MARCH RESUMED--ASCENT OF THE GREAT VOLCANO--VALLEY OF
MEXICO--IMPRESSION ON THE SPANIARDS--CONDUCT OF MONTEZUMA--THEY
DESCEND INTO THE VALLEY
1519
Everything being now restored to quiet in Cholula, the allied army of
Spaniards and Tlascalans set forward in high spirits, and resumed the
march on Mexico. The road lay through the beautiful savannas and
luxuriant plantations that spread out for several leagues in every
direction. On the march, they were met occasionally by embassies from
the neighboring places, anxious to claim the protection of the white
men, and to propitiate them by gifts, especially of gold, their appetite
for which was generally known throughout the country.
Some of these places were allies of the Tlascalans, and all showed much
discontent with the oppressive rule of Montezuma. The natives cautioned
the Spaniards against putting themselves in his power by entering his
capital; and they stated, as evidence of his hostile disposition, that
he had caused the direct road to it to be blocked up, that the
strangers might be compelled to choose another, which, from its narrow
passes and strong positions, would enable him to take them at great
disadvantage.
The information was not lost on Cortés, who kept a strict eye on the
movements of the Mexican envoys, and redoubled his own precautions
against surprise.[230] Cheerful and active, he was ever where his
presence was needed, sometimes in the van, at others in the rear,
encouraging the weak, stimulating the sluggish, and striving to kindle
in the breasts of others the same courageous spirit which glowed in his
own. At night he never omitted to go the rounds, to see that every man
was at his post. On one occasion his vigilance had wellnigh proved fatal
to him. He approached so near a sentinel that the man, unable to
distinguish his person in the dark, levelled his cross-bow at him, when
fortunately an exclamation of the general, who gave the watchword of the
night, arrested a movement which might else have brought the campaign to
a close and given a respite for some time longer to the empire of
Montezuma.
The army came at length to the place mentioned by the friendly Indians,
where the road forked, and one arm of it was found, as they had
foretold, obstructed with large trunks of trees, and huge stones which
had been strewn across it. Cortés inquired the meaning of this from the
Mexican ambassadors. They said it was done by the emperor’s orders, to
prevent their taking a route which, after some distance, they would find
nearly impracticable for the cavalry. They acknowledged, however, that
it was the most direct road; and Cortés, declaring that this was enough
to decide him in favor of it, as the Spaniards made no account of
obstacles, commanded the rubbish to be cleared away. Some of the timber
might still be seen by the roadside, as Bernal Diaz tells us, many years
after. The event left little doubt in the general’s mind of the
meditated treachery of the Mexicans. But he was too politic to betray
his suspicions.[231]
They were now leaving the pleasant champaign country, as the road wound
up the bold sierra which separates the great plateaus of Mexico and
Puebla. The air, as they ascended, became keen and piercing; and the
blasts, sweeping down the frozen sides of the mountains, made the
soldiers shiver in their thick harness of cotton, and benumbed the limbs
of both men and horses.
They were passing between two of the highest mountains on the North
American continent; Popocatepetl, “the hill that smokes,” and
Iztaccihuatl, or “white woman,”[232]--a name suggested, doubtless, by
the bright robe of snow spread over its broad and broken surface. A
puerile superstition of the Indians regarded these celebrated mountains
as gods, and Iztaccihuatl as the wife of her more formidable
neighbor.[233] A tradition of a higher character described the northern
volcano as the abode of the departed spirits of wicked rulers, whose
fiery agonies in their prison-house caused the fearful bellowings and
convulsions in times of eruption. It was the classic fable of
antiquity.[234] These superstitious legends had invested the mountain
with a mysterious horror, that made the natives shrink from attempting
its ascent, which, indeed, was from natural causes a work of incredible
difficulty.
