unmolested, it was not advancing the great object of the expedition.
Cortés was not a whit nearer gaining the capital, so essential to his
meditated subjugation of the country; and any day he might receive
tidings that the crown, or, what he most feared, the governor of Cuba,
had sent a force of superior strength to wrest from him a conquest but
half achieved. Disturbed by these anxious reflections, he resolved to
extricate himself from his embarrassment by one bold stroke. But he
first submitted the affair to a council of the officers in whom he most
confided, desirous to divide with them the responsibility of the act,
and, no doubt, to interest them more heartily in its execution by making
it in some measure the result of their combined judgments.
When the general had briefly stated the embarrassments of their
position, the council was divided in opinion. All admitted the necessity
of some instant action. One party were for retiring secretly from the
city, and getting beyond the causeways before their march could be
intercepted. Another advised that it should be done openly, with the
knowledge of the emperor, of whose good will they had had so many
proofs. But both these measures seemed alike impolitic. A retreat under
these circumstances, and so abruptly made, would have the air of a
flight. It would be construed into distrust of themselves; and anything
like timidity on their part would be sure not only to bring on them the
Mexicans, but the contempt of their allies, who would, doubtless, join
in the general cry.
As to Montezuma, what reliance could they place on the protection of a
prince so recently their enemy, and who, in his altered bearing, must
have taken counsel of his fears rather than his inclinations?
Even should they succeed in reaching the coast, their situation would be
little better. It would be proclaiming to the world that, after all
their lofty vaunts, they were unequal to the enterprise. Their only
hopes of their sovereign’s favor, and of pardon for their irregular
proceedings, were founded on success. Hitherto, they had only made the
discovery of Mexico; to retreat would be to leave conquest and the
fruits of it to another. In short, to stay and to retreat seemed equally
disastrous.
In his perplexity, Cortés proposed an expedient which none but the most
daring spirit, in the most desperate extremity, would have conceived.
This was to march to the royal palace and bring Montezuma to the Spanish
quarters, by fair means if they could persuade him, by force if
necessary,--at all events, to get possession of his person.{*} With
such a pledge, the Spaniards would be secure from the assault of the
Mexicans, afraid by acts of violence to compromise the safety of their
prince. If he came by his own consent, they would be deprived of all
apology for doing so. As long as the emperor remained among the
Spaniards, it would be easy, by allowing him a show of sovereignty, to
rule in his name, until they had taken measures for securing their
safety and the success of their enterprise. The idea of employing a
sovereign as a tool for the government of his own kingdom, if a new one
in the age of Cortés, is certainly not so in ours.[399]
{*} [“An unparalleled transaction. There is nothing like it, I believe,
in the annals of the world.” Helps’ Spanish Conquest, ii. 351.--M.]
A plausible pretext for the seizure of the hospitable monarch--for the
most barefaced action seeks to veil itself under some show of
decency--was afforded by a circumstance of which Cortés had received
intelligence at Cholula.[400] He had left, as we have seen, a faithful
officer, Juan de Escalante, with a hundred and fifty men, in garrison at
Vera Cruz, on his departure for the capital. He had not been long absent
when his lieutenant received a message from an Aztec chief named
Quauhpopoca, governor of a district to the north of the Spanish
settlement, declaring his desire to come in person and tender his
allegiance to the Spanish authorities at Vera Cruz. He requested that
four of the white men might be sent to protect him against certain
unfriendly tribes through which his road lay. This was not an uncommon
request, and excited no suspicion in Escalante. The four soldiers were
sent; and on their arrival two of them were murdered by the false Aztec.
The other two made their way back to the garrison.[401]
The commander marched at once, with fifty of his men, and several
thousand Indian allies, to take vengeance on the cacique. A pitched
battle followed. The allies fled from the redoubted Mexicans. The few
Spaniards stood firm, and with the aid of their fire-arms and the
blessed Virgin, who was distinctly seen hovering over their ranks in the
van, they made good the field against the enemy. It cost them dear,
however; since seven or eight Christians were slain, and among them the
gallant Escalante himself, who died of his injuries soon after his
return to the fort. The Indian prisoners captured in the battle spoke of
the whole proceeding as having taken place at the instigation of
Montezuma.[402]
One of the Spaniards fell into the hands of the natives, but soon after
perished of his wounds. His head was cut off and sent to the Aztec
emperor. It was uncommonly large and covered with hair; and, as
Montezuma gazed on the ferocious features, rendered more horrible by
death, he seemed to read in them the dark lineaments of the destined
destroyers of his house. He turned from it with a shudder, and commanded
that it should be taken from the city, and not offered at the shrine of
any of his gods.
Although Cortés had received intelligence of this disaster at Cholula,
he had concealed it within his own breast, or communicated it to very
few only of his most trusty officers, from apprehension of the ill
effect it might have on the spirits of the common soldiers.
The cavaliers whom Cortés now summoned to the council were men of the
same mettle with their leader. Their bold, chivalrous spirits seemed to
court danger for its own sake. If one or two, less adventurous, were
startled by the proposal he made, they were soon overruled by the
others, who, no doubt, considered that a desperate disease required as
desperate a remedy.
That night Cortés was heard pacing his apartment to and fro, like a man
oppressed by thought or agitated by strong emotion. He may have been
ripening in his mind the daring scheme for the morrow.[403] In the
morning the soldiers heard mass as usual, and Father Olmedo invoked the
blessing of Heaven on their hazardous enterprise. Whatever might be the
cause in which he was embarked, the heart of the Spaniard was cheered
with the conviction that the saints were on his side![404]
Having asked an audience from Montezuma, which was readily granted, the
general made the necessary arrangements for his enterprise. The
principal part of his force was drawn up in the court-yard, and he
stationed a considerable detachment in the avenues leading to the
palace, to check any attempt at rescue by the populace. He ordered
twenty-five or thirty of the soldiers to drop in at the palace, as if
by accident, in groups of three or four at a time, while the conference
was going on with Montezuma. He selected five cavaliers, in whose
courage and coolness he placed most trust, to bear him company; Pedro de
Alvarado, Gonzalo de Sandoval, Francisco de Lujo, Velasquez de Leon, and
Alonso de Avila,--brilliant names in the annals of the Conquest. All
were clad, as well as the common soldiers, in complete armor, a
circumstance of too familiar occurrence to excite suspicion.
The little party were graciously received by the emperor, who soon, with
the aid of the interpreters, became interested in a sportive
conversation with the Spaniards, while he indulged his natural
munificence by giving them presents of gold and jewels. He paid the
Spanish general the particular compliment of offering him one of his
daughters as his wife; an honor which the latter respectfully declined,
on the ground that he was already accommodated with one in Cuba, and
that his religion forbade a plurality.
When Cortés perceived that a sufficient number of his soldiers were
assembled, he changed his playful manner, and in a serious tone briefly
acquainted Montezuma with the treacherous proceedings in the _tierra
caliente_, and the accusation of him as their author. The emperor
listened to the charge with surprise, and disavowed the act, which he
said could only have been imputed to him by his enemies. Cortés
expressed his belief in his declaration, but added that, to prove it
true, it would be necessary to send for Quauhpopoca and his
accomplices, that they might be examined and dealt with according to
their deserts. To this Montezuma made no objection. Taking from his
wrist, to which it was attached, a precious stone, the royal signet, on
which was cut the figure of the Wargod,[405] he gave it to one of his
nobles, with orders to show it to the Aztec governor, and require his
instant presence in the capital, together with all those who had been
accessory to the murder of the Spaniards. If he resisted, the officer
was empowered to call in the aid of the neighboring towns to enforce the
mandate.
When the messenger had gone, Cortés assured the monarch that this prompt
compliance with his request convinced him of his innocence. But it was
important that his own sovereign should be equally convinced of it.
Nothing would promote this so much as for Montezuma to transfer his
residence to the palace occupied by the Spaniards, till on the arrival
of Quauhpopoca the affair could be fully investigated. Such an act of
condescension would, of itself, show a personal regard for the
Spaniards, incompatible with the base conduct alleged against him, and
would fully absolve him from all suspicion![406]
Montezuma listened to this proposal, and the flimsy reasoning with which
it was covered, with looks of profound amazement. He became pale as
death; but in a moment his face flushed with resentment, as, with the
pride of offended dignity, he exclaimed, “When was it ever heard that a
great prince, like myself, voluntarily left his own palace to become a
prisoner in the hands of strangers!”
Cortés assured him he would not go as a prisoner. He would experience
nothing but respectful treatment from the Spaniards, would be surrounded
by his own household, and hold intercourse with his people as usual. In
short, it would be but a change of residence, from one of his palaces to
another, a circumstance of frequent occurrence with him. It was in vain.
“If I should consent to such a degradation,” he answered, “my subjects
never would.”[407] When further pressed, he offered to give up one of
his sons and two of his daughters to remain as hostages with the
Spaniards, so that he might be spared this disgrace.
Two hours passed in this fruitless discussion, till a high-mettled
cavalier, Velasquez de Leon, impatient of the long delay, and seeing
that the attempt, if not the deed, must ruin them, cried out, “Why do we
waste words on this barbarian? We have gone too far to recede now. Let
us seize him, and, if he resists, plunge our swords into his body!”[408]
The fierce tone and menacing gestures with which this was uttered
alarmed the monarch, who inquired of Marina what the angry Spaniard
said. The interpreter explained it in as gentle a manner as she could,
beseeching him “to accompany the white men to their quarters, where he
would be treated with all respect and kindness, while to refuse them
would but expose himself to violence, perhaps to death.” Marina,
doubtless, spoke to her sovereign as she thought, and no one had better
opportunity of knowing the truth than herself.
This last appeal shook the resolution of Montezuma. It was in vain that
the unhappy prince looked around for sympathy or support. As his eyes
wandered over the stern visages and iron forms of the Spaniards, he felt
that his hour was indeed come; and, with a voice scarcely audible from
emotion, he consented to accompany the strangers,--to quit the palace
whither he was never more to return. Had he possessed the spirit of the
first Montezuma, he would have called his guards around him, and left
his life-blood on the threshold, sooner than have been dragged a
dishonored captive across it. But his courage sank under circumstances.
He felt he was the instrument of an irresistible Fate![409]
No sooner had the Spaniards got his consent than orders were given for
the royal litter. The nobles who bore and attended it could scarcely
believe their senses when they learned their master’s purpose. But pride
now came to Montezuma’s aid, and, since he must go, he preferred that it
should appear to be with his own free will. As the royal retinue,
escorted by the Spaniards, marched through the street with downcast eyes
and dejected mien, the people assembled in crowds, and a rumor rang
among them that the emperor was carried off by force to the quarters of
the white men. A tumult would have soon arisen but for the intervention
of Montezuma himself, who called out to the people to disperse, as he
was visiting his friends of his own accord; thus sealing his ignominy by
a declaration which deprived his subjects of the only excuse for
resistance.{*} On reaching the quarters, he sent out his nobles with
similar assurances to the mob, and renewed orders to return to their
homes.[410]
{*} [Writers of the school of Morgan and Bandelier rightly lay great
stress upon the circumstances connected with the capture of Montezuma as
tending to prove that the so-called “emperor” had no real power, but was
only the agent of the tribe. The Aztec system of government showed
startling variations from the ordinary communal type, and in another
century might have developed into a monarchical system, but it was
nevertheless still a military democracy. Cortés was quartered in the
Tecpan of the tribe, which Tecpan Montezuma had vacated to provide
accommodations for his guests. It was not very remarkable, therefore,
that the chief should return to his old quarters. There were no royal
guards to defend his person. When he fell into the power of the
Spaniards his influence was lost. But the people, whose chief officer he
was, were in a quandary. The Spaniards had learned in their dealings
with other tribes that Indians were demoralized and unable to fight when
their caciques were taken. (_Cicique_ was the title usually given to
Montezuma in the first despatches of Cortés.) According to aboriginal
customs, prisoners of war were killed, and their offices reverted to the
tribe. Cortés, when he took Montezuma prisoner, captured both the man
and his office. Under ordinary circumstances there could be no vacancy
in the office until its holder died. We shall note later the enormous
blunder Cortés made because of his ignorance of Aztec institutions.--M.]
