The parents of Cortes belonged to the provincial nobility. They were

worthy and respectable subjects of the King of Spain. The

old-fashioned adjectives, "poor, but honest" could be applied to them.

The boy was a puny, sickly lad, whom they scarcely expected to reach

man's estate. When he was fourteen years old they entered him in the

great University of Salamanca where he took his degree as Bachelor of

Laws, after a two years' course. The law, in Spain, was considered an

entirely proper profession for the nobility, especially when the

nobility were unable, through narrow circumstances, properly to support

the profession of arms. Cortes, therefore, was in receipt of a liberal

education for his day. His letters, some of which will be quoted

hereafter, are evidences of his mental training. In some respects they

are as interesting as are the famous Commentaries of Julius Caesar.

The young man, whose constitution improved as he grew older, until he

eventually became the hardiest, most enduring and bravest of his

company, which included the most intrepid men of the age, had no love

for the humdrum profession of law. He desired to go to Italy and take

service with Gonsalvo de Cordova, who is remembered, when he is

remembered at all, as "The Great Captain"; but sickness prevented.

{118} Following that, his thoughts turned, as did those of so many

Spanish youths who were of an adventurous disposition, toward the New

World. After many setbacks, one of which was caused by a wound

received by the hot-blooded young man while engaged in a love affair,

and which left a permanent scar upon his upper lip, he finally landed

at Santo Domingo in the Spring of 1504. From there he went to Cuba and

served under one Diego Velasquez, the governor of that province in some

fierce fighting in the island, and received as a reward from the

governor, who was much attached to him, a large plantation with a

number of Indians to work it. There he married and lived prosperously.

What he had done before he arrived in Mexico counted little. What he

did afterward gave him eternal fame as one, if not the greatest, of the

conquerors and soldiers of fortune in all history. Sir Arthur Helps

thus portrays him:

"Cortes," he says, "was an heroic adventurer, a very politic statesman,

and an admirable soldier. He was cruel at times in conduct, but not in

disposition; he was sincerely religious, profoundly dissembling,

courteous, liberal, amorous, decisive. There was a certain grandeur in

all his proceedings. He was fertile in resources; and, while he looked

forward, he was at the same time almost madly audacious in his

enterprises. This strange mixture of valor, religion, policy, and

craft, was a peculiar product of the century. . . . There are two main

points in his character which I shall dwell upon at the outset. These

are his soldier-like qualities and his cruelty. As a commander, the

only fault imputed to him, was his recklessness in exposing himself to

the dangers of personal conflict with the enemy. But then, that is an

error {119} to be commonly noticed even in the greatest generals of

that period; and Cortes, with this singular dexterity in arms, was

naturally prone to fall into this error. As regards his peculiar

qualifications as a commander, it may be observed, that, great as he

was in carrying out large and difficult operations in actual warfare,

he was not less so in attending to those minute details upon which so

much of the efficiency of troops depends. His companion-in-arms,

Bernal Diaz, says of him, 'He would visit the hut of every soldier, see

that his arms were ready at hand, and that he had his shoes on. Those

whom he found had neglected anything in this way he severely

reprimanded, and compared them to mangy sheep, whose own wool is too

heavy for them.'

"I have said that he was cruel in conduct, but not in disposition.

This statement requires explanation. Cortes was a man who always

determined to go through with the thing he had once resolved to do.

Human beings, if they came in his way, were to be swept out of it, like

any other material obstacles. He desired no man's death, but if people

would come between him and success, they must bear the consequences.

He did not particularly value human life. The ideas of the nineteenth

century in that respect were unknown to him. He had come to conquer,

to civilize, to convert (for he was really a devout man from his youth

upward); and, as his chaplain takes care to tell us, knew many prayers

and psalms of the choir by heart; and the lives of thousands of

barbarians, for so he deemed them, were of no account in the balance of

his mind, when set against the great objects he had in view. In saying

this, I am not apologizing for this cruelty; I am only endeavoring to

explain it.

"Of all the generals who have been made known {120} to us in history,

or by fiction, Claverhouse, as represented by Sir Walter Scott, most

closely resembles Cortes. Both of them thorough gentlemen, very

dignified, very nice and precise in all their ways and habits, they

were sadly indifferent to the severity of the means by which they

compassed their ends; and bloody deeds sat easily, for the most part,

upon their well-bred natures. I make these comments once for all; and

shall hold myself excused from making further comments of a like nature

when any of the cruelties of Cortes come before us--cruelties which one

must ever deeply deplore on their own account, and bitterly regret as

ineffaceable strains upon the fair fame and memory of a very great man.

. . . The conquest of Mexico could hardly have been achieved at this

period under any man of less genius than that which belonged to

Hernando Cortes. And even his genius would probably not have attempted

the achievement, or would have failed in it, but for a singular

concurrence of good and evil fortune, which contributed much to the

ultimate success of his enterprise. Great difficulties and fearful

conflicts of fortune not only stimulate to great attempts, but

absolutely create the opportunities for them."

II. The Expedition to Mexico.

Reports brought back to Cuba by one Juan de Grijilva, who told of the

populous and wealthy cities of the main land to the westward of Cuba,

induced Velasquez to fit out an expedition for exploration,

colonization or whatever might turn up. Casting about among his

friends, followers, and acquaintances for a suitable leader, his choice

after some hesitation {121} devolved upon Cortes. This nascent captain

had not lived at the provincial court of Velasquez without impressing

his characteristics upon those with whom he came in contact. After the

outfitting of the expedition had progressed considerably, Velasquez was

warned that Cortes was of too high and resolved a spirit to be trusted

with an independent command, and it was probable that upon this

opportunity he would disregard his instructions and act for his own

interests, without giving another thought to Velasquez and his backers.

Velasquez ignored the suggestions that he displace Cortes until it was

too late. Cortes, learning that his enemies were undermining him with

the governor, hastily completed his preparations and set sail a short

time in advance of the arrival of the order displacing him from the

command. His little squadron touched at a point in Cuba and was there

overtaken by the missive from Velasquez, which Cortes absolutely

disregarded. He had embarked his property and had persuaded his

friends to invest and did not propose to be displaced by anybody or

anything.

The expedition consisted of eleven ships. The flag was a small caravel

of one hundred tons burden. There were three others of eighty tons

each, and the seven remaining were small, undecked brigantines.

Authorities vary as to the number of men in the expedition, but there

were between five hundred and fifty and six hundred Spaniards, two

hundred Indian servants, ten small pieces of artillery, four falconets

and sixteen horses.

The truth must be admitted. There were three factors which contributed

to the downfall of that vast empire against which this expedition of

adventurers {122} was launched. One of them was Cortes himself, the

second was Malinal, and the third was the sixteen, doubtless sorry

horses, loaded into the ships. Fiske says:

"It was not enough that the Spanish soldier of that day was a bulldog

for strength and courage, or that his armor was proof against stone

arrows and lances, or that he wielded a Toledo blade that could cut

through silken cushions, or that his arquebus and cannon were not only

death-dealing weapons but objects of superstitious awe. More potent

than all else together were those frightful monsters, the horses.

Before these animals men, women, and children fled like sheep, or

skulked and peeped from behind their walls in an ecstasy of terror. It

was that paralyzing, blood-curdling fear of the supernatural, against

which no amount of physical bravery, nothing in the world but modern

knowledge, is of the slightest avail."

After touching at various places, in one of which they were lucky

enough to find and release a Spanish captive named Geronimo de Aguilar,

who had been wrecked on the Yucatan coast while on a voyage from the

Spanish settlement in Darien and had been taken captive by the Mayas

and held for several years. The hospitable Mayas had eaten most of the

expedition. There were then but two alive. One had renounced his

religion, married a Maya woman, and had been elected chieftain of the

tribe, and accordingly refused to join Cortes. Aguilar was unfettered

and glad of the opportunity. During his sojourn among the Mayas he had

learned to speak their language fluently.

After landing at Tabasco on Good Friday, there was a great battle with

the warlike inhabitants of that section, a battle which resulted in the

complete {123} discomfiture of the Tabascans. The artillery did much

to bring this about, but was not especially terrifying to the

aborigines because they crowded in such numbers around the Spaniards,

and made such terrific outcries, beating on their drums the while, that

they drowned out the noise of the cannonade; but when Cortes at the

head of the horsemen sallied out from the woods, and fell upon them,

the strange, terrifying spectacle presented by these mail-clad monsters

and demons, took the heart out of the Tabascans, and they abandoned the

contest, leaving, so the chroniclers say, countless numbers dead upon

the field.

They knew when they had had enough, and immediately thereafter, they

sued for peace. Cortes was graciously pleased to grant their request,

and to accept as a peace-offering a score of slaves. Among them was

Malinal. In the allotment of the slaves among the officers, she fell

to the share of Alonzo de Puerto Carrero from whom Cortes speedily

acquired her.

Of all the Indians present with Cortes, Malinal alone could speak two

languages. The Tabascans spoke a sort of degenerate Maya, with which,

as she had lived among them so long, she was of course perfectly

familiar, at the same time she had not forgotten her native Mexican.

It would have been impossible for Cortes to have communicated with the

Mexicans without Malinal, for Aguilar could turn Spanish into Maya, and

Malinal could turn Maya into Mexican. This means of communication,

round about though it might be, was at once established. The

intervention of Aguilar soon became unnecessary, for Malinal presently

learned to speak pure Castilian with fluency and grace. She received

instruction from the worthy priests who accompanied the expedition and

was {124} baptised under the name of Marina, and it is by that name

that she is known in history. Her eminence is even greater than that

unfortunate Florinda, whose father, to revenge her mistreatment by King

Roderick, the Goth, sold Spain to Tarik, the Saracen, so many centuries

before.