The great _volcan_,[235] as Popocatepetl was called, rose to the
enormous height of 17,852 feet above the level of the sea; more than
2000 feet above the “monarch of mountains,”--the highest elevation in
Europe.[236] During the present century it has rarely given evidence of
its volcanic origin, and “the hill that smokes” has almost forfeited its
claim to the appellation. But at the time of the Conquest it was
frequently in a state of activity, and raged with uncommon fury while
the Spaniards were at Tlascala; an evil omen, it was thought, for the
natives of Anahuac. Its head, gathered into a regular cone by the
deposit of successive eruptions, wore the usual form of volcanic
mountains when not disturbed by the falling in of the crater. Soaring
towards the skies, with its silver sheet of everlasting snow, it was
seen far and wide over the broad plains of Mexico and Puebla, the first
object which the morning sun greeted in his rising, the last where his
evening rays were seen to linger, shedding a glorious effulgence over
its head, that contrasted strikingly with the ruinous waste of sand and
lava immediately below, and the deep fringe of funereal pines that
shrouded its base.
The mysterious terrors which hung over the spot, and the wild love of
adventure, made some of the Spanish cavaliers desirous to attempt the
ascent, which the natives declared no man could accomplish and live.
Cortés encouraged them in the enterprise, willing to show the Indians
that no achievement was above the dauntless daring of his followers. One
of his captains, accordingly, Diego Ordaz, with nine Spaniards, and
several Tlascalans, encouraged by their example, undertook the ascent.
It was attended with more difficulty than had been anticipated.
The lower region was clothed with a dense forest, so thickly matted that
in some places it was scarcely possible to penetrate it. It grew
thinner, however, as they advanced, dwindling by degrees into a
straggling, stunted vegetation, till, at the height of somewhat more
than thirteen thousand feet, ¡t faded away altogether. The Indians who
had held on thus far, intimidated by the strange subterraneous sounds of
the volcano, even then in a state of combustion, now left them. The
track opened on a black surface of glazed volcanic sand and of lava, the
broken fragments of which, arrested in its boiling progress in a
thousand fantastic forms, opposed continual impediments to their
advance. Amidst these, one huge rock, the _Pico del Fraile_, a
conspicuous object from below, rose to the perpendicular height of a
hundred and fifty feet, compelling them to take a wide circuit. They
soon came to the limits of perpetual snow, where new difficulties
presented themselves, as the treacherous ice gave an imperfect footing,
and a false step might precipitate them into the frozen chasms that
yawned around. To increase their distress, respiration in these aerial
regions became so difficult that every effort was attended with sharp
pains in the head and limbs. Still they pressed on, till, drawing nearer
the crater, such volumes of smoke, sparks, and cinders were belched
forth from its burning entrails, and driven down the sides of the
mountain, as nearly suffocated and blinded them. It was too much even
for their hardy frames to endure, and, however reluctantly, they were
compelled to abandon the attempt on the eve of its completion. They
brought back some huge icicles,--a curious sight in these tropical
regions,--as a trophy of their achievement, which, however imperfect,
was sufficient to strike the minds of the natives with wonder, by
showing that with the Spaniards the most appalling and mysterious
perils were only as pastimes. The undertaking was eminently
characteristic of the bold spirit of the cavalier of that day, who, not
content with the dangers that lay in his path, seemed to court them from
the mere Quixotic love of adventure. A report of the affair was
transmitted to the emperor Charles the Fifth, and the family of Ordaz
was allowed to commemorate the exploit by assuming a burning mountain on
their escutcheon.[237]
The general was not satisfied with the result. Two years after, he sent
up another party, under Francisco Montaño, a cavalier of determined
resolution. The object was to obtain sulphur to assist in making
gunpowder for the army. The mountain was quiet at this time, and the
expedition was attended with better success. The Spaniards, five in
number, climbed to the very edge of the crater, which presented an
irregular ellipse at its mouth, more than a league in circumference. Its
depth might be from eight hundred to a thousand feet. A lurid flame
burned gloomily at the bottom, sending up a sulphurous steam, which,
cooling as it rose, was precipitated on the sides of the cavity. The
party cast lots, and it fell on Montaño himself, to descend in a basket
into this hideous abyss, into which he was lowered by his companions to
the depth of four hundred feet! This was repeated several times, till
the adventurous cavalier had collected a sufficient quantity of sulphur
for the wants of the army.[238] This doughty enterprise excited general
admiration at the time. Cortés concludes his report of it to the emperor
with the judicious reflection that it would be less inconvenient, on the
whole, to import their powder from Spain.[239]
But it is time to return from our digression, which may perhaps be
excused, as illustrating, in a remarkable manner, the chimerical spirit
of enterprise--not inferior to that in his own romances of
chivalry--which glowed in the breast of the Spanish cavalier in the
sixteenth century.