He was received with ostentatious respect by the Spaniards, and selected
the suite of apartments which best pleased him. They were soon furnished
with fine cotton tapestries, feather-work, and all the elegancies of
Indian upholstery. He was attended by such of his household as he chose,
his wives and his pages, and was served with his usual pomp and luxury
at his meals.{*} He gave audience, as in his own palace, to his
subjects, who were admitted to his presence, few, indeed, at a time,
under the pretext of greater order and decorum. From the Spaniards
themselves he met with a formal deference. No one, not even the general
himself, approached him without doffing his casque and rendering the
obeisance due to his rank. Nor did they ever sit in his presence,
without being invited by him to do so.[411]
{*} [According to Tápia, his servants brought him at each meal more than
four hundred dishes of meat, game, and fish, intermingled with
vegetables and fruits: “é debajo de cada plato de los que á sus
servidores les parecie que él comerie, venia un braserico con lumbre;
... siempre le traian platos nuevos en que comie, é jamas comie en cada
plato mas du una vez, ni se vistie ropa mas de una vez; é lavábase el
cuerpo cada dia dos veces.” Icazbalceta, Col. de Doc. para la Hist. de
México, tom. ii.--K.]
With all this studied ceremony and show of homage, there was one
circumstance which too clearly proclaimed to his people that their
sovereign was a prisoner. In the front of the palace a patrol of sixty
men was established, and the same number in the rear. Twenty of each
corps mounted guard at once, maintaining a careful watch, day and
night.[412] Another body, under command of Velasquez de Leon, was
stationed in the royal antechamber. Cortés punished any departure from
duty, or relaxation of vigilance, in these sentinels, with the utmost
severity.[413] He felt, as indeed every Spaniard must have felt, that
the escape of the emperor now would be their ruin. Yet the task of this
unintermitting watch sorely added to their fatigues. “Better this dog of
a king should die,” cried a soldier one day, “than that we should wear
out our lives in this manner.” The words were uttered in the hearing of
Montezuma, who gathered something of their import, and the offender was
severely chastised by order of the general.[414] Such instances of
disrespect, however, were very rare. Indeed, the amiable deportment of
the monarch, who seemed to take pleasure in the society of his jailers,
and who never allowed a favor or attention from the meanest soldier to
go unrequited, inspired the Spaniards with as much attachment as they
were capable of feeling--for a barbarian.[415]
Things were in this posture, when the arrival of Quauhpopoca from the
coast was announced. He was accompanied by his son and fifteen Aztec
chiefs. He had travelled all the way, borne, as became his high rank, in
a litter. On entering Montezuma’s presence, he threw over his dress the
coarse robe of _nequen_, and made the usual humiliating acts of
obeisance. The poor parade of courtly ceremony was the more striking
when placed in contrast with the actual condition of the parties.
The Aztec governor was coldly received by his master, who referred the
affair (had he the power to do otherwise?) to the examination of Cortés.
It was, doubtless, conducted in a sufficiently summary manner. To the
general’s query, whether the cacique was the subject of Montezuma, he
replied, “And what other sovereign could I serve?” implying that his
sway was universal.[416] He did not deny his share in the transaction,
nor did he seek to shelter himself under the royal authority till
sentence of death was passed on him and his followers, when they all
laid the blame of their proceedings on Montezuma.[417] They were
condemned to be burnt alive in the area before the palace. The funeral
piles were made of heaps of arrows, javelins, and other weapons, drawn
by the emperor’s permission from the arsenals round the great
_teocalli_, where they had been stored to supply means of defence in
times of civic tumult or insurrection. By this politic precaution Cortés
proposed to remove a ready means of annoyance in case of hostilities
with the citizens.
To crown the whole of these extraordinary proceedings, Cortés, while
preparations for the execution were going on, entered the emperor’s
apartment, attended by a soldier bearing fetters in his hands. With a
severe aspect, he charged the monarch with being the original contriver
of the violence offered to the Spaniards, as was now proved by the
declaration of his own instruments. Such a crime, which merited death in
a subject, could not be atoned for, even by a sovereign, without some
punishment. So saying, he ordered the soldier to fasten the fetters on
Montezuma’s ankles. He coolly waited till it was done, then, turning his
back on the monarch, quitted the room.
Montezuma was speechless under the infliction of this last insult. He
was like one struck down by a heavy blow, that deprives him of all his
faculties. He offered no resistance. But, though he spoke not a word,
low, ill-suppressed moans, from time to time, intimated the anguish of
his spirit. His attendants, bathed in tears, offered him their
consolations. They tenderly held his feet in their arms, and endeavored,
by inserting their shawls and mantles, to relieve them from the pressure
of the iron. But they could not reach the iron which had penetrated into
his soul. He felt that he was no more a king.
Meanwhile, the execution of the dreadful doom was going forward. The
whole Spanish force was under arms, to check any interruption that might
be offered by the Mexicans. But none was attempted. The populace gazed
in silent wonder, regarding it as the sentence of the emperor. The
manner of the execution, too, excited less surprise, from their
familiarity with similar spectacles, aggravated, indeed, by additional
horrors, in their own diabolical sacrifices. The Aztec lord and his
companions, bound hand and foot to the blazing piles, submitted without
a cry or a complaint to their terrible fate. Passive fortitude is the
virtue of the Indian warrior; and it was the glory of the Aztec, as of
the other races on the North American continent, to show how the spirit
of the brave man may triumph over torture and the agonies of death.
When the dismal tragedy was ended, Cortés re-entered Montezuma’s
apartment. Kneeling down, he unclasped his shackles with his own hand,
expressing at the same time his regret that so disagreeable a duty as
that of subjecting him to such a punishment had been imposed on him.
This last indignity had entirely crushed the spirit of Montezuma; and
the monarch whose frown, but a week since, would have made the nations
of Anahuac tremble to their remotest borders, was now craven enough to
thank his deliverer for his freedom, as for a great and unmerited
boon![418]
Not long after, the Spanish general, conceiving that his royal captive
was sufficiently humbled, expressed his willingness that he should
return, if he inclined, to his own palace. Montezuma declined it;
alleging, it is said, that his nobles had more than once importuned him
to resent his injuries by taking arms against the Spaniards, and that,
were he in the midst of them, it would be difficult to avoid it, or to
save his capital from bloodshed and anarchy.[419] The reason did honor
to his heart, if it was the one which influenced him. It is probable
that he did not care to trust his safety to those haughty and ferocious
chieftains, who had witnessed the degradation of their master, and must
despise his pusillanimity, as a thing unprecedented in an Aztec monarch.
It is also said that, when Marina conveyed to him the permission of
Cortés, the other interpreter, Aguilar, gave him to understand the
Spanish officers never would consent that he should avail himself of
it.[420]
Whatever were his reasons, it is certain that he declined the offer; and
the general, in a well-feigned or real ecstasy, embraced him, declaring
“that he loved him as a brother, and that every Spaniard would be
zealously devoted to his interests, since he had shown himself so
mindful of theirs!” Honeyed words, “which,” says the shrewd old
chronicler who was present, “Montezuma was wise enough to know the worth
of.”
The events recorded in this chapter are certainly some of the most
extraordinary on the page of history. That a small body of men, like the
Spaniards, should have entered the palace of a mighty prince, have
seized his person in the midst of his vassals, have borne him off a
captive to their quarters,--that they should have put to an ignominious
death before his face his high officers, for executing, probably, his
own commands, and have crowned the whole by putting the monarch in irons
like a common malefactor,--that this should have been done, not to a
drivelling dotard in the decay of his fortunes, but to a proud monarch
in the plenitude of his power, in the very heart of his capital,
surrounded by thousands and tens of thousands, who trembled at his nod
and would have poured out their blood like water in his defence,--that
all this should have been done by a mere handful of adventurers, is a
thing too extravagant, altogether too improbable, for the pages of
romance! It is, nevertheless, literally true. Yet we shall not be
prepared to acquiesce in the judgments of contemporaries who regarded
these acts with admiration. We may well distrust any grounds on which it
is attempted to justify the kidnapping of a friendly sovereign,--by
those very persons, too, who were reaping the full benefit of his
favors.
To view the matter differently, we must take the position of the
Conquerors and assume with them the original right of conquest. Regarded
from this point of view, many difficulties vanish. If conquest were a
duty, whatever was necessary to effect it was right also. Right and
expedient become convertible terms. And it can hardly be denied that the
capture of the monarch was expedient, if the Spaniards would maintain
their hold on the empire.[421]
The execution of the Aztec governor suggests other considerations. If he
were really guilty of the perfidious act imputed to him by Cortés, and
if Montezuma disavowed it, the governor deserved death, and the general
was justified by the law of nations in inflicting it.[422] It is by no
means so clear, however, why he should have involved so many in this
sentence; most, perhaps all, of whom must have acted under his
authority. The cruel manner of the death will less startle those who are
familiar with the established penal codes in most civilized nations in
the sixteenth century.
But, if the governor deserved death, what pretence was there for the
outrage on the person of Montezuma? If the former was guilty, the latter
surely was not. But, if the cacique only acted in obedience to orders,
the responsibility was transferred to the sovereign who gave the orders.
They could not both stand in the same category.
It is vain, however, to reason on the matter on any abstract principles
of right and wrong, or to suppose that the Conquerors troubled
themselves with the refinements of casuistry. Their standard of right
and wrong, in reference to the natives, was a very simple one. Despising
them as an outlawed race, without God in the world, they, in common
with their age, held it to be their “mission” (to borrow the cant phrase
of our own day) to conquer and to convert. The measures they adopted
certainly facilitated the first great work of conquest. By the execution
of the caciques they struck terror not only into the capital, but
throughout the country. It proclaimed that not a hair of a Spaniard was
to be touched with impunity! By rendering Montezuma contemptible in his
own eyes and those of his subjects, Cortés deprived him of the support
of his people and forced him to lean on the arm of the stranger. It was
a politic proceeding,--to which few men could have been equal who had a
touch of humanity in their natures.
A good criterion of the moral sense of the actors in these events is
afforded by the reflections of Bernal Diaz, made some fifty years, it
will be remembered, after the events themselves, when the fire of youth
had become extinct, and the eye, glancing back through the vista of half
a century, might be supposed to be unclouded by the passions and
prejudices which throw their mist over the present. “Now that I am an
old man,” says the veteran, “I often entertain myself with calling to
mind the heroical deeds of early days, till they are as fresh as the
events of yesterday. I think of the seizure of the Indian monarch, his
confinement in irons, and the execution of his officers, till all these
things seem actually passing before me. And, as I ponder on our
exploits, I feel that it was not of ourselves that we performed them,
but that it was the providence of God which guided us. Much food is
there here for meditation!”[423] There is so, indeed, and for a
meditation not unpleasing, as we reflect on the advance, in speculative
morality at least, which the nineteenth century has made over the
sixteenth. But should not the consciousness of this teach us charity?
Should it not make us the more distrustful of applying the standard of
the present to measure the actions of the past?
CHAPTER IV
MONTEZUMA’S DEPORTMENT--HIS LIFE IN THE SPANISH QUARTERS--MEDITATED
INSURRECTION--LORD OF TEZCUCO SEIZED--FURTHER MEASURES OF CORTÉS
1520
The settlement of La Villa Rica de Vera Cruz was of the last importance
to the Spaniards. It was the port by which they were to communicate with
Spain; the strong post on which they were to retreat in case of
disaster, and which was to bridle their enemies and give security to
their allies; the _point d’appui_ for all their operations in the
country. It was of great moment, therefore, that the care of it should
be intrusted to proper hands.
