ENVIRONS OF MEXICO--INTERVIEW WITH MONTEZUMA--ENTRANCE
INTO THE CAPITAL--HOSPITABLE
RECEPTION--VISIT TO THE EMPEROR
1519
With the first faint streak of dawn, the Spanish general was up,
mustering his followers. They gathered, with beating hearts, under their
respective banners, as the trumpet sent forth its spirit-stirring sounds
across water and woodland, till they died away in distant echoes among
the mountains. The sacred flames on the altars of numberless
_teocallis_, dimly seen through the gray mists of morning,[261]
indicated the site of the capital, till temple, tower, and palace were
fully revealed in the glorious illumination which the sun, as he rose
above the eastern barrier, poured over the beautiful Valley. It was the
eighth of November, 1519, a conspicuous day in history, as that on
which the Europeans first set foot in the capital of the Western World.
Cortés with his little body of horse formed a sort of advanced guard to
the army. Then came the Spanish infantry, who in a summer’s campaign had
acquired the discipline and the weather-beaten aspect of veterans. The
baggage occupied the centre; and the rear was closed by the dark
files[262] of Tlascalan warriors. The whole number must have fallen
short of seven thousand; of which less than four hundred were
Spaniards.[263]
For a short distance, the army kept along the narrow tongue of land that
divides the Tezcucan from the Chalcan waters, when it entered on the
great dike, which, with the exception of an angle near the commencement,
stretches in a perfectly straight line across the salt floods of Tezcuco
to the gates of the capital. It was the same causeway, or rather the
basis of that, which still forms the great southern avenue of
Mexico.[264] The Spaniards had occasion more than ever to admire the
mechanical science of the Aztecs, in the geometrical precision with
which the work was executed, as well as the solidity of its
construction. It was composed of huge stones well laid in cement, and
wide enough, throughout its whole extent, for ten horsemen to ride
abreast.
They saw, as they passed along, several large towns, resting on piles,
and reaching far into the water,--a kind of architecture which found
great favor with the Aztecs, being in imitation of that of their
metropolis.[265] The busy population obtained a good subsistence from
the manufacture of salt, which they extracted from the waters of the
great lake. The duties on the traffic in this article were a
considerable source of revenue to the crown.
Everywhere the Conquerors beheld the evidence of a crowded and thriving
population, exceeding all they had yet seen. The temples and principal
buildings of the cities were covered with a hard white stucco, which
glistened like enamel in the level beams of the morning. The margin of
the great basin was more thickly gemmed than that of Chalco with towns
and hamlets.[266] The water was darkened by swarms of canoes filled
with Indians,[267] who clambered up the sides of the causeway and gazed
with curious astonishment on the strangers. And here, also, they beheld
those fairy islands of flowers, overshadowed occasionally by trees of
considerable size, rising and falling with the gentle undulation of the
billows. At the distance of half a league from the capital, they
encountered a solid work or curtain of stone, which traversed the dike.
It was twelve feet high, was strengthened by towers at the extremities,
and in the centre was a battlemented gateway, which opened a passage to
the troops. It was called the Fort of Xoloc, and became memorable in
after-times as the position occupied by Cortés in the famous siege of
Mexico.
Here they were met by several hundred Aztec chiefs, who came out to
announce the approach of Montezuma and to welcome the Spaniards to his
capital. They were dressed in the fanciful gala costume of the country,
with the _maxtlatl_, or cotton sash, around their loins, and a broad
mantle of the same material, or of the brilliant feather-embroidery,
flowing gracefully down their shoulders. On their necks and arms they
displayed collars and bracelets of turquoise mosaic, with which
delicate plumage was furiously mingled,[268] while their ears,
under-lips, and occasionally their noses, were garnished with pendants
formed of precious stones, or crescents of fine gold. As each cacique
made the usual formal salutation of the country separately to the
general, the tedious ceremony delayed the march more than an hour. After
this, the army experienced no further interruption till it reached a
bridge near the gates of the city. It was built of wood, since replaced
by one of stone, and was thrown across an opening of the dike, which
furnished an outlet to the waters when agitated by the winds or swollen
by a sudden influx in the rainy season. It was a drawbridge; and the
Spaniards, as they crossed it, felt how truly they were committing
themselves to the mercy of Montezuma, who, by thus cutting off their
communications with the country, might hold them prisoners in his
capital.[269]
In the midst of these unpleasant reflections, they beheld the glittering
retinue of the emperor emerging from the great street which led then, as
it still does, through the heart of the city.[270] Amidst a crowd of
Indian nobles, preceded by three officers of state bearing golden
wands,[271] they saw the royal palanquin blazing with burnished gold. It
was borne on the shoulders of nobles, and over it a canopy of gaudy
feather-work, powdered with jewels and fringed with silver, was
supported by four attendants of the same rank. They were bare-ooted, and
walked with a slow, measured pace, and with eyes bent on the ground.
When the train had come within a convenient distance, it halted, and
Montezuma, descending from his litter, came forward, leaning on the arms
of the lords of Tezcuco and Iztapalapan, his nephew and brother, both of
whom, as we have seen, had already been made known to the Spaniards. As
the monarch advanced under the canopy, the obsequious attendants strewed
the ground with cotton tapestry, that his imperial feet might not be
contaminated by the rude soil. His subjects of high and low degree, who
lined the sides of the causeway, bent forward with their eyes fastened
on the ground as he passed, and some of the humbler class prostrated
themselves before him.[272] Such was the homage paid to the Indian
despot, showing that the slavish forms of Oriental adulation were to be
found among the rude inhabitants of the Western World.
Montezuma wore the girdle and ample square cloak, _tilmatli_, of his
nation. It was made of the finest cotton, with the embroidered ends
gathered in a knot round his neck. His feet were defended by sandals
having soles of gold, and the leathern thongs which bound them to his
ankles were embossed with the same metal. Both the cloak and sandals
were sprinkled with pearls and precious stones, among which the emerald
and the _chalchivitl_--a green stone of higher estimation than any other
among the Aztecs--were conspicuous. On his head he wore no other
ornament than a _panache_ of plumes of the royal green, which floated
down his back, the badge of military, rather than of regal, rank.
He was at this time about forty years of age. His person was tall and
thin, but not ill made. His hair, which was black and straight, was not
very long; to wear it short was considered unbecoming persons of rank.
His beard was thin; his complexion somewhat paler than is often found in
his dusky, or rather copper-colored, race. His features, though serious
in their expression, did not wear the look of melancholy, indeed, of
dejection, which characterizes his portrait, and which may well have
settled on them at a later period. He moved with dignity, and his whole
demeanor, tempered by an expression of benignity not to have been
anticipated from the reports circulated of his character, was worthy of
a great prince. Such is the portrait left to us of the celebrated Indian
emperor in this his first interview with the white men.[273]
The army halted as he drew near. Cortés, dismounting, threw his reins to
a page, and, supported by a few of the principal cavaliers, advanced to
meet him. The interview must have been one of uncommon interest to both.
In Montezuma, Cortés beheld the lord of the broad realms he had
traversed, whose magnificence and power had been the burden of every
tongue. In the Spaniard, on the other hand, the Aztec prince saw the
strange being whose history seemed to be so mysteriously connected with
his own; the predicted one of his oracles; whose achievements proclaimed
him something more than human. But, whatever may have been the
monarch’s feelings, he so far suppressed them as to receive his guest
with princely courtesy, and to express his satisfaction at personally
seeing him in his capital.[274] Cortés responded by the most profound
expression of respect, while he made ample acknowledgments for the
substantial proofs which the emperor had given the Spaniards of his
munificence. He then hung round Montezuma’s neck a sparkling chain of
colored crystal, accompanying this with a movement as if to embrace him,
when he was restrained by the two Aztec lords, shocked at the menaced
profanation of the sacred person of their master.[275] After the
interchange of these civilities, Montezuma appointed his brother to
conduct the Spaniards to their residence in the capital, and, again
entering his litter, was borne off amidst prostrate crowds in the same
state in which he had come. The Spaniards quickly followed, and, with
colors flying and music playing, soon made their entrance into the
southern quarter of Tenochtitlan.[276]
Here, again, they found fresh cause for admiration in the grandeur of
the city and the superior style of its architecture. The dwellings of
the poorer class were, indeed, chiefly of reeds and mud. But the great
avenue through which they were now marching was lined with the houses of
the nobles, who were encouraged by the emperor to make the capital
their residence. They were built of a red porous stone drawn from
quarries in the neighborhood, and, though they rarely rose to a second
story, often covered a large space of ground. The flat roofs, _azoteas_,
were protected by stone parapets, so that every house was a fortress.
Sometimes these roofs resembled parterres of flowers, so thickly were
they covered with them, but more frequently these were cultivated in
broad terraced gardens, laid out between the edifices.[277] Occasionally
a great square or market-place intervened, surrounded by its porticoes
of stone and stucco; or a pyramidal temple reared its colossal bulk,
crowned with its tapering sanctuaries, and altars blazing with
inextinguishable fires. The great street facing the southern causeway,
unlike most others in the place, was wide, and extended some miles in
nearly a straight line, as before noticed, through the centre of the
city. A spectator standing at one end of it, as his eye ranged along the
deep vista of temples, terraces, and gardens, might clearly discern the
other, with the blue mountains in the distance, which, in the
transparent atmosphere of the table-land, seemed almost in contact with
the buildings.
But what most impressed the Spaniards was the throngs of people who
swarmed through the streets and on the canals, filling every door-way
and window and clustering on the roofs of the buildings. “I well
remember the spectacle,” exclaims Bernal Diaz: “it seems now, after so
many years, as present to my mind as if it were but yesterday.”[278] But
what must have been the sensation of the Aztecs themselves, as they
looked on the portentous pageant! as they heard, now for the first time,
the well-cemented pavement ring under the iron tramp of the horses,--the
strange animals which fear had clothed in such supernatural terrors; as
they gazed on the children of the East, revealing their celestial origin
in their fair complexions; saw the bright falchions and bonnets of
steel, a metal to them unknown, glancing like meteors in the sun, while
sounds of unearthly music--at least, such as their rude instruments had
never wakened--floated in the air! But every other emotion was lost in
that of deadly hatred, when they beheld their detested enemy the
Tlascalan stalking, in defiance, as it were, through their streets, and
staring around with looks of ferocity and wonder, like some wild animal
of the forest who had strayed by chance from his native fastnesses into
the haunts of civilization.[279]
As they passed down the spacious street, the troops repeatedly traversed
bridges suspended above canals, along which they saw the Indian barks
gliding swiftly with their little cargoes of fruits and vegetables for
the markets of Tenochtitlan.[280] At length they halted before a broad
area near the centre of the city, where rose the huge pyramidal pile
dedicated to the patron war-god of the Aztecs, second only, in size as
well as sanctity, to the temple of Cholula, and covering the same ground
now in part occupied by the great cathedral of Mexico.[281]
Facing the western gate of the enclosure of the temple, stood a low
range of stone buildings, spreading over a wide extent of ground, the
palace of Axayacatl, Montezuma’s father, built by that monarch about
fifty years before.[282] It was appropriated as the barracks of the
Spaniards. The emperor himself was in the court-yard, waiting to receive
them. Approaching Cortés, he took from a vase of flowers, borne by one
of his slaves, a massy collar, in which the shell of a species of
crawfish, much prized by the Indians, was set in gold and connected by
heavy links of the same metal. From this chain depended eight ornaments,
also of gold, made in resemblance of the same shell-fish, a span in
length each, and of delicate workmanship;[283] for the Aztec goldsmiths
were confessed to have shown skill in their craft not inferior to their
brethren of Europe.[284] Montezuma, as he hung the gorgeous collar round
the general’s neck, said, “This palace belongs to you, Malinche”[285]
(the epithet by which he always addressed him), “and your brethren. Rest
after your fatigues, for you have much need to do so, and in a little
while I will visit you again.” So saying, he withdrew with his
attendants, evincing in this act a delicate consideration not to have
been expected in a barbarian.