The army held on its march through the intricate gorges of the sierra.
The route was nearly the same as that pursued at the present day by the
courier from the capital to Puebla, by the way of Mecameca.[240] It was
not that usually taken by travellers from Vera Cruz, who follow the more
circuitous road round the northern base of Iztaccihuatl, as less
fatiguing than the other, though inferior in picturesque scenery and
romantic points of view. The icy winds, that now swept down the sides of
the mountains, brought with them a tempest of arrowy sleet and snow,
from which the Christians suffered even more than the Tlascalans, reared
from infancy among the wild solitudes of their own native hills. As
night came on, their sufferings would have been intolerable, but they
luckily found a shelter in the commodious stone buildings which the
Mexican government had placed at stated intervals along the roads for
the accommodation of the traveller and their own couriers. It little
dreamed it was providing a protection for its enemies.
The troops, refreshed by a night’s rest, succeeded, early on the
following day, in gaining the crest of the sierra of Ahualco, which
stretches like a curtain between the two great mountains on the north
and south. Their progress was now comparatively easy, and they marched
forward with a buoyant step, as they felt they were treading the soil of
Montezuma.
They had not advanced far, when, turning an angle of the sierra, they
suddenly came on a view which more than compensated the toils of the
preceding day. It was that of the Valley of Mexico, or Tenochtitlan, as
more commonly called by the natives; which, with its picturesque
assemblage of water, woodland, and cultivated plains, its shining cities
and shadowy hills, was spread out like some gay and gorgeous panorama
before them. In the highly rarefied atmosphere of these upper regions,
even remote objects have a brilliancy of coloring and a distinctness of
outline which seem to annihilate distance.[241] Stretching far away at
their feet, were seen noble forests of oak, sycamore, and cedar, and
beyond, yellow fields of maize and the towering maguey, intermingled
with orchards and blooming gardens; for flowers, in such demand for
their religious festivals, were even more abundant in this populous
valley than in other parts of Anahuac. In the centre of the great basin
were beheld the lakes, occupying then a much larger portion of its
surface than at present; their borders thickly studded with towns and
hamlets, and, in the midst,--like some Indian empress with her coronal
of pearls,--the fair city of Mexico, with her white towers and pyramidal
temples, reposing, as it were, on the bosom of the waters,--the
far-famed “Venice of the Aztecs.” High over all rose the royal hill of
Chapoltepec, the residence of the Mexican monarchs, crowned with the
same grove of gigantic cypresses which at this day fling their broad
shadows over the land. In the distance beyond the blue waters of the
lake, and nearly screened by intervening foliage, was seen a shining
speck, the rival capital of Tezcuco, and, still farther on, the dark
belt of porphyry, girdling the Valley around, like a rich setting which
Nature had devised for the fairest of her jewels.
Such was the beautiful vision which broke on the eyes of the Conquerors.
