CITY OF CHOLULA--GREAT TEMPLE--MARCH TO CHOLULA--RECEPTION OF THE
SPANIARDS--CONSPIRACY DETECTED
1519
The ancient city of Cholula, capital of the republic of that name, lay
nearly six leagues south of Tlascala, and about twenty east, or rather
southeast, of Mexico. It was said by Cortés to contain twenty thousand
houses within the walls, and as many more in the environs;[187] though
now dwindled to a population of less than sixteen thousand souls.[188]
Whatever was its real number of inhabitants, it was unquestionably, at
the time of the Conquest, one of the most populous and flourishing
cities in New Spain.
It was of great antiquity, and was founded by the primitive races who
overspread the land before the Aztecs.[189] We have few particulars of
its form of government, which seems to have been cast on a republican
model similar to that of Tlascala.{*} This answered so well that the
state maintained its independence down to a very late period, when, if
not reduced to vassalage by the Aztecs, it was so far under their
control as to enjoy few of the benefits of a separate political
existence. Their connection with Mexico brought the Cholulans into
frequent collision with their neighbors and kindred the Tlascalans. But,
although far superior to them in refinement and the various arts of
civilization, they were no match in war for the bold mountaineers, the
Swiss of Anahuac. The Cholulan capital was the great commercial emporium
of the plateau. The inhabitants excelled in various mechanical arts,
especially that of working in metals, the manufacture of cotton and
agave cloths, and of a delicate kind of pottery, rivalling, it was said,
that of Florence in beauty.[190] But such attention to the arts of a
polished and peaceful community naturally indisposed them to war, and
disqualified them for coping with those who made war the great business
of life. The Cholulans were accused of effeminacy, and were less
distinguished--it is the charge of their rivals--by their courage than
their cunning.[191]
{*} [The older authorities agree in stating that Cholula was
democratically governed. Bandelier (Studies about Cholula and its
Vicinity, in his Report of an Archæological Tour in Mexico in 1881)
concludes that there were in the community six kins. Torquemada says the
tribal council consisted of six speakers. The tribe was governed by two
chief executives (called Aquiach and Tlalquiach). Their functions were
partly warlike, as is evidenced by their appellations “eagle” and
“tiger,” and partly religious. The tribe occupied one large pueblo, with
a few smaller groups, possibly twenty, scattered about it, of which
perhaps two deserved the title of villages. The population of the pueblo
may have been 30,000 in 1519. The estimate of houses which Cortés gives
is too large. Moreover, a large number of houses in each pueblo was
always unoccupied.--M.]
But the capital, so conspicuous for its refinement and its great
antiquity, was even more venerable for the religious traditions which
invested it. It was here that the god Quetzalcoatl paused in his passage
to the coast, and passed twenty years in teaching the Toltec inhabitants
the arts of civilization. He made them acquainted with better forms of
government, and a more spiritualized religion, in which the only
sacrifices were the fruits and flowers of the season.[192] It is not
easy to determine what he taught, since his lessons have been so mingled
with the licentious dogmas of his own priests and the mystic
commentaries of the Christian missionary.[193] It is probable that he
was one of those rare and gifted beings who, dissipating the darkness
of the age by the illumination of their own genius, are deified by a
grateful posterity and placed among the lights of heaven.
It was in honor of this benevolent deity that the stupendous mound{*}
was erected on which the traveller still gazes with admiration as the
most colossal fabric in New Spain, rivalling in dimensions, and somewhat
resembling in form, the pyramidal structures of ancient Egypt. The date
of its erection is unknown; for it was found there when the Aztecs
entered on the plateau. It had the form common to the Mexican
_teocallis_, that of a truncated pyramid, facing with its four sides the
cardinal points, and divided into the same number of terraces. Its
original outlines, however, have been effaced by the action of time and
of the elements, while the exuberant growth of shrubs and wild flowers,
which have mantled over its surface, give it the appearance of one of
those symmetrical elevations thrown up by the caprice of nature rather
than by the industry of man. It is doubtful indeed, whether the interior
be not a natural hill; though it seems not improbable that it is an
artificial composition of stone and earth, deeply incrusted, as is
certain, in every part, with alternate strata of brick and clay.[194]
In the teacher himself they recognize no less a person than St.
Thomas the Apostle! See the Dissertation of the irrefragable Dr.
Mier, with an edifying commentary by Señor Bustamante, ap. Sahagun.
(Hist. de Nueva-España, tom. i., Suplemento.) The reader will find
further particulars of this matter in the essay on the Origin of
the Mexican Civilization, at the end of the first book of this
history.
