the deeds of arms that were wrought
upon the night of the slaying of the Teules, none were greater than
his, and it was he who first discovered their retreat.
“Chiefs and captains of the great and ancient people of the Otomie, I
your princess have been sent to you by Cuitlahua, my king and yours,
together with my lord, to plead with you on a certain matter. Our king
has heard, and I also have heard with shame, that many of the warriors
of our blood have joined the Tlascalans, who were ever foes to the
Aztecs, in their unholy alliance with the Teules. Now for a while the
white men are beaten back, but they have touched the gold they covet,
and they will return again like bees to a half-drained flower. They
will return, yet of themselves they can do nothing against the glory of
Tenoctitlan. But how shall it go if with them come thousands and tens
of thousands of the Indian peoples? I know well that now in this time
of trouble, when kingdoms crumble, when the air is full of portents,
and the very gods seem impotent, there are many who would seize the
moment and turn it to their profit. There are many men and tribes who
remember ancient wars and wrongs, and who cry, ‘Now is the hour of
vengeance, now we will think on the widows that the Aztec spears have
made, on the tribute which they have wrung from our poverty to swell
their wealth, and on the captives who have decked the altars of their
sacrifice!’
“Is it not so? Ay, it is so, and I cannot wonder at it. Yet I ask you
to remember this, that the yoke you would help to set upon the neck of
the queen of cities will fit your neck also. O foolish men, do you
think that you shall be spared when by your aid Tenoctitlan is a ruin
and the Aztecs are no more a people? I say to you never. The sticks
that the Teules use to beat out the life of Tenoctitlan shall by them
be broken one by one and cast into the fire to burn. If the Aztecs
fall, then early or late every tribe within this wide land shall fall.
They shall be slain, their cities shall be stamped flat, their wealth
shall be wrung from them, and their children shall eat the bread of
slavery and drink the water of affliction. Choose, ye people of the
Otomie. Will you stand by the men of your own customs and country,
though they have been your foes at times, or will you throw in your lot
with the stranger? Choose, ye people of the Otomie, and know this, that
on your choice and that of the other men of Anahuac, depends the fate
of Anahuac. I am your princess, and you should obey me, but to-day I
issue no command. I say choose between the alliance of the Aztec and
the yoke of the Teule, and may the god above the gods, the almighty,
the invisible god, direct your choice.”
Otomie ceased and a murmur of applause went round the hall. Alas, I can
do no justice to the fire of her words, any more than I can describe
the dignity and loveliness of her person as it seemed in that hour. But
they went to the hearts of the rude chieftains who listened. Many of
them despised the Aztecs as a womanish people of the plains and the
lakes, a people of commerce. Many had blood feuds against them dating
back for generations. But still they knew that their princess spoke
truth, and that the triumph of the Teule in Tenoctitlan would mean his
triumph over every city throughout the land. So then and there they
chose, though in after days, in the stress of defeat and trouble, many
went back upon their choice as is the fashion of men.
“Otomie,” cried their spokesman, after they had taken counsel together,
“we have chosen. Princess, your words have conquered us. We throw in
our lot with the Aztecs and will fight to the last for freedom from the
Teule.”
“Now I see that you are indeed my people, and I am indeed your ruler,”
answered Otomie. “So the great lords who are gone, my forefathers, your
chieftains, would have spoken in a like case. May you never regret this
choice, my brethren, Men of the Otomie.”
And so it came to pass that when we left the City of Pines we took from
it to Cuitlahua the emperor, a promise of an army of twenty thousand
men vowed to serve him to the death in his war against the Spaniard.