Marina learnt among other things to love Cortes, whose fortunes she

followed and whom she served with an absolute, unquestioning, blind

devotion and fidelity until the end. So absolute was this attachment

of hers that Cortes became known to the Aztecs as the Lord of Marina.

The Aztecs could not pronounce the letter R. Marina was therefore

changed to Malina, which curiously enough was nearly her original name.

The word "Tzin" is the Aztec name for Lord, consequently Cortes was

called Malintzin, or more shortly Malinche, meaning, as has been

stated, the Lord of Malina.

Sir Arthur Helps has this to say of her: "Indeed her fidelity was

assured by the love which she bore her master. Bernal Diaz says that

she was handsome, clever, and eager to be useful (one that will have an

oar in every boat), and she looked the great lady that she was.

"There was hardly any person in history to whom the ruin of that

person's native land can be so distinctly brought home, as it can be to

the wicked mother of Donna Marina. Cortes, valiant and skilful as he

was in the use of the sword, was not less valiant (perhaps we might

say, not less audacious) nor less skilful, in the use of the tongue.

All the craft which he afterward showed in negotiations would have been

profitless without a competent and trusty interpreter. . . . If a

medal had been struck to commemorate the deeds of {125} Cortes, the

head of Donna Marina should have been associated with that of Cortes on

the face of the medal; for, without her aid, his conquest of Mexico

would never have been accomplished."

III. The Religion of the Aztecs

Now the Aztec Empire was a rather loose confederation of states bound

together by allegiance to a common overlord, who had his capital across

the mountains in the City of Mexico. It had been founded by the influx

of an army of fierce marauders from the North who had overwhelmed the

Toltecs who occupied the country and had attained a degree of

civilization which is presumed to have been higher than that which

displaced it. This Empire of Anahuac, as it was sometimes called, had

endured for two centuries. It was a military despotism and the emperor

was a military despot. His rule was the rule of fear. It subsisted by

force of arms and terror was its cohering power. It had been extended

by ruthless conquest alone until it comprised from eighteen hundred to

two thousand square leagues, about two hundred thousand square miles of

territory. The capital, situated on an island in the midst of a salt

lake, was known as Tenochtitlan, or the City of Mexico, and what Rome

was to the Italian states, or Carthage was to the north African

literal, this city was to Anahuac, the empire of the Aztecs. The name

Tenochtitlan is thus explained by Fiske:

"When the Aztecs, hard pressed by foes, took refuge among these

marshes, they came upon a sacrificial stone which they recognized as

one upon which some years before one of their priests had immolated a

captive {126} chief. From a crevice in this stone, where a little

earth was imbedded, there grew a cactus, upon which sat an eagle

holding in its beak a serpent. A priest ingeniously interpretated this

symbolism as a prophecy of signal and long-continued victory, and,

forthwith diving into the lake, he had an interview with Tlaloc, the

god of waters, who told him that upon that very spot the people were to

build their town. The place was thereafter called Tenochtitlan, or

"the place of the cactus-rock," but the name under which it afterward

came to be best known was taken from Mexitl, one of the names of the

war god Huitzilopochtli. The device of the rock, the cactus, with the

eagle and the serpent, formed a tribal totem for the Aztecs, and has

been adopted, as the coat-of-arms of the present Republic of Mexico."

Included in the sway of its emperor were many different tribes. They

were kept in submission by the strong and inexorable hand. There were

a few tribes, however, which had not been subdued and which still

maintained a more or less precarious independence. The subject peoples

were only kept from open rebellion by the most rigorous and oppressive

measures. There was jealousy, humiliation, hoped-for revenge

throughout the entire empire.

Each tribe or people had its own local god, but there was a bond

coherent in the general Mexican religion that had its centre of worship

in the great city, and which all of them followed. This religion was

one of the most ferocious, degrading and disgusting of any in history.

It required human sacrifice on a larger scale than had ever before been

practised. Cannibalism was universal. Captives of war were sacrificed

to the gods and their bodies eaten. In Mexico, {127} itself, with all

its charm, with all its beauty, with all its luxuries, with all its

verdure and wealth, there were huge pyramids of skulls. The priests

were ferocious creatures, whose long black locks, never combed, were

matted with blood, as they sacrificed to their awful war-god human

hearts, still palpitating, torn from the victims a moment since alive.

Fiske thus describes the temple pyramid and chief shrine in the great

city:

"On the summit was a dreadful block of jasper, convex at the top, so

that when the human victim was laid upon his back and held down, the

breast was pushed upwards, ready for the priest to make one deep

slashing cut and snatch out the heart. Near the sacrificial block were

the altars, and sanctuaries of the gods, Tezcatlipoca, Huitzilopochtli,

and others, with idols as hideous as their names. On these altars

smoked fresh human hearts, of which the gods were fond, while other

parts of the bodies were ready for the kitchens of the communal houses

below. The gods were voracious as wolves, and the victims as numerous.

In some cases the heart was thrust into the mouth of the idol with a

golden spoon, in others the lips were simply daubed with blood. In the

temple a great quantity of rattlesnakes, kept as sacred objects were

fed with the entrails of the victims. Other parts of the body were

given to the menagerie beasts, which were probably also kept for

purposes of religious symbolism. Blood was also rubbed into the mouths

of the carved serpents upon the jambs and lintels of the houses. The

walls and floor of the great temple were clotted with blood and shreds

of human flesh, and the smell was like that of a slaughter-house. Just

outside the temple, in front of the broad street which {128} led across

the causeway to Tlacopan, stood the _tzompantli_, which was an oblong

parallelogram of earth and masonry, one hundred and fifty-four feet

(long) at the base, ascended by thirty steps, on each of which were

skulls. Round the summit were upward of seventy raised poles about

four feet apart, connected by numerous rows of cross-poles passed

through holes in the masts, on each of which five skulls were filed,

the sticks being passed through the temples. In the centre stood two

towers, or columns, made of skulls and lime, the face of each skull

being turned outwards, and giving a horrible appearance to the whole.

This effect was heightened by leaving the heads of distinguished

captives in their natural state, with hair and skin on. As the skulls

decayed they fell from the towers or poles, and they were replaced by

others, so that no vacant place was left."

Concerning the cruelty of the Spaniards, the contrast between the

opposing religions must be considered. Ruthless as the conquerors

were, there is no possible comparison between the most indifferent

principles of the Christian Religion and the application of the awful

principles of the Mexican religion. MacNutt, the author of the latest

and best life of Cortes, makes this interesting comment on the

Christianity of the Spanish adventurers of the time:

"Soldier of Spain and soldier of the Cross, for the Cross was the

standard of militant Christianity, of which Spain was the truest

exponent, his religion, devoutly believed in, but intermittently

practised, inspired his ideals, without sufficiently guiding his

conduct. Ofttimes brutal, he was never vulgar, while as a lover of

sheer daring and of danger for danger's sake, he has never been

eclipsed. . . . {129} Sixteenth-century Spain produced a race of

Christian warriors whose piety, born of an intense realization of, and

love for a militant Christ, was of a martial complexion, beholding in

the symbol of salvation--the Cross--the standard of Christendom around

which the faithful must rally, and for whose protection and exaltation

swords must be drawn and blood spilled if need be. They were the

children of the generation which had expelled the Moor from Spain, and

had brought centuries of religious and patriotic warfare to a

triumphant close, in which their country was finally united under the

crown of Castile. From such forebears the generation of Cortes

received its heritage of Christian chivalry. The discovery of a new

world, peopled by barbarians, opened a fresh field to Spanish

missionary zeal, in which the kingdom of God upon earth was to be

extended and countless souls rescued from the obscene idolatries and

debasing cannibalism which enslaved them."

In the Mexican Pantheon, however, there was one good god, named

Quetzalcoatl. He was a Toltec deity, and was venerated as the god of

the air. He was identified with the east wind which brought the

fertilizing rains. Some historians and investigators explain him as

purely a mythical personage. He was supposed to have appeared to the

Toltecs long before the Aztecs came into the land. He was described in

ancient traditions as a tall, white-faced, bearded man, whose dress

differed from that of the aborigines and included a long white tunic,

upon which were dark red crosses. His teachings enjoined chastity,

charity, and penance. He had but one God and preached in the name of

that God. He condemned human sacrifice and taught the nation

agriculture, metal work and {130} mechanics. He fixed their calendar

so that it was much more reliable than either the Greek or the Roman.

There were various legends as to his departure, one of them being that

he sailed away across the sea upon a raft composed of serpents, and was

wafted into the unknown East whence he had come.

His color, his dress, his teachings, and his character, are all so

symbolic of Christianity, they are so strange, so unique, so utterly

without an explanation in anything else known of the Aztecs and

Toltecs, that the conclusion that he was a Christian Bishop, wearing a

pallium is almost irresistible. Why could not some Christian Bishop,

voyaging along the shores of Europe, have been blown far out of his

course by a long-continued easterly gale, finally have landed on the

shores of Mexico and, having done what he could to teach the people,

have built himself some kind of a ship and sailed eastward in the hope

of once more revisiting his native land before he died. At any rate,

such is the tradition. It was a tradition or legend which played no

small part in the conquest about to be effected.

IV. The March to Tenochtitlan

Into this loosely compact political and social organization,

hard-headed, clear-sighted, iron-hearted, steel-clad Cortes

precipitated himself. His was a mind at the same time capable of vast

and comprehensive designs and a most minute attention to small details.

For instance, he laid out the city of Vera Cruz at the place of his

landing. He caused his men to elect a full corps of municipal officers

from their number. To this organization he frankly resigned his

commission and the power that he had by the appointment of {131}

Velasquez, which the latter had tried so hard to revoke. They

immediately elected him captain-general of the expedition with vastly

increased prerogatives and privileges. Thus he could now, in form at

least, trace his authority to the crown, as represented by this new

colonial municipality and he therefore had behind him the whole power

of the expedition!