{*} [The most careful measurements of the great mound, or “pyramid,”
were those made by Bandelier in 1881. He found the base to be a trapeze.
North line, 1000 feet; east line, 1026 feet; south line, 833 feet; west
line, 1000 feet; total, 3859 feet. This would give an approximate area
of over twenty acres for the base. Measuring the height of the mound
from each of its four sides, he found the average altitude to be 169
feet. There is not a trace of aboriginal work upon the summit. The
structure was built long before the Nahuatl period. It was not erected
at one time, but grew as necessity ordered. It was a place of refuge and
its top was used as a place of worship.--M.]
The perpendicular height of the pyramid is one hundred and seventy-seven
feet. Its base is one thousand four hundred and twenty-three feet long,
twice as long as that of the great pyramid of Cheops. It may give some
idea of its dimensions to state that its base, which is square, covers
about forty-four acres, and the platform on its truncated summit
embraces more than one. It reminds us of those colossal monuments of
brickwork which are still seen in ruins on the banks of the Euphrates,
and, in much higher preservation, on those of the Nile.[195]
On the summit stood a sumptuous temple, in which was the image of the
mystic deity, “god of the air,” with ebon features, unlike the fair
complexion which he bore upon earth, wearing a mitre on his head waving
with _plumes of fire_, with a resplendent collar of gold round his neck,
pendants of mosaic turquoise in his ears, a jewelled sceptre in one
hand, and a shield curiously painted, the emblem of his rule over the
winds, in the other.[196] The sanctity of the place, hallowed by hoary
tradition, and the magnificence of the temple and its services, made it
an object of veneration throughout the land, and pilgrims from the
farthest corners of Anahuac came to offer up their devotions at the
shrine of Quetzalcoatl.[197] The number of these was so great as to give
an air of mendicity to the motley population of the city; and Cortés,
struck with the novelty, tells us that he saw multitudes of beggars,
such as are to be found in the enlightened capitals of Europe;[198]--a
whimsical criterion of civilization, which must place our own prosperous
land somewhat low in the scale.
Cholula was not the resort only of the indigent devotee. Many of the
kindred races had temples of their own in the city, in the same manner
as some Christian nations have in Rome, and each temple was provided
with its own peculiar ministers for the service of the deity to whom it
was consecrated. In no city was there seen such a concourse of priests,
so many processions, such pomp of ceremonial, sacrifice, and religious
festivals. Cholula was, in short, what Mecca is among Mahometans, or
Jerusalem among Christians; it was the Holy City of Anahuac.[199]{*}
{*} [Cholula was not a “Holy City” or pilgrim resort for other tribes.
“It suffices to recall the state of intertribal warfare which prevailed
in aboriginal Mexico to establish the utter fallacy of this
pretension.... Even the preëminence which Quetzalcohuatl, the chief idol
of Cholula, is said to have enjoyed over the whole of Central Mexico is
vigorously denied by the Indians of Tlascala and of the Mexican valley
itself.” Cholula was a great mart of trade and crowds flocked to it
because of that fact. Outside Indians were accustomed to bring presents
to its chief idol. See Bandelier, Arch. Tour, pp. 168, 169.--M.]
The religious rites were not performed, however, in the pure spirit
originally prescribed by its tutelary deity. His altars, as well as
those of the numerous Aztec gods, were stained with human blood; and six
thousand victims _are said_ to have been annually offered up at their
sanguinary shrines![200] The great number of these may be estimated from
the declaration of Cortés that he counted four hundred towers in the
city;[201] yet no temple had more than two, many only one. High above
the rest rose the great “pyramid of Cholula,” with its undying fires
flinging their radiance far and wide over the capital, and proclaiming
to the nations that there was the mystic worship--alas! how corrupted by
cruelty and superstition!--of the good deity who was one day to return
and resume his empire over the land.