Cortés’ first care was to inspect his new quarters. The building, though
spacious, was low, consisting of one floor, except, indeed, in the
centre, where it rose to an additional story. The apartments were of
great size, and afforded accommodations, according to the testimony of
the Conquerors themselves, for the whole army![286] The hardy
mountaineers of Tlascala were, probably, not very fastidious, and might
easily find a shelter in the out-buildings, or under temporary awnings
in the ample court-yards. The best apartments were hung with gay cotton
draperies, the floors covered with mats or rushes. There were, also, low
stools made of single pieces of wood elaborately carved, and in most of
the apartments beds made of the palm-leaf, woven into a thick mat, with
coverlets, and sometimes canopies, of cotton. These mats were the only
beds used by the natives, whether of high or low degree.[287]
After a rapid survey of this gigantic pile, the general assigned his
troops their respective quarters, and took as vigilant precautions for
security as if he had anticipated a siege instead of a friendly
entertainment. The place was encompassed by a stone wall of considerable
thickness, with towers or heavy buttresses at intervals, affording a
good means of defence. He planted his cannon so as to command the
approaches, stationed his sentinels along the works, and, in short,
enforced in every respect as strict military discipline as had been
observed in any part of the march. He well knew the importance to his
little band, at least for the present, of conciliating the good will of
the citizens; and, to avoid all possibility of collision, he prohibited
any soldier from leaving his quarters without orders, under pain of
death. Having taken these precautions, he allowed his men to partake of
the bountiful collation which had been prepared for them.
They had been long enough in the country to become reconciled to, if not
to relish, the peculiar cooking of the Aztecs. The appetite of the
soldier is not often dainty, and on the present occasion it cannot be
doubted that the Spaniards did full justice to the savory productions of
the royal kitchen. During the meal they were served by numerous Mexican
slaves, who were, indeed, distributed through the palace, anxious to do
the bidding of the strangers. After the repast was concluded, and they
had taken their _siesta_, not less important to a Spaniard than food
itself, the presence of the emperor was again announced.
Montezuma was attended by a few of his principal nobles. He was received
with much deference by Cortés; and, after the parties had taken their
seats, a conversation commenced between them, through the aid of Doña
Marina, while the cavaliers and Aztec chieftains stood around in
respectful silence.
Montezuma made many inquiries concerning the country of the Spaniards,
their sovereign, the nature of his government, and especially their own
motives in visiting Anahuac. Cortés explained these motives by the
desire to see so distinguished a monarch and to declare to him the true
Faith professed by the Christians. With
[Illustration: AUDIENCE OF CORTÉS WITH MONTEZUMA]
[Illustration: _Goupil & Cº., Paris._]
rare discretion, he contented himself with dropping this hint, for the
present, allowing it to ripen in the mind of the emperor, till a future
conference. The latter asked whether those white men who in the
preceding year had landed on the eastern shores of his empire were their
countrymen. He showed himself well informed of the proceedings of the
Spaniards from their arrival in Tabasco to the present time, information
of which had been regularly transmitted in the hieroglyphical paintings.
He was curious, also, in regard to the rank of his visitors in their own
country; inquiring if they were the kinsmen of the sovereign. Cortés
replied, they were kinsmen of one another, and subjects of their great
monarch, who held them all in peculiar estimation. Before his departure,
Montezuma made himself acquainted with the names of the principal
cavaliers, and the position they occupied in the army.
At the conclusion of the interview, the Aztec prince commanded his
attendants to bring forward the presents prepared for his guests. They
consisted of cotton dresses, enough to supply every man, it is said,
including the allies, with a suit![288] And he did not fail to add the
usual accompaniment of gold chains and other ornaments, which he
distributed in profusion among the Spaniards. He then withdrew with the
same ceremony with which he had entered, leaving every one deeply
impressed with his munificence and his affability, so unlike what they
had been taught to expect by what they now considered an invention of
the enemy.[289]
That evening the Spaniards celebrated their arrival in the Mexican
capital by a general discharge of artillery. The thunders of the
ordnance, reverberating among the buildings and shaking them to their
foundations, the stench of the sulphureous vapor that rolled in volumes
above the walls of the encampment, reminding the inhabitants of the
explosions of the great _volcan_, filled the hearts of the superstitious
Aztecs with dismay. It proclaimed to them that their city held in its
bosom those dread beings whose path had been marked with desolation, and
who could call down the thunderbolts to consume their enemies! It was
doubtless the policy of Cortés to strengthen this superstitious feeling
as far as possible, and to impress the natives, at the outset, with a
salutary awe of the supernatural powers of the Spaniards.[290]
On the following morning, the general requested permission to return the
emperor’s visit, by waiting on him in his palace. This was readily
granted, and Montezuma sent his officers to conduct the Spaniards to his
presence. Cortés dressed himself in his richest habit, and left the
quarters attended by Alvarado, Sandoval, Velasquez, and Ordaz, together
with five or six of the common file.
The royal habitation was at no great distance. It stood on the ground,
to the southwest of the cathedral, since covered in part by the _Casa
del Estado_, the palace of the dukes of Monteleone, the descendants of
Cortés.[291] It was a vast, irregular pile of low stone buildings, like
that garrisoned by the Spaniards.[292] So spacious was it, indeed, that,
as one of the Conquerors assures us, although he had visited it more
than once, for the express purpose, he had been too much fatigued each
time by wandering through the apartments ever to see the whole of
it.[293] It was built of the red porous stone of the country,
_tetzontli_, was ornamented with marble, and on the façade over the
principal entrance were sculptured the arms or device of Montezuma,{*}
an eagle bearing an ocelot in his talons.[294]
{*} [The totem or “beast symbol” of the clan to which it belonged.--M.]
In the courts through which the Spaniards passed, fountains of crystal
water were playing, fed from the copious reservoir on the distant hill
of Chapoltepec, and supplying in their turn more than a hundred baths in
the interior of the palace. Crowds of Aztec nobles were sauntering up
and down in these squares, and in the outer halls, loitering away their
hours in attendance on the court. The apartments were of immense size,
though not lofty. The ceilings were of various sorts of odoriferous wood
ingeniously carved; the floors covered with mats of the palm-leaf. The
walls were hung with cotton richly stained, with the skins of wild
animals, or gorgeous draperies of feather-work wrought in imitation of
birds, insects, and flowers, with the nice art and glowing radiance of
colors that might compare with the tapestries of Flanders. Clouds of
incense rolled up from censers and diffused intoxicating odors through
the apartments. The Spaniards might well have fancied themselves in the
voluptuous precincts of an Eastern harem, instead of treading the halls
of a wild barbaric chief in the Western World.[295]
On reaching the hall of audience, the Mexican officers took off their
sandals, and covered their gay attire with a mantle of _nequen_, a
coarse stuff made of the fibres of the maguey, worn only by the poorest
classes. This act of humiliation was imposed on all, except the members
of his own family, who approached the sovereign.[296] Thus bare-footed,
with downcast eyes and formal obeisance, they ushered the Spaniards into
the royal presence.
They found Montezuma seated at the further end of a spacious saloon and
surrounded by a few of his favorite chiefs. He received them kindly, and
very soon Cortés, without much ceremony, entered on the subject which
was uppermost in his thoughts. He was fully aware of the importance of
gaining the royal convert, whose example would have such an influence on
the conversion of his people. The general, therefore, prepared to
display the whole store of his theological science, with the most
winning arts of rhetoric he could command, while the interpretation was
conveyed through the silver tones of Marina, as inseparable from him, on
these occasions, as his shadow.
He set forth, as clearly as he could, the ideas entertained by the
Church in regard to the holy mysteries of the Trinity, the Incarnation,
and the Atonement. From this he ascended to the origin of things, the
creation of the world, the first pair, paradise, and the fall of man. He
assured Montezuma that the idols he worshipped were Satan under
different forms. A sufficient proof of it was the bloody sacrifices they
imposed, which he contrasted with the pure and simple rite of the mass.
Their worship would sink him in perdition. It was to snatch his soul,
and the souls of his people, from the flames of eternal fire by opening
to them a purer faith, that the Christians had come to his land. And he
earnestly besought him not to neglect the occasion, but to secure his
salvation by embracing the Cross, the great sign of human redemption.
The eloquence of the preacher was wasted on the insensible heart of his
royal auditor. It doubtless lost somewhat of its efficacy, strained
through the imperfect interpretation of so recent a neophyte as the
Indian damsel. But the doctrines were too abstruse in themselves to be
comprehended at a glance by the rude intellect of a barbarian. And
Montezuma may have, perhaps, thought it was not more monstrous to feed
on the flesh of a fellow-creature than on that of the Creator
himself.[297] He was, besides, steeped in the superstitions of his
country from his cradle. He had been educated in the straitest sect of
her religion, had been himself a priest before his election to the
throne, and was now the head both of the religion and the state. Little
probability was there that such a man would be open to argument or
persuasion, even from the lips of a more practised polemic than the
Spanish commander. How could he abjure the faith that was intertwined
with the dearest affections of his heart and the very elements of his
being? How could he be false to the gods who had raised him to such
prosperity and honors, and whose shrines were intrusted to his especial
keeping?
He listened, however, with silent attention, until the general had
concluded his homily. He then replied that he knew the Spaniards had
held this discourse wherever they had been. He doubted not their God
was, as they said, a good being. His gods, also, were good to him. Yet
what his visitor said of the creation of the world was like what he had
been taught to believe.[298] It was not worth while to discourse further
of the matter. His ancestors, he said, were not the original
proprietors of the land. They had occupied it but a few ages, and had
been led there by a great Being, who, after giving them laws and ruling
over the nation for a time, had withdrawn to the regions where the sun
rises. He had declared, on his departure, that he or his descendants
would again visit them and resume his empire.[299] The wonderful deeds
of the Spaniards, their fair complexions, and the quarter whence they
came, all showed they were his descendants. If Montezuma had resisted
their visit to his capital, it was because he had heard such accounts of
their cruelties,--that they sent the lightning to consume his people, or
crushed them to pieces under the hard feet of the ferocious animals on
which they rode. He was now convinced that these were idle tales; that
the Spaniards were kind and generous in their natures; they were
mortals, of a different race, indeed, from the Aztecs, wiser, and more
valiant,--and for this he honored them.
“You, too,” he added, with a smile, “have been told, perhaps, that I am
a god, and dwell in palaces of gold and silver.[300] But you see it is
false. My houses, though large, are of stone and wood like those of
others; and as to my body,” he said, baring his tawny arm, “you see it
is flesh and bone like yours. It is true, I have a great empire
inherited from my ancestors; lands, and gold, and silver. But your
sovereign beyond the waters is, I know, the rightful lord of all. I rule
in his name. You, Malinche, are his ambassador; you and your brethren
shall share these things with me. Rest now from your labors. You are
here in your own dwellings, and everything shall be provided for your
subsistence. I will see that your wishes shall be obeyed in the same way
as my own.”[301] As the monarch concluded these words, a few natural
tears suffused his eyes, while the image of ancient independence,
perhaps, flitted across his mind.[302]
Cortés, while he encouraged the idea that his own sovereign was the
great Being indicated by Montezuma, endeavored to comfort the monarch by
the assurance that his master had no desire to interfere with his
authority, otherwise than, out of pure concern for his welfare, to
effect his conversion and that of his people to Christianity. Before the
emperor dismissed his visitors he consulted his munificent spirit, as
usual, by distributing rich stuffs and trinkets of gold among them, so
that the poorest soldier, says Bernal Diaz, one of the party, received
at least two heavy collars of the precious metal for his share. The iron
hearts of the Spaniards were touched with the emotion displayed by
Montezuma, as well as by his princely spirit of liberality. As they
passed him, the cavaliers, with bonnet in hand, made him the most
profound obeisance, and “on the way home,” continues the same
chronicler, “we could discourse of nothing but the gentle breeding and
courtesy of the Indian monarch, and of the respect we entertained for
him.”[303]
Speculations of a graver complexion must have pressed on the mind of the
general, as he saw around him the evidences of a civilization, and
consequently power, for which even the exaggerated reports of the
natives--discredited from their apparent exaggeration--had not prepared
him. In the pomp and burdensome ceremonial of the court he saw that nice
system of subordination and profound reverence for the monarch which
characterize the semi-civilized empires of Asia. In the appearance of
the capital, its massy yet elegant architecture, its luxurious social
accommodations, its activity in trade, he recognized the proofs of the
intellectual progress, mechanical skill, and enlarged resources of an
old and opulent community; while the swarms in the streets attested the
existence of a population capable of turning these resources to the
best account.