With a skill, which showed not only his adroitness, but his

determination, he next caused his men to acquiesce in the scuttling of

the ships which had conveyed them to Mexico! After saving the cordage,

rigging and everything else that might be useful, which was carefully

stored away in the little fort rapidly building, the vessels were

destroyed beyond repair. Before this was done, Cortes offered to

reserve one ship for certain malcontents and partisans of Velasquez in

which they might return if they wished. Nobody took advantage of his

offer.

By this bold and original stroke, he added to his expeditionary force

some one hundred and twenty hardy mariners, who thereafter took part

with the soldiery in all the hazards and undertakings. With,

therefore, less than six hundred men, sixteen horses, ten small cannon,

and one woman, Cortes prepared to undertake the conquest of this mighty

empire. It was a small force, but its fighting quality was

unsurpassed. Lew Wallace thus characterizes them:

"It is hardly worth while to eulogize the Christians who took part in

Cortes's crusade. History has assumed their commemoration. I may say,

however, they were men who had acquired fitness for the task by service

in almost every clime. Some had tilted with the Moor under the walls

of Granada; some had {132} fought the Islamite on the blue Danube; some

had performed the first Atlantic voyage with Columbus; all of them had

hunted the Carib in the glades of Hispaniola. It is not enough to

describe them as fortune-hunters, credulous, imaginative, tireless;

neither is it enough to write them soldiers, bold, skilful, confident,

cruel to enemies, gentle to each other. They were characters of the

age in which they lived, unseen before, unseen since; knights errant,

who believed in hippogriff and dragon, but sought them only in lands of

gold; missionaries, who complacently broke the body of the converted

that Christ might the sooner receive his soul; palmers of pike and

shield, who, in care of the Virgin, followed the morning round the

world, assured that Heaven stooped lowest over the most profitable

plantations."

Just what Cortes at first proposed to do is not quite clear. Indeed,

he himself could not form any definite plan until the circumstances

under which he would be compelled to act, should be more precisely

ascertained. He was, therefore, an opportunist. For one thing, he

made up his mind to lead his troops to the capital city willy-nilly,

and there act as circumstances might determine. He was a statesman as

well as a soldier. It did not take him long to fathom the

peculiarities of the organization and composition of the Aztec Empire.

He knew that discord existed and he had only to introduce himself to

become a focus for the discontent and rebellion. By giving a secret

impression that he was for either side, he could play one party against

the other, as best suited his purposes. He came to bring freedom to

the one, to promote the revolt of the other, check the oppression of

the third, and destroy the presumption of the another {133} tribe, or

warring nation. So he caused his purposes to be declared.

Cortes's personal character was not by any means above reproach, yet

withal he was a sincere and devoted Christian, strange and inexplicable

as the paradox may seem, but it was an age of devoted Christians, whose

devotion and principles fortunately were not translated into daily

life. Neither Cortes nor any of his followers--perhaps not even the

priests were of different opinion--thought any less of themselves or

regarded themselves the less worthy Christians: if their conduct toward

the native races did not manifest that continence, restraint and

sympathy which their religion taught. Cortes was a child of his age;

the other great men of his age were much like him in these things.

Here and there a Las Casas appears, but he shines forth against a dark

and universally extensive background. Such as the great apostles to

the Indies were lonely exceptions indeed.

All the Spanish conquerors were cruel; but Cortes was not so cruel as

many others. He was not to be compared to the ruthless Pizarro for

instance. Save in daring and personal courage, he vastly surpassed the

Lord of Peru in every quality which goes to make a man. Cortes was

treacherous in his dealings with Montezuma and others, but the man of

his age regarded very lightly the obligation of his word toward a

savage. Indeed, it was a well-known principle that no faith was

necessarily to be kept with either heretics or heathen and no oath was

binding against the interests of the state. Cortes, of course, had all

the contempt for the Aztecs that Caucasians usually have for inferior

races, although in his letters, he tried his very best to be fair, to

be just, even to be generous to these {134} people he overcame; and no

one can doubt the sincerity with which he desired to promote the

spreading of the Christian religion.

They did things differently in those days. Not only did they believe

that the religion of the heathen should be changed by force, but they

believed that in some way they could constrain all people to accept

Christianity. More blood has been shed in promoting the idea that the

outsider should be compelled to come into the fold than from the

misinterpretation of any other text in the sacred scriptures. If any

civilized power in the world to-day should send an expeditionary force

into a heathen country, which should signalize its arrival therein by

the desecration of its temples and the destruction of its idols, the

commander would be recalled at once. We have learned other methods,

methods of persuasion, of reason, of love. The age of Cortes knew

nothing of these methods, and he was only following out the common

practice when he smashed with his battle-axe the hideous gods of the

Mexicans, and washed and purified with clean water, the reeking, gory,

ill-smelling slaughter-houses which were the Aztec Holy of Holies, and

adorned them with crosses and images of the Blessed Virgin Mary. When

Charles the IX. offered Henry of Navarre a choice of death, mass, or

the Bastille on the night of Saint Bartholomew, he gave him one more

chance than the early steel-clad militant missionary gave to the

aborigines of the new world--for them there was no Bastille.

Making friends with the Tabascans, and leaving one hundred and fifty

men to guard his base of supplies at Vera Cruz and to watch the coast,

Cortes began his march toward Mexico on the sixteenth day of August,

1519. He proceeded with the greatest caution. Bernal {135} Diaz, an

old soldier, who afterward wrote a most vivid and graphic account of

the conquest, of which he was no small part, says that they marched

forward "with their beards on their shoulders," that is, looking from

side to side, constantly. There was no hurry and there was no need to

tire out the force which was thus facing the danger of a long, hard and

rash adventure.

By the aid of Marina and Aguilar, Cortes speedily learned of places

like Cempoalla, which were hostile to Montezuma and he took in as many

of these places on his march as possible, always with incidents

instructive and valuable. At Cempoalla, for instance, he met the

tax-gatherers of Montezuma. He persuaded the Cempoallans to refuse

payment of the tax--an action which would ordinarily have brought down

upon them the fury of the Aztec monarch and would have resulted in

their complete and utter extermination. He did more. He caused the

Cacique of Cempoalla--a man so fat and gross, that, like "the little

round belly" of Santa Claus, he "shook like a jelly" so that the

Spaniards called him "The Trembler"--actually to raise his hand against

the tax-gatherers and imprison them. They would undoubtedly have been

sacrificed and eaten had not Cortes, secretly and by night released

three of them and allowed them to go back to their royal master, after

he had sent two into a safe ward at Vera Cruz.

Montezuma's messengers met him at every town. "Bearing rich gifts,

they disclosed the possibilities of the _Hinterland_ and germinated in

the brain of Cortes the idea of conquest. One revelation was confirmed

by another, and, as the evidence of Aztec wealth multiplied the proofs

of internal disaffection throughout the {136} empire stimulated the

confidence of the brooding conqueror. Disloyalty among the Totonacs,

treachery that only waited an opportunity in Texcoco, an ancient

tradition of hate in Tlascala, and the superstition that obscured the

judgment and paralyzed the action of the despotic ruler--these were the

materials from which the astute invader evolved the machinery for his

conquest."

Montezuma was in a pitiable state of superstitious indecision. It was

popularly believed that Quetzalcoatl would some day return, and it was

more than probable to the Aztec monarch and his counsellors that he

might be reincarnated in the person of Cortes and his followers.

Indeed, the common name for them among the Mexicans was Teules, which

means gods. If Cortes was a god it was useless to fight against him.

If he and his were men, they could of course be easily exterminated,

but were they men? There were a few bold spirits who inclined to this

belief, but not many. Besides, whatever the rest might be, the

horsemen must be of divine origin. Cuitlahua, the brother of

Montezuma, and one of the highest and most important of the Aztec

rulers was for attacking them whatever the consequences, but he was

alone in advising this. It was thought better to temporize. Perhaps

later on it might be decided whether these strange beings were of

common clay, and there would be plenty of time to exterminate them then.

Montezuma was therefore an opportunist, like Cortes, but there was a

vast difference between them. Montezuma was a man of great ability,

undoubtedly, or he never could have been chosen by the hereditary

electors to the position he occupied, and he could never have held it

if he had not been. He was a man over {137} fifty years of age, and

had maintained himself on the throne, in spite of many wars, in which

he had been almost universally victorious. His judgment and his

decision alike were paralyzed by superstition. He did the unwisest

thing he could possibly have done. He sent messengers to Cortes,

bearing rich gifts, gold, feather work, green stones, which the

Spaniards thought were emeralds, vast treasures. He acknowledged in

effect the wonderful wisdom of Cortes's overlord, the great emperor,

Charles V., in whose name Cortes did everything, taking care always to

have a notary to attest his proclamations to the Indians, but he told

Cortes not to come to Mexico City. He said that he was poor, that the

journey was a long and hard one; in short, he offered him every

inducement to come with one hand, while he waved him back with the

other.

Treasure was the only motive of the conquerors of Peru. Cortes was big

enough and great enough to rise above that. He was after larger things

than the mere filling of his purse, and on several occasions he

relinquished his own share of the booty to the soldiery. He was an

empire-builder, not a treasure-hunter.

As Cortes progressed through the country, the treasure sent by

Montezuma grew in value, and the prohibitions, which by and by amounted

to entreaties, increased in volume. We wonder what might have

happened, if young Guatemoc, whom we shall hear of later had occupied

the throne. Certainly, although the Spaniards would have died

fighting, they would undoubtedly have been overwhelmed, and the

conquest of Mexico might have been postponed for another generation or

two. It was bound to happen anyway, sooner or later, as far as that

goes.