A cavalier, named Alonso de Grado, had been sent by Cortés to take the
place made vacant by the death of Escalante. He was a person of greater
repute in civil than military matters, and would be more likely, it was
thought, to maintain peaceful relations with the natives than a person
of more belligerent spirit. Cortés made--what was rare with him--a bad
choice. He soon received such accounts of troubles in the settlement
from the exactions and negligence of the new governor, that he resolved
to supersede him.
He now gave the command to Gonzalo de Sandoval, a young cavalier, who
had displayed, through the whole campaign, singular intrepidity united
with sagacity and discretion; while the good humor with which he bore
every privation, and his affable manners, made him a favorite with all,
privates as well as officers. Sandoval accordingly left the camp for the
coast. Cortés did not mistake his man a second time.
Notwithstanding the actual control exercised by the Spaniards through
their royal captive, Cortés felt some uneasiness when he reflected that
it was in the power of the Indians at any time to cut off his
communications with the surrounding country and hold him a prisoner in
the capital. He proposed, therefore, to build two vessels of sufficient
size to transport his forces across the lake, and thus to render himself
independent of the causeways. Montezuma was pleased with the idea of
seeing those wonderful “water-houses,” of which he had heard so much,
and readily gave permission to have the timber in the royal forests
felled for the purpose. The work was placed under the direction of
Martin Lopez, an experienced ship-builder. Orders were also given to
Sandoval to send up from the coast a supply of cordage, sails, iron, and
other necessary materials, which had been judiciously saved on the
destruction of the fleet.[424]
The Aztec emperor, meanwhile, was passing his days in the Spanish
quarters in no very different manner from what he had been accustomed to
in his own palace. His keepers were too well aware of the value of
their prize, not to do everything which could make his captivity
comfortable and disguise it from himself. But the chain will gall,
though wreathed with roses. After Montezuma’s breakfast, which was a
light meal of fruits or vegetables, Cortés or some of his officers
usually waited on him, to learn if he had any commands for them. He then
devoted some time to business. He gave audience to those of his subjects
who had petitions to prefer or suits to settle. The statement of the
party was drawn up on the hieroglyphic scrolls, which were submitted to
a number of counsellors or judges, who assisted him with their advice on
these occasions. Envoys from foreign states or his own remote provinces
and cities were also admitted, and the Spaniards were careful that the
same precise and punctilious etiquette should be maintained towards the
royal puppet as when in the plenitude of his authority.
After business was despatched, Montezuma often amused himself with
seeing the Castilian troops go through their military exercises. He,
too, had been a soldier, and in his prouder days had led armies in the
field. It was very natural he should take an interest in the novel
display of European tactics and discipline. At other times he would
challenge Cortés or his officers to play at some of the national games.
A favorite one was called _totoloque_, played with golden balls aimed at
a target or mark of the same metal. Montezuma usually staked something
of value,--precious stones or ingots of gold. He lost with good humor;
indeed, it was of little consequence whether he won or lost, since he
generally gave away his winnings to his attendants.[425] He had, in
truth, a most munificent spirit. His enemies accused him of avarice.
But, if he were avaricious, it could have been only that he might have
the more to give away.
Each of the Spaniards had several Mexicans, male and female, who
attended to his cooking and various other personal offices. Cortés,
considering that the maintenance of this host of menials was a heavy tax
on the royal exchequer, ordered them to be dismissed, excepting one to
be retained for each soldier. Montezuma, on learning this, pleasantly
remonstrated with the general on his careful economy, as unbecoming a
royal establishment, and, countermanding the order, caused additional
accommodation to be provided for the attendants, and their pay to be
doubled.
On another occasion, a soldier purloined some trinkets of gold from the
treasure kept in the chamber, which, since Montezuma’s arrival in the
Spanish quarters, had been reopened. Cortés would have punished the man
for the theft, but the emperor, interfering, said to him, “Your
countrymen are welcome to the gold and other articles, if you will but
spare those belonging to the gods.” Some of the soldiers, making the
most of his permission, carried off several hundred loads of fine cotton
to their quarters. When this was represented to Montezuma, he only
replied, “What I have once given I never take back again.”[426]
While thus indifferent to his treasures, he was keenly sensitive to
personal slight or insult. When a common soldier once spoke to him
angrily, the tears came into the monarch’s eyes, as it made him feel the
true character of his impotent condition. Cortés, on becoming acquainted
with it, was so much incensed that he ordered the soldier to be hanged,
but, on Montezuma’s intercession, commuted this severe sentence for a
flogging. The general was not willing that any one but himself should
treat his royal captive with indignity. Montezuma was desired to procure
a further mitigation of the punishment. But he refused, saying “that, if
a similar insult had been offered by any one of his subjects to
Malinche, he would have resented it in like manner.”[427]
Such instances of disrespect were very rare. Montezuma’s amiable and
inoffensive manners, together with his liberality, the most popular of
virtues with the vulgar, made him generally beloved by the
Spaniards.[428] The arrogance for which he had been so distinguished in
his prosperous days deserted him in his fallen fortunes. His character
in captivity seems to have undergone something of that change which
takes place in the wild animals of the forest when caged within the
walls of the menagerie.
The Indian monarch knew the name of every man in the army, and was
careful to discriminate his proper rank.[429] For some he showed a
strong partiality. He obtained from the general a favorite page, named
Orteguilla, who, being in constant attendance on his person, soon
learned enough of the Mexican language to be of use to his countrymen.
Montezuma took great pleasure, also, in the society of Velasquez de
Leon, the captain of his guard, and Pedro de Alvarado, _Tonatiuh_, or
“the Sun,” as he was called by the Aztecs, from his yellow hair and
sunny countenance. The sunshine, as events afterwards showed, could
sometimes be the prelude to a terrible tempest.
Notwithstanding the care taken to cheat him of the tedium of captivity,
the royal prisoner cast a wistful glance, now and then, beyond the walls
of his residence to the ancient haunts of business or pleasure. He
intimated a desire to offer up his devotions at the great temple, where
he was once so constant in his worship. The suggestion startled Cortés.
It was too reasonable, however, for him to object to it without wholly
discarding the appearances which he was desirous to maintain. But he
secured Montezuma’s return by sending an escort with him of a hundred
and fifty soldiers under the same resolute cavaliers who had aided in
his seizure. He told him, also, that in case of any attempt to escape
his life would instantly pay the forfeit. Thus guarded, the Indian
prince visited the _teocalli_, where he was received with the usual
state, and, after performing his devotions, he returned again to his
quarters.[430]
It may well be believed that the Spaniards did not neglect the
opportunity afforded by his residence with them, of instilling into him
some notions of the Christian doctrine. Fathers Diaz and Olmedo
exhausted all their battery of logic and persuasion, to shake his faith
in his idols, but in vain. He, indeed, paid a most edifying attention,
which gave promise of better things. But the conferences always closed
with the declaration that “the God of the Christians was good, but the
gods of his own country were the true gods for him.”[431] It is said,
however, they extorted a promise from him that he would take part in no
more human sacrifices. Yet such sacrifices were of daily occurrence in
the great temples of the capital; and the people were too blindly
attached to their bloody abominations for the Spaniards to deem it safe,
for the present at least, openly to interfere.
Montezuma showed, also, an inclination to engage in the pleasures of the
chase, of which he once was immoderately fond. He had large forests
reserved for the purpose on the other side of the lake. As the Spanish
brigantines were now completed, Cortés proposed to transport him and
his suite across the water in them. They were of a good size, strongly
built. The largest was mounted with four falconets, or small guns. It
was protected by a gayly-colored awning stretched over the deck, and the
royal ensign of Castile floated proudly from the mast. On board of this
vessel, Montezuma, delighted with the opportunity of witnessing the
nautical skill of the white men, embarked with a train of Aztec nobles
and a numerous guard of Spaniards. A fresh breeze played on the waters,
and the vessel soon left behind it the swarms of light pirogues which
darkened their surface. She seemed like a thing of life in the eyes of
the astonished natives, who saw her, as if disdaining human agency,
sweeping by with snowy pinions as if on the wings of the wind, while the
thunders from her sides, now for the first time breaking on the silence
of this “inland sea,” showed that the beautiful phantom was clothed in
terror.[432]
The royal chase was well stocked with game; some of which the emperor
shot with arrows, and others were driven by the numerous attendants into
nets.[433] In these woodland exercises, while he ranged over his wild
domain, Montezuma seemed to enjoy again the sweets of liberty. It was
but the shadow of liberty, however; as in his quarters, at home, he
enjoyed but the shadow of royalty. At home or abroad, the eye of the
Spaniard was always upon him.
But, while resigned himself without a struggle to his inglorious fate,
there were others who looked on it with very different emotions. Among
them was his nephew Cacama, lord of Tezcuco, a young man not more than
twenty-five years of age, but who enjoyed great consideration from his
high personal qualities, especially his intrepidity of character. He was
the same prince who had been sent by Montezuma to welcome the Spaniards
on their entrance into the Valley; and, when the question of their
reception was first debated in the council, he had advised to admit them
honorably as ambassadors of a foreign prince, and, if they should prove
different from what they pretended, it would be time enough then to take
up arms against them. That time, he thought, had now come.
In a former part of this work, the reader has been made acquainted with
the ancient history of the Acolhuan or Tezcucan monarchy, once the proud
rival of the Aztec in power, and greatly its superior in
civilization.[434] Under its last sovereign, Nezahualpilli, its
territory is said to have been grievously clipped by the insidious
practices of Montezuma, who fomented dissensions and insubordination
among his subjects. On the death of the Tezcucan prince, the succession
was contested, and a bloody war ensued between his eldest son, Cacama,
and an ambitious younger brother, Ixtlilxochitl. This was followed by a
partition of the kingdom, in which the latter chieftain held the
mountain districts north of the capital, leaving the residue to Cacama.
Though shorn of a large part of his hereditary domain, the city was
itself so important that the lord of Tezcuco still held a high rank
among the petty princes of the Valley. His capital, at the time of the
Conquest, contained, according to Cortés, a hundred and fifty thousand
inhabitants.[435] It was embellished with noble buildings, rivalling
those of Mexico itself, and the ruins still to be met with on its
ancient site attest that it was once the abode of princes.[436]
The young Tezcucan chief beheld with indignation and no slight contempt
the abject condition of his uncle. He endeavored to rouse him to manly
exertion, but in vain. He then set about forming a league with several
of the neighboring caciques to rescue his kinsman and to break the
detested yoke of the strangers. He called on the lord of Iztapalapan,
Montezuma’s brother, the lord of Tlacopan, and some others of most
authority, all of whom entered heartily into his views. He then urged
the Aztec nobles to join them; but they expressed an unwillingness to
take any step not first sanctioned by the emperor.[437] They
entertained, undoubtedly, a profound reverence for their master; but it
seems probable that jealousy of the personal views of Cacama had its
influence on their determination. Whatever were their motives, it is
certain that by this refusal they relinquished the best opportunity ever
presented for retrieving their sovereign’s independence and their own.