In the Aztec he beheld a being unlike either the rude republican
Tlascalan or the effeminate Cholulan, but combining the courage of the
one with the cultivation of the other. He was in the heart of a great
capital, which seemed like an extensive fortification, with its dikes
and its draw-bridges, where every house might be easily converted into a
castle. Its insular position removed it from the continent, from which,
at the mere nod of the sovereign, all communication might be cut off,
and the whole warlike population be at once precipitated on him and his
handful of followers. What could superior science avail against such
odds?[304]
As to the subversion of Montezuma’s empire, now that he had seen him in
his capital, it must have seemed a more doubtful enterprise than ever.
The recognition which the Aztec prince had made of the feudal supremacy,
if I may so say, of the Spanish sovereign, was not to be taken too
literally. Whatever show of deference he might be disposed to pay the
latter under the influence of his present--perhaps temporary--delusion,
it was not to be supposed that he would so easily relinquish his actual
power and possessions, or that his people would consent to it. Indeed,
his sensitive apprehensions in regard to this very subject, on the
coming of the Spaniards, were sufficient proof of the tenacity with
which he clung to his authority. It is true that Cortés had a strong
lever for future operations in the superstitious reverence felt for
himself both by prince and people. It was undoubtedly his policy to
maintain this sentiment unimpaired in both, as far as possible.[305]
But, before settling any plan of operations, it was necessary to make
himself personally acquainted with the topography and local advantages
of the capital, the character of its population, and the real nature and
amount of its resources. With this view, he asked the emperor’s
permission to visit the principal public edifices.
Antonio de Herrera, the celebrated chronicler of the Indies, was
born of a respectable family at Cuella, in Old Spain, in 1549.
After passing through the usual course of academic discipline in
his own country, he went to Italy, to which land of art and letters
the Spanish youth of that time frequently resorted to complete
their education. He there became acquainted with Vespasian Gonzaga,
brother of the duke of Mantua, and entered into his service. He
continued with this prince after he was made Viceroy of Navarre,
and was so highly regarded by him, that, on his death-bed, Gonzaga
earnestly commended him to the protection of Philip the Second.
This penetrating monarch soon discerned the excellent qualities of
Herrera, and raised him to the post of Historiographer of the
Indies,--an office for which Spain is indebted to Philip. Thus
provided with a liberal salary, and with every facility for
pursuing the historical researches to which his inclination led
him, Herrera’s days glided peacefully away in the steady, but
silent, occupations of a man of letters. He continued to hold the
office of historian of the colonies through Philip the Second’s
reign, and under his successors, Philip the Third and the Fourth;
till in 1625 he died at the advanced age of seventy-six, leaving
behind him a high character for intellectual and moral worth.
Herrera wrote several works, chiefly historical. The most
important, that on which his reputation rests, is his _Historia
general de las Indias occidentales_. It extends from the year 1492,
the time of the discovery of America, to 1554, and is divided into
eight decades. Four of them were published in 1601, and the
remaining four in 1615, making in all five volumes in folio. The
work was subsequently republished in 1730, and has been translated
into most of the languages of Europe. The English translator,
Stevens, has taken great liberties with his original, in the way of
abridgment and omission, but the execution of his work is, on the
whole, superior to that of most of the old English versions of the
Castilian chroniclers.
Herrera’s vast subject embraces the whole colonial empire of Spain
in the New World. The work is thrown into the form of annals, and
the multifarious occurrences in the distant regions of which he
treats are all marshalled with exclusive reference to their
chronology, and made to move together _pari passu_. By means of
this tasteless arrangement the thread of interest is perpetually
snapped, the reader is hurried from one scene to another, without
the opportunity of completing his survey of any. His patience is
exhausted and his mind perplexed with partial and scattered
glimpses, instead of gathering new light as he advances from the
skilful development of a continuous and well-digested narrative.
This is the great defect of a plan founded on a slavish adherence
to chronology. The defect becomes more serious when the work, as in
the present instance, is of vast compass and embraces a great
variety of details having little relation to each other. In such a
work we feel the superiority of a plan like that which Robertson
has pursued in his “History of America,” where every subject is
allowed to occupy its own independent place, proportioned to its
importance, and thus to make a distinct and individual impression
on the reader.
Herrera’s position gave him access to the official returns from the
colonies, state papers, and whatever documents existed in the
public offices for the illustration of the colonial history. Among
these sources of information were some manuscripts, with which it
is not now easy to meet; as, for example, the memorial of Alonso de
Ojeda, one of the followers of Cortés, which has eluded my
researches both in Spain and Mexico. Other writings, as those of
Father Sahagun, of much importance in the history of Indian
civilization, were unknown to the historian. Of such manuscripts as
fell into his hands, Herrera made the freest use. From the writings
of Las Casas, in particular, he borrowed without ceremony. The
bishop had left orders that his “History of the Indies” should not
be published till at least forty years after his death. Before that
period had elapsed Herrera had entered on his labors, and, as he
had access to the papers of Las Casas, he availed himself of it to
transfer whole pages, nay, chapters, of his narrative in the most
unscrupulous manner to his own work. In doing this, he made a
decided improvement on the manner of his original, reduced his
cumbrous and entangled sentences to pure Castilian, omitted his
turgid declamation and his unreasonable invectives. But, at the
same time, he also excluded the passages that bore hardest on the
conduct of his countrymen, and those bursts of indignant eloquence
which showed a moral sensibility in the Bishop of Chiapa that
raised him so far above his age. By this sort of metempsychosis, if
one may so speak, by which the letter and not the spirit of the
good missionary was transferred to Herrera’s pages, he rendered the
publication of Las Casas’ history, in some measure, superfluous;
and this circumstance has, no doubt, been one reason for its having
been so long detained in manuscript.
Yet, with every allowance for the errors incident to rapid
composition, and to the pedantic chronological system pursued by
Herrera, his work must be admitted to have extraordinary merit. It
displays to the reader the whole progress of Spanish conquest and
colonization in the New World for the first sixty years after the
discovery. The individual actions of his complicated story, though
unskilfully grouped together, are unfolded in a pure and simple
style, well suited to the gravity of his subject. If at first sight
he may seem rather too willing to magnify the merits of the early
discoverers and to throw a veil over their excesses, it may be
pardoned, as flowing, not from moral insensibility, but from the
patriotic sentiment which made him desirous, as far as might be, to
wipe away every stain from the escutcheon of his nation, in the
proud period of her renown. It is natural that the Spaniard who
dwells on this period should be too much dazzled by the display of
her gigantic efforts, scrupulously to weigh their moral character,
or the merits of the cause in which they were made. Yet Herrera’s
national partiality never makes him the apologist of crime; and,
with the allowances fairly to be conceded, he may be entitled to
the praise so often given him of integrity and candor.
It must not be forgotten that, in addition to the narrative of the
early discoveries of the Spaniards, Herrera has brought together a
vast quantity of information in respect to the institutions and
usages of the Indian nations, collected from the most authentic
sources. This gives his work a completeness beyond what is to be
found in any other on the same subject. It is, indeed, a noble
monument of sagacity and erudition; and the student of history, and
still more the historical compiler, will find himself unable to
advance a single step among the early colonial settlements of the
New World without reference to the pages of Herrera.
Another writer on Mexico, frequently consulted in the course of the
present narrative, is Toribio de Benavente, or _Motolinia_, as he
is still more frequently called, from his Indian cognomen. He was
one of the twelve Franciscan missionaries who, at the request of
Cortés, were sent out to New Spain immediately after the Conquest,
in 1523. Toribio’s humble attire, naked feet, and, in short, the
poverty-stricken aspect which belongs to his order, frequently drew
from the natives the exclamation of _Motolinia_, or “poor man.” It
was the first Aztec word the signification of which the missionary
learned, and he was so much pleased with it, as intimating his own
condition, that he henceforth assumed it as his name. Toribio
employed himself zealously with his brethren in the great object of
their mission. He travelled on foot over various parts of Mexico,
Guatemala, and Nicaragua. Wherever he went, he spared no pains to
wean the natives from their dark idolatry, and to pour into their
minds the light of revelation. He showed even a tender regard for
their temporal as well as spiritual wants, and Bernal Diaz
testifies that he has known him to give away his own robe to clothe
a destitute and suffering Indian. Yet this charitable friar, so
meek and conscientious in the discharge of his Christian duties,
was one of the fiercest opponents of Las Casas, and sent home a
remonstrance against the Bishop of Chiapa, couched in terms the
most opprobrious and sarcastic. It has led the bishop’s biographer,
Quintana, to suggest that the friar’s threadbare robe may have
covered somewhat of worldly pride and envy. It may be so. Yet it
may also lead us to distrust the discretion of Las Casas himself,
who could carry measures with so rude a hand as to provoke such
unsparing animadversions from his fellow-laborers in the vineyard.
Toribio was made guardian of a Franciscan convent at Tezcuco. In
this situation he continued active in good works, and at this
place, and in his different pilgrimages, is stated to have baptized
more than four hundred thousand natives. His efficacious piety was
attested by various miracles. One of the most remarkable was when
the Indians were suffering from great drought, which threatened to
annihilate the approaching harvests. The good father recommended a
solemn procession of the natives to the church of Santa Cruz, with
prayers and a vigorous flagellation. The effect was soon visible in
such copious rains as entirely relieved the people from their
apprehensions, and in the end made the season uncommonly fruitful.
The counterpart to this prodigy was afforded a few years later,
while the country was laboring under excessive rains; when, by a
similar remedy, the evil was checked, and a like propitious
influence exerted on the season as before. The exhibition of such
miracles greatly edified the people, says his biographer, and
established them firmly in the Faith. Probably Toribio’s exemplary
life and conversation, so beautifully illustrating the principles
which he taught, did quite as much for the good cause as his
miracles.
Thus passing his days in the peaceful and pious avocations of the
Christian missionary, the worthy ecclesiastic was at length called
from the scene of his earthly pilgrimage, in what year is
uncertain, but at an advanced age, for he survived all the little
band of missionaries who had accompanied him to New Spain. He died
in the convent of San Francisco at Mexico, and his panegyric is
thus emphatically pronounced by Torquemada, a brother of his own
order: “He was a truly apostolic man, a great teacher of
Christianity, beautiful in the ornament of every virtue, jealous of
the glory of God, a friend of evangelical poverty, most true to the
observance of his monastic rule, and jealous in the conversion of
the heathen.”
Father Toribio’s long personal intercourse with the Mexicans, and
the knowledge of their language, which he was at much pains to
acquire, opened to him all the sources of information respecting
them and their institutions, which existed at the time of the
Conquest. The results he carefully digested in the work so often
cited in these pages, the _Historia de los Indios de Nueva-España_,
making a volume of manuscript in folio. It is divided into three
parts. 1. The religion, rites, and sacrifices of the Aztecs. 2.
Their conversion to Christianity, and their manner of celebrating
the festivals of the Church. 3. The genius and character of the
nation, their chronology and astrology, together with notices of
the principal cities and the staple productions of the country.
Notwithstanding the methodical arrangement of the work, it is
written in the rambling, unconnected manner of a commonplace-book,
into which the author has thrown at random his notices of such
matters as most interested him in his survey of the country. His
own mission is ever before his eyes, and the immediate topic of
discussion, of whatever nature it may be, is at once abandoned to
exhibit an event or an anecdote that can illustrate his
ecclesiastical labors. The most startling occurrences are recorded
with all the credulous gravity which is so likely to win credit
from the vulgar; and a stock of miracles is duly attested by the
historian, of more than sufficient magnitude to supply the wants of
the infant religious communities of New Spain.
Yet amidst this mass of pious _incredibilia_ the inquirer into the
Aztec antiquities will find much curious and substantial
information. Toribio’s long and intimate relations with the natives
put him in possession of their whole stock of theology and science;
and as his manner, though somewhat discursive, is plain and
unaffected, there is no obscurity in the communication of his
ideas. His inferences, colored by the superstitions of the age and
the peculiar nature of his profession, may be often received with
distrust. But, as his integrity and his means of information were
unquestionable, his work becomes of the first authority in relation
to the antiquities of the country, and its condition at the period
of the Conquest. As an educated man, he was enabled to penetrate
deeper than the illiterate soldiers of Cortés, men given to action
rather than to speculation. Yet Toribio’s manuscript, valuable as
it is to the historian, has never been printed, and has too little
in it of popular interest, probably, ever to be printed. Much that
it contains has found its way, in various forms, into subsequent
compilations. The work itself is very rarely to be found. Dr.