{138}

V. The Republic of Tlascala

Cortes's progress finally brought him to a remarkable tribe, whose

friendship he succeeded in winning, and which must be added as the

fourth factor, with himself, Marina, and the horses, as the cause of

the downfall of Mexico. Curiously enough, this tribe had a sort of

republican form of government. It is usually referred to as the

Republic of Tlascala. It was an independent confederation composed of

four separate states. The government consisted of a senate, composed

of the rulers of the four states or clans of the tribe. Tlascala was

completely hemmed in by provinces of the Aztec Empire, with which it

was always in a state of constant and bitter warfare. The inhabitants

had no access to the sea, consequently they had never enjoyed the use

of salt. They had no access to the lowlands, so they were without

cotton, a fabric then universally used throughout the country. They

had no trade or commerce. They were completely shut in and eternal

vigilance was the price of their liberty. They lacked the arts, the

grace, and the refinement of the Mexicans, but they were as hardy, as

bold, as skilful in the use of arms, and as determined, as well as

cruel, as the Aztecs. Neither Montezuma nor his predecessors with the

power of millions had been able to make them acknowledge any

sovereignty but their own. They were protected by the mountain ranges

and here and there they had built high walls across the valley.

Tlascala was a large and imposing city. Cortes thus describes it:

"This city is so extensive and so well worthy of admiration, that

although I omit much that I could {139} say of it, I feel assured that

the little I shall say will be scarcely credited, for it is larger than

Granada, and much stronger, and contains as many fine houses and a much

larger population than that city did at the time of its capture; and it

is much better supplied with the products of the earth, such as corn,

and with fowls and game, fish from the rivers, various kinds of

vegetables, and other exellent articles of food. There is in this city

a market, in which every day thirty thousand people are engaged in

buying and selling, besides many other merchants who are scattered

about the city. The market contains a great variety of articles both

of food and clothing, and all kinds of shoes for the feet; jewels of

gold and silver, and precious stones, and ornaments of feathers, all as

well arranged as they can possibly be found in any public squares or

markets in the world. There is much earthenware of every style and a

good quality, equal to the best Spanish manufacture. Wood, coal,

edible and medicinal plants, are sold in great quantities. There are

houses where they wash and shave the head as barbers, and also for

baths. Finally, there is found among them a well-regulated police; the

people are rational and well disposed, and altogether greatly superior

to the most civilized African nations. The country abounds in level

and beautiful valleys all tilled and sown, without any part lying

unimproved. In its constitution of government that has existed until

the present time, it resembles the states of Venice, Genoa and Pisa;

since the supreme authority is not reposed in one person. There are

many nobles, all of whom reside in the city; the common people are

laborers and the vassals of the nobility, but each one possesses land

of his own, some more than others. In war all unite and have a voice

in its management {140} and direction. It may be supposed that they

have tribunals of justice for the punishment of the guilty; since when

one of the natives of the province stole some gold of a Spaniard, and I

mentioned the circumstance to Magiscacin, the most powerful of the

nobility, they made search for the thief, and traced him to a city in

the neighborhood called Churultecal (Cholula) from whence they brought

him prisoner, and delivered him to me with the gold, saying that I must

have him punished. I acknowledged in suitable terms the pains they had

taken in the matter, but remarked to them that since the prisoner was

in their country, they should punish him according to their custom, and

that I chose not to interfere with the punishment of their people while

I remained among them. They thanked me and, taking the man, carried

him to the great market, a town crier making public proclamations of

his offense; they then placed him at the base of a structure resembling

a theatre, which stands in the midst of the market-place, while the

crier went to the top of the building, and with a loud voice again

proclaimed his offense; whereupon the people beat him with sticks until

he was dead. We likewise saw many persons in prison who were said to

be confined for theft and other offenses they had committed. There are

in this province, according to the report made by my order, five

hundred thousand inhabitants, besides those in another smaller province

adjacent to this, called Guazincango, who live in the manner, not

subject to any native sovereign and are not less the vassals of Your

Highness than the people of Tlascala."

Montezuma gave another reason for permitting the Tlascalans their

liberty and independence. He said that he was allowing them to

maintain their existence {141} and remain a republic because everything

else in the vicinity had been conquered; and as there was no field for

the young warriors of the Aztec nation to obtain that military training

which it was always best to learn by actual experience, he kept

Tlascala in a state of enmity because it furnished him a place where he

could get the human beings for sacrifices to his gods that he required

and at the same time train his young soldiery. In other words,

Tlascala was regarded as a sort of game preserve from a religious point

of view. Doubtless, Tlascala did not acknowledge the justice, the

propriety and the correctness of this attitude of scorn and contempt on

the part of the Aztecs. The other tribes of Mexico bore the yoke

uneasily, and cherished resentment, but even the enmity between the

Jews and the Samaritans was not more bitter than the enmity between the

Tlascalans and the people of the city of Anahuac.

When Cortes drew near Tlascala, the senate debated what course it

should pursue toward him. One of the four regents, so called, of the

republic was a man of great age, feeble and blind, but resolute of

spirit. His name was Xicotencatl. He was all for war. He was opposed

by a young man named Maxixcatzin. The debate between the two and the

other participants was long and furious. Finally the desire of

Xicotencatl prevailed in a modified form. There was a tribe occupying

part of the Tlascalan territory and under Tlascalan rule called

Otumies. It was decided to cause the Otumies to attack Cortes and his

force. If Cortes was annihilated, the problem would be solved. If the

Otumies were defeated their action would be disavowed by the Tlascalans

and no harm would be done to anybody but the unfortunate {142} Otumies,

for whom no one in Tlascala felt any great concern.

The Otumies were placed in the front of the battle, but the Tlascalans

themselves followed under the command of another Xicotencatl, son of

the old regent, who was a tried and brilliant soldier. The battles

along the coast had been more like massacres, but this was a real

fight, and a number of Spaniards were killed, three horses also, more

valuable than the men, were despatched, and at the close of the

engagement the Spaniards had lost about fifty, a serious diminution of

the forces of Cortes, but the unfortunate Otumies and the Tlascalans

were overwhelmed with a fearful slaughter. Of course, the action of

the Otumies was disavowed, Cortes was invited into Tlascala and an

alliance between the Spaniards and the republic was consummated. The

Tlascalans threw themselves, heart and soul, into the project, which

they dimly perceived was in the mind of Cortes, the conquest of Mexico.

Nothing was said about all of this. Cortes simply declared his design

to pay a friendly visit to Montezuma to whom he sent repeated and

solemn assurances that he intended him no harm, that Montezuma could

receive him with the utmost frankness and without fear and without

anticipating any violence whatever on the part of the Spaniards. But

the wise in Tlascala knew that a collision between the Spaniards and

the Aztecs would be inevitable. They saw a chance to feed fat their

ancient grudge, and to exact bitter revenge for all that they had

suffered at the hands of the Aztecs.

To anticipate, they were faithful to the alliance and loyally carried

out their part of the agreement in the resulting campaigns. Without

them on several {143} occasions Cortes' fortunes would have been even

more desperate than they were. Montezuma's envoys, heartily detesting

the Tlascalans, sought to persuade Cortes against any dealings with

them whatsoever. They gave a very bad character to the dusky allies of

the Spaniards and the Tlascalans returned the compliment in kind.

When his wounded had recovered, accompanied by a large army of

Tlascalans under young Xicotencatl, Cortes set forth about the middle

of October on the last stage of his wonderful journey. By this time,

Montezuma had concluded to make a virtue out of a necessity, and he had

sent word to him that he would welcome him to his capital. He received

return reiterations of the statement that Cortes' intentions were

entirely pacific, that he represented the greatest monarch in the world

who lived beyond the seas, and all that he would require of Montezuma

was the acknowledgment of his dependence in common with every earthly

monarch upon this mysterious potentate across the ocean. This

Montezuma was quite willing to give. He was also willing to pay any

tribute exacted if only these children of the Sun would go away, and he

could be left to the undisturbed enjoyment of his kingdom.

He suggested a way for Cortes to approach the capital. The Tlascalans

did some scouting and informed Cortes that the way was filled with

pitfalls, blocked with stones, and the opportunities for ambuscade were

many and good. No one can blame Montezuma for taking these

precautions, although he afterwards disowned any participation in them

and said that the arrangements had been made by some irresponsible

subjects, and Cortes passed it over.

The Tlascalans, who knew all the passes of the {144} mountains, offered

to lead Cortes and his followers by another way. Although he was

warned not to trust them by the envoys of Montezuma, Cortes with that

judgment of men which so distinguished him, elected the harder and

shorter way across the mountains. Nature had made the pass a difficult

one, but the indomitable Spaniards struggled over it, enduring terrible

fatigue and periods of piercing cold. They got far above the timber

line and approached the boundaries of eternal snow. It is

characteristic of them, that on one point of their journey, they

stopped and despatched a party under Ordaz to scale and explore the

smoking volcano Popocatepetl, which with Ixtaccihuatl guarded the

beautiful valley of Mexico. Ordaz and his twelve companions followed

the guides as far as they would lead them and then they climbed far up

the sides. They were unable to reach the top, but they accomplished a

prodigious ascent, and Ordaz was afterwards allowed to add to his coat

of arms a flaming volcano.

The summit of the mountain was at last passed, and the magnificent

valley of Mexico opened to their view. It was a scene which caused

even the hearts of these rugged and hardened adventurers to thrill with

pleasure and satisfaction. No fairer land had ever burst upon human

vision. The emerald verdure was broken by beautiful lakes, bordered by

luxuriant vegetation, diversified by mountains and plateaus, while here

and there magnificent cities glistened in the brilliant tropical sun

among the sparkling waters. As far as one could see the land was under

cultivation.

The descent of the mountains was easy, comparatively speaking, and the

Spaniards, after some journeying, {145} found themselves in the

populous and wealthy city of Cholula, remarkable for the splendid

pyramid temple--Teocalli--which rose in the centre of its encircling

walls.