These intrigues could not be conducted so secretly as not to reach the
ears of Cortés, who, with his characteristic promptness, would have
marched at once on Tezcuco and trodden out the spark of “rebellion”[438]
before it had time to burst into a flame. But from this he was
dissuaded by Montezuma, who represented that Cacama was a man of
resolution, backed by a powerful force, and not to be put down without a
desperate struggle. He consented, therefore, to negotiate, and sent a
message of amicable expostulation to the cacique. He received a haughty
answer in return. Cortés rejoined in a more menacing tone, asserting the
supremacy of his own sovereign, the emperor of Castile. To this Cacama
replied, “He acknowledged no such authority; he knew nothing of the
Spanish sovereign or his people, nor did he wish to know anything of
them.”[439] Montezuma was not more successful in his application to
Cacama to come to Mexico and allow him to mediate his differences with
the Spaniards, with whom he assured the prince he was residing as a
friend. But the young lord of Tezcuco was not to be so duped. He
understood the position of his uncle, and replied “that when he did
visit his capital it would be to rescue it, as well as the emperor
himself, and their common gods, from bondage. He should come, not with
his hand in his bosom, but on his sword,--to drive out the detested
strangers who had brought such dishonor on their country!”[440]
Cortés, incensed at this tone of defiance, would again have put himself
in motion to punish it, but Montezuma interposed with his more politic
arts. He had several of the Tezcucan nobles, he said, in his pay;[441]
and it would be easy, through their means, to secure Cacama’s person,
and thus break up the confederacy, at once, without bloodshed. The
maintaining of a corps of stipendiaries in the courts of neighboring
princes was a refinement which showed that the Western barbarian
understood the science of political intrigue as well as some of his
royal brethren on the other side of the water.
By the contrivance of these faithless nobles, Cacama was induced to hold
a conference, relative to the proposed invasion, in a villa which
overhung the Tezcucan lake, not far from his capital. Like most of the
principal edifices, it was raised so as to admit the entrance of boats
beneath it. In the midst of the conference, Cacama was seized by the
conspirators, hurried on board a bark in readiness for the purpose, and
transported to Mexico. When brought into Montezuma’s presence, the
high-spirited chief abated nothing of his proud and lofty bearing. He
taxed his uncle with his perfidy, and a pusillanimity so unworthy of his
former character and of the royal house from which he was descended. By
the emperor he was referred to Cortés, who, holding royalty but cheap
in an Indian prince, put him in fetters.[442]
There was at this time in Mexico a brother of Cacama, a stripling much
younger than himself. At the instigation of Cortés, Montezuma,
pretending that his nephew had forfeited the sovereignty by his late
_rebellion_, declared him to be deposed, and appointed Cuicuitzca in his
place. The Aztec sovereigns had always been allowed a paramount
authority in questions relating to the succession. But this was a most
unwarrantable exercise of it. The Tezcucans acquiesced, however, with a
ready ductility, which showed their allegiance hung but lightly on them,
or, what is more probable, that they were greatly in awe of the
Spaniards; and the new prince was welcomed with acclamations to his
capital.[443]
Cortés still wanted to get into his hands the other chiefs who had
entered into the confederacy with Cacama. This was no difficult matter.
Montezuma’s authority was absolute, everywhere but in his own palace. By
his command, the caciques were seized, each in his own city, and
brought in chains to Mexico, where Cortés placed them in strict
confinement with their leader.[444]
He had now triumphed over all his enemies. He had set his foot on the
necks of princes; and the great chief of the Aztec empire was but a
convenient tool in his hands for accomplishing his purposes. His first
use of this power was to ascertain the actual resources of the monarchy.
He sent several parties of Spaniards, guided by the natives, to explore
the regions where gold was obtained. It was gleaned mostly from the beds
of rivers, several hundred miles from the capital.
His next object was to learn if there existed any good natural harbor
for shipping on the Atlantic coast, as the road of Vera Cruz left no
protection against the tempests that at certain seasons swept over these
seas. Montezuma showed him a chart on which the shores of the Mexican
Gulf were laid down with tolerable accuracy.[445] Cortés, after
carefully inspecting it, sent a commission, consisting of ten Spaniards,
several of them pilots, and some Aztecs, who descended to Vera Cruz and
made a careful survey of the coast for nearly sixty leagues south of
that settlement, as far as the great river Coatzacualco, which seemed to
offer the best--indeed, the only--accommodations for a safe and
suitable harbor. A spot was selected as the site of a fortified post,
and the general sent a detachment of a hundred and fifty men under
Velasquez de Leon to plant a colony there.
He also obtained a grant of an extensive tract of land in the fruitful
province of Oaxaca, where he proposed to lay out a plantation for the
crown. He stocked it with the different kinds of domesticated animals
peculiar to the country, and with such indigenous grains and plants as
would afford the best articles for export. He soon had the estate under
such cultivation that he assured his master, the emperor Charles the
Fifth, it was worth twenty thousand ounces of gold.[446]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] His name suited his nature; Montezuma, according to Las Casas,
signifying, in the Mexican, “sad or severe man.” Hist. de las Indias,
MS., lib. 3, cap. 120.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap.
70.--Acosta, lib. 7, cap. 20.--Col. de Mendoza, pp. 13-16; Codex
Tel.-Rem., p. 143, ap. Antiq. of Mexico, vol. vi.
[2] For a full account of this prince, see Book I, chap. 6.
[3] The address is fully reported by Torquemada (Monarch. Ind., lib.
3, cap. 68), who came into the country little more than half a century
after its delivery. It has been recently republished by Bustamante.
Tezcuco en los últimos Tiempos (México, 1826), pp. 256-258.
[4] Acosta, lib. 7, cap. 22.--Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-España, lib. 8,
Prólogo, et cap. 1.--Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 3, cap. 73, 74,
81.--Col. de Mendoza, pp. 14, 85, ap. Antiq. of Mexico, vol. vi.
[5] Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. i. pp. 267, 274,
275.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 70-76.--Acosta, lib. 7,
cap. 21.
[6] _Ante_, Book I, chap. 3, pp. 71, 72, and note 6.
[7] Tezozomoc, Crón. Mexicana, MS., cap. 107.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist.
Chich., MS., cap. 1.--Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 4, cap. 14; lib.
6, cap. 24.--Codex Vaticanus, ap. Antiq. of Mexico, vol. vi.--Sahagun,
Hist. de Nueva-España, lib. 8, cap. 7.--Ibid., MS., lib. 12, cap. 3, 4.
[8] “Tenia por cierto,” says Las Casas of Montezuma, “segun sus
prophetas ó agoreros le avian certificado, que su estado é rriquezas
y prosperidad avia de perezer dentro de pocos años por çiertas gentes
que avian de venir en sus dias, que de su felicidad lo derrocase, y por
esto vivia siempre con temor y en tristeça y sobresaltado.” Hist. de
las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap. 120.
[9] Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.--The Interpreter of the Codex
Tel.-Rem. intimates that this scintillating phenomenon was probably
nothing more than an eruption of one of the great volcanoes of Mexico.
Antiq. of Mexico, vol. vi. p. 144.
[10] Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-España, MS., lib. 12, cap. 1.--Camargo,
Hist. de Tlascala, MS.--Acosta, lib. 7, cap. 23.--Herrera, Hist.
general, dec. 2, lib. 5, cap. 5.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS.,
cap. 74.
[11] I omit the most extraordinary miracle of all,--though legal
attestations of its truth were furnished the court of Rome (see
Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. i. p. 289),--namely, the
resurrection of Montezuma’s sister, Papantzin, four days after her
burial, to warn the monarch of the approaching ruin of his empire. It
finds credit with one writer, at least, in the nineteenth century!
See the note of Sahagun’s Mexican editor, Bustamante, Hist. de
Nueva-España, tom. ii. p. 270.
[12] Lucan gives a fine enumeration of such prodigies witnessed in the
Roman capital in a similar excitement. (Pharsalia, lib. 1, v. 523, et
seq.) Poor human nature is much the same everywhere. Machiavelli has
thought the subject worthy of a separate chapter in his Discourses.
The philosopher even intimates a belief in the existence of beneficent
intelligences who send these portents as a sort of _premonitories_, to
warn mankind of the coming tempest. Discorsi sopra Tito Livio, lib. 1,
cap. 56.
[13] Las Casas, Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap.
120.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 80.--Idem, Relaciones,
MS.--Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-España, MS., lib. 12, cap. 3,
4.--Tezozomoc, Crón. Mexicana, MS., cap. 108.
[14] Tezozomoc, Crón. Mexicana, MS., loc. cit.--Camargo, Hist. de
Tlascala, MS.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 80.
[15] Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 39.--Gomara, Crónica,
cap. 27, ap. Barcia, tom. ii.
[16] _Ante_, Book I, chap. 2, p. 44.
[17] From the checkered figure of some of these colored cottons,
Peter Martyr infers, the Indians were acquainted with chess! He
notices a curious fabric made of the hair of animals, feathers, and
cotton thread, interwoven together. “Plumas illas et concinnant inter
cuniculorum villos interque gosampij stamina ordiuntur, et intexunt
operose adeo, ut quo pacto id faciant non bene intellexerimus.” De Orbe
Novo (Parisiis, 1587), dec. 5, cap. 10.
[18] Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 39.--Oviedo, Hist. de
las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 1.--Las Casas, Hist. de las Indias,
MS., lib. 3, cap. 120.--Gomara, Crónica, cap. 27, ap. Barcia, tom.
ii.--Carta de Vera Cruz, MS.--Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 5,
cap. 5.--Robertson cites Bernal Diaz as reckoning the value of the
silver plate at 20,000 _pesos_, or about £5000. (History of America,
vol. ii. note 75.) But Bernal Diaz speaks only of the value of the gold
plate, which he estimates at 20,000 _pesos de oro_, different from
the _pesos_, dollars, or ounces of silver, with which the historian
confounds them. As the mention of the _peso de oro_ will often recur
in these pages, it will be well to make the reader acquainted with its
probable value. Nothing is more difficult than to ascertain the actual
value of the currency of a distant age; so many circumstances occur
to embarrass the calculation, besides the general depreciation of the
precious metals, such as the adulteration of specific coins, and the
like. Señor Clemencin, the Secretary of the Royal Academy of History,
in the sixth volume of its _Memorias_, has computed with great accuracy
the value of the different denominations of the Spanish currency at
the close of the fifteenth century, the period just preceding that of
the conquest of Mexico. He makes no mention of the _peso de oro_ in
his tables. But he ascertains the precise value of the gold ducat,
which will answer our purpose as well. (Memorias de la Real Academia de
Historia (Madrid, 1821), tom. vi. Ilust. 20.) Oviedo, a contemporary of
the Conquerors, informs us that the _peso de oro_ and the _castellano_
were of the same value, and that was precisely one-third greater than
the value of the ducat. (Hist. del Ind., lib. 6, cap. 8, ap. Ramusio,
Navigationi et Viaggi (Venetia, 1565), tom. iii.) Now, the ducat, as
appears from Clemencin, reduced to our currency, would be equal to
eight dollars and seventy-five cents. _The peso de oro, therefore, was
equal to eleven dollars and sixty-seven cents, or two pounds, twelve
shillings, and sixpence sterling._ Keeping this in mind, it will be
easy for the reader to determine the actual value, in _pesos de oro_,
of any sum that may be hereafter mentioned.{*}
{*} [But Ramirez, commenting upon this statement, estimates the
_castellano_ at $2.93.--M.]
[19] “¡Cierto cosas de ver!” exclaims Las Casas, who saw them with the
Emperor Charles V. in Seville, in 1520. “Quedáron todos los que viéron
aquestas cosas tan ricas y tan bien artifiçiadas y ermosísimas como de
cosas nunca vistas,” etc. (Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap. 120.)
“Muy hermosas,” says Oviedo, who saw them in Valladolid, and describes
the great wheels more minutely; “todo era mucho de ver!” (Hist. de
las Indias, MS., loc. cit.) The inquisitive Martyr, who examined them
carefully, remarks, yet more emphatically, “Si quid unquam honoris
humana ingenia in huiuscemodi artibus sunt adepta, principatum iure
merito ista consequentur. Aurum, gemmasque non admiror quidem, quâ
industriâ, quóve studio superet opus materiam, stupeo. Mille figuras
et facies mille prospexi quæ scribere nequeo. Quid oculos hominum suâ
pulchritudine æque possit allicere meo iudicio vidi nunquam.” De Orbe
Novo, dec. 4, cap. 9.