Robertson had a copy, as it seems from the catalogue of MSS.
published with his “History of America;” though the author’s name
is not prefixed to it. There is no copy, I believe, in the library
of the Academy of History at Madrid; and for that in my possession
I am indebted to the kindness of that curious bibliographer, Mr. O.
Rich, now consul for the United States at Minorca.
Pietro Martire de Angleria, or Peter Martyr, as he is called by
English writers, belonged to an ancient and highly respectable
family of Arona in the north of Italy. In 1487 he was induced by
the count of Tendilla, the Spanish ambassador at Rome, to return
with him to Castile. He was graciously received by Queen Isabella,
always desirous to draw around her enlightened foreigners, who
might exercise a salutary influence on the rough and warlike
nobility of Castile. Martyr, who had been educated for the Church,
was persuaded by the queen to undertake the instruction of the
young nobles at the court. In this way he formed an intimacy with
some of the most illustrious men of the nation, who seem to have
cherished a warm personal regard for him through the remainder of
his life. He was employed by the Catholic sovereigns in various
concerns of public interest, was sent on a mission to Egypt, and
was subsequently raised to a distinguished post in the cathedral of
Granada. But he continued to pass much of his time at court, where
he enjoyed the confidence of Ferdinand and Isabella, and of their
successor, Charles the Fifth, till in 1525 he died, at the age of
seventy.
Martyr’s character combined qualities not often found in the same
individual,--an ardent love of letters, with a practical sagacity
that can only result from familiarity with men and affairs. Though
passing his days in the gay and dazzling society of the capital, he
preserved the simple tastes and dignified temper of a philosopher.
His correspondence, as well as his more elaborate writings, if the
term elaborate can be applied to any of his writings, manifests an
enlightened and oftentimes independent spirit; though one would
have been better pleased had he been sufficiently independent to
condemn the religious intolerance of the government. But Martyr,
though a philosopher, was enough of a courtier to look with a
lenient eye on the errors of princes. Though deeply imbued with the
learning of antiquity, and a scholar at heart, he had none of the
feelings of the recluse, but took the most lively interest in the
events that were passing around him. His various writings,
including his copious correspondence, are for this reason the very
best mirror of the age in which he lived.
His inquisitive mind was particularly interested by the discoveries
that were going on in the New World. He was allowed to be present
at the sittings of the Council of the Indies when any communication
of importance was made to it; and he was subsequently appointed a
member of that body. All that related to the colonies passed
through his hands. The correspondence of Columbus, Cortés, and the
other discoverers with the court of Castile was submitted to his
perusal. He became personally acquainted with these illustrious
persons on their return home, and frequently, as we find from his
letters, entertained them at his own table. With these advantages,
his testimony becomes but one degree removed from that of the
actors themselves in the great drama. In one respect it is of a
higher kind, since it is free from the prejudice and passion which
a personal interest in events is apt to beget. The testimony of
Martyr is that of a philosopher, taking a clear and comprehensive
survey of the ground, with such lights of previous knowledge to
guide him as none of the actual discoverers and conquerors could
pretend to. It is true, this does not prevent his occasionally
falling into errors; the errors of credulity,--not, however, of the
credulity founded on superstition, but that which arises from the
uncertain nature of the subject, where phenomena so unlike anything
with which he had been familiar were now first disclosed by the
revelation of an unknown world.
He may be more fairly charged with inaccuracies of another
description, growing out of haste and inadvertence of composition.
But even here we should be charitable. For he confesses his sins
with a candor that disarms criticism. In truth, he wrote rapidly,
and on the spur of the moment, as occasion served. He shrunk from
the publication of his writings, when it was urged on him, and his
Decades _De Orbe Novo_, in which he embodied the results of his
researches in respect to the American discoveries, were not
published entire till after his death. The most valuable and
complete edition of this work--the one referred to in the present
pages--is the edition of Hakluyt, published at Paris in 1587.
Martyr’s works are all in Latin, and that not of the purest; a
circumstance rather singular, considering his familiarity with the
classic models of antiquity. Yet he evidently handled the dead
languages with the same facility as the living. Whatever defects
may be charged on his manner, in the selection and management of
his topics he shows the superiority of his genius. He passes over
the trivial details which so often encumber the literal narratives
of the Spanish voyagers, and fixes his attention on the great
results of their discoveries,--the products of the country, the
history and institutions of the races, their character and advance
in civilization. In one respect his writings are of peculiar value.
They show the state of feeling which existed at the Castilian court
during the progress of discovery. They furnish, in short, the
reverse side of the picture; and, when we have followed the Spanish
conquerors in their wonderful career of adventure in the New World,
we have only to turn to the pages of Martyr to find the impression
produced by them on the enlightened minds of the Old. Such a view
is necessary to the completeness of the historical picture.
If the reader is curious to learn more of this estimable scholar,
he will find the particulars given in “The History of Ferdinand and
Isabella” (Part I. chap. 14, Postscript, and chap. 19), for the
illustration of whose reign his voluminous correspondence furnishes
the most authentic materials.
BOOK IV
RESIDENCE IN MEXICO
[Illustration:
MAP OF THE
Valley of Mexico,
_at the period of the_
CONQUEST.
]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER I
TEZCUCAN LAKE--DESCRIPTION OF THE CAPITAL--PALACES AND
MUSEUMS--ROYAL HOUSEHOLD--MONTEZUMA’S WAY OF LIFE
1519
The ancient city of Mexico covered the same spot occupied by the modern
capital. The great causeways touched it in the same points; the streets
ran in much the same direction, nearly from north to south and from east
to west; the cathedral in the _plaza mayor_ stands on the same ground
that was covered by the temple of the Aztec war-god; and the four
principal quarters of the town are still known among the Indians by
their ancient names. Yet an Aztec of the days of Montezuma, could he
behold the modern metropolis, which has risen with such phœnix-like
splendor from the ashes of the old, would not recognize its site as that
of his own Tenochtitlan. For the latter was encompassed by the salt
floods of Tezcuco, which flowed in ample canals through every part of
the city: while the Mexico of our day stands high and dry on the main
land, nearly a league distant, at its centre, from the water. The cause
of this apparent change in its position is the diminution of the lake,
which, from the rapidity of evaporation in these elevated regions, had
become perceptible before the Conquest, but which has since been greatly
accelerated by artificial causes.[306]
The average level of the Tezcucan lake, at the present day, is but four
feet lower than the great square of Mexico.[307] It is considerably
lower than the other great basins of water which are found in the
Valley. In the heavy swell sometimes caused by long and excessive rains,
these latter reservoirs anciently overflowed into the Tezcuco, which,
rising with the accumulated volume of waters, burst through the dikes,
and, pouring into the streets of the capital, buried the lower part of
the buildings under a deluge. This was comparatively a light evil when
the houses stood on piles so elevated that boats might pass under them;
when the streets were canals, and the ordinary mode of communication was
by water. But it became more disastrous as these canals, filled up with
the rubbish of the ruined Indian city, were supplanted by streets of
solid earth, and the foundations of the capital were gradually
reclaimed from the watery element. To obviate this alarming evil, the
famous drain of Huehuetoca was opened, at an enormous cost, in the
beginning of the seventeenth century, and Mexico, after repeated
inundations, has been at length placed above the reach of the
flood.[308] But what was gained to the useful, in this case, as in some
others, has been purchased at the expense of the beautiful. By this
shrinking of the waters, the bright towns and hamlets once washed by
them have been removed some miles into the interior, while a barren
strip of land, ghastly from the incrustation of salts formed on the
surface, has taken the place of the glowing vegetation which once
enamelled the borders of the lake, and of the dark groves of oak, cedar,
and sycamore which threw their broad shadows over its bosom.
The _chinampas_, that archipelago of wandering islands, to which our
attention was drawn in the last chapter, have, also, nearly disappeared.
These had their origin in the detached masses of earth, which, loosening
from the shores, were still held together by the fibrous roots with
which they were penetrated. The primitive Aztecs, in their poverty of
land, availed themselves of the hint thus afforded by nature. They
constructed rafts of reeds, rushes, and other fibrous materials, which,
tightly knit together, formed a sufficient basis for the sediment that
they drew up from the bottom of the lake. Gradually islands were formed,
two or three hundred feet in length, and three or four feet in depth,
with a rich stimulated soil, on which the economical Indian raised his
vegetables and flowers for the markets of Tenochtitlan. Some of these
_chinampas_ were even firm enough to allow the growth of small trees,
and to sustain a hut for the residence of the person that had charge of
it, who with a long pole, resting on the sides or the bottom of the
shallow basin, could change the position of his little territory at
pleasure, which with its rich freight of vegetable stores was seen
moving like some enchanted island over the water.[309]
The ancient dikes were three in number. That of Iztapalapan, by which
the Spaniards entered, approaching the city from the south. That of
Tepejacac, on the north, which, continuing the principal street, might
be regarded, also, as a continuation of the first causeway. Lastly, the
dike of Tlacopan, connecting the island-city with the continent on the
west. This last causeway, memorable for the disastrous retreat of the
Spaniards, was about two miles in length. They were all built in the
same substantial manner, of lime and stone, were defended by
draw-bridges, and were wide enough for ten or twelve horsemen to ride
abreast.[310]
The rude founders of Tenochtitlan built their frail tenements of reeds
and rushes on the group of small islands in the western part of the
lake. In process of time, these were supplanted by more substantial
buildings. A quarry in the neighborhood, of a red porous amygdaloid,
_tetzontli_, was opened, and a light, brittle stone drawn from it and
wrought with little difficulty. Of this their edifices were constructed,
with some reference to architectural solidity, if not elegance. Mexico,
as already noticed, was the residence of the great chiefs, whom the
sovereign encouraged, or rather compelled, from obvious motives of
policy, to spend part of the year in the capital. It was also the
temporary abode of the great lords of Tezcuco and Tlacopan, who shared,
nominally at least, the sovereignty of the empire.[311] The mansions of
these dignitaries, and of the principal nobles, were on a scale of rude
magnificence corresponding with their state. They were low,
indeed,--seldom of more than one floor, never exceeding two. But they
spread over a wide extent of ground, were arranged in a quadrangular
form, with a court in the centre, and were surrounded by porticoes
embellished with porphyry and jasper, easily found in the neighborhood,
while not unfrequently a fountain of crystal water in the centre shed a
grateful coolness through the air. The dwellings of the common people
were also placed on foundations of stone, which rose to the height of a
few feet and were then succeeded by courses of unbaked bricks, crossed
occasionally by wooden rafters.[312] Most of the streets were mean and
narrow. Some few, however, were wide and of great length. The principal
street, conducting from the great southern causeway, penetrated in a
straight line the whole length of the city, and afforded a noble vista,
in which the long lines of low stone edifices were broken occasionally
by intervening gardens, rising on terraces and displaying all the pomp
of Aztec horticulture.
The great streets, which were coated with a hard cement, were
intersected by numerous canals. Some of these were flanked by a solid
way, which served as a foot-walk for passengers, and as a landing-place
where boats might discharge their cargoes. Small buildings were erected
at intervals, as stations for the revenue officers who collected the
duties on different articles of merchandise. The canals were traversed
by numerous bridges, many of which could be raised, affording the means
of cutting off communication between different parts of the city.[313]
From the accounts of the ancient capital, one is reminded of those
aquatic cities in the Old World, the positions of which have been
selected from similar motives of economy and defence; above all, of
Venice,[314]--if it be not rash to compare the rude architecture of the
American Indian with the marble palaces and temples--alas, how shorn of
their splendor!--which crowned the once proud mistress of the
Adriatic.[315] The example of the metropolis was soon followed by the
other towns in the vicinity. Instead of resting their foundations on
_terra firma_, they were seen advancing far into the lake, the shallow
waters of which in some parts do not exceed four feet in depth.[316]
Thus an easy means of intercommunication was opened, and the surface of
this inland “sea,” as Cortés styles it, was darkened by thousands of
canoes[317]--an Indian term--industriously engaged in the traffic
between these little communities. How gay and picturesque must have been
the aspect of the lake in those days, with its shining cities, and
flowering islets rocking, as it were, at anchor on the fair bosom of its
waters!