And even now, when so sad a change has come over the scene; when the
stately forests have been laid low, and the soil, unsheltered from the
fierce radiance of a tropical sun, is in many places abandoned to
sterility; when the waters have retired, leaving a broad and ghastly
margin white with the incrustation of salts, while the cities and
hamlets on their borders have mouldered into ruins;--even now that
desolation broods over the landscape, so indestructible are the lines of
beauty which Nature has traced on its features, that no traveller,
however cold, can gaze on them with any other emotions than those of
astonishment and rapture.[242]
What, then, must have been the emotions of the Spaniards, when, after
working their toilsome way into the upper air, the cloudy tabernacle
parted before their eyes, and they beheld these fair scenes in all
their pristine magnificence and beauty! It was like the spectacle which
greeted the eyes of Moses from the summit of Pisgah, and, in the warm
glow of their feelings, they cried out, “It is the promised land!”[243]
But these feelings of admiration were soon followed by others of a very
different complexion, as they saw in all this the evidences of a
civilization and power far superior to anything they had yet
encountered. The more timid, disheartened by the prospect, shrank from a
contest so unequal, and demanded, as they had done on some former
occasions, to be led back again to Vera Cruz. Such was not the effect
produced on the sanguine spirit of the general. His avarice was
sharpened by the display of the dazzling spoil at his feet; and, if he
felt a natural anxiety at the formidable odds, his confidence was
renewed, as he gazed on the lines of his veterans, whose weather-beaten
visages and battered armor told of battles won and difficulties
surmounted, while his bold barbarians, with appetites whetted by the
view of their enemies’ country, seemed like eagles on the mountains,
ready to pounce upon their prey. By argument, entreaty, and menace, he
endeavored to restore the faltering courage of the soldiers, urging them
not to think of retreat, now that they had reached the goal for which
they had panted, and the golden gates were opened to receive them. In
these efforts he was well seconded by the brave cavaliers, who held
honor as dear to them as fortune; until the dullest spirits caught
somewhat of the enthusiasm of their leaders, and the general had the
satisfaction to see his hesitating columns, with their usual buoyant
step, once more on their march down the slopes of the sierra.[244]
With every step of their progress, the woods became thinner; patches of
cultivated land more frequent; and hamlets were seen in the green and
sheltered nooks, the inhabitants of which, coming out to meet them, gave
the troops a kind reception. Everywhere they heard complaints of
Montezuma, especially of the unfeeling manner in which he carried off
their young men to recruit his armies, and their maidens for his harem.
These symptoms of discontent were noticed with satisfaction by Cortés,
who saw that Montezuma’s “mountain-throne,” as it was called, was indeed
seated on a volcano, with the elements of combustion so active within
that it seemed as if any hour might witness an explosion. He encouraged
the disaffected natives to rely on his protection, as he had come to
redress their wrongs. He took advantage, moreover, of their favorable
dispositions, to scatter among them such gleams of spiritual light as
time and the preaching of Father Olmedo could afford.
He advanced by easy stages, somewhat retarded by the crowd of curious
inhabitants gathered on the highways to see the strangers, and halting
at every spot of interest or importance. On the road, he was met by
another embassy from the capital. It consisted of several Aztec lords,
freighted, as usual, with a rich largess of gold, and robes of delicate
furs and feathers. The message of the emperor was couched in the same
deprecatory terms as before. He even condescended to bribe the return of
the Spaniards, by promising, in that event, four loads of gold to the
general, and one to each of the captains,[245] with a yearly tribute to
their sovereign. So effectually had the lofty and naturally courageous
spirit of the barbarian monarch been subdued by the influence of
superstition!