[20] Las Casas, Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap. 121.--Bernal
Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 39.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich.,
MS., cap. 80.--Gomara, Crónica, cap. 27, ap. Barcia, tom. ii.
[21] Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 40.--Father Sahagun thus
describes these stones, so precious in Mexico that the use of them was
interdicted to any but the nobles: “The _chalchuites_ are of a green
color mixed with white, and are not transparent. They are much worn by
persons of rank, and, attached to the wrist by a thread, are a token of
the nobility of the wearer.” Hist. de Nueva-España, lib. 11, cap. 8.
[22] Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.--Las Casas, Hist. de las Indias,
MS., lib. 3, cap. 121.--Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 40,
41.--Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 5, cap. 6.--Gomara, Crónica,
cap. 29, ap. Barcia, tom. ii.
[23] Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 41.--Las Casas, Hist. de
las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap. 121.--Gomara, Crónica, cap. 28.
[24] The letter from the _cabildo_ of Vera Cruz says nothing of
these midnight conferences. Bernal Diaz, who was privy to them, is a
sufficient authority. See Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 42.
[25] Gomara, Crónica, cap. 30.--Las Casas, Hist. de las Indias, MS.,
lib. 3, cap. 121.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 80.--Bernal
Diaz, Ibid., loc. cit.--Declaracion de Puertocarrero, MS.--The
deposition of a respectable person like Puertocarrero, taken in the
spring of the following year, after his return to Spain, is a document
of such authority that I have transferred it entire, in the original,
to the Appendix, No. 7.
[26] Sometimes we find the Spanish writers referring to “the
sovereigns,” sometimes to “the emperor;” in the former case intending
Queen Joanna, the crazy mother of Charles V., as well as himself.
Indeed, all public acts and ordinances ran in the name of both.
The title of “Highness,” which until the reign of Charles V. had
usually--not uniformly, as Robertson imagines (History of Charles V.,
vol. ii. p. 59)--been applied to the sovereign, now gradually gave
way to that of “Majesty,” which Charles affected after his election
to the imperial throne. The same title is occasionally found in the
correspondence of the Great Captain, and other courtiers of the reign
of Ferdinand and Isabella.
[27] According to Robertson, Cortés told his men that he had proposed
to establish a colony on the coast, before marching into the country;
but he abandoned his design, at their entreaties to set out at once
on the expedition. In the very next page we find him organizing this
same colony. (History of America, vol. ii. pp. 241, 242.) The historian
would have been saved this inconsistency, if he had followed either
of the authorities whom he cites, Bernal Diaz and Herrera, or the
letter from Vera Cruz, of which he had a copy. They all concur in the
statement in the text.
[28] Las Casas, Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap. 122.--Carta
de Vera Cruz, MS.--Declaracion de Montejo, MS.--Declaracion de
Puertocarrero, MS.--“Our general, after some urging, acquiesced,” says
the blunt old soldier Bernal Diaz; “for, as the proverb says, ‘You ask
me to do what I have already made up my mind to.’” _Tu me lo ruegas, é
yo me lo quiero._ Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 42.
[29] According to Bernal Diaz, the title of “Vera Cruz” was intended to
commemorate their landing on Good Friday. Hist. de la Conquista, cap.
42.
[30] Solís, whose taste for speech-making might have satisfied even the
Abbé Mably (see his Treatise, “De la Manière d’écrire l’Histoire”),
has put a very flourishing harangue on this occasion into the mouth of
his hero, of which there is not a vestige in any contemporary account.
(Conquista, lib. 2, cap. 7.) Dr. Robertson has transferred it to his
own eloquent pages, without citing his author, indeed, who, considering
he came a century and a half after the Conquest, must be allowed to be
not the best, especially when the only, voucher for a fact.
[31] “Lo peor de todo que le otorgámos,” says Bernal Diaz, somewhat
peevishly, was, “que le dariamos el quinto del oro de lo que se
huuiesse, despues de sacado el Real quinto.” (Hist. de la Conquista,
cap. 42.) The letter from Vera Cruz says nothing of this fifth. The
reader who would see the whole account of this remarkable transaction
in the original may find it in the Appendix, No. 8.
[32] Carta de Vera Cruz, MS.--Gomara, Crónica, cap. 30, 31.--Las
Casas, Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap. 122.--Ixtlilxochitl,
Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 80.--Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap.
42.--Declaraciones de Montejo y Puertocarrero, MSS.--In the process of
Narvaez against Cortés, the latter is accused of being possessed with
the Devil, as only Lucifer could have thus gained him the affections
of the soldiery. (Demanda de Narvaez, MS.) Solís, on the other hand,
sees nothing but good faith and loyalty in the conduct of the general,
who acted from a sense of duty! (Conquista, lib. 2, cap. 6, 7.) Solís
is even a more steady apologist for his hero than his own chaplain,
Gomara, or the worthy magistrates of Vera Cruz. A more impartial
testimony than either, probably, may be gathered from honest Bernal
Diaz, so often quoted. A hearty champion of the cause, he was by no
means blind to the defects or the merits of his leader.
[33] This may appear rather indifferent logic to those who consider
that Cortés appointed the very body who, in turn, appointed him to the
command. But the affectation of legal forms afforded him a thin varnish
for his proceedings, which served his purpose, for the present at
least, with the troops. For the future, he trusted to his good star--in
other words, to the success of his enterprise--to vindicate his conduct
to the Emperor. He did not miscalculate.
[34] The name of the mountain is not given, and probably was not known,
but the minute description in the MS. of Vera Cruz leaves no doubt that
it was the one mentioned in the text. “Entre las quales así una que
excede en mucha altura á todas las otras y de ella se vee y descubre
gran parte de la mar y de la tierra, y es tan alta, que si el dia no es
bien claro, no se puede divisar ni ver lo alto de ella, porque de la
mitad arriba está toda cubierta de nubes: y algunos veces, cuando hace
muy claro dia, se vee por cima de las dichas nubes lo alto de ella, y
está tan blanco que lo jusgamos por nieve.” (Carta de Vera Cruz, MS.)
This huge volcano was called _Citlaltepetl_, or “Star Mountain,” by the
Mexicans,--perhaps from the fire which once issued from its conical
summit, far above the clouds. It stands in the intendancy of Vera
Cruz, and rises, according to Humboldt’s measurement, to the enormous
height of 17,368 feet above the ocean. (Essai politique, tom. i. p.
265.) It is the highest peak but one in the whole range of the Mexican
Cordilleras.
[35] Carta de Vera Cruz, MS.--Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap.
44.
[36] Gomara, Crónica, cap. 32, ap. Barcia, tom. ii.--Herrera, Hist.
general, dec. 2, lib. 5, cap. 1.--Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS.,
lib. 33, cap. 1.--“Mui hermosas vegas y riberas tales y tan hermosas
que en toda España no pueden ser mejores ansí de apaçibles á la vista
como de fructíferas.” (Carta de Vera Cruz, MS.) The following poetical
apostrophe, by Lord Morpeth, to the scenery of Cuba, equally applicable
to that of the _tierra caliente_, will give the reader a more animated
picture of the glories of these sunny climes than my own prose can. The
verses, which have never been published, breathe the generous sentiment
characteristic of their noble author:
“Ye tropic forests of unfading green,
Where the palm tapers and the orange glows,
Where the light bamboo waves her feathery screen,
And her far shade the matchless _ceiba_ throws!
“Ye cloudless ethers of unchanging blue,
Save where the rosy streaks of eve give way
To the clear sapphire of your midnight hue,
The burnished azure of your perfect day!
“Yet tell me not my native skies are bleak,
That flushed with liquid wealth no cane-fields wave;
For Virtue pines, and Manhood dares not speak,
And Nature’s glories brighten round the Slave.”
[37] “The same love of flowers,” observes one of the most delightful
of modern travellers, “distinguishes the natives now, as in the times
of Cortés. And it presents a strange anomaly,” she adds, with her
usual acuteness; “this love of flowers having existed along with their
sanguinary worship and barbarous sacrifices.” Madame Calderon de la
Barca, Life in Mexico, vol. i. let. 12.
[38] “Con la imaginacion que llevaban, i buenos deseos, todo se les
antojaba plata i oro lo que relucia.” Gomara, Crónica, cap. 32, ap.
Barcia, tom. ii.
[39] This is Las Casas’ estimate (Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 3, cap.
121.) Torquemada hesitates between twenty, fifty, and one hundred and
fifty thousand, each of which he names at different times! (Clavigero,
Stor. del Messico, tom. iii. p. 26, nota.) The place was gradually
abandoned, after the Conquest, for others, in a more favorable
position, probably, for trade. Its ruins were visible at the close of
the last century. See Lorenzana, Hist. de Nueva-España, p. 39, nota.
[40] “Porque viven mas política y rasonablemente que ninguna de las
gentes que hasta oy en estas partes se ha visto.” Carta de Vera Cruz,
MS.
[41] Las Casas, Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap. 121.--Carta de
Vera Cruz, MS.--Gomara, Crónica, cap. 33, ap. Barcia, tom. ii.--Oviedo,
Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. 33, cap. 1.
[42] The courteous title of _doña_ is usually given by the Spanish
chroniclers to this accomplished Indian.
[43] “He had come only to redress injuries, to protect the captive,
to succor the weak, and to overthrow tyranny.” (Gomara, Crónica, cap.
33, ap. Barcia, tom. ii.) Are we reading the adventures--it is the
language--of Don Quixote or Amadis de Gaula?
[44] Ibid., cap. 36.--Cortés, in his Second Letter to the Emperor
Charles V., estimates the number of fighting-men at 50,000. Relacion
segunda, ap. Lorenzana, p. 40.
[45] Las Casas, Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap.
121.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 81.--Oviedo, Hist. de las
Indias, MS., lib. 33, cap. 1.
[46] The historian, with the aid of Clavigero, himself a Mexican, may
rectify frequent blunders of former writers, in the orthography of
Aztec names. Both Robertson and Solís spell the name of this place
_Quiabislan_. Blunders in such a barbarous nomenclature must be
admitted to be very pardonable.
[47] “Grande artífice,” exclaims Solís, “de medir lo que disponia con
lo que recelaba; y prudente capitan él que sabe caminar en alcance de
las contingencias”! Conquista, lib. 2, cap. 9.
[48] Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 81.--Rel. Seg. de Cortés,
ap. Lorenzana, p. 40.--Gomara, Crónica, cap. 34-36, ap. Barcia, tom.
ii.--Bernal Diaz, Conquista, cap. 46, 47.--Herrera, Hist. general, dec.
2, lib. 5, cap. 10, 11.
[49] Carta de Vera Cruz, MS.--Bernal Diaz, Conquista, cap. 48.--Oviedo,
Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 1.--Declaracion de Montejo,
MS.--Notwithstanding the advantages of its situation, La Villa Rica
was abandoned in a few years for a neighboring position to the south,
not far from the mouth of the Antigua. This second settlement was
known by the name of _Vera Cruz Vieja_, “Old Vera Cruz.” Early in
the seventeenth century this place, also, was abandoned for the
present city, _Nueva Vera Cruz_, or New Vera Cruz, as it is called.
(See _ante_, chap. 5, note 8.) Of the true cause of these successive
migrations we are ignorant. If, as is pretended, it was on account
of the _vómito_, the inhabitants, one would suppose, can have gained
little by the exchange. (See Humboldt, Essai politique, tom. ii. p.
210.) A want of attention to these changes has led to much confusion
and inaccuracy in the ancient maps. Lorenzana has not escaped them in
his chart and topographical account of the route of Cortés.
[50] “Teniendo respeto á que tiene por cierto, que somos los que sus
antepassados les auian dicho, que auian de venir á sus tierras, é que
deuemos de ser de sus linajes.” Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista,
cap. 48.
[51] Gomara, Crónica, cap. 37.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap.
82.