Nothing could be more grand than the view which met the eye from the
area on the truncated summit of the pyramid. Towards the west stretched
that bold barrier of porphyritic rock which nature has reared around the
Valley of Mexico, with the huge Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl standing
like two colossal sentinels to guard the entrance to the enchanted
region. Far away to the east was seen the conical head of Orizaba
soaring high into the clouds and nearer, the barren though
beautifully-shaped Sierra de la Malinche, throwing its broad shadows
over the plains of Tlascala. Three of these are volcanoes higher than
the highest mountain-peak in Europe, and shrouded in snows which never
melt under the fierce sun of the tropics. At the foot of the
spectator{*} lay the sacred city of Cholula, with its bright towers and
pinnacles sparkling in the sun, reposing amidst gardens and verdant
groves, which then thickly studded the cultivated environs of the
capital. Such was the magnificent prospect which met the gaze of the
Conquerors, and may still, with slight change, meet that of the modern
traveller, as from the platform of the great pyramid his eye wanders
over the fairest portion of the beautiful plateau of Puebla.[202]
{*} [Bandelier (Gilded Man, p. 259) shows that the spectator who stood
on the “truncated summit of the pyramid” was standing upon a structure
which had long been in ruins, and which was covered with bushes when
Cortés passed through the country. On the summit was a “little ancient
temple.” There was no trace of a large building, and the pyramid looked
so much like a wooded hill that the Conquerors regarded it as a natural
elevation. No pinnacles sparkled in the sun, because the architecture of
the natives did not include those features. The houses were for the most
part only one story high, and were whitewashed.--M.]
But it is time to return to Tlascala. On the appointed morning the
Spanish army took up its march to Mexico by the way of Cholula. It was
followed by crowds of the citizens, filled with admiration at the
intrepidity of men who, so few in number, would venture to brave the
great Montezuma in his capital. Yet an immense body of warriors offered
to share the dangers of the expedition; but Cortés, while he showed his
gratitude for their good will, selected only six thousand of the
volunteers to bear him company.[203] He was unwilling to encumber
himself with an unwieldy force that might impede his movements, and
probably did not care to put himself so far in the power of allies whose
attachment was too recent to afford sufficient guarantee for their
fidelity.
After crossing some rough and hilly ground, the army entered on the wide
plain which spreads out for miles around Cholula. At the elevation of
more than six thousand feet above the sea, they beheld the rich products
of various climes growing side by side, fields of towering maize, the
juicy aloe, the _chilli_ or Aztec pepper, and large plantations of the
cactus, on which the brilliant cochineal is nourished. Not a rood of
land but was under cultivation;[204] and the soil--an uncommon thing on
the table-land--was irrigated by numerous streams and canals, and well
shaded by woods, that have disappeared before the rude axe of the
Spaniards. Towards evening they reached a small stream, on the banks of
which Cortés determined to take up his quarters for the night, being
unwilling to disturb the tranquillity of the city by introducing so
large a force into it at an unseasonable hour.
Here he was soon joined by a number of Cholulan caciques and their
attendants, who came to view and welcome the strangers. When they saw
their Tlascalan enemies in the camp, however, they exhibited signs of
displeasure, and intimated an apprehension that their presence in the
town might occasion disorder. The remonstrance seemed reasonable to
Cortés, and he accordingly commanded his allies to remain in their
present quarters, and to join him as he left the city on the way to
Mexico.
On the following morning he made his entrance at the head of his army
into Cholula, attended by no other Indians than those from Cempoalla,
and a handful of Tlascalans, to take charge of the baggage. His allies,
at parting, gave him many cautions respecting the people he was to
visit, who, while they affected to despise them as a nation of traders,
employed the dangerous arms of perfidy and cunning. As the troops drew
near the city, the road was lined with swarms of people of both sexes
and every age, old men tottering with infirmity, women with children in
their arms, all eager to catch a glimpse of the strangers, whose
persons, weapons, and horses were objects of intense curiosity to eyes
which had not hitherto ever encountered them in battle. The Spaniards,
in turn, were filled with admiration at the aspect of the Cholulans,
much superior in dress and general appearance to the nations they had
hitherto seen. They were particularly struck with the costume of the
higher classes, who wore fine embroidered mantles, resembling the
graceful _albornoz_, or Moorish cloak, in their texture and
fashion.[205] They showed the same delicate taste for flowers as the
other tribes of the plateau, decorating their persons with them, and
tossing garlands and bunches among the soldiers. An immense number of
priests mingled with the crowd, swinging their aromatic censers, while
music from various kinds of instruments gave a lively welcome to the
visitors, and made the whole scene one of gay, bewildering enchantment.
If it did not have the air of a triumphal procession so much as at
Tlascala, where the melody of instruments was drowned by the shouts of
the multitude, it gave a quiet assurance of hospitality and friendly
feeling not less grateful.