Here a plan was devolved to massacre the whole force which had been

quartered in one of the vast palaces or houses of the town. The women

and the children left the city in large numbers, a vast body of Mexican

soldiers was secretly assembled near by. The provisions, which had

always been supplied them generously, were suddenly withdrawn. The

suspicions of the Spaniards were of course awakened and extra good

watch was kept. They did not know what to suspect, until a Cholulan

woman, who had formed an acquaintance with Marina, told her of the

purpose of the Mexicans, and advised her to flee from the Spanish camp

if she valued her life. The faithful Marina immediately disclosed the

whole plan to Cortes. He acted with remarkable celerity and decision.

There were many Cholulan lords and attendants about the Spanish camp

and there were many others in town, evidently to lull any suspicions

which the Spaniards might feel and to make whatever excuse they could

for the lack of provisions. On one pretense or another, Cortes

summoned the whole body to his house, which was a great rambling

structure of many rooms and thick walls and enclosures. He got them

assembled in one room and then proceeded to slaughter most of them,

reserving only a few for use after the event had been determined.

While this butchering was going on he sent others of his troops into

the streets and squares of the town, where they killed without

hesitation and without mercy all with whom they came in contact,

including several bodies of soldiers who {146} were more or less

helpless without their leaders, whom Cortes had so craftily disposed of.

This was the celebrated massacre of Cholula. Whether it was

justifiable or not, each reader must settle for himself. Cortes'

situation then was certainly desperate; for that matter, it was

desperate at all times. His life and the lives of his comrades hung

upon a thread. He certainly had a right to protect himself.

Personally, I do not think such a slaughter was necessary for his

protection. However, Cortes thought so, and he was there. It was his

life that was concerned, and not mine. Other monarchs in more

civilized days have done practically the same as this, as for instance,

the famous Barmecide feast, the wholesale assassination of the

Abencerrages in Spain, the massacre of the Mamelukes by Napoleon in

Egypt, and many others.

To be sure these massacres did not include the helpless inhabitants of

the towns. However, with his usual policy, Cortes spared some of the

Cholulan lords and when he had shown his power over them, he released

them and told them to summon back the people who had left the city. He

had no more trouble with the Cholulans after that victory, and he

presently took up his journey toward Mexico.

Now, the City of Mexico to the Spaniards was one of the wonders of the

world. They have described it in such terms as show the impression it

made upon them, but they have not described it in such terms as to

enable us to understand from their stories exactly what the city was.

It was described as an island city. Some believed it to have been an

enormous Pueblo city, such as may be seen in Arizona or New Mexico,

surrounded by thousands of squalid huts. {147} Others conjectured it

as a city as beautiful as Venice, as great as Babylon, and as wonderful

as hundred-gated Thebes.

Cortes shall tell himself the impression it made upon him in the next

section which is lifted bodily from one of his famous letters to the

emperor Charles V.

VI. Cortes' Description of Mexico, written by his own hand to Charles

V., Emperor of Germany and King of Spain

In order, most potent Sire, to convey to your Majesty a just conception

of the great extent of this noble city of Temixtitan, and of the many

rare and wonderful objects it contains; of the government and dominions

of Muteczuma, the sovereign; of the religious rites and customs that

prevail, and the order that exists in this as well as other cities,

appertaining to his realm; it would require the labor of many

accomplished writers, and much time for the completion of the task. I

shall not be able to relate an hundredth part of what could be told

respecting these matters; but I will endeavor to describe, in the best

manner in my power, what I have myself seen; and, imperfectly as I may

succeed in that attempt, I am fully aware that the account will appear

so wonderful as to be deemed scarcely worthy of credit; since even we

who have seen these things with our own eyes, are yet so amazed as to

be unable to comprehend their reality. But your Majesty may be assured

that if there is any fault in my relation, either in regard to the

present subject, or to any other matters of which I shall give your

Majesty an account, it will arise from too great brevity rather than

extravagance or prolixity in the details; and it seems to me {148} but

just to my Prince and Sovereign to declare the truth in the clearest

manner, without saying anything that would detract from it, or add to

it.

Before I begin to describe this great city and the others already

mentioned, it may be well for the better understanding of the subject

to say something of the configuration of Mexico,[1] in which they are

situated, it being the principal seat of Muteczuma's power. This

province is in the form of a circle, surrounded on all sides by lofty

and rugged mountains; its level surface comprises an area of about

seventy leagues in circumference, including two lakes, that overspread

nearly the whole valley, being navigated by boats more than fifty

leagues round. One of these lakes contains fresh, and the other, which

is the larger of the two, salt water. On one side of the lakes, in the

middle of the valley, a range of highlands divides them from one

another, with the exception of a narrow strait which lies between the

highlands and the lofty sierras. This strait is a bow-shot wide, and

connects the two lakes; and by this means a trade is carried on by the

cities and other settlement on the lakes in canoes, without the

necessity of traveling by land. As the salt lake rises and falls with

the tides like the sea, during the time of high water it pours into the

other lake with the rapidity of a powerful stream; and on the other

hand, when the tide has ebbed, the water runs from the fresh into the

salt lake.

This great city of Temixtitan (Mexico) is situated in this salt lake,

and from the main land to the denser parts of it, by which ever route

one choses to enter, {149} the distance is two leagues. There are four

avenues or entrances to the city, all of which are formed by artificial

causeways, two spears' length in width. The city is as large as

Seville or Cordova; its streets, I speak of principal ones, are very

wide and straight; some of these, and all the inferior ones, are half

land and half water, and are navigated by canoes. All the streets at

intervals have openings, through which the water flows, crossing from

one street to another; and at these openings, some of which are very

wide, there are also very wide bridges, composed of large pieces of

lumber, of great strength and well put together; on many of these

bridges ten horses can go abreast. Foreseeing that if the inhabitants

of this city should prove treacherous, they would possess great

advantages from the manner in which the city is constructed, since by

removing the bridges at the entrances and abandoning the place, they

could leave us to perish by famine without our being able to reach the

mainland--as soon as I had entered it, I made great haste to build four

brigantines, which were soon finished, and were large enough to take

ashore three hundred men and the horses, whenever it became necessary.

This city has many public squares, in which are situated the markets

and other places for buying and selling. There is one square twice as

large as that of the city of Salamanca, surrounded by porticoes, where

are daily assembled more than sixty thousand souls, engaged in buying

and selling; and where are found all kinds of merchandise that the

world affords, embracing the necessities of life, as, for instance,

articles of food, as well as jewels of gold, silver, lead, brass,

copper, tin, precious stones, bones, shells, snails and feathers.

There were also exposed for sale wrought and unwrought {150} stone,

bricks burnt and unburnt, timber hewn and unhewn of different sorts.

There is a street for game, where every variety of birds found in the

country is sold, as fowls, partridges, quails, wild ducks,

fly-catchers, widgeons, turtle-doves, pigeons, reedbirds, parrots,

sparrows, eagles, hawks, owls, and kestrels; they sell, likewise, the

skins of some birds of prey, with their feathers, head and beak and

claws. There they also sold rabbits, hares, deer, and little dogs

which are raised for eating and castrated. There is also an herb

street, where may be obtained all sorts of roots and medicinal herbs

that the country affords. There are apothecaries' shops, where

prepared medicines, liquids, ointments, and plasters are sold; barber

shops where they wash and shave the head; and restauranteurs that

furnish food and drink at a certain price. There is also a class of

men like those called in Castile porters, for carrying burdens. Wood

and coal are seen in abundance, and brasiers of earthenware for burning

coals; mats of various kinds for beds, others of a lighter sort for

seats, and for halls and bedrooms. There are all kinds of green

vegetables, especially onions, leeks, garlic, watercresses, nasturtium,

borage, sorel, artichokes, and golden thistle-fruits also of numerous

descriptions, amongst which are cherries and plums, similar to those in

Spain; honey and wax from bees, and from the stalks of maize, which are

as sweet as the sugar-cane; honey is also extracted from the plant

called maguey,[2] which is superior to sweet or new wine; from the same

plant they extract sugar and wine, which they also sell. Different

kinds of cotton thread {151} of all colors in skeins are exposed for

sale in one quarter of the market, which has the appearance of the silk

market at Granada, although the former is supplied more abundantly.

Painter's colors, as numerous as can be found in Spain, and as fine

shades; deer-skins dressed and undressed, dyed different colors;

earthenware of a large size and excellent quality; large and small

jars, jugs, pots, bricks, and an endless variety of vessels, all made

of fine clay, and all or most of them glazed and painted; maize or

Indian corn, in the grain, and in the form of bread, preferred in the

grain for its flavor to that of the other islands and terra firma;

pâtés of birds and fish; great quantities of fish, fresh, salt, cooked

and uncooked; the eggs of hens, geese and of all the other birds I have

mentioned, in great abundance, and cakes made of eggs; finally,

everything that can be found throughout the whole country is sold in

the markets, comprising articles so numerous that, to avoid prolixity

and because their names are not retained in my memory, or are unknown

to me, I shall not attempt to enumerate them. Every kind of

merchandise is sold in a particular street or quarter assigned to it

exclusively, and thus the best order is preserved. They sell

everything by number or measure; at least, so far we have not observed

them to sell anything by weight. There is a building in the great

square that is used as an audience house, where ten or twelve persons,

who are magistrates, sit and decide all controversies that arise in the

market, and order delinquents to be punished. In the same square there

are other persons who go constantly about among the people observing

what is sold, and the measures used in selling; and they have been seen

to break measures that were not true.

{152}

This great city contains a large number of temples[3] or houses for

their idols, very handsome edifices, which are situated in the

different districts and the suburbs; in the principal ones religious

persons of each particular sect are constantly residing, for whose use,

beside the houses containing the idols, there are other convenient

habitations. All these persons dress in black and never cut or comb

their hair from the time they enter the priesthood until they leave it;

and all the sons of the principal inhabitants, both nobles and

respectable citizens, are placed in the temples and wear the same dress

from the age of seven or eight years until they are taken out to be

married; which occurs more frequently with the firstborn, who inherits

estates, than with the others. The priests are debarred from female

society, nor is any woman permitted to enter the religious houses.