[52] “De buena gana recibirian las Doncellas como fuesen Christianas;
porque de otra manera, no era permitido á hombres, hijos de la Iglesia
de Dios, tener comercio con idólatras.” Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2,
lib. 5, cap. 13.
[53] Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 5, cap. 13.--Las Casas, Hist.
de las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap. 122.--Herrera has put a very edifying
harangue, on this occasion, into the mouth of Cortés, which savors much
more of the priest than the soldier. Does he not confound him with
Father Olmedo?
[54] “Esto habemos visto,” says the Letter of Vera Cruz, “algunos de
nosotros, y los que lo han visto dizen que es la mas terrible y la mas
espantosa cosa de ver que jamas han visto.” Still more strongly speaks
Bernal Diaz. (Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 51.) The Letter computes
that there were fifty or sixty persons thus butchered in each of the
_teocallis_ every year; giving an annual consumption, in the countries
which the Spaniards had then visited, of three or four thousand
victims! (Carta de Vera Cruz, MS.) However loose this arithmetic may
be, the general fact is appalling.
[55] Las Casas, Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap. 122.--Bernal
Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 51, 52.--Gomara, Crónica,
cap. 43.--Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 5, cap. 13,
14.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 83.
[56] Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 53.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist.
Chich., MS., cap. 82.--Carta de Vera Cruz, MS.
A complete inventory of the articles received from Montezuma is
contained in the _Carta de Vera Cruz_.--The following are a few of the
items.
Two collars made of gold and precious stones.
A hundred ounces of gold ore, that their Highnesses might see in what
state the gold came from the mines.
Two birds made of green feathers, with feet, beaks, and eyes of
gold,--and, in the same piece with them, animals of gold resembling
snails.
A large alligator’s head of gold.
A bird of green feathers, with feet, beak, and eyes of gold.
Two birds made of thread and feather-work, having the quills of their
wings and tails, their feet, eyes, and the ends of their beaks of
gold,--standing upon two reeds covered with gold, which are raised on
balls of feather-work and gold embroidery, one white and the other
yellow, with seven tassels of feather-work hanging from each of them.
A large silver wheel weighing forty-eight marks, several bracelets and
leaves of the same metal, together with five smaller shields, the whole
weighing sixty-two marks of silver.
A box of feather-work embroidered on leather, with a large plate of
gold, weighing seventy ounces, in the midst.
Two pieces of cloth woven with feathers; another with variegated
colors; and another worked with black and white figures.
A large wheel of gold, with figures of strange animals on it, and
worked with tufts of leaves; weighing three thousand eight hundred
ounces.
A fan of variegated feather-work, with thirty-seven rods plated with
gold.
Five fans of variegated feathers,--four of which have ten, and the
other thirteen, rods embossed with gold.
Sixteen shields of precious stones, with feathers of various colors
hanging from their rims.
Two pieces of cotton very richly wrought with black and white
embroidery.
Six shields, each covered with a plate of gold, with something
resembling a golden mitre in the centre.
[57] “Una muy larga Carta,” says Gomara, in his loose analysis of it.
Crónica, cap. 40.
[58] Dr. Robertson states that the Imperial Library at Vienna was
examined for this document, at his instance, but without success.
(History of America, vol. ii. note 70.) I have not been more fortunate
in the researches made for me in the British Museum, the Royal Library
of Paris, and that of the Academy of History at Madrid. The last
is a great depository for the colonial historical documents; but a
very thorough inspection of its papers makes it certain that this is
wanting to the collection. As the emperor received it on the eve of his
embarkation for Germany, and the Letter of Vera Cruz, forwarded at the
same time, is in the library of Vienna, this would seem, after all, to
be the most probable place of its retreat.
[59] “By a ship,” says Cortés, in the very first sentence of his
Second Letter to the Emperor, “which I despatched from this your
sacred majesty’s province of New Spain on the 16th of July of the year
1519, I sent your highness a very long and particular relation of what
had happened from my coming hither up to that time.” (Rel. Seg. de
Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 38.) “Cortés wrote,” says Bernal Diaz, “as
he informed us, an accurate report, but we did not see his letter.”
(Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 53.) (Also, Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind.,
MS., lib. 33, cap. 1, and Gomara, ut supra.) Were it not for these
positive testimonies, one might suppose that the Carta de Vera Cruz
had suggested an _imaginary_ letter of Cortés. Indeed, the copy of
the former document belonging to the Spanish Academy of History--and
perhaps the original at Vienna--bears the erroneous title of “Primera
Relacion de Cortés.”{*}
{*} [There can be little doubt that the “Letter of Vera Cruz” is the
document referred to by Cortés, writing in October, 1520, as the
“muy larga y particular Relacion” which he had “despatched” to the
emperor in the summer of the preceding year. This language would not
necessarily imply that the letter so described bore his own signature,
while it was a natural mode of designating one of which he was the
real author. It is easy to understand why, holding as yet no direct
commission from the crown, he should have been less solicitous to
appear as the narrator of his own exploits than to give them an
appearance of official sanction and cover up his irregularity in not
addressing his report to Velasquez, the official superior from whose
control he was seeking to emancipate himself. Nor is it necessary,
in accepting this hypothesis, to reject the statement of Bernal Diaz
that Cortés sent to the emperor a relation under his own hand which
he did not show to his companions. It seems to have been his habit on
subsequent occasions, when sending a detailed report, to accompany it
with a briefer and more private letter, giving a summary of what was
contained in the longer document, sometimes with the addition of other
matter, to be read by the emperor himself. One such letter, cited
hereafter (vol. iii. p. 266, note), mentions “una relacion bien larga y
particular,” which he was sending under the same date. That letters of
this kind should not always have been preserved can excite no surprise;
but it is highly improbable that the same fate should have befallen
a full official report, the first of a series otherwise complete and
disseminated by means of copies.--K.]
[60] This is the imputation of Bernal Diaz, reported on hearsay, as he
admits he never saw the letter himself. Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 54.
[61] “Fingiendo mill cautelas,” says Las Casas, politely, of this part
of the letter, “y afirmando otras muchas falsedades é mentiras”! Hist.
de las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap. 122.
[62] This document is of the greatest value and interest, coming as
it does from the best-instructed persons in the camp. It presents an
elaborate record of all then known of the countries they had visited,
and of the principal movements of the army, to the time of the
foundation of the Villa Rica. The writers conciliate our confidence
by the circumspect tone of their narration. “Querer dar,” they say,
“á Vuestra Magestad todas las particularidades de esta tierra y gente
de ella, podria ser que en algo se errase la relacion, porque muchas
de ellas no se han visto mas de por informaciones de los natureles
de ella, y por esto no nos entremetemos á dar mas de aquello que por
muy cierto y verdadero Vras. Reales Altezas podrán mandar tener.”
The account given of Velasquez, however, must be considered as an
_ex-parte_ testimony, and, as such, admitted with great reserve. It was
essential to their own vindication, to vindicate Cortés. The letter
has never been printed. The original exists, as above stated, in the
Imperial Library at Vienna. The copy in my possession, covering more
than sixty pages folio, is taken from that of the Academy of History at
Madrid.{*}
{*} [The letter has since been printed, from the original at Vienna, in
the Col. de Doc. inéd. para la Hist. de España, tom. i.--K.]
[63] “A nuestra parecer se debe creer, que ai en esta tierra tanto
quanto en aquella de donde se dize aver llevado Salomon el oro para el
templo.” Carta de Vera Cruz, MS.
[64] Peter Martyr, pre-eminent above his contemporaries for the
enlightened views he took of the new discoveries, devotes half a
chapter to the Indian manuscripts, in which he recognized the evidence
of a civilization analogous to the Egyptian. De Orbe Novo, dec. 4, cap.
8.
[65] Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 54-57.--Gomara, Crónica,
cap. 40.--Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 5, cap. 14.--Carta de
Vera Cruz, MS.--Martyr’s copious information was chiefly derived from
his conversations with Alaminos and the two envoys, on their arrival
at court. De Orbe Novo, dec. 4, cap. 6, et alibi; also Idem, Opus
Epistolarum (Amstelodami, 1670), ep. 650.
[66] See Vol. I, p. 306.
[67] Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 57.--Oviedo, Hist. de
las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 2.--Las Casas, Hist. de las Indias, MS.,
lib. 3, cap. 122.--Demanda de Narvaez, MS.--Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap.
Lorenzana, p. 41.--It was the exclamation of Nero, as reported by
Suetonius. “Et cum de supplicio cujusdam capite damnati ut ex more
subscriberet, admoneretur, ‘Quam vellem,’ inquit, ‘nescire literas!’”
Lib. 6, cap. 10.
[68] “Y porque,” says Cortés, “demas de los que por ser criados y
amigos de Diego Velasquez tenian voluntad de salir de la Tierra, habia
otros, que por verla tan grande, y de tanta gente, y tal, y ver los
pocos Españoles que eramos, estaban del mismo propósito; creyendo, que
si allí los navíos dejasse, se me alzarian con ellos, y yéndose todos
los que de esta voluntad estavan, yo quedaria casi solo.”
[69] “Mostró quando se lo dixéron mucho sentimiento Cortés, porque
savia bien haçer fingimientos quando le era provechoso, y rrespondióles
que mirasen vien en ello, é que si no estavan para navegar que diesen
gracias á Dios por ello, pues no se podia hacer mas.” Las Casas, Hist.
de las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap. 122.
[70] “Decian, que los queria meter en el matadero.” Gomara, Crónica,
cap. 42.
[71] “Al cavo lo ovieron de sentir la gente y ayna se le amotinaran
muchos, y esta fué uno de los peligros que pasaron por Cortés de muchos
que para matallo de los mismos Españoles estuvo.” Las Casas, Hist. de
las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap. 122.
[72] “Que ninguno seria tan cobarde y tan pusilánime que queria
estimar su vida mas que la suya, ni de tan debil corazon que dudase
de ir con él á México, donde tanto bien le estaba aparejado, y que si
acaso se determinaba alguno de dejar de hacer este se podia ir bendito
de Dios á Cuba en el navío que habia dexado, de que antes de mucho
se arrepentiria, y pelaria las barbas, viendo la buena ventura que
esperaba le sucederia.” Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 82.
[73] Perhaps the most remarkable of these examples is that of Julian,
who, in his unfortunate Assyrian invasion, burnt the fleet which had
carried him up the Tigris. The story is told by Gibbon, who shows very
satisfactorily that the fleet would have proved a hinderance rather
than a help to the emperor in his further progress. See History of the
Decline and Fall, vol. ix. p. 177, of Milman’s excellent edition.
[74] The account given in the text of the destruction of the fleet
is not that of Bernal Diaz, who states it to have been accomplished
not only with the knowledge, but entire approbation of the army,
though at the suggestion of Cortés. (Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 58.)
This version is sanctioned by Dr. Robertson (History of America,
vol. ii. pp. 253, 254.) One should be very slow to depart from the
honest record of the old soldier, especially when confirmed by the
discriminating judgment of the Historian of America. But Cortés
expressly declares in his letter to the emperor that he ordered
the vessels to be sunk, without the knowledge of his men, from the
apprehension that, if the means of escape were open, the timid and
disaffected might at some future time avail themselves of them. (Rel.
Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 41.) The cavaliers Montejo and
Puertocarrero, on their visit to Spain, stated, in their depositions,
that the general destroyed the fleet on information received from the
pilots. (Declaraciones, MSS.) Narvaez in his accusation of Cortés,
and Las Casas, speak of the act in terms of unqualified reprobation,
charging him, moreover, with bribing the pilots to bore holes in the
bottoms of the ships in order to disable them. (Demanda de Narvaez,
MS.--Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap. 122.) The same account of
the transaction, though with a very different commentary as to its
merits, is repeated by Oviedo (Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap.
2), Gomara (Crónica, cap. 42), and Peter Martyr (De Orbe Novo, dec. 5,
cap. 1), all of whom had access to the best sources of information. The
affair, so remarkable as the act of one individual, becomes absolutely
incredible when considered as the result of so many independent wills.