The Spaniards were also struck with the cleanliness of the city, the
width and great regularity of the streets, which seemed to have been
laid out on a settled plan, with the solidity of the houses, and the
number and size of the pyramidal temples.{*} In the court of one of
these, and its surrounding buildings, they were quartered.[206]
{*} [“According to tradition Cortés was lodged in the present
southwestern quarter of the city, which is now called Santa Maria
Tecpan, the Tecpan being the communal house where strange visitors were
received. In the middle of the quarter there still stands, in the
Calle-de-Herreros, an ancient portal, with the inscription in the
Nahuatl language and Latin letters, ‘Here stood the Tecpan, where now is
the house of Antonio de la Cruz.’” Bandelier, Gilded Man, p. 272.--M.]
They were soon visited by the principal lords of the place, who seemed
solicitous to provide them with accommodations. Their table was
plentifully supplied, and, in short, they experienced such attentions as
were calculated to dissipate their suspicions, and made them impute
those of their Tlascalan friends to prejudice and old national
hostility.
In a few days the scene changed. Messengers arrived from Montezuma, who,
after a short and unpleasant intimation to Cortés that his approach
occasioned much disquietude to their master, conferred separately with
the Mexican ambassadors still in the Castilian camp, and then departed,
taking one of the latter along with them. From this time the deportment
of their Cholulan hosts underwent a visible alteration. They did not
visit the quarters as before, and, when invited to do so, excused
themselves on pretence of illness. The supply of provisions was stinted,
on the ground that they were short of maize. These symptoms of
alienation, independently of temporary embarrassment, caused serious
alarm in the breast of Cortés, for the future. His apprehensions were
not allayed by the reports of the Cempoallans, who told him that in
wandering round the city they had seen several streets barricadoed, the
_azoteas_, or flat roofs of the houses, loaded with huge stones and
other missiles,{*} as if preparatory to an assault, and in some places
they had found holes covered over with branches, and upright stakes
planted within, as if to embarrass the movements of the cavalry.[207]
Some Tlascalans coming in, also, from their camp, informed the general
that a great sacrifice, mostly of children, had been offered up in a
distant quarter of the town, to propitiate the favor of the gods,
apparently for some intended enterprise. They added that they had seen
numbers of the citizens leaving the city with their women and children,
as if to remove them to a place of safety. These tidings confirmed the
worst suspicions of Cortés, who had no doubt that some hostile scheme
was in agitation. If he had felt any, a discovery by Marina, the good
angel of the expedition, would have turned these doubts into certainty.
{*} [But there were always heaps of stones and other missiles kept for
defence on the flat roofs of the houses in the unwalled cities.--M.]
The amiable manners of the Indian girl had won her the regard of the
wife of one of the caciques, who repeatedly urged Marina to visit her
house, darkly intimating that in this way she would escape the fate that
awaited the Spaniards. The interpreter, seeing the importance of
obtaining further intelligence at once, pretended to be pleased with
the proposal, and affected, at the same time, great discontent with the
white men, by whom she was detained in captivity. Thus throwing the
credulous Cholulan off her guard, Marina gradually insinuated herself
into her confidence, so far as to draw from her a full account of the
conspiracy.
It originated, she said, with the Aztec emperor, who had sent rich
bribes to the great caciques, and to her husband among others, to secure
them in his views. The Spaniards were to be assaulted as they marched
out of the capital, when entangled in its streets, in which numerous
impediments had been placed to throw the cavalry into disorder. A force
of twenty thousand Mexicans was already quartered at no great distance
from the city, to support the Cholulans in the assault. It was
confidently expected that the Spaniards, thus embarrassed in their
movements, would fall an easy prey to the superior strength of their
enemy. A sufficient number of prisoners was to be reserved to grace the
sacrifices of Cholula; the rest were to be led in fetters to the capital
of Montezuma.
While this conversation was going on, Marina occupied herself with
putting up such articles of value and wearing apparel as she proposed to
take with her in the evening, when she could escape unnoticed from the
Spanish quarters to the house of her Cholulan friend, who assisted her
in the operation. Leaving her visitor thus employed, Marina found an
opportunity to steal away for a few moments, and, going to the general’s
apartment, disclosed to him her discoveries. He immediately caused the
cacique’s wife to be seized, and, on examination, she fully confirmed
the statement of his Indian mistress.
The intelligence thus gathered by Cortés filled him with the deepest
alarm. He was fairly taken in the snare. To fight or to fly seemed
equally difficult. He was in a city of enemies, where every house might
be converted into a fortress, and where such embarrassments were thrown
in the way as might render the manœuvres of his artillery and horse
nearly impracticable. In addition to the wily Cholulans, he must cope,
under all these disadvantages, with the redoubtable warriors of Mexico.