They also abstain from eating certain kinds of food, more at some

seasons of the year than others. Among these temples there is one

which far surpasses all the rest, whose grandeur of architectural

details no human tongue is able to describe; for within its precincts,

surrounded by a lofty wall, there is room for a town of five hundred

families. Around the interior of this enclosure there are handsome

edifices, containing large halls and corridors, in which the religious

persons attached to the temple reside. There are full forty towers,

which are lofty and well built, the largest of which has fifty steps

leading to its main body, and is higher than the tower of the principal

church at Seville. The stone and wood of which they are constructed

are so well wrought {153} in every part, that nothing could be better

done, for the interior of the chapels containing the idols consists of

curious imagery, wrought in stone, with plaster ceilings, and woodwork

carved in relief, and painted with figures of monsters and other

objects. All these towers are the burial places of the nobles, and

every chapel of them is dedicated to a particular idol, to which they

pay their devotions.

There are three halls in this grand temple, which contain the principal

idols; these are of wonderful extent and height, and admirable

workmanship, adorned with figures sculptured in stone and wood; leading

from the halls are chapels with very small doors, to which the light is

not admitted, nor are any persons except the priests, and not all of

them. In these chapels are the images or idols, although, as I have

before said, many of them are also found on the outside; the principal

ones, in which the people have greatest faith and confidence, I

precipitated from their pedestals, and cast them down the steps of the

temple, purifying the chapels in which they stood, as they were all

polluted with human blood, shed in the sacrifices. In the place of

these I put images of Our Lady and the Saints, which excited not a

little feeling in Muteczuma and the inhabitants, who at first

remonstrated, declaring that if my proceedings were known throughout

the country, the people would rise against me; for they believed that

their idols bestowed upon them all temporal good, and if they permitted

them to be ill-treated, they would be angry and withhold their gifts,

and by this means the people would be deprived of the fruits of the

earth and die of famine. I answered, through the interpreters, that

they were deceived in expecting any favors from idols, the work of

their own {154} hands, formed of unclean things; and that they must

learn there was but one God, the universal Lord of all, who had created

the heavens and the earth, and all things else, and had made them and

us; that He was without beginning and immortal, and that they were

bound to adore and believe Him, and no other creature or thing. I said

everything to them I could to divert them from their idolatries, and

draw them to a knowledge of God our Lord. Muteczuma replied, the

others assenting to what he said: "That they had already informed me

that they were not the aborigines of the country, but that their

ancestors had emigrated to it many years ago; and they fully believed,

after so long an absence from their native land, they might have fallen

into some errors; that I, having been recently arrived, must know

better than themselves what they ought to believe; and that if I would

instruct them in these matters, and make them understand the true

faith, they would follow my directions, as being for the best."

Afterward Muteczuma and many of the principal citizens remained with me

until I had removed the idols, purified the chapels, and placed images

in them, manifesting apparent pleasure; and I forbade them sacrificing

human beings to their idols, as they had been accustomed to do;

because, besides being abhorrent in the sight of God, your sacred

Majesty had prohibited it by law and commanded to put to death whoever

should take the life of another. Thus, from that time, they refrained

from the practice, and during the whole period of my abode in that

city, they were never seen to kill or sacrifice a human being.

The figures of the idols in which these people believe surpass in

stature a person of more than the ordinary {155} size; some of them are

composed of a mass of seeds and leguminous plants, such as are used for

food, ground and mixed together, and kneaded with the blood of human

hearts taken from the breasts of living persons, from which a paste is

formed in a sufficient quantity to form large statues. When these are

completed they make them offerings of the hearts of other victims,

which they sacrifice to them, and besmear their faces with the blood.

For everything they have an idol, consecrated by the use of the nations

that in ancient times honored the same gods. Thus they have an idol

that they petition for victory in war; another for success in their

labors; and so for everything in which they seek or desire prosperity,

they have their idols, which they honor and serve.

This noble city contains many fine and magnificent houses; which may be

accounted for from the fact that all the nobility of the country, who

are the vassals of Muteczuma, have houses in the city, in which they

reside a certain part of the year; and besides, there are numerous

wealthy citizens who also possess fine houses. All these persons, in

addition to the large and spacious apartments for ordinary purposes,

have others, both upper and lower, that contain conservatories of

flowers. Along one of the causeways that lead into the city are laid

two pipes, constructed of masonry, each of which is two paces in width,

and about five feet in height. An abundant supply of excellent water,

forming a volume equal in bulk to the human body, is conveyed by one of

these pipes, and distributed about the city, where it is used by the

inhabitants for drinking and other purposes. The other pipe, in the

meantime, is kept empty until the former requires to be cleansed, when

the water is let into it; and continues to be used {156} until the

cleansing is finished. As the water is necessarily carried over

bridges on account of the salt water crossing its route, reservoirs

resembling canals are constructed on the bridges, through which the

fresh water is conveyed. These reservoirs are of the breadth of the

body of an ox, and of the same length as the bridges. The whole city

is thus served with water, which they carry in canoes through all the

streets for sale, taking it from the aqueduct in the following manner:

the canoes pass under the bridges on which the reservoirs are placed,

when men stationed above fill them with water, for which service they

are paid. At all the entrances of the city, and in those parts where

the canoes are discharged, that is, where the greatest quantity of

provisions is brought in, huts are erected and persons stationed as

guards, who receive a _certum quid_ for everything that enters. I know

not whether the sovereign receives this duty or the city, as I have not

yet been informed; but I believe that it appertains to the sovereign,

as in the markets of other provinces a tax is collected for the benefit

of their cacique. In all the markets and public places of this city

are seen daily many laborers and persons of various employments waiting

for some one to hire them. The inhabitants of this city pay a greater

regard to style in their mode of living, and are more attentive to

elegance of dress and politeness of manners, than those of the other

provinces and cities; since as the Cacique[4] Muteczuma has his

residence in the capital, and all {157} the nobility, his vassals, are

in the constant habit of meeting there, a general courtesy of demeanour

necessarily prevails. But not to be prolix in describing what relates

to the affairs of this great city, although it is with difficulty that

I refrain from proceeding. I will say no more than that the manners of

the people, as shown in their intercourse with one another, are marked

by as great an attention to the proprieties of life as in Spain, and

good order is equally well observed; and considering that they are a

barbarous people, without the knowledge of God, having no intercourse

with civilized nations, these traits of character are worthy of

admiration.

In regard to the domestic appointments of Muteczuma, and the wonderful

grandeur and state he maintains, there is so much to be told, that I

assure your Majesty I do not know where to begin my relation, so as to

be able to finish any part of it. For, as I have already stated, what

can be more wonderful, than that a barbarous monarch, as he is, should

have every object found in his dominions, imitated in gold, silver,

precious stones and feathers?--the gold and silver being wrought so

naturally as not to be surpassed by any smith in the world; the stone

work executed with such perfection that is it difficult to conceive

what instruments could have been used; and the feather work superior to

the finest productions in wax and embroidery. The extent of

Muteczuma's dominions has not been ascertained, since to whatever point

he despatched his messengers, even two hundred leagues from his

capital, his commands were obeyed, although some of his provinces were

in the midst of countries with which he was at war. But as nearly as I

have been able to learn, his territories are equal in extent {158} to

Spain itself, for he sent messengers to the inhabitants of a city

called Cumatan (requiring them to become subjects of Your Majesty),

which is sixty leagues beyond that part of Putunchan watered by the

river Grijalva, and two hundred and thirty leagues distant from the

great city; and I sent some of our people a distance of one hundred and

fifty leagues in the same direction. All the principal chiefs of these

provinces, especially those in the vicinity of the capital, reside, as

I have already stated, the greater part of the year in that great city,

and all or most of them have their oldest sons in the service of

Muteczuma. There are fortified places in all the provinces, garrisoned

with his own men, where are also stationed his governors and collectors

of the rent and tribute, rendered him by every province; and an account

is kept of what each is obliged to pay, as they have characters and

figures made on paper that are used for this purpose. Each province

renders a tribute of its own particular productions, so that the

sovereign receives a great variety of articles from different quarters.

No prince was ever more feared by his subjects, both in his presence

and absence. He possessed out of the city as well as within, numerous

villas, each of which had its peculiar sources of amusement, and all

were constructed in the best possible manner for the use of a great

prince and lord. Within the city his palaces were so wonderful that it

is hardly possible to describe their beauty and extent; I can only say

that in Spain there is nothing to equal them.

There was one palace somewhat inferior to the rest, attached to which

was a beautiful garden with balconies extending over it, supported by

marble columns, and having a floor formed of jasper elegantly {159}

laid. There were apartments in this palace sufficient to lodge two

princes of the highest rank with their retinues. There were likewise

belonging to it ten pools of water, in which were kept the different

species of water birds found in this country, of which there is a great

variety, all of which are domesticated; for the sea birds there were

pools of salt water, and for the river birds, of fresh water. The

water is let off at certain times to keep it pure, and is replenished

by means of pipes. Each species of bird is supplied with the food

natural to it, which it feeds upon when wild. Thus fish is given to

birds that usually eat it; worms, maize and the finer seeds, to such as

prefer them. And I assure Your Highness, that to the birds accustomed

to eat fish, there is given the enormous quantity of ten arrobas[5]

every day, taken in the salt lake. The emperor has three hundred men

whose sole employment is to take care of these birds; and there are

others whose only business is to attend to the birds that are in bad

health.