It is not improbable that Bernal Diaz, from his known devotion to
the cause, may have been one of the few to whom Cortés confided his
purpose. The veteran, in writing his narrative, many years after, may
have mistaken a part for the whole, and in his zeal to secure to the
army a full share of the glory of the expedition, too exclusively
appropriated by the general (a great object, as he tells us, of his
history), may have distributed among his comrades the credit of an
exploit which, in this instance, at least, properly belonged to their
commander. Whatever be the cause of the discrepancy, his solitary
testimony can hardly be sustained against the weight of contemporary
evidence from such competent sources.{*}
{*} [Prescott’s account of the circumstances attending the destruction
of the fleet has been contested at great length by Señor Ramirez,
who insists on accepting the statements of Bernal Diaz without
qualification and ascribing to the army an equal share with the general
in the merit of the act. He remarks with truth that the language of
Cortés--“Tuve manera, como so color que los dichos navíos no estaban
para navegar, los eché á la costa”--contains no _express declaration_,
as stated by Prescott, that the order for the fleet to be sunk was
given without the knowledge of the army, but would, at the most, lead
to an inference to that effect. “Nor can even this,” he adds, “be
admitted, since, in order to persuade the soldiers that the ships
were unfit for sailing, he must have had an understanding with the
mariners who were to make the statement, and with his friends who
were to confirm it.” This is, however, very inefficient reasoning.
It is not pretended that Cortés had no confidants and agents in the
transaction. The question of real importance is, Was the resolution
taken, as Bernal Diaz asserts, _openly and by the advice_ of the whole
army,--“claramente, por consejo de todos los demas soldados”?--or
was it formed by Cortés, and were measures taken for giving effect
to it, without any communication with the mass of his followers? The
newly discovered relation of Tápia is cited by Señor Ramirez as “in
perfect accordance with the testimony of Diaz and destructive of every
supposition of mystery and secrecy.” Yet Tápia says, with Herrera, that
Cortés caused holes to be bored in the ships and their unserviceable
condition to be reported to him, and thereupon gave orders for their
destruction; no mention being made of the concurrence of the soldiers
at any stage of the proceedings.--K.]
[75] “Cabra coja no tenga siesta.”
[76] Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 1.--Rel. Seg. de
Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, pp. 42-45.--Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista,
cap. 59, 60.
[77] Gomara, Crónica, cap. 44.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap.
83.--Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 61.--The number of the
Indian auxiliaries stated in the text is much larger than that allowed
by either Cortés or Diaz. But both these actors in the drama show too
obvious a desire to magnify their own prowess, by exaggerating the
numbers of their foes and diminishing their own, to be entitled to much
confidence in their estimates.
[78] “No teniamos otro socorro, ni ayuda sino el de Dios; porque ya no
teniamos nauíos para ir á Cuba, salvo nuestro buen pelear y coraçones
fuertes.” Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 59.
[79] “Y todos á vna le respondímos, que hariamos lo que ordenasse, que
echada estaua la suerte de la buena ó mala ventura.” Loc. cit.
[80] Jalap, _Convolvulus jalapa_. The _x_ and _j_ are convertible
consonants in the Castilian.{**}
{**} [Jalapa means “Spring in the Sand.”--M.]
[81] The heights of Xalapa are crowned with a convent dedicated to St.
Francis, erected in later days by Cortés, showing, in its solidity,
like others of the period built under the same auspices, says an
agreeable traveller, a military as well as religious design. Tudor’s
Travels in North America (London, 1834), vol. ii. p. 186.
[82] Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 1.--Rel.
Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 40.--Gomara, Crónica, cap.
44.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 83.--“Every hundred yards
of our route,” says the traveller last quoted, speaking of this very
region, “was marked by the melancholy erection of a wooden cross,
denoting, according to the custom of the country, the commission of
some horrible murder on the spot where it was planted.” (Travels in
North America, vol. ii. p. 188.)--[Señor Alaman stoutly defends his
countrymen from this gross exaggeration, as he pronounces it, of Mr.
Tudor. For although it is unhappily true, he says, that travellers
were formerly liable to be attacked in going from the city of Mexico
to Vera Cruz, and that the _diligence_ which passes over this road is
still frequently stopped, yet it is very seldom that personal violence
is offered. “Foreign tourists are prone to believe all the stories of
atrocities that are related to them, and generally, at inns, fall into
the society of persons who take delight in furnishing a large supply
of such materials. The crosses that are to be met with in the country
are not so numerous as is pretended; nor are all of them memorials of
assassinations committed in the places where they have been erected.
Many are merely objects of devotion, and others indicate the spot where
two roads diverge from each other. We must, nevertheless, confess that
this matter is one that demands all the attention of the government;
while the candid foreigner will doubtless admit that it is not easy to
exercise police supervision over roads on which the central points of
population lie far apart, as in countries like ours, instead of being
so near that a watch can be maintained from them over the intermediate
spaces, as is the case in most countries of Europe and in a great part
of the United States.” Conquista de Méjico (trad. de Vega), tom. i. p.
251.]
[83] _El Paso del Obispo._ Cortés named it _Puerto del Nombre de Dios_.
Viaje, ap. Lorenzana, p. ii.
[84] The Aztec name is Nauhcampatepetl, from _nauhcampa_, “anything
square,” and _tepetl_, “a mountain.”--Humboldt, who waded through
forests and snows to its summit, ascertained its height to be 4089
metres, = 13,414 feet, above the sea. See his Vues des Cordillères, p.
234, and Essai politique, vol. i. p. 266.
[85] The same mentioned in Cortés’ Letter as the _Puerto de la Leña_.
Viaje, ap. Lorenzana, p. iii.
[86] Now known by the euphonious Indian name of Tlatlanquitepec.
(Viaje, ap. Lorenzana, p. iv.) It is the _Cocotlan_ of Bernal Diaz.
(Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 61.) The old Conquerors made sorry work
with the Aztec names, both of places and persons, for which they must
be allowed to have had ample excuse.
[87] “Puestos tantos rimeros de calaueras de muertos, que se podian
bien contar, segun el concierto con que estauan puestas, que me parece
que eran mas de cien mil, y digo otra vez sobre cien mil.” Ibid., ubi
supra.
[88] “El qual casi admirado de lo que le preguntaba, me respondió,
diciendo; ¿que quién no era vasallo de Muctezuma? queriendo decir, que
allí era Señor del Mundo.” Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 47.
[89] “Tiene mas de 30 Príncipes á sí subjectos, que cada uno dellos
tiene cient mill hombres é mas de pelea.” (Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind.,
MS., lib. 33, cap. 1.) This marvellous tale is gravely repeated by more
than one Spanish writer, in their accounts of the Aztec monarchy, not
as the assertion of this chief, but as a veritable piece of statistics.
See, among others, Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 7, cap.
12.--Solís, Conquista, lib. 3, cap. 16.
[90] Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 61.--There is a slight
ground-swell of glorification in the Captain’s narrative, which may
provoke a smile,--not a sneer, for it is mingled with too much real
courage and simplicity of character.
[91] For the preceding pages, besides authorities cited in course,
see Peter Martyr, De Orbe Novo, dec. 5, cap. 1,--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist.
Chich., MS., cap. 83.--Gomara, Crónica, cap. 44.--Torquemada, Monarch.
Ind., lib. 4, cap. 26.
[92] The general clearly belonged to the church militant, mentioned by
Butler:
“Such as do build their faith upon
The holy text of pike and gun,
And prove their doctrines orthodox
By apostolic blows and knocks.”
[93] “Arbol grande, dicho _ahuehuete_.” (Viaje, ap. Lorenzana, p. iii.)
The _cupressus disticha_ of Linnæus. See Humboldt, Essai politique,
tom. ii. p. 54, note.
[94] It is the same taste which has made the Castiles, the table-land
of the Peninsula, so naked of wood. Prudential reasons, as well as
taste, however, seem to have operated in New Spain. A friend of mine
on a visit to a noble _hacienda_, but uncommonly barren of trees, was
informed by the proprietor that they were cut down to prevent the lazy
Indians on the plantation from wasting their time by loitering in their
shade!
[95] It confirms the observations of M. de Humboldt. “Sans doute
lors de la première arrivée des Espagnols, toute cette côte, depuis
la rivière de Papaloapan (Alvarado) jusqu’à Huaxtecapan, était plus
habitée et mieux cultivée qu’elle ne l’est aujourd’hui. Cependant
à mesure que les conquérans montèrent au plateau, ils trouvèrent
les villages plus rapprochés les uns des autres, les champs divisés
en portions plus petites, le peuple plus policé.” Humboldt, Essai
politique, tom. ii. p. 202.
[96] The correct Indian name of the town, _Yxtacamaxtitlan_,
_Yztacmastitan_ of Cortés, will hardly be recognized in the _Xalacingo_
of Diaz. The town was removed, in 1601, from the top of the hill to the
plain. On the original site are still visible remains of carved stones
of large dimensions, attesting the elegance of the ancient fortress or
palace of the cacique. Viaje, ap. Lorenzana, p. v.
[97] “Estas cosas y otras de gran persuasion contenia la carta, pero
como no sabian leer no pudieron entender lo que contenia.” Camargo,
Hist. de Tlascala, MS.
[98] For an account of the diplomatic usages of the people of Anahuac,
see _ante_, p. 57.
[99] “Mira, señores compañeros, ya veis que somos pocos, hemos de estar
siempre tan apercebidos, y aparejados, como si aora viessemos venir los
contrarios á pelear, y no solamente vellos venir, sino hazer cuenta
que estamos ya en la batalla con ellos.” Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la
Conquista, cap. 62.
[100] According to the writer last cited, the stones were held by a
cement so hard that the men could scarcely break it with their pikes.
(Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 62.) But the contrary statement, in the
general’s letter, is confirmed by the present appearance of the wall.
Viaje, ap. Lorenzana, p. vii.
[101] Viaje, ap. Lorenzana, p. vii.--The attempts of the Archbishop to
identify the route of Cortés have been very successful. It is a pity
that his map illustrating the itinerary should be so worthless.
[102] Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.--Gomara, Crónica, cap. 44,
45.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 83.--Herrera, Hist.
general, dec. 2, lib. 6, cap. 3.--Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib.
33, cap. 2.--Peter Martyr, De Orbe Novo, dec. 5, cap. 1.
[103] The Indian chronicler, Camargo, considers his nation a branch of
the Chichimec. (Hist. de Tlascala, MS.) So, also, Torquemada. (Monarch.
Ind., lib. 3, cap. 9.) Clavigero, who has carefully investigated the
antiquities of Anahuac, calls it one of the seven Nahuatlac tribes.
(Stor. del Messico, tom. i. p. 153, nota.) The fact is not of great
moment, since they were all cognate races, speaking the same tongue,
and, probably, migrated from their country in the far North at nearly
the same time.
[104] The descendants of these petty nobles attached as great value to
their pedigrees as any Biscayan or Asturian in Old Spain. Long after
the Conquest, they refused, however needy, to dishonor their birth
by resorting to mechanical or other plebeian occupations, _oficios
viles y bajos_. “Los descendientes de estos son estimados por hombres
calificados, que aunque sean pobrísimos no usan oficios mecánicos ni
tratos bajos ni viles, ni jamas se permiten cargar ni cabar con coas y
azadones, diciendo que son hijos Idalgos en que no han de aplicarse á
estas cosas soeces y bajas, sino servir en guerras y fronteras, como
Idalgos, y morir como hombres peleando.” Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.