He was like a traveller who has lost his way in the darkness among
precipices, where any step may dash him to pieces, and where to retreat
or to advance is equally perilous.
He was desirous to obtain still further confirmation and particulars of
the conspiracy. He accordingly induced two of the priests in the
neighborhood, one of them a person of much influence in the place, to
visit his quarters. By courteous treatment, and liberal largesses of the
rich presents he had received from Montezuma,--thus turning his own
gifts against the giver,--he drew from them a full confirmation of the
previous report. The emperor had been in a state of pitiable vacillation
since the arrival of the Spaniards. His first orders to the Cholulans
were to receive the strangers kindly. He had recently consulted his
oracles anew, and obtained for answer that Cholula would be the grave of
his enemies; for the gods would be sure to support him in avenging the
sacrilege offered to the Holy City. So confident were the Aztecs of
success, that numerous manacles, or poles with thongs which served as
such, were already in the place to secure the prisoners.
Cortés, now feeling himself fully possessed of the facts, dismissed the
priests, with injunctions of secrecy, scarcely necessary. He told them
it was his purpose to leave the city on the following morning, and
requested that they would induce some of the principal caciques to grant
him an interview in his quarters. He then summoned a council of his
officers, though, as it seems, already determined as to the course he
was to take.
The members of the council were differently affected by the startling
intelligence, according to their different characters. The more timid,
disheartened by the prospect of obstacles which seemed to multiply as
they drew nearer the Mexican capital, were for retracing their steps and
seeking shelter in the friendly city of Tlascala. Others, more
persevering, but prudent, were for taking the more northerly route,
originally recommended by their allies. The greater part supported the
general, who was ever of opinion that they had no alternative but to
advance. Retreat would be ruin. Half-way measures were scarcely better,
and would infer a timidity which must discredit them with both friend
and foe. Their true policy was to rely on themselves,--to strike such a
blow as should intimidate their enemies and show them that the Spaniards
were as incapable of being circumvented by artifice as of being crushed
by weight of numbers and courage in the open field.
When the caciques, persuaded by the priests, appeared before Cortés, he
contented himself with gently rebuking their want of hospitality, and
assured them the Spaniards would be no longer a burden to their city, as
he proposed to leave it early on the following morning. He requested,
moreover, that they would furnish a reinforcement of two thousand men to
transport his artillery and baggage. The chiefs, after some
consultation, acquiesced in a demand which might in some measure favor
their own designs.
On their departure, the general summoned the Aztec ambassadors before
him. He briefly acquainted them with his detection of the treacherous
plot to destroy his army, the contrivance of which, he said, was imputed
to their master, Montezuma. It grieved him much, he added, to find the
emperor implicated in so nefarious a scheme, and that the Spaniards must
now march as enemies against the prince whom they had hoped to visit as
a friend.
The ambassadors, with earnest protestations, asserted their entire
ignorance of the conspiracy, and their belief that Montezuma was equally
innocent of a crime which they charged wholly on the Cholulans. It was
clearly the policy of Cortés to keep on good terms with the Indian
monarch, to profit as long as possible by his good offices, and to avail
himself of his fancied security--such feelings of security as the
general could inspire him with--to cover his own future operations. He
affected to give credit, therefore, to the assertion of the envoys, and
declared his unwillingness to believe that a monarch who had rendered
the Spaniards so many friendly offices would now consummate the whole by
a deed of such unparalleled baseness. The discovery of their twofold
duplicity, he added, sharpened his resentment against the Cholulans, on
whom he would take such vengeance as should amply requite the injuries
done both to Montezuma and the Spaniards. He then dismissed the
ambassadors, taking care, notwithstanding this show of confidence, to
place a strong guard over them, to prevent communication with the
citizens.[208]
That night was one of deep anxiety to the army. The ground they stood on
seemed loosening beneath their feet, and any moment might be the one
marked for their destruction. Their vigilant general took all possible
precautions for their safety, increasing the number of the sentinels,
and posting his guns in such a manner as to protect the approaches to
the camp. His eyes, it may well be believed, did not close during the
night. Indeed, every Spaniard lay down in his arms, and every horse
stood saddled and bridled, ready for instant service. But no assault was
meditated by the Indians, and the stillness of the hour was undisturbed
except by the occasional sounds, heard in a populous city, even when
buried in slumber, and by the hoarse cries of the priests from the
turrets of the _teocallis_, proclaiming through their trumpets the
watches of the night.[209]