Over the pools for the birds there are corridors and galleries to which

Muteczuma resorts, and from which he can look out and amuse himself

with the sight of them. There is an apartment in the same palace, in

which are men, women, and children, whose faces, bodies, hair,

eyebrows, and eyelashes are white from birth. The cacique has another

very beautiful palace, with a large courtyard, paved with handsome

flags, in the style of a chess-board. There were also cages, about

nine feet in height and six paces square, each of which was half

covered with a roof of tiles, and the other half had over it a wooden

grate, skilfully made. Every cage contains a bird of prey, of all the

species {160} found in Spain, from the kestrel to the eagle, and many

unknown there. There were a great number of each kind, and in the

covered part of the cages there was a perch, and another on the outside

of the grating, the former of which the birds used in the night-time,

and when it rained; and the other enabled them to enjoy the sun and

air. To all these birds fowl were daily given for food, and nothing

else. There were in the same palace several large halls on the ground

floor, filled with immense cages built of heavy pieces of timber, well

put together, in all or most of which were kept lions, tigers, wolves,

foxes and a variety of animals of the cat tribe, in great numbers,

which were also fed on fowls. The care of these animals and birds was

assigned to three hundred men. There was another palace that contained

a number of men and women of monstrous size, and also dwarfs, and

crooked and ill-formed persons, each of which had their separate

apartments. These also had their respective keepers. As to the other

remarkable things that the ruler had in his city for amusement, I can

only say that they were numerous and of various kinds.

He was served in the following manner. Every day as soon as it was

light, six hundred nobles and men of rank were in attendance at the

palace, who either sat or walked about the halls and galleries, and

passed their time in conversation, but without entering the apartment

where his person was. The servants and attendants of these nobles

remained in the courtyards, of which there were two or three of great

extent, and in the adjoining street, which was also spacious. They all

remained in attendance from morning until night; and when his meals

were served, the nobles were likewise served with equal profusion, and

their {161} servants and secretaries also had their allowance. Daily

his larder and wine-cellar were open to all who wished to eat and

drink. The meals were served by three or four hundred youths, who

brought on an infinite variety of dishes; indeed, whenever he dined or

supped the table was loaded with every kind of flesh, fish, fruit, and

vegetables that the country provided. As the climate is cold, they put

a chafing-dish with live coals under every plate and dish to keep them

warm. The meals were served in a large hall where Muteczuma was

accustomed to eat, and the dishes quite filled the room, which was

covered with mats and kept very clean. He sat on small cushions

curiously wrought in leather. During the meals there were present, at

a little distance from him, five or six elderly caciques, to whom he

presented some of the food. And there was constantly in attendance one

of the servants, who arranged and handed the dishes, and who received

from others whatever was wanted for the supply of the table. Both at

the beginning and end of every meal, they furnished water for the

hands, and the napkins used on these occasions were never used a second

time; this was the case also with the plates and dishes, which were not

brought again, but new ones in place of them; it was also the same with

the chafing-dishes. He is also dressed every day in four different

suits, entirely new, which he never wears a second time. None of the

caciques ever enter his palace with their feet covered, and when those

for whom he sends enter his presence, they incline their heads and look

down, bending their bodies; and when they address him they do not look

in his face; this arises from excessive modesty and reverence.

Whenever Muteczuma appeared in public, which was seldom the case, all

those who {162} accompanied him or whom he accidentally met in the

streets, turned away without looking toward him, and others prostrated

themselves until he passed. One of the nobles always preceded him on

these occasions, carrying three slender rods erect, which I suppose was

to give notice of the approach of his person. And when they descended

from the litters, he took one of them in his hands, and held it until

he reached the places where he was going. So many and various were the

ceremonies and customs observed by those in the service of Muteczuma,

that more space than I can spare would be required for the details, as

well as a better memory than I have to recollect them; since no sultan

or other infidel lord, of whom any knowledge now exists, ever had so

much ceremonial in their courts.

VII. The Meeting with Montezuma

It was early in the morning of November the 8th, 1519, when Cortes, at

the head of his little army, rode over one of the long causeways and

into the city to his first meeting with Montezuma. As no one can tell

better than he what happened, I here insert his own account of the

episode:

"The next day after my arrival at this city, I departed on my route,

and having proceeded half a league, I entered upon a causeway that

extends two leagues through the centre of the salt lake, until it

reaches the great city of Temixtitan (Mexico), which is built in the

middle of the lake. . . .

"I pursued my course over the above-mentioned causeway, and having

proceeded half a league before arriving at the body of the city of

Temixtitan, I found {163} at its intersection with another causeway,

which extends from this point to terra firma, a very strong fortress

with two towers, surrounded by a double wall, twelve feet in height,

with an embattled parapet, which commands the two causeways, and has

only two gates, one for the entering and the other for departure.

There came to meet me at this place nearly a thousand of the principal

inhabitants of the great city, all uniformly dressed according to their

custom in very rich costumes; and as soon as they had come within

speaking distance, each one, as he approached me, performed a

salutation in much use among them, by placing his hand upon the ground

and kissing it; and thus I was kept waiting about an hour, until all

had performed the ceremony. Connected with the city is a wooden bridge

ten paces wide, where the causeway is open to allow the water free

ingress and egress, as it rises and falls; and also for the security of

the city, as they can remove the long and wide beams of which the

bridge is formed, and replace them whenever they wish; and there are

many such bridges in different parts of the city, as Your Highness will

perceive hereafter from the particular account I shall give of it.

"When we had passed the bridge, the Señor Muteczuma came out to receive

us, attended by about two hundred nobles, all barefooted, and dressed

in livery, or a peculiar garb of fine cotton, richer than is usually

worn; they came in two processions in close proximity to the houses on

each side of the street, which is very wide and beautiful, and so

straight that you can see from one end of it to the other, although it

is two-thirds of a league in length, having on both sides large and

elegant houses and temples. Muteczuma came through {164} the centre of

the street, attended by two lords, one upon his right and the other

upon his left hand, one of whom was the same nobleman who, as I have

mentioned, came to meet me in a litter, and the other was the brother

of Muteczuma, lord of the city of Iztapalapa, which I had left the same

day; all three were dressed in the same manner, except that Muteczuma

wore shoes, while the others were without them. He was supported in

the arms of both, and as we approached, I alighted and advanced alone

to salute him; but the two attendant lords stopped me to prevent my

touching him, and they and he both performed the ceremony of kissing

the ground; after which he directed his brother who accompanied him to

remain with me; the latter accordingly took me by the arm, while

Muteczuma, with his other attendant, walked a short distance in front

of me, and after he had spoken to me, all the other nobles also came up

to address me, and then went away in two processions with great

regularity, one after the other, and in this manner returned to the

city. At the time I advanced to speak to Muteczuma, I took off from

myself a collar of pearls and glass diamonds, and put it around his

neck. After having proceeded along the street, one of his servants

came bringing two collars formed of shell fish, enclosed in a roll of

cloth, which were made from the shells of colored prawns or

periwinkles, held by them in great esteem; and from each collar

depended eight golden prawns, finished in a very perfect manner and

about a foot and a half in length. When these were brought Muteczuma

turned toward me and put them around my neck; he then returned along

the street in the order already described, until he reached a very

large and splendid palace, in which we were to be quartered, {165}

which had been fully prepared for our reception. He there took me by

the hand and led me into a spacious saloon, in front of which was a

court, through which we entered. Having caused me to sit down on a

piece of rich carpeting, which he had ordered to be made for himself,

he told me to await his return there, and then went away. After a

short space of time, when my people were all bestowed in their

quarters, he returned with many and various jewels of gold and silver,

feather work and five or six thousand pieces of cotton cloth, very rich

and of varied texture and finish. After having presented these to me,

he sat down on another piece of carpet they had placed for him near me,

and being seated he discoursed as follows:

"'It is now a long time since, by means of written records, we learned

from our ancestors that neither myself nor any of those who inhabit

this region were descended from its original inhabitants, but from

strangers who emigrated hither from a very distant land; and we have

also learned that a prince, whose vassals they all were, conducted our

people into these parts, and then returned to his native land. He

afterward came again to this country, after the lapse of much time, and

found that his people had inter-married with the native inhabitants, by

whom they had many children, and had built towns in which they resided;

and when he desired them to return with him, they were unwilling to go,

nor were they disposed to acknowledge him as their sovereign; so he

departed from the country, and we have always heard that his

descendants would come to conquer this land and reduce us to subjection

as his vassals; and according to the direction from which you say you

have come, namely the quarter where the sun rises, and from what {166}

you say of the great lord or king who sent you hither, we believe and

are assured that he is our natural sovereign, especially as you say

that it is a long time since you first had knowledge of us. Therefore,

be assured that we will obey you, and acknowledge you for our sovereign

in place of the great lord whom you mention, and that there shall be no

default or deception on our part. And you have the power in all this

land, I mean wherever my power extends, to command what is your

pleasure, and it shall be done in obedience thereto, and all that we

have is at your disposal. And since you are in your own proper land

and your own house, rest and refresh yourself after the toils of your

journey, and the conflicts in which you have been engaged, which have

been brought upon you, as I well know, by all the people from

Puntunchan to this place; and I am aware that the Cempoallans and the

Tlascalans have told you much evil of me, but believe no more than you

see with your own eyes, especially from those who are my enemies, some

of whom were once my subjects, and having rebelled upon your arrival,

make these statements to ingratiate themselves in your favor. These

people, I know, have informed you that I possessed houses with walls of

gold, and that my carpets and other things in common use were of the

texture of gold; and that I was a god, or made myself one, and many

other such things. The houses, as you see, are of stone and lime and

earth.' And then he opened his robes and showed his person to me,

saying: 'You see that I am composed of flesh and bone like yourself,

and that I am mortal and palpable to the touch,' at the same time

pinching his arms and body with his hands. 'See,' he continued, 'how

they have deceived you. It is true that I have some things of gold,

which {167} my ancestors have left me; all that I have is at your

service whenever you wish it. I am now going to my other houses where

I reside; you will be here provided with everything necessary for

yourself and your people, and will suffer no embarrassment, as you are

in your own house and country.' I answered him in respect to all that

he had said, expressing my acknowledgments, and adding whatever the

occasion seemed to demand, especially endeavoring to confirm him in the

belief that Your Majesty was the sovereign they had looked for; and

after this he took his leave, and having gone, we were liberally

supplied with fowls, bread, fruits and other things required for the

use of our quarters. In this way I was for six days amply provided

with all that was necessary, and visited by many of the nobility."