The population of Tenochtitlan at the time of the Conquest is variously
stated. No contemporary writer estimates it at less than sixty thousand
houses, which, by the ordinary rules of reckoning,{*} would give three
hundred thousand souls.[318] If a dwelling often contained, as is
asserted, several families, it would swell the amount considerably
higher.[319] Nothing is more uncertain than estimates of numbers among
barbarous communities, who necessarily live in a more confused and
promiscuous manner than civilized, and among whom no regular system is
adopted for ascertaining the population. The concurrent testimony of the
Conquerors; the extent of the city, which was said to be nearly three
leagues in circumference;[320] the immense size of its great
market-place; the long lines of edifices, vestiges of whose ruins may
still be found in the suburbs, miles from the modern city;[321] the
fame of the metropolis throughout Anahuac, which, however, could boast
many large and populous places; lastly, the economical husbandry and the
ingenious contrivances to extract aliment from the most unpromising
sources,[322]--all attest a numerous population, far beyond that of the
present capital.[323]
{*} [This estimate is of course erroneous. “The ordinary rules of
reckoning” cannot be applied to people living as did the Mexicans. The
word _vecinos_ means not only householders, as pointed out in the
author’s note, but also inhabitants. The translator who rendered the
“Anonymous Conqueror” into Italian made no blunder when he used the word
_habitatori_. Morgan (Ancient Society, p. 195) thinks the population was
not more than 30,000, and asks “how a barbarous people without flocks
and herds, and without field agriculture, could have sustained in equal
areas a larger number of inhabitants than a civilized people can now
maintain armed with these advantages.” (London at that time may have
contained 145,000 inhabitants.) But Morgan’s estimate is without
question too low. Zuazo and the Anonymous Conqueror were more nearly
right in fixing, the population of the city at 60,000. There could not
possibly have been room enough for sixty thousand Aztec houses in a city
of which the circumference was less than three leagues. (No one makes it
at any time to have been more than four leagues in circumference.) The
houses in which the higher officials dwelt were spread over a wide
extent of ground, were low, “seldom of more than one floor, never
exceeding two.” (_Ante_, p. 285.) Public buildings and pleasure grounds
took up much space. The great market-place, _tianguez_, was “thrice as
large as the celebrated square of Salamanca” (p. 312). No one states the
number of visitors at less than 40,000 (p. 317). (According to Ford,
Handbook of Spain, the Plaza at Salamanca was the largest square in
Spain. From 16,000 to 20,000 spectators could be accommodated at the
bull-fights which took place there.) The temple area also was enormous.
On a map of the city of Mexico, in the edition of the Letters of Cortés
published at Nuremberg, 1524, the temple space is twenty times as great
as that given to the market-place. The large number of visitors to the
Plaza on market days is easily accounted for if we compare the thronged
afternoon streets in the shopping districts of any large city with those
same streets deserted at night when the visitors have returned to their
homes. There were no shops in the Aztec capital and all the buying was
done in the _tianguez_.--M.]
A careful police provided for the health and cleanliness of the city. A
thousand persons are said to have been daily employed in watering and
sweeping the streets,[324] so that a man--to borrow the language of an
old Spaniard--“could walk through them with as little danger of soiling
his feet as his hands.”[325] The water, in a city washed on all sides
by the salt floods, was extremely brackish. A liberal supply of the pure
element, however, was brought from Chapoltepec, “the grasshopper’s
hill,” less than a league distant. It was brought through an earthen
pipe, along a dike constructed for the purpose. That there might be no
failure in so essential an article when repairs were going on, a double
course of pipes was laid. In this way a column of water of the size of a
man’s body was conducted into the heart of the capital, where it fed the
fountains and reservoirs of the principal mansions. Openings were made
in the aqueduct as it crossed the bridges, and thus a supply was
furnished to the canoes below, by means of which it was transported to
all parts of the city.[326]
While Montezuma encouraged a taste for architectural magnificence in his
nobles, he contributed his own share towards the embellishment of the
city. It was in his reign that the famous calendar stone, weighing,
probably, in its primitive state, nearly fifty tons, was transported
from its native quarry, many leagues distant, to the capital, where it
still forms one of the most curious monuments of Aztec science. Indeed,
when we reflect on the difficulty of hewing such a stupendous mass from
its hard basaltic bed without the aid of iron tools, and that of
transporting it such a distance across land and water without the help
of animals, we may well feel admiration at the mechanical ingenuity and
enterprise of the people who accomplished it.[327]
Not content with the spacious residence of his father, Montezuma erected
another on a yet more magnificent scale. It occupied, as before
mentioned, the ground partly covered by the private dwellings on one
side of the _plaza mayor_ of the modern city. This building, or, as it
might more correctly be styled, pile of buildings, spread over an extent
of ground so vast that, as one of the Conquerors assures us, its
terraced roof might have afforded ample room for thirty knights to run
their courses in a regular tourney.[328] I have already noticed its
interior decorations, its fanciful draperies, its roofs inlaid with
cedar and other odoriferous woods, held together without a nail, and,
probably, without a knowledge of the arch,[329] its numerous and
spacious apartments, which Cortés, with enthusiastic hyperbole, does not
hesitate to declare superior to anything of the kind in Spain.[330]
Adjoining the principal edifice were others, devoted to various
objects. One was an armory, filled with the weapons and military dresses
worn by the Aztecs, all kept in the most perfect order, ready for
instant use. The emperor was himself very expert in the management of
the _maquahuitl_, or Indian sword, and took great delight in witnessing
athletic exercises and the mimic representation of war by his young
nobility. Another building was used as a granary, and others as
warehouses for the different articles of food and apparel contributed by
the districts charged with the maintenance of the royal household.
There were, also, edifices appropriated to objects of quite another
kind. One of these was an immense aviary, in which birds of splendid
plumage were assembled from all parts of the empire. Here was the
scarlet cardinal, the golden pheasant, the endless parrot-tribe with
their rainbow hues (the royal green predominant), and that miniature
miracle of nature, the humming-bird, which delights to revel among the
honeysuckle bowers of Mexico.[331] Three hundred attendants had charge
of this aviary, who made themselves acquainted with the appropriate food
of its inmates, oftentimes procured at great cost, and in the moulting
season were careful to collect the beautiful plumage, which, with its
many-colored tints, furnished the materials for the Aztec painter.
A separate building was reserved for the fierce birds of prey; the
voracious vulture-tribes and eagles of enormous size, whose home was in
the snowy solitudes of the Andes. No less than five hundred turkeys,{*}
the cheapest meat in Mexico, were allowed for the daily consumption of
these tyrants of the feathered race.
{*} [The turkey was introduced to Europe from Mexico, as has before been
stated.--M.]
Adjoining this aviary was a menagerie of wild animals, gathered from the
mountain forests, and even from the remote swamps of the _tierra
caliente_. The resemblance of the different species to those in the Old
World, with which no one of them, however, was identical, led to a
perpetual confusion in the nomenclature of the Spaniards, as it has
since done in that of better-instructed naturalists. The collection was
still further swelled by a great number of reptiles and serpents
remarkable for their size and venomous qualities, among which the
Spaniards beheld the fiery little animal “with the castanets in his
tail,” the terror of the American wilderness.[332] The serpents were
confined in long cages lined with down or feathers, or in troughs of mud
and water. The beasts and birds of prey were provided with apartments
large enough to allow of their moving about, and secured by a strong
latticework, through which light and air were freely admitted. The whole
was placed under the charge of numerous keepers, who acquainted
themselves with the habits of their prisoners and provided for their
comfort and cleanliness. With what deep interest would the enlightened
naturalist of that day--an Oviedo, or a Martyr, for example--have
surveyed this magnificent collection, in which the various tribes which
roamed over the Western wilderness, the unknown races of an unknown
world, were brought into one view! How would they have delighted to
study the peculiarities of these new species, compared with those of
their own hemisphere, and thus have risen to some comprehension of the
general laws by which Nature acts in all her works! The rude followers
of Cortés did not trouble themselves with such refined speculations.
They gazed on the spectacle with a vague curiosity not unmixed with awe;
and, as they listened to the wild cries of the ferocious animals and the
hissings of the serpents, they almost fancied themselves in the infernal
regions.[333]
I must not omit to notice a strange collection of human monsters,
dwarfs, and other unfortunate persons in whose organization Nature had
capriciously deviated from her regular laws. Such hideous anomalies were
regarded by the Aztecs as a suitable appendage of state. It is even
said they were in some cases the result of artificial means, employed
by unnatural parents desirous to secure a provision for their offspring
by thus qualifying them for a place in the royal museum![334]
Extensive gardens were spread out around these buildings, filled with
fragrant shrubs and flowers, and especially with medicinal plants.[335]
No country has afforded more numerous species of these last than New
Spain; and their virtues were perfectly understood by the Aztecs, with
whom medical botany may be said to have been studied as a science.
Amidst this labyrinth of sweet-scented groves and shrubberies, fountains
of pure water might be seen throwing up their sparkling jets and
scattering refreshing dews over the blossoms. Ten large tanks, well
stocked with fish, afforded a retreat on their margins to various tribes
of water-fowl, whose habits were so carefully consulted that some of
these ponds were of salt water, as that which they most loved to
frequent. A tessellated pavement of marble enclosed the ample basins,
which were overhung by light and fanciful pavilions, that admitted the
perfumed breezes of the gardens, and offered a grateful shelter to the
monarch and his mistresses in the sultry heats of summer.[336]
But the most luxurious residence of the Aztec monarch, at that season,
was the royal hill of Chapoltepec,--a spot consecrated, moreover, by the
ashes of his ancestors. It stood in a westerly direction from the
capital, and its base was, in his day, washed by the waters of the
Tezcuco. On its lofty crest of porphyritic rock there now stands the
magnificent, though desolate, castle erected by the young viceroy Galvez
at the close of the seventeenth century.[337] The view from its windows
is one of the finest in the environs of Mexico. The landscape is not
disfigured here, as in many other quarters, by the white and barren
patches, so offensive to the sight; but the eye wanders over an unbroken
expanse of meadows and cultivated fields, waving with rich harvests of
European grain. Montezuma’s gardens stretched for miles around the base
of the hill. Two statues of that monarch and his father, cut in
bas-relief in the porphyry, were spared till the middle of the last
century;[338] and the grounds are still shaded by gigantic cypresses,
more than fifty feet in circumference, which were centuries old at the
time of the Conquest.[339] The place is now a tangled wilderness of
wild shrubs, where the myrtle mingles its dark, glossy leaves with the
red berries and delicate foliage of the pepper-tree. Surely there is no
spot better suited to awaken meditation on the past; none where the
traveller, as he sits under those stately cypresses gray with the moss
of ages, can so fitly ponder on the sad destinies of the Indian races
and the monarch who once held his courtly revels under the shadow of
their branches.
The domestic establishment of Montezuma was on the same scale of
barbaric splendor as everything else about him. He could boast as many
wives as are found in the harem of an Eastern sultan.[340] They were
lodged in their own apartments, and provided with every accommodation,
according to their ideas, for personal comfort and cleanliness. They
passed their hours in the usual feminine employments of weaving and
embroidery, especially in the graceful feather-work, for which such rich
materials were furnished by the royal aviaries. They conducted
themselves with strict decorum, under the supervision of certain aged
females, who acted in the respectable capacity of duennas, in the same
manner as in the religious houses attached to the _teocallis_. The
palace was supplied with numerous baths, and Montezuma set the example,
in his own person, of frequent ablutions. He bathed at least once, and
changed his dress four times, it is said, every day.[341] He never put
on the same apparel a second time, but gave it away to his attendants.
Queen Elizabeth, with a similar taste for costume, showed a less
princely spirit in hoarding her discarded suits. Her wardrobe was,
probably, somewhat more costly than that of the Indian emperor.