But the man whom the hostile array of armies could not daunt was not to
be turned from his purpose by a woman’s prayers. He received the embassy
with his usual courtesy, declaring, as before, that he could not answer
it to his own sovereign if he were now to return without visiting the
emperor in his capital. It would be much easier to arrange matters by a
personal interview than by distant negotiation. The Spaniards came in
the spirit of peace. Montezuma would so find it; but, should their
presence prove burdensome to him, it would be easy for them to relieve
him of it.[246]
The Aztec monarch, meanwhile, was a prey to the most dismal
apprehensions. It was intended that the embassy above noticed should
reach the Spaniards before they crossed the mountains. When he learned
that this was accomplished, and that the dread strangers were on their
march across the Valley, the very threshold of his capital, the last
spark of hope died away in his bosom. Like one who suddenly finds
himself on the brink of some dark and yawning gulf, he was too much
bewildered to be able to rally his thoughts, or even to comprehend his
situation. He was the victim of an absolute destiny, against which no
foresight or precautions could have availed. It was as if the strange
beings who had thus invaded his shores had dropped from some distant
planet, so different were they from all he had ever seen, in appearance
and manners; so superior--though a mere handful in numbers--to the
banded nations of Anahuac in strength and science and all the fearful
accompaniments of war! They were now in the Valley. The huge mountain
screen, which nature had so kindly drawn around it for its defence, had
been overleaped. The golden visions of security and repose in which he
had so long indulged, the lordly sway descended from his ancestors, his
broad imperial domain, were all to pass away. It seemed like some
terrible dream,--from which he was now, alas! to awake to a still more
terrible reality.
In a paroxysm of despair, he shut himself up in his palace, refused
food, and sought relief in prayer and in sacrifice. But the oracles were
dumb. He then adopted the more sensible expedient of calling a council
of his principal and oldest nobles. Here was the same division of
opinion which had before prevailed. Cacama, the young king of Tezcuco,
his nephew, counselled him to receive the Spaniards courteously, as
ambassadors, so styled by themselves, of a foreign prince. Cuitlahua,
Montezuma’s more warlike brother, urged him to muster his forces on the
instant, and drive back the invaders from his capital or die in its
defence. But the monarch found it difficult to rally his spirits for
this final struggle. With downcast eye and dejected mien, he exclaimed,
“Of what avail is resistance, when the gods have declared themselves
against us?[247] Yet I mourn most for the old and infirm, the women and
children, too feeble to fight or to fly. For myself and the brave men
around me, we must bare our breasts to the storm, and meet it as we
may!” Such are the sorrowful and sympathetic tones in which the Aztec
emperor is said to have uttered the bitterness of his grief. He would
have acted a more glorious part had he put his capital in a posture of
defence, and prepared, like the last of the Palæologi, to bury himself
under its ruins.[248]
He straightway prepared to send a last embassy to the Spaniards, with
his nephew, the lord of Tezcuco, at its head, to welcome them to Mexico.
The Christian army, meanwhile, had advanced as far as Amaquemecan, a
well-built town of several thousand inhabitants. They were kindly
received by the cacique, lodged in large, commodious, stone buildings,
and at their departure presented, among other things, with gold to the
amount of three thousand _castellanos_.[249] Having halted there a
couple of days, they descended among flourishing plantations of maize
and of maguey, the latter of which might be called the Aztec vineyards,
towards the lake of Chalco. Their first resting-place was Ajotzinco, a
town of considerable size, with a great part of it then standing on
piles in the water. It was the first specimen which the Spaniards had
seen of this maritime architecture. The canals which intersected the
city, instead of streets, presented an animated scene, from the number
of barks which glided up and down freighted with provisions and other
articles for the inhabitants. The Spaniards were particularly struck
with the style and commodious structure of the houses, built chiefly of
stone, and with the general aspect of wealth and even elegance which
prevailed there.