It throws a somewhat amusing light on the interview when we note that

the presents exchanged were of great value on Montezuma's part, while

the gift of Cortes was a collar of cheap imitation diamonds!

The emotions of the Spaniards at this singular meeting between the

immeasurable distance of the past and present were so strong that even

the rough soldier felt it. "And when we beheld," says Bernal Diaz, "so

many cities and towns rising up from the water, and other populous

places situated on the terra firma, and that causeway, straight as a

level, which went into Mexico, we remained astonished, and said to one

another that it appeared like the enchanted castles which they tell of

in the book of Amadis, by reason of the great towers, temples, and

edifices which there were in the water, all of them work of masonry.

Some of our soldiers asked if this that they saw was not a thing in a

dream."

{168}

Fiske thus felicitously alludes to it: "It may be well called the most

romantic moment in all history, this moment when European eyes first

rested upon that city of wonders, the chief ornament of a stage of

social evolution two full ethnical periods behind their own. To say

that it was like stepping back across the centuries to visit the

Nineveh of Sennacherib or hundred-gated Thebes, is but inadequately to

depict the situation, for it was a longer step than that. Such chances

do not come twice to mankind, for when two grades of culture so widely

severed are brought into contact, the stronger is apt to blight and

crush the weaker where it does not amend and transform it. In spite of

its foul abominations, one sometimes feels that one would like to

recall the extinct state of society in order to study it. The devoted

lover of history, who ransacks all sciences for aid toward

understanding the course of human events, who knows in what unexpected

ways one progress often illustrates other stages, will sometimes wish

it were possible to resuscitate, even for one brief year, the vanished

City of the Cactus Rock. Could such a work of enchantment be

performed, however, our first feeling would doubtless be one of

ineffable horror and disgust, like that of the knight in the old

English ballad, who, folding in his arms a damsel of radiant beauty,

finds himself in the embrace of a loathsome fiend."

What the emotions of the Mexicans were we have no account, but it is

not difficult to imagine them. Amazement as at the visitation of a

god, fear begot of this gross superstition, apprehension of what might

be the result of the coming of these strange monsters, curiosity

mingled with admiration; and as they looked at the long lines of

fierce, dauntless, implacable {169} Tlascalans who accompanied the

Spaniards, their hereditary enemies, there must have swelled in their

savage breasts feelings of deep and bitter hatred.

Outwardly, however, all was calm. The Spaniards marched through the

flower-decked streets to the great palace of Ayxacatl, which had been

assigned to them as a residence, and which was spacious and commodious

enough to take them all in, bag and baggage, including their savage

allies. It is one of the singular contradictions of the Aztec

character that with all of their brutal religion and barbarism, they

were passionately fond of flowers and like other barbarians rejoiced in

color. "Flowers were used in many of the religious festivals, and

there is abundant evidence, moreover, that the Mexicans were very fond

of them. This is illustrated in the perpetual reference to flowers in

old Mexican poems: 'They led me within a valley to a fertile spot, a

flowery spot, where the dew spread out in glistening splendor, where I

saw various lovely fragrant flowers, lovely odorous flowers, clothed

with the dew, scattered around in rainbow glory; there they said to me,

'Pluck the flowers, whichever thou wishest; mayst thou, the singer, be

glad, and give them to thy friends, to the chiefs, that they may

rejoice on the earth.' So I gathered in the folds of my garments the

various fragrant flowers, delicate, scented, delicious.'"

The will of Montezuma was supreme. Nothing dimmed the warmth and

generosity of his splendid hospitality. There were no frowning looks,

no mutterings of discontent, everything was joyous and pleasant, at

least outwardly, yet not one of the Christians was blind to the peril

in which he stood, or doubted that the least accident might precipitate

an outbreak {170} which would sweep them all from off the face of the

earth.

For six days the Spaniards remained the guests of the Mexican Emperor.

Visits were exchanged, religious discussions were indulged in, and

Cortes was only constrained from overthrowing their idols in the

temples which he visited, and substituting Christian emblems therein by

force, by the prudent counsel of the worthy priests, men remarkable for

their wisdom and their statesmanship, who accompanied him. Continual

efforts were made to convert Montezuma, but without results.

That monarch, who was of a cheerful and jovial nature, professed great

friendship for and interest in the Spaniards, whom he often visited and

to whom he accorded many privileges. Such a condition of affairs,

however, could not last very long. The suspense was intolerable to a

man of action like Cortes and to the men who followed him as well.

They were not good waiters. Something had to be done.

Into the mind of this Spanish soldier of fortune there leaped a bold

design. He decided upon a course of action, as amazing in its

character, so far-reaching in its result, that its conception and its

execution almost thrust him into the ranks of the demi-gods. This

project was nothing less than the seizure of the person of Montezuma in

the midst of his capital, a city of three hundred thousand people,

among whom were thousands of fierce and highly trained veteran warriors

who counted their lives as nothing in the Emperor's need. Undoubtedly

such an action was the basest of treachery, but Cortes had put himself

in such a position that the nakedness of such an action did not prevail

with him for a moment. He quieted his conscience with the {171} old

reasoning that Montezuma was a heathen, and that oaths to him were by

no means binding.

Whether he quieted his conscience or not, something was necessary. He

could not retire from Mexico after this ostensibly friendly visit.

Such a withdrawal would not have suited his purposes at all, and it was

more than possible that the moment he turned his back on the Aztec

capital, he would be forced to fight for his life against conditions

which would leave him little or no possibility of escape. It was

really Montezuma's life and liberty or Cortes' life and liberty. In

such an alternative, there was no hesitation.

VIII. The Seizure of the Emperor

Occasion was soon found for the seizure. A chief on the sea coast had

attacked and killed some of the men left at Vera Cruz. It was alleged

that this was done by the orders of Montezuma. Cortes accompanied by

the hardiest and bravest of his companions, and after a night of

prayer--singular with what good consciences they could pray for the

success of the most nefarious undertaking!--visited Montezuma, and

accused him of having instigated the crime. Montezuma denied it, and

despatched messengers to the offending cacique, directing that he be

put under close arrest and brought to the capital. This was all any

reasonable man could expect, but Cortes and his companions were not

reasonable.

In spite of the fact that the prompt action of the Aztec had deprived

them of the faintest pretext, they nevertheless at last declared to the

unhappy monarch that he must accompany them to the pueblo, which he had

assigned to them, and remain in the custody of {172} the Spaniards

until the matter had been decided. In vain Montezuma protested. His

situation was unfortunate. He was surrounded by an intrepid body of

steel-clad Spaniards, and although the room was filled with officers,

courtiers and soldiers, he realized--indeed he was bluntly told--that

the first act of hostility against the Spaniards would result in his

immediate death. He made a virtue of a necessity, and complied with

the Spaniards' demand. Forbidding his subjects, who were moved to

tears--tears of rage and anger, most probably--to assist him, he

submitted himself to the will of his captors, and went away with them.

He had to go or he would have died then and there. Far better would it

have been if he had chosen the nobler course, both for his fame and his

empire.

The affairs of the government were carried on as usual by Montezuma, to

whom his officers and his counsellors had free access. Cortes even

permitted him to go to the Temple on occasion for the ordinary worship,

but in every instance he was accompanied and practically surrounded by

a body of one hundred completely armed and thoroughly resolute

Spaniards. Cortes did not attempt to interfere in the least degree

with the national administration, although it was patent to everybody

that as he held the person of the Emperor, he could also command, if he

so elected, the power of the empire.

Meanwhile, the Cacique Quahpopoca, who was guilty of the murder of the

Spaniards on the coast, was brought into Mexico two weeks after the

seizure of Montezuma. With a loyalty touchingly beautiful, he promptly

declared that he had acted upon his own responsibility and that

Montezuma had had {173} nothing whatever to do with it, which was, of

course, highly improbable. The official clearing of Montezuma was

complete; nevertheless, despite the testimony of Quahpopoca, Cortes

actually put the Mexican monarch in double irons. It is true, the

irons were removed almost immediately, and he was treated as he had

been during his two weeks' captivity, with the greatest possible

respect and deference, but the irons had not merely clasped the wrists

and ankles of the unfortunate Aztec. They had entered his soul.

Quahpopoca was burned in the public square. The heaping fagots which

surrounded the stake were made of javelins and spears collected by

Cortes with intrepid audacity and far-seeing prudence, from the public

armory. Vast numbers of them were used. The populace looked on in

sullen and gloomy silence. Montezuma was not merely the ruler of the

country, but in some senses he was a deity, and his capture, together

with the capture of the great lords of his family, who, under ordinary

circumstances would have succeeded to his throne, paralyzed the

national, social, political and religious organization.

Cortes actually held his captive in this way until spring. The

intervening months were not wasted. Expeditions were sent to all parts

of the country to ascertain its resources and report upon them, so

that, when the Spaniards took over the government, they would be

prepared to administer it wisely and well. No such prudent and

statesmanlike policy was inaugurated by any other conqueror. Cortes in

this particular stands absolutely alone among the great adventurers,

Spanish and otherwise. He was not a mere plunderer of the people, he

was laying a foundation for an empire. Vast treasures were,

nevertheless, collected. {174} Messengers were despatched to Charles

V. with the letters which have already been quoted and with the royal

share of the booty, which was great enough to insure them a favorable

reception.