Besides his numerous female retinue, the halls and antechambers were
filled with nobles in constant attendance on his person, who served also
as a sort of body-guard. It had been usual for plebeians of merit to
fill certain offices in the palace. But the haughty Montezuma refused to
be waited upon by any but men of noble birth. They were not unfrequently
the sons of the great chiefs, and remained as hostages in the absence of
their fathers; thus serving the double purpose of security and
state.[342]
His meals the emperor took alone. The well-matted floor of a large
saloon was covered with hundreds of dishes.[343] Sometimes Montezuma
himself, but more frequently his steward, indicated those which he
preferred, and which were kept hot by means of chafing-dishes.[344] The
royal bill of fare comprehended, besides domestic animals, game from the
distant forests, and fish which, the day before, were swimming in the
Gulf of Mexico! They were dressed in manifold ways, for the Aztec
_artistes_, as we have already had occasion to notice, had penetrated
deep into the mysteries of culinary science.[345]
The meats were served by the attendant nobles, who then resigned the
office of waiting on the monarch to maidens selected for their personal
grace and beauty. A screen of richly gilt and carved wood was drawn
around him, so as to conceal him from vulgar eyes during the repast. He
was seated on a cushion, and the dinner was served on a low table
covered with a delicate cotton cloth. The dishes were of the finest ware
of Cholula. He had a service of gold, which was reserved for religious
celebrations. Indeed, it would scarcely have comported with even his
princely revenues to have used it on ordinary occasions, when his
table-equipage was not allowed to appear a second time, but was given
away to his attendants. The saloon was lighted by torches made of a
resinous wood, which sent forth a sweet odor and, probably, not a little
smoke, as they burned. At his meal, he was attended by five or six of
his ancient counsellors, who stood at a respectful distance, answering
his questions, and occasionally rejoiced by some of the viands with
which he complimented them from his table.
This course of solid dishes was succeeded by another of sweetmeats and
pastry, for which the Aztec cooks, provided with the important
requisites of maize-flour, eggs, and the rich sugar of the aloe, were
famous. Two girls were occupied at the farther end of the apartment,
during dinner, in preparing fine rolls and wafers, with which they
garnished the board from time to time. The emperor took no other
beverage than the _chocolatl_, a potation of chocolate, flavored with
vanilla and other spices, and so prepared as to be reduced to a froth of
the consistency of honey, which gradually dissolved in the mouth. This
beverage, if so it could be called, was served in golden goblets, with
spoons of the same metal or of tortoise-shell finely wrought. The
emperor was exceedingly fond of it, to judge from the quantity--no less
than fifty jars or pitchers--prepared for his own daily
consumption.[346] Two thousand more were allowed for that of his
household.[347]
The general arrangement of the meal seems to have been not very unlike
that of Europeans. But no prince in Europe could boast a dessert which
could compare with that of the Aztec emperor. For it was gathered fresh
from the most opposite climes; and his board displayed the products of
his own temperate region, and the luscious fruits of the tropics,
plucked, the day previous, from the green groves of the _tierra
caliente_, and transmitted with the speed of steam, by means of
couriers, to the capital. It was as if some kind fairy should crown our
banquets with the spicy products that but yesterday were growing in a
sunny isle of the far-off Indian seas!{*}
{*} [This description, as Señor Alaman observes, seems to have a
tincture of romance, since many of the fruits now produced in such
abundance in Mexico were unknown there previous to the Conquest.
Conquista de Méjico, trad. de Vega, tom. i. p. 373.--K.]
After the emperor’s appetite was appeased, water was handed to him by
the female attendants in a silver basin, in the same manner as had been
done before commencing his meal; for the Aztecs were as constant in
their ablutions, at these times, as any nation of the East. Pipes were
then brought, made of a varnished and richly-gilt wood, from which he
inhaled, sometimes through the nose, at others through the mouth, the
fumes of an intoxicating weed, “called _tobacco_,”[348] mingled with
liquid amber. While this soothing process of fumigation was going on,
the emperor enjoyed the exhibitions of his mountebanks and jugglers, of
whom a regular corps was attached to the palace. No people, not even
those of China or Hindostan, surpassed the Aztecs in feats of agility
and legerdemain.[349]
Sometimes he amused himself with his jester; for the Indian monarch had
his jesters, as well as his more refined brethren of Europe, at that
day. Indeed, he used to say that more instruction was to be gathered
from them than from wiser men, for they dared to tell the truth. At
other times he witnessed the graceful dances of his women, or took
delight in listening to music,--if the rude minstrelsy of the Mexicans
deserve that name,--accompanied by a chant, in slow and solemn cadence,
celebrating the heroic deeds of great Aztec warriors, or of his own
princely line.
When he had sufficiently refreshed his spirits with these diversions, he
composed himself to sleep, for in his _siesta_ he was as regular as a
Spaniard. On awaking, he gave audience to ambassadors from foreign
states or his own tributary cities, or to such caciques as had suits to
prefer to him.
[Illustration: MONTEZUMA]
[Illustration: Goupil & Cº., Paris]
They were introduced by the young nobles in attendance, and, whatever
might be their rank, unless of the blood royal, they were obliged to
submit to the humiliation of shrouding their rich dresses under the
coarse mantle of nequen, and entering bare-footed, with downcast eyes,
into the presence. The emperor addressed few and brief remarks to the
suitors, answering them generally by his secretaries; and the parties
retired with the same reverential obeisance, taking care to keep their
faces turned towards the monarch. Well might Cortés exclaim that no
court, whether of the Grand Seignior or any other infidel, ever
displayed so pompous and elaborate a ceremonial![350]
Besides the crowd of retainers already noticed, the royal household was
not complete without a host of artisans constantly employed in the
erection or repair of buildings, besides a great number of jewellers and
persons skilled in working metals, who found abundant demand for their
trinkets among the dark-eyed beauties of the harem. The imperial mummers
and jugglers were also very numerous, and the dancers belonging to the
palace occupied a particular district of the city, appropriated
exclusively to them.
The maintenance of this little host, amounting to some thousands of
individuals, involved a heavy expenditure, requiring accounts of a
complicated and, to a simple people, it might well be, embarrassing
nature. Everything, however, was conducted with perfect order; and all
the various receipts and disbursements were set down in the
picture-writing of the country. The arithmetical characters were of a
more refined and conventional sort than those for narrative purposes;
and a separate apartment was filled with hieroglyphical legers,
exhibiting a complete view of the economy of the palace. The care of all
this was intrusted to a treasurer, who acted as a sort of major-domo in
the household, having a general superintendence over all its concerns.
This responsible office, on the arrival of the Spaniards, was in the
hands of a trusty cacique named Tápia.[351]{*}
{*} [The name, which is Spanish, not Aztec, was that given to him by the
Conquerors, perhaps with some reference to one of their own number,
Andrés de Tápia.--K.]
Such is the picture of Montezuma’s domestic establishment{**} and way of
living, as delineated by the Conquerors and their immediate followers,
who had the best means of information;[352] too highly colored, it may
be, by the proneness to exaggerate, which was natural to those who first
witnessed a spectacle so striking to the imagination, so new and
unexpected. I have thought it best to present the full details, trivial
though they may seem to the reader, as affording a curious picture of
manners so superior in point of refinement to those of the other
aboriginal tribes on the North American continent. Nor are they, in
fact, so trivial, when we reflect that in these details of private life
we possess a surer measure of civilization than in those of a public
nature.
{**} [Prescott’s picture of Montezuma’s domestic establishment and way
of living is drawn, without enlargement, from sketches supplied by
Cortés and Bernal Diaz--two men who _saw_ the state in which the Aztec
chief lived. Their observations extended over a period of only five
days, as Cortés made Montezuma his prisoner at the end of that time.
Subsequent historians, amplifying details only hinted at by the two
eye-witnesses, have given free rein to the imagination. The last
important contribution to the subject came from the pen of H. H.
Bancroft, Native Races, vol. ii. chap. iv (Palaces and Households of the
Nahua Kings). It was his glowing account, in which were incorporated the
details specified by the later Spanish historians, which so roused the
indignation of Lewis H. Morgan as to move that scholar to put forth his
famous essay, “Montezuma’s Dinner.” This essay created an immense
impression when it first appeared, but a careful examination will
demonstrate the fact that it contains almost as many misstatements as do
the pages of Bancroft. Mr. Morgan begins by saying that the histories of
Spanish America may be trusted in whatever relates “to the acts and
personal characteristics of the Indians: in whatever relates to their
weapons, implements, and utensils, fabrics, _food_, and raiment, and
things of a similar character,” and then entirely ignores the fact that
Cortés and Bernal Diaz actually _saw_ what they afterward described. He
points out, what most men will at once admit, that the dinners the
Conquerors described were not repasts provided for a king alone, but
that they represented the daily fare of a great communal household.
Meals prepared on almost as large a scale were served in other great
communal houses in Mexico. In fact, all the dinners served in the city
were communal dinners, for all the authorities agree that even the
smallest houses were inhabited by several families. But when, with fine
scorn, he takes exception to the expression “wine cellars,” and claims,
first, that cellars were impossible in a city where the level of the
streets and courts was but four feet above the level of the water of the
surrounding lake, and, second, that the Aztecs had no knowledge of wine,
we feel that he is hypercritical. When he goes on to say that “though an
acid beer, pulque, was a common beverage of the Aztecs, yet _it is
hardly supposable that even this was used at dinner_,” one is inevitably
led to the conclusion that Mr. Morgan had but little knowledge of the
dinner habits of some of his contemporaries in the cities of western New
York. It is not inconceivable that even in his own city of Rochester
families can be found who take beer with their principal meal.--M.]
In surveying them we are strongly reminded of the civilization of the
East; not of that higher, intellectual kind which belonged to the more
polished Arabs and the Persians, but that semi-civilization which has
distinguished, for example, the Tartar races, among whom art, and even
science, have made, indeed, some progress in the adaptation to material
wants and sensual gratification, but little in reference to the higher
and more ennobling interests of humanity. It is characteristic of such a
people to find a puerile pleasure in a dazzling and ostentatious
pageantry; to mistake show for substance, vain pomp for power; to hedge
round the throne itself with a barren and burdensome ceremonial, the
counterfeit of real majesty.
Even this, however, was an advance in refinement, compared with the rude
manners of the earlier Aztecs. The change may, doubtless, be referred in
some degree to the personal influence of Montezuma. In his younger days
he had tempered the fierce habits of the soldier with the milder
profession of religion. In later life he had withdrawn himself still
more from the brutalizing occupations of war, and his manners acquired a
refinement, tinctured, it may be added, with an effeminacy, unknown to
his martial predecessors.
The condition of the empire, too, under his reign, was favorable to this
change. The dismemberment of the Tezcucan kingdom on the death of the
great Nezahualpilli had left the Aztec monarchy without a rival; and it
soon spread its colossal arms over the farthest limits of Anahuac. The
aspiring mind of Montezuma rose with the acquisition of wealth and
power; and he displayed the consciousness of new importance by the
assumption of unprecedented state. He affected a reserve unknown to his
predecessors, withdrew his person from the vulgar eye, and fenced
himself round with an elaborate and courtly etiquette. When he went
abroad, it was in state, on some public occasion, usually to the great
temple, to take part in the religious services; and as he passed along
he exacted from his people, as we have seen, the homage of an adulation
worthy of an Oriental despot.[353] His haughty demeanor touched the
pride of his more potent vassals, particularly those who, at a distance,
felt themselves nearly independent of his authority. His exactions,
demanded by the profuse expenditure of his palace, scattered broadcast
the seeds of discontent; and, while the empire seemed towering in its
most palmy and prosperous state, the canker had eaten deepest into its
heart.
CHAPTER II
MARKET OF MEXICO--GREAT TEMPLE--INTERIOR SANCTUARIES--SPANISH QUARTERS
1519
Four days had elapsed since the Spaniards made their entry into Mexico.
Whatever schemes their commander may have revolved in his mind, he felt
that he could determine on no plan of operations till he had seen more
of the capital and ascertained by his own inspection the nature of its
resources. He accordingly, as was observed at the close of the last
Book, sent to Montezuma, asking permission to visit the great
_teocalli_, and some other places in the city.
The friendly monarch consented without difficulty. He even prepared to
go in person to the great temple to receive his guests there,--it may
be, to shield the shrine of his tutelar deity from any attempted
profanation. He was acquainted, as we have already seen, with the
proceedings of the Spaniards on similar occasions in the course of their
march. Cortés put himself at the head of his little corps of cavalry,
and nearly all the Spanish foot, as usual, and followed the caciques
sent by Montezuma to guide him. They proposed first to conduct him to
the great market of Tlatelolco, in the western part of the city.