Though received with the greatest show of hospitality, Cortés found some
occasion for distrust in the eagerness manifested by the people to see
and approach the Spaniards.[250] Not content with gazing at them in the
roads, some even made their way stealthily into their quarters, and
fifteen or twenty unhappy Indians were shot down by the sentinels as
spies. Yet there appears, as well as we can judge, at this distance of
time, to have been no real ground for such suspicion. The undisguised
jealousy of the court, and the cautions he had received from his allies,
while they very properly put the general on his guard, seem to have
given an unnatural acuteness, at least in the present instance, to his
perceptions of danger.[251]
Early on the following morning, as the army was preparing to leave the
place, a courier came, requesting the general to postpone his departure
till after the arrival of the king of Tezcuco, who was advancing to meet
him. It was not long before he appeared, borne in a palanquin or litter,
richly decorated with plates of gold and precious stones, having pillars
curiously wrought, supporting a canopy of green plumes, a favorite color
with the Aztec princes. He was accompanied by a numerous suite of nobles
and inferior attendants. As he came into the presence of Cortés, the
lord of Tezcuco descended from his palanquin, and the obsequious
officers swept the ground before him as he advanced. He appeared to be a
young man of about twenty-five years of age, with a comely presence,
erect and stately in his deportment. He made the Mexican salutation
usually addressed to persons of high rank, touching the earth with his
right hand, and raising it to his head. Cortés embraced him as he rose,
when the young prince informed him that he came as the representative of
Montezuma, to bid the Spaniards welcome to his capital. He then
presented the general with three pearls of uncommon size and lustre.
Cortés, in return, threw over Cacama’s neck a chain of cut glass, which,
where glass was as rare as diamonds, might be admitted to have a value
as real as the latter. After this interchange of courtesies, and the
most friendly and respectful assurances on the part of Cortés, the
Indian prince withdrew, leaving the Spaniards strongly impressed with
the superiority of his state and bearing over anything they had hitherto
seen in the country.[252]
Resuming its march, the army kept along the southern borders of the lake
of Chalco, overshadowed, at that time, by noble woods, and by orchards
glowing with autumnal fruits, of unknown names, but rich and tempting
hues. More it passed through cultivated fields waving with the yellow
harvest, and irrigated by canals introduced from the neighboring lake;
the whole showing a careful and economical husbandry, essential to the
maintenance of a crowded population.
Leaving the main land, the Spaniards came on the great dike or causeway,
which stretches some four or five miles in length and divides lake
Chalco from Xochicalco on the west. It was a lance in breadth in the
narrowest part, and in some places wide enough for eight horsemen to
ride abreast. It was a solid structure of stone and lime running
directly through the lake, and struck the Spaniards as one of the most
remarkable works which they had seen in the country.
As they passed along, they beheld the gay spectacle of multitudes of
Indians darting up and down in their light pirogues, eager to catch a
glimpse of the strangers, or bearing the products of the country to the
neighboring cities. They were amazed, also, by the sight of the
_chinampas_, or floating gardens,--those wandering islands of verdure,
to which we shall have occasion to return hereafter,--teeming with
flowers and vegetables, and moving like rafts over the waters. All round
the margin, and occasionally far in the lake, they beheld little towns
and villages, which, half concealed by the foliage, and gathered in
white clusters round the shore, looked in the distance like companies of
wild swans riding quietly on the waves. A scene so new and wonderful
filled their rude hearts with amazement. It seemed like enchantment; and
they could find nothing to compare it with but the magical pictures in
the “Amadis de Gaula.”[253] Few pictures, indeed, in that or any other
legend of chivalry, could surpass the realities of their own experience.
The life of the adventurer in the New World was romance put into action.
What wonder, then, if the Spaniard of that day, feeding his imagination
with dreams of enchantment at home and with its realities abroad, should
have displayed a Quixotic enthusiasm,--a romantic exaltation of
character, not to be comprehended by the colder spirits of other lands!
Midway across the lake the army halted at the town of Cuitlahuac, a
place of moderate size, but distinguished by the beauty of the
buildings,--the most beautiful, according to Cortés, that he had yet
seen in the country.[254] After taking some refreshment at this place,
they continued their march along the dike. Though broader in this
northern section, the troops found themselves much embarrassed by the
throng of Indians, who, not content with gazing on them from the boats,
climbed up the causeway and lined the sides of the road. The general,
afraid that his ranks might be disordered, and that too great
familiarity might diminish a salutary awe in the natives, was obliged to
resort not merely to command, but menace, to clear a passage. He now
found, as he advanced, a considerable change in the feelings shown
towards the government. He heard only of the pomp and magnificence,
nothing of the oppressions, of Montezuma. Contrary to the usual fact, it
seemed that the respect for the court was greatest in its immediate
neighborhood.
From the causeway, the army descended on that narrow point of land which
divides the waters of the Chalco from the Tezcucan lake, but which in
those days was overflowed for many a mile now laid bare.[255] Traversing
this peninsula, they entered the royal residence of Iztapalapan, a place
containing twelve or fifteen thousand houses, according to Cortés.[256]
It was governed by Cuitlahua, the emperor’s brother, who, to do greater
honor to the general, had invited the lords of some neighboring cities,
of the royal house of Mexico, like himself, to be present at the
interview. This was conducted with much ceremony, and, after the usual
present of gold and delicate stuffs,[257] a collation was served to the
Spaniards in one of the great halls of the palace. The excellence of the
architecture here, also, excited the admiration of the general, who does
not hesitate, in the glow of his enthusiasm, to pronounce some of the
buildings equal to the best in Spain.[258] They were of stone, and the
spacious apartments had roofs of odorous cedar-wood, while the walls
were tapestried with fine cotton stained with brilliant colors.
But the pride of Iztapalapan, on which its lord had freely lavished his
care and his revenues, was its celebrated gardens. They covered an
immense tract of land; were laid out in regular squares, and the paths
intersecting them were bordered with trellises, supporting creepers and
aromatic shrubs that loaded the air with their perfumes. The gardens
were stocked with fruit-trees, imported from distant places, and with
the gaudy family of flowers which belonged to the Mexican flora,
scientifically arranged, and growing luxuriant in the equable
temperature of the table-land. The natural dryness of the atmosphere was
counteracted by means of aqueducts and canals that carried water into
all parts of the grounds.
In one quarter was an aviary, filled with numerous kinds of birds,
remarkable in this region both for brilliancy of plumage and of song.
The gardens were intersected by a canal communicating with the lake of
Tezcuco, and of sufficient size for barges to enter from the latter. But
the most elaborate piece of work was a huge reservoir of stone, filled
to a considerable height with water well supplied with different sorts
of fish. The basin was sixteen hundred paces in circumference, and was
surrounded by a walk, made also of stone, wide enough for four persons
to go abreast. The sides were curiously sculptured, and a flight of
steps led to the water below, which fed the aqueducts above noticed, or,
collected into fountains, diffused a perpetual moisture.
Such are the accounts transmitted of these celebrated gardens, at a
period when similar horticultural establishments were unknown in
Europe;[259] and we might well doubt their existence in this
semi-civilized land, were it not a matter of such notoriety at the time
and so explicitly attested by the invaders. But a generation had
scarcely passed after the Conquest, before a sad change came over these
scenes so beautiful. The town itself was deserted, and the shore of the
lake was strewed with the wreck of buildings which once were its
ornament and its glory. The garden shared the fate of the city. The
retreating waters withdrew the means of nourishment, converting the
flourishing plains into a foul and unsightly morass, the haunt of
loathsome reptiles; and the water-fowl built her nest in what had once
been the palaces of princes![260]
In the city of Iztapalapan, Cortés took up his quarters for the night.
We may imagine what a crowd of ideas must have pressed on the mind of
the Conqueror, as, surrounded by these evidences of civilization, he
prepared with his handful of followers to enter the capital of a monarch
who, as he had abundant reason to know, regarded him with distrust and
aversion. This capital was now but a few miles distant, distinctly
visible from Iztapalapan. And as its long lines of glittering edifices,
struck by the rays of the evening sun, trembled on the dark-blue waters
of the lake, it looked like a thing of fairy creation, rather than the
work of mortal hands. Into this city of enchantment Cortés prepared to
make his entry on the following morning.[32]