On the way, the Spaniards were struck, in the same manner as they had
been on entering the capital, with the appearance of the inhabitants,
and their great superiority in the style and quality of their dress over
the people of the lower countries.[354] The _tilmatli_, or cloak thrown
over the shoulders and tied round the neck, made of cotton of different
degrees of fineness, according to the condition of the wearer, and the
ample sash around the loins, were often wrought in rich and elegant
figures and edged with a deep fringe or tassel. As the weather was now
growing cool, mantles of fur or of the gorgeous feather-work were
sometimes substituted. The latter combined the advantage of great warmth
with beauty.[355] The Mexicans had also the art of spinning a fine
thread of the hair of the rabbit and other animals, which they wove into
a delicate web that took a permanent dye.
The women, as in other parts of the country, seemed to go about as
freely as the men. They wore several skirts or petticoats of different
lengths, with highly-ornamented borders, and sometimes over them loose
flowing robes, which reached to the ankles. These, also, were made of
cotton, for the wealthier classes, of a fine texture, prettily
embroidered.[356] No veils were worn here, as in some other parts of
Anahuac, where they were made of the aloe thread, or of the light web of
hair, above noticed. The Aztec women had their faces exposed; and their
dark, raven tresses floated luxuriantly over their shoulders, revealing
features which, although of a dusky or rather cinnamon hue, were not
unfrequently pleasing, while touched with the serious, even sad
expression characteristic of the national physiognomy.[357]
On drawing near to the _tianguez_, or great market, the Spaniards were
astonished at the throng of people pressing towards it, and on entering
the place their surprise was still further heightened by the sight of
the multitudes assembled there, and the dimensions of the enclosure,{*}
thrice as large as the celebrated square of Salamanca.[358] Here were
met together traders from all parts, with the products and manufactures
peculiar to their countries; the goldsmiths of Azcapozalco, the potters
and jewellers of Cholula, the painters of Tezcuco, the stone-cutters of
Tenajocan, the hunters of Xilotepec, the fishermen of Cuitlahuac, the
fruiterers of the warm countries, the mat-and chair-makers of
Quauhtitlan, and the florists of Xochimilco,--all busily engaged in
recommending their respective wares and in chaffering with
purchasers.[359]
{*} [_Ante_, p. 288, note.--M.]
The market-place was surrounded by deep porticoes, and the several
articles had each its own quarter allotted to it. Here might be seen
cotton piled up in bales, or manufactured into dresses and articles of
domestic use, as tapestry, curtains, coverlets, and the like. The richly
stained and nice fabrics reminded Cortés of the _alcayceria_, or
silk-market, of Granada. There was the quarter assigned to the
goldsmiths, where the purchaser might find various articles of ornament
or use formed of the precious metals, or curious toys, such as we have
already had occasion to notice, made in imitation of birds and fishes,
with scales and feathers alternately of gold and silver, and with
movable heads and bodies. These fantastic little trinkets were often
garnished with precious stones, and showed a patient, puerile ingenuity
in the manufacture, like that of the Chinese.[360]
In an adjoining quarter were collected specimens of pottery coarse and
fine, vases of wood elaborately carved, varnished or gilt, of curious
and sometimes graceful forms. There were also hatchets made of copper
alloyed with tin, the substitute, and, as it proved, not a bad one, for
iron. The soldier found here all the implements of his trade: the casque
fashioned into the head of some wild animal, with its grinning defences
of teeth, and bristling crest dyed with the rich tint of the
cochineal;[361] the _escaupil_, or quilted doublet of cotton, the rich
surcoat of feather-mail, and weapons of all sorts, copper-headed lances
and arrows, and the broad _maquahuitl_, the Mexican sword, with its
sharp blades of _itztli_. Here were razors and mirrors of this same hard
and polished mineral, which served so many of the purposes of steel with
the Aztecs.[362] In the square were also to be found booths occupied by
barbers, who used these same razors in their vocation. For the Mexicans,
contrary to the popular and erroneous notions respecting the aborigines
of the New World, had beards, though scanty ones. Other shops or booths
were tenanted by apothecaries, well provided with drugs, roots, and
different medicinal preparations. In other places, again, blank books or
maps for the hieroglyphical picture-writing were to be seen, folded
together like fans, and made of cotton, skins, or more commonly the
fibres of the agave, the Aztec papyrus.
Under some of the porticoes they saw hides raw and dressed, and various
articles for domestic or personal use made of the leather. Animals, both
wild and tame, were offered for sale, and near them, perhaps, a gang of
slaves, with collars round their necks, intimating they were likewise on
sale,--a spectacle unhappily not confined to the barbarian markets of
Mexico, though the evils of their condition were aggravated there by the
consciousness that a life of degradation might be consummated at any
moment by the dreadful doom of sacrifice.
The heavier materials for building, as stone, lime, timber, were
considered too bulky to be allowed a place in the square, and were
deposited in the adjacent streets on the borders of the canals. It would
be tedious to enumerate all the various articles, whether for luxury or
daily use, which were collected from all quarters in this vast bazaar. I
must not omit to mention, however, the display of provisions, one of the
most attractive features of the _tianguez_; meats of all kinds, domestic
poultry, game from the neighboring mountains, fish from the lakes and
streams, fruits in all the delicious abundance of these temperate
regions, green vegetables, and the unfailing maize. There was many a
viand, too, ready dressed, which sent up its savory steams provoking the
appetite of the idle passenger; pastry, bread of the Indian corn, cakes,
and confectionery.[363] Along with these were to be seen cooling or
stimulating beverages, the spicy foaming _chocolatl_, with its delicate
aroma of vanilla, and the inebriating _pulque_, the fermented juice of
the aloe. All these commodities, and every stall and portico, were set
out, or rather smothered, with flowers, showing--on a much greater
scale, indeed--a taste similar to that displayed in the markets of
modern Mexico. Flowers seem to be the spontaneous growth of this
luxuriant soil; which, instead of noxious weeds, as in other regions, is
ever ready, without the aid of man, to cover up its nakedness with this
rich and variegated livery of Nature.[364]
I will spare the reader the repetition of all the particulars enumerated
by the bewildered Spaniards, which are of some interest as evincing the
various mechanical skill and the polished wants, resembling those of a
refined community rather than of a nation of savages. It was the
_material_ civilization, which belongs neither to the one nor the other.
The Aztec had plainly reached that middle station, as far above the rude
races of the New World as it was below the cultivated communities of the
Old.
As to the numbers assembled in the market, the estimates differ, as
usual. The Spaniards often visited the place, and no one states the
amount at less than forty thousand! Some carry it much higher.[365]
Without relying too much on the arithmetic of the Conquerors, it is
certain that on this occasion, which occurred every fifth day, the city
swarmed with a motley crowd of strangers, not only from the vicinity,
but from many leagues around; the causeways were thronged, and the lake
was darkened by canoes filled with traders flocking to the great
_tianguez_. It resembled, indeed, the periodical fairs in Europe, not as
they exist now, but as they existed in the Middle Ages, when, from the
difficulties of intercommunication, they served as the great central
marts for commercial intercourse, exercising a most important and
salutary influence on the community.
The exchanges were conducted partly by barter, but more usually in the
currency of the country. This consisted of bits of tin stamped with a
character like a [Illustration: sans-serif T], bags of cacao, the value
of which was regulated by their size, and, lastly, quills filled with
gold dust.[366] Gold was part of the regular currency, it seems, in both
hemispheres. In their dealings it is singular that they should have had
no knowledge of scales and weights. The quantity was determined by
measure and number.[367]
The most perfect order reigned throughout this vast assembly. Officers
patrolled the square, whose business it was to keep the peace, to
collect the duties imposed on the different articles of merchandise, to
see that no false measures or fraud of any kind were used, and to bring
offenders at once to justice. A court of twelve judges sat in one part
of the _tianguez_, clothed with those ample and summary powers which in
despotic countries are often delegated even to petty tribunals. The
extreme severity with which they exercised these powers, in more than
one instance, proves that they were not a dead letter.[368]
The _tianguez_ of Mexico was naturally an object of great interest, as
well as wonder, to the Spaniards. For in it they saw converged into one
focus, as it were, all the rays of civilization scattered throughout the
land. Here they beheld the various evidences of mechanical skill, of
domestic industry, the multiplied resources, of whatever kind, within
the compass of the natives. It could not fail to impress them with high
ideas of the magnitude of these resources, as well as of the commercial
activity and social subordination by which the whole community was knit
together; and their admiration is fully evinced by the minuteness and
energy of their descriptions.[369]
From this bustling scene the Spaniards took their way to the great
_teocalli_, in the neighborhood of their own quarters. It covered, with
the subordinate edifices, as the reader has already seen, the large
tract of ground now occupied by the cathedral, part of the market-place,
and some of the adjoining streets.[370] It was the spot which had been
consecrated to the same object, probably, ever since the foundation of
the city. The present building, however, was of no great antiquity,
having been constructed by Ahuitzotl, who celebrated its dedication, in
1486, by that hecatomb of victims of which such incredible reports are
to be found in the chronicles.[371]
It stood in the midst of a vast area, encompassed by a wall of stone and
lime, about eight feet high, ornamented on the outer side by figures of
serpents, raised in relief, which gave it the name of the _coatepantli_,
or “wall of serpents.” This emblem was a common one in the sacred
sculpture of Anahuac, as well as of Egypt. The wall, which was
quadrangular, was pierced by huge battlemented gateways, opening on the
four principal streets of the capital. Over each of the gates was a kind
of arsenal, filled with arms and warlike gear; and, if we may credit the
report of the Conquerors, there were barracks adjoining, garrisoned by
ten thousand soldiers, who served as a sort of military police for the
capital, supplying the emperor with a strong arm in case of tumult or
sedition.[372]
The _teocalli_ itself was a solid pyramidal structure of earth and
pebbles, coated on the outside with hewn stones, probably of the light,
porous kind employed in the buildings of the city.[373] It was probably
square, with its sides facing the cardinal points.[374] It was divided
into five bodies or stories, each one receding so as to be of smaller
dimensions than that immediately below it,--the usual form of the Aztec
_teocallis_, as already described, and bearing obvious resemblance to
some of the primitive pyramidal structures in the Old World.[375] The
ascent was by a flight of steps on the outside, which reached to the
narrow terrace or platform at the base of the second story, passing
quite round the building, when a second stairway conducted to a similar
landing at the base of the third. The breadth of this walk was just so
much space as was left by the retreating story next above it. From this
construction the visitor was obliged to pass round the whole edifice
four times in order to reach the top. This had a most imposing effect in
the religious ceremonials, when the pompous procession of priests with
their wild minstrelsy came sweeping round the huge sides of the pyramid,
as they rose higher and higher, in the presence of gazing multitudes,
towards the summit.
The dimensions of the temple cannot be given with any certainty. The
Conquerors judged by the eye, rarely troubling themselves with anything
like an accurate measurement. It was, probably, not much less than three
hundred feet square at the base:[376] and, as the Spaniards counted a
hundred and fourteen steps, was, probably, less than one hundred feet in
height.[377]
When Cortés arrived before the _teocalli_, he found two priests and
several caciques commissioned by Montezuma to save him the fatigue of
the ascent by bearing him on their shoulders, in the same manner as had
been done to the emperor. But the general declined the compliment,
preferring to march up at the head of his men. On reaching the summit,
they found it a vast area, paved with broad flat stones. The first
object that met their view was a large block of jasper, the peculiar
shape of which showed it was the stone on which the bodies of the
unhappy victims were stretched for sacrifice. Its convex surface, by
raising the breast, enabled the priest to perform his diabolical task
more easily, of removing the heart. At the other end of the area were
two towers or sanctuaries, consisting of three stories, the lower one of
stone and stucco, the two upper of wood elaborately carved. In the lower
division stood the images of their gods; the apartments above were
filled with utensils for their religious services, and with the ashes of
some of their Aztec princes, who had fancied this airy sepulchre. Before
each sanctuary stood an altar, with that undying fire upon it, the
extinction of which boded as much evil to the empire as that of the
Vestal flame would have done in ancient Rome. Here, also, was the huge
cylindrical drum made of serpents’ skins, and struck only on
extraordinary occasions, when it sent forth a melancholy sound that
might be heard for miles,--a sound of woe in aftertimes to the
Spaniards.
Montezuma, attended by the high-priest, came forward to receive Cortés
as he mounted the area. “You are weary, Malinche,” said he to him, “with
climbing up our great temple.” But Cortés, with a politic vaunt, assured
him “the Spaniards were never weary”! Then, taking him by the hand, the
emperor pointed out the localities of the neighborhood. The temple on
which they stood, rising high above all other edifices in the capital,
afforded the most elevated as well as central point of view. Below them,
the city lay spread out like a map, with its streets and canals
intersecting each other at right angles, its terraced roofs blooming
like so many parterres of flowers. Every place seemed alive with
business and bustle; canoes were glancing up and down the canals, the
streets were crowded with people in their gay, picturesque costume,
while from the market-place they had so lately left a confused hum of
many sounds and voices rose upon the air.[378] They could distinctly
trace the symmetrical plan of the city, with its principal avenues
issuing, as it were, from the four gates of the _coatepantli_ and
connecting themselves with the causeways, which formed the grand
entrances to the capital. This regular and beautiful arrangement was
imitated in many of the inferior towns, where the great roads converged
towards the chief _teocalli_, or cathedral, as to a common focus.[379]
They could discern the insular position of the metropolis, bathed on all
sides by the salt floods of the Tezcuco, and in the distance the clear
fresh waters of the Chalco; far beyond stretched a wide prospect of
fields and waving woods, with the burnished walls of many a lofty temple
rising high above the trees and crowning the distant hilltops.[380] The
view reached in an unbroken line to the very base of the circular range
of mountains, whose frosty peaks glittered as if touched with fire in
the morning ray; while long, dark wreaths of vapor, rolling up from the
hoary head of Popocatepetl, told that the destroying element was,
indeed, at work in the bosom of the beautiful Valley.
Cortés was filled with admiration at this grand and glorious spectacle,
and gave utterance to his feelings in animated language to the emperor,
the lord of these flourishing domains. His thoughts, however, soon took
another direction; and, turning to Father Olmedo, who stood by his side,
he suggested that the area would afford a most conspicuous position for
the Christian Cross, if Montezuma would but allow it to be planted
there. But the discreet ecclesiastic, with the good sense which on these
occasions seems to have been so lamentably deficient in his commander,
reminded him that such a request, at present, would be exceedingly ill
timed, as the Indian monarch had shown no dispositions as yet favorable
to Christianity.[381]
Cortés then requested Montezuma to allow him to enter the sanctuaries
and behold the shrines of his gods. To this the latter, after a short
conference with the priests, assented, and conducted the Spaniards into
the building. They found themselves in a spacious apartment incrusted
on the sides with stucco, on which various figures were sculptured,
representing the Mexican calendar, perhaps, or the priestly ritual. At
one end of the saloon was a recess with a roof of timber richly carved
and gilt. Before the altar in this sanctuary stood the colossal image of
Huitzilopochtli, the tutelary deity and war-god of the Aztecs. His
countenance was distorted into hideous lineaments of symbolical import.
In his right hand he wielded a bow, and in his left a bunch of golden
arrows, which a mystic legend had connected with the victories of his
people. The huge folds of a serpent, consisting of pearls and precious
stones, were coiled round his waist, and the same rich materials were
profusely sprinkled over his person. On his left foot were the delicate
feathers of the humming-bird, which, singularly enough, gave its name to
the dread deity.[382] The most conspicuous ornament was a chain of gold
and silver hearts alternate, suspended round his neck, emblematical of
the sacrifice in which he most delighted. A more unequivocal evidence of
this was afforded by three human hearts smoking and almost palpitating,
as if recently torn from the victims, and now lying on the altar before
him!
The adjoining sanctuary was dedicated to a milder deity. This was
Tezcatlipoca, next in honor to that invisible Being, the Supreme God,
who was represented by no image and confined by no temple. It was
Tezcatlipoca who created the world and watched over it with a
providential care. He was represented as a young man, and his image, of
polished black stone, was richly garnished with gold plates and
ornaments, among which a shield burnished like a mirror was the most
characteristic emblem, as in it he saw reflected all the doings of the
world. But the homage to this god was not always of a more refined or
merciful character than that paid to his carnivorous brother; for five
bleeding hearts were also seen in a golden platter on his altar.
The walls of both these chapels were stained with human gore. “The
stench was more intolerable,” exclaims Diaz, “than that of the
slaughterhouses in Castile!” And the frantic forms of the priests, with
their dark robes clotted with blood, as they flitted to and fro, seemed
to the Spaniards to be those of the very ministers of Satan![383]
From this foul abode they gladly escaped into the open air; when Cortés,
turning to Montezuma, said, with a smile, “I do not comprehend how a
great and wise prince, like you, can put faith in such evil spirits as
these idols, the representatives of the Devil! If you will but permit us
to erect here the true Cross, and place the images of the blessed Virgin
and her Son in your sanctuaries, you will soon see how your false gods
will shrink before them!”
Montezuma was greatly shocked at this sacrilegious address. “These are
the gods,” he answered, “who have led the Aztecs on to victory since
they were a nation, and who send the seed-time and harvest in their
seasons. Had I thought you would have offered them this outrage, I would
not have admitted you into their presence.”
Cortés, after some expressions of concern at having wounded the feelings
of the emperor, took his leave. Montezuma remained, saying that he must
expiate, if possible, the crime of exposing the shrines of the
divinities to such profanation by the strangers.[384]
On descending to the court, the Spanish took a leisurely survey of the
other edifices in the enclosure. The area was protected by a smooth
stone pavement, so polished, indeed, that it was with difficulty the
horses could keep their legs. There were several other _teocallis_,
built generally on the model of the great one, though of much inferior
size, dedicated to the different Aztec deities.[385] On their summits
were the altars crowned with perpetual flames, which, with those on the
numerous temples in other quarters of the capital, shed a brilliant
illumination over its streets through the long nights.[386]
Among the _teocallis_ in the enclosure was one consecrated to
Quetzalcoatl, circular in its form, and having an entrance in imitation
of a dragon’s mouth, bristling with sharp fangs and dropping with blood.
As the Spaniards cast a furtive glance into the throat of this horrible
monster, they saw collected there implements of sacrifice and other
abominations of fearful import. Their bold hearts shuddered at the
spectacle, and they designated the place not inaptly as the “Hell.”[387]
One other structure may be noticed as characteristic of the brutish
nature of their religion. This was a pyramidal mound or tumulus, having
a complicated frame-work of timber on its broad summit. On this was
strung an immense number of human skulls, which belonged to the victims,
mostly prisoners of war, who had perished on the accursed stone of
sacrifice. Two of the soldiers had the patience to count the number of
these ghastly trophies, and reported it to be one hundred and thirty-six
thousand![388] Belief might well be staggered, did not the Old World
present a worthy counterpart in the pyramidal Golgothas which
commemorated the triumphs of Tamerlane.[389]
There were long ranges of buildings in the enclosure, appropriated as
the residence of the priests and others engaged in the offices of
religion. The whole number of them was said to amount to several
thousand. Here were, also, the principal seminaries for the instruction
of youth of both sexes, drawn chiefly from the higher and wealthier
classes. The girls were taught by elderly women who officiated as
priestesses in the temples, a custom familiar, also, to Egypt. The
Spaniards admit that the greatest care for morals, and the most
blameless deportment, were maintained in these institutions. The time of
the pupils was chiefly occupied, as in most monastic establishments,
with the minute and burdensome ceremonial of their religion. The boys
were likewise taught such elements of science as were known to their
teachers, and the girls initiated in the mysteries of embroidery and
weaving, which they employed in decorating the temples. At a suitable
age they generally went forth into the world to assume the occupations
fitted to their condition, though some remained permanently devoted to
the services of religion.[390]
The spot was also covered by edifices of a still different character.
There were granaries filled with the rich produce of the church-lands
and with the first-fruits and other offerings of the faithful. One large
mansion was reserved for strangers of eminence who were on a pilgrimage
to the great _teocalli_. The enclosure was ornamented with gardens,
shaded by ancient trees and watered by fountains and reservoirs from the
copious streams of Chapoltepec. The little community was thus provided
with almost everything requisite for its own maintenance and the
services of the temple.[391]
It was a microcosm of itself, a city within a city, and, according to
the assertion of Cortés, embraced a tract of ground large enough for
five hundred houses.[392] It presented in their brief compass the
extremes of barbarism, blended with a certain civilization, altogether
characteristic of the Aztecs. The rude Conquerors saw only the evidence
of the former. In the fantastic and symbolical features of the deities
they beheld the literal lineaments of Satan; in the rites and frivolous
ceremonial, his own especial code of damnation; and in the modest
deportment and careful nurture of the inmates of the seminaries, the
snares by which he was to beguile his deluded victims![393] Before a
century had elapsed, the descendants of these same Spaniards discerned
in the mysteries of the Aztec religion the features, obscured and
defaced, indeed, of the Jewish and Christian revelations![394] Such were
the opposite conclusions of the unlettered soldier and of the scholar. A
philosopher, untouched by superstition, might well doubt which of the
two was the more extraordinary.
The sight of the Indian abomination seems to have kindled in the
Spaniards a livelier feeling for their own religion; since on the
following day they asked leave of Montezuma to convert one of the halls
in their residence into a chapel, that they might celebrate the services
of the Church there. The monarch, in whose bosom the feelings of
resentment seem to have soon subsided, easily granted their request, and
sent some of his own artisans to aid them in the work.
While it was in progress, some of the Spaniards observed what appeared
to be a door recently plastered over. It was a common rumor that
Montezuma still kept the treasures of his father, King Axayacatl, in
this ancient palace. The Spaniards, acquainted with this fact, felt no
scruple in gratifying their curiosity by removing the plaster. As was
anticipated, it concealed a door. On forcing this, they found the rumor
was no exaggeration. They beheld a large hall filled with rich and
beautiful stuffs, articles of curious workmanship of various kinds, gold
and silver in bars and in the ore, and many jewels of value. It was the
private hoard of Montezuma, the contributions, it may be, of tributary
cities, and once the property of his father. “I was a young man,” says
Diaz, who was one of those that obtained a sight of it, “and it seemed
to me as if all the riches of the world were in that room!”[395] The
Spaniards, notwithstanding their elation at the discovery of this
precious deposit, seem to have felt some commendable scruples as to
appropriating it to their own use,--at least for the present. And
Cortés, after closing up the wall as it was before, gave strict
injunctions that nothing should be said of the matter, unwilling that
the knowledge of its existence by his guests should reach the ears of
Montezuma.
Three days sufficed to complete the chapel; and the Christians had the
satisfaction to see themselves in possession of a temple where they
might worship God in their own way, under the protection of the Cross
and the blessed Virgin. Mass was regularly performed by the fathers
Olmedo and Diaz, in the presence of the assembled army, who were most
earnest and exemplary in their devotions, partly, says the chronicler
above quoted, from the propriety of the thing, and partly for its
edifying influence on the benighted heathen.[396]
CHAPTER III
ANXIETY OF CORTÉS--SEIZURE OF MONTEZUMA--HIS TREATMENT BY THE
SPANIARDS--EXECUTION OF HIS OFFICERS--MONTEZUMA IN
IRONS--REFLECTIONS
1519
The Spaniards had been now a week in Mexico. During this time they had
experienced the most friendly treatment from the emperor. But the mind
of Cortés was far from easy. He felt that it was quite uncertain how
long this amiable temper would last. A hundred circumstances might occur
to change it. Montezuma might very naturally feel the maintenance of so
large a body too burdensome on his treasury. The people of the capital
might become dissatisfied at the presence of so numerous an armed force
within their walls. Many causes of disgust might arise betwixt the
soldiers and the citizens. Indeed, it was scarcely possible that a rude,
licentious soldiery, like the Spaniards, could be long kept in
subjection without active employment.[397] The danger was even greater
with the Tlascalans, a fierce race now brought into daily contact with
the nation who held them in loathing and detestation. Rumors were
already rife among the allies, whether well founded or not, of murmurs
among the Mexicans, accompanied by menaces of raising the bridges.[398]