[105] “Cualquier Tecuhtli que formaba un Tecalli, que es casa
de Mayorazgo, todas aquellas tierras que le caian en suerte de
repartimiento, con montes, fuentes, rios, ó lagunas tomase para la
casa principal la mayor y mejor suerte ó pagos de tierra, y luego las
demas que quedaban se partian por sus soldados amigos y parientes,
igualmente, y todos estos están obligados á reconocer la casa mayor y
acudir á ella, á alzarla y repararla, y á ser continuos en reconocer
á ella de aves, caza, flores, y ramos para el sustento de la casa del
Mayorazgo, y el que lo es está obligado á sustentarlos y á regalarlos
como amigos de aquella casa y parientes de ella.” Ibid., MS.
[106] Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.
[107] “Los grandes recibimientos que hacian á los capitanes que venian
y alcanzaban victoria en las guerras, las fiestas y solenidades con
que se solenizaban á manera de triunfo, que los metian en andas en su
puebla, trayendo consigo á los vencidos; y por eternizar sus hazañas se
las cantaban publicamente, y ansí quedaban memoradas y con estatuas que
les ponian en los templos.” Ibid., MS.
[108] For the whole ceremony of inauguration,--though, as it seems,
having especial reference to the merchant-knights,--see Appendix, No.
9, where the original is given from Camargo.
[109] “Ha bel paese,” says the Anonymous Conqueror, speaking of
Tlascala at the time of the invasion, “di pianure et motagne, et è
provincia popolosa et vi si raccoglie molto pane.” Rel. d’un gentil’
huomo, ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. p. 308.
[110] A full account of the manners, customs, and domestic policy of
Tlascala is given by the national historian, throwing much light on the
other states of Anahuac, whose social institutions seem to have been
all cast in the same mould.
[111] Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.--Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib.
2, cap. 70.
[112] Camargo (Hist. de Tlascala, MS.) notices the extent of
Montezuma’s conquests,--a debatable ground for the historian.
[113] Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 3, cap. 16.--Solís says, “The
Tlascalan territory was fifty leagues in circumference, ten long, from
east to west, and four broad, from north to south.” (Conquista de
Méjico, lib. 3, cap. 3.) It must have made a curious figure in geometry!
[114] Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.
[115] “Los Señores Mejicanos y Tezcucanos en tiempo que ponian treguas
por algunas temporadas embiaban á los Señores de Tlaxcalla grandes
presentes y dádivas de oro, ropa, y cacao, y sal, y de todas las cosas
de que carecian, sin que la gente plebeya lo entendiese, y se saludaban
secretamente, guardándose el decoro que se debian; mas con todos estos
trabajos la órden de su república jamas se dejaba de gobernar con la
rectitud de sus costumbres guardando inviolablemente el culto de sus
Dioses.” Ibid., MS.
[116] The Tlascalan chronicler discerns in this deep-rooted hatred of
Mexico the hand of Providence, who wrought out of it an important means
for subverting the Aztec empire. Hist. de Tlascala, MS.
[117] “Si bien os acordais, como tenemos de nuestra antigüedad como han
de venir gentes á la parte donde sale el sol, y que han de emparentar
con nosotros, y que hemos de ser todos unos; y que han de ser blancos y
barbudos.” Ibid., MS.
[118] To the ripe age of one hundred and forty! if we may credit
Camargo. Solís, who confounds this veteran with his son, has put a
flourishing harangue in the mouth of the latter, which would be a rare
gem of Indian eloquence,--were it not Castilian. Conquista, lib. 2,
cap. 16.
[119] Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.--Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2,
lib. 6, cap. 3.--Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 4, cap. 27.--There
is sufficient contradiction, as well as obscurity, in the proceedings
reported of the council, which it is not easy to reconcile altogether
with subsequent events.
[120] “---- Dolus an virtus, quis in hoste requirat?”
[121] “I les matáron dos caballos, de dos cuchilladas, i segun algunos,
que lo viéron, cortáron á cercen de un golpe cada pescueço, con
riendas, i todas.” Gomara, Crónica, cap. 45.{*}
{*} [The Mexican sword was a horrible affair. On two sides of a stick
three feet and a half long and four inches wide were fastened a number
of obsidian razors about three inches long and one or two inches wide.
These razors were the thickness of a sword blade. They were at first
wonderfully sharp,--so sharp that once a horse was beheaded at one
stroke,--but soon lost their edge. The sword was tied to the arm by a
string that it should not be lost in battle.--M.]
[122] Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 50.--Camargo, Hist. de
Tlascala, MS.--Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 62.--Gomara,
Crónica, cap. 45.--Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 3,
41.--Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-España, MS., lib. 12, cap. 10.
[123] “Que quando rompiessemos por los esquadrones, que lleuassen las
lanças por las caras, y no parassen á dar lançadas, porque no les
echassen mano dellas.” Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 62.
[124] “Entonces dixo Cortés, ‘Santiago, y á ellos.’” Bernal Diaz, Hist.
de la Conquista, cap. 63.
[125] “Una gentil contienda,” says Gomara of this skirmish. Crónica,
cap. 46.
[126] Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 51. According to Gomara
(Crónica, cap. 46), the enemy mustered 80,000. So, also, Ixtlilxochitl.
(Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 83.) Bernal Diaz says, more than 40,000.
(Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 63.) But Herrera (Hist. general, dec. 2,
lib. 6, cap. 5) and Torquemada (Monarch. Ind., lib. 4, cap. 20) reduce
them to 30,000. One might as easily reckon the leaves in a forest, as
the numbers of a confused throng of barbarians. As this was only one of
several armies kept on foot by the Tlascalans, the smallest amount is,
probably, too large. The whole population of the state, according to
Clavigero, who would not be likely to underrate it, did not exceed half
a million at the time of the invasion. Stor. del Messico, tom. i. p.
156.
[127] “La divisa y armas de la casa y cabecera de Titcala es una garga
blanca sobre un peñasco.” (Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.) “El capitan
general,” says Bernal Diaz, “que se dezia Xicotenga, y con sus diuisas
de blanco y colorado, porque aquella diuisa y librea era de aquel
Xicotenga.” Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 63.
[128] “Llaman Teponaztle ques de un trozo de madero concavado y de
una pieza rollizo y, como decimos, hueco por de dentro, que suena
algunas veces mas de media legua y con el atambor hace estraña y suave
consonancia.” (Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.) Clavigero, who gives a
drawing of this same drum, says it is still used by the Indians, and
may be heard two or three miles. Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. p. 179.
[129] “Una illis fuit spes salutis, desperâsse de salute.” (P. Martyr,
De Orbe Novo, dec. 1, cap. 1.) It is said with the classic energy of
Tacitus.
[130] “Respondióle Marina, que no tuviese miedo, porque el Dios de los
Christianos, que es muy poderoso, i los queria mucho, los sacaria de
peligro.” Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 6, cap. 5.
[131] Ibid., ubi supra.
[132] Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 3,
45.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 83.--Rel. Seg. de Cortés,
ap. Lorenzana, p. 51.--Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap.
63.--Gomara, Crónica, cap. 40.
[133] Viaje de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. ix.
[134] According to Cortés, not a Spaniard fell--though many were
wounded--in this action so fatal to the infidel! Diaz allows one. In
the famous battle of Navas de Tolosa, between the Spaniards and Arabs,
in 1212, equally matched in military science at that time, there were
left 200,000 of the latter on the field; and, to balance this bloody
roll, only five-and-twenty Christians! See the estimate in Alfonso
IX.’s veracious letter, ap. Mariana (Hist. de España, lib. 2, cap.
24). The official returns of the old Castilian crusaders, whether in
the Old World or the New, are scarcely more trustworthy than a French
_imperial_ bulletin in our day.
[135] Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 52.--Oviedo, who made free
use of the manuscripts of Cortés, writes thirty-nine houses. (Hist. de
las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 3.) This may perhaps be explained by the
sign for a thousand, in Spanish notation, bearing great resemblance
to the figure 9. Martyr, who had access, also, to the Conqueror’s
manuscript, confirms the larger and, _a priori_, less probable number.
[136] “Que fuessemos á su pueblo adonde está su padre, q allá harian
las pazes cō hartarse de nuestras carnes, y honrar sus dioses con
nuestros coraçones, y sangre, é que para otro dia de mañana veriamos su
respuesta.” Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 64.
[137] More than one writer repeats a story of the Tlascalan general’s
sending a good supply of provisions, at this time, to the famished army
of the Spaniards; to put them in stomach, it may be, for the fight.
(Gomara, Crónica, cap. 46.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 83.)
This ultra-chivalrous display from the barbarian is not very probable,
and Cortés’ own account of his successful foray may much better explain
the abundance which reigned in his camp.
[138] Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 52.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist.
Chich., MS., cap. 83.--Gomara, Crónica, cap. 46, 47.--Oviedo, Hist. de
las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 3.--Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista,
cap. 64.
[139] Through the magnifying lens of Cortés, there appeared to be
150,000 men (Rel. Seg., ap. Lorenzana, p. 52); a number usually
preferred by succeeding writers.
[140]
“Not half so gorgeous, for their May-day mirth
All wreathed and ribanded, our youths and maids,
As these stern _Tlascalans_ in war attire!
The golden glitterance, and the feather-mail
More gay than glittering gold; and round the helm
A coronal of high upstanding plumes,
Green as the spring grass in a sunny shower;
Or scarlet bright, as in the wintry wood
The clustered holly; or of purple tint;
Whereto shall that be likened? to what gem
Indiademed, what flower, what insect’s wing?
With war-songs and wild music they came on;
We, the while kneeling, raised with one accord
The hymn of supplication.”
SOUTHEY’S Madoc, Part 1, canto 7.
[141] The standards of the Mexicans were carried in the centre, those
of the Tlascalans in the rear of the array. (Clavigero, Stor. del
Messico, vol. ii. p. 145.) According to the Anonymous Conqueror, the
banner-staff was attached to the back of the ensign, so that it was
impossible to be torn away. “Ha ogni copagnia il suo Alfiere con la
sua insegna inhastata, et in tal modo ligata sopra le spalle, che non
gli da alcun disturbo di poter combattere ne far ció che vuole, et la
porta cosi ligata bene al corpo, che se no fanno del suo corpo pezzi,
non se gli puo sligare, ne torgliela mai.” Rel. d’un gentil’ huomo, ap.
Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 305.
[142] Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.--Herrera, Hist. general, dec.
2, lib. 6, cap. 6.--Gomara, Crónica, cap. 46.--Bernal Diaz, Hist. de
la Conquista, cap. 64.--Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap.
45.--The last two authors speak of the device of “a white bird like an
ostrich,” as that of the republic. They have evidently confounded it
with that of the Indian general. Camargo, who has given the heraldic
emblems of the four great families of Tlascala, notices the white heron
as that of Xicotencatl.
[143] “Portano in testa,” says the Anonymous Conqueror, “per difesa
una cosa come teste di serpeti, ò di tigri, ò di leoni, ò di lupi,
che ha le mascelle, et è la testa dell’ huomo messa nella testa di
qsto animale come se lo volesse diuorare: sono di legno, et sopra vi é
la pena, et di piastra d’oro et di pietre preciose copte, che è cosa
marauigliosa da vedere.” Rel. d’un gentil’ huomo, ap. Ramusio, tom.
iii. fol. 305.
[144] “I saw one day an Indian make a thrust at the horse of a cavalier
with whom he was fighting, which pierced its breast, and penetrated
so deep that it immediately fell dead; and the same day I saw another
Indian cut the neck of a horse, which fell dead at his feet.” Rel. d’un
gentil’ huomo, ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 305.
[145] Particular notices of the military dress and appointments of
the American tribes on the plateau may be found in Camargo, Hist. de
Tlascala, MS.,--Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. p. 101, et
seq.,--Acosta, lib. 6, cap. 26,--Rel. d’un gentil’ huomo, ap. Ramusio,
tom. iii. fol. 305, et auct. al.
[146] “Que granizo de piedra de los honderos! Pues flechas todo el
suelo hecho parva de varas todas de á dos gajos, que passan qualquiera
arma, y las entrañas adonde no ay defensa.” Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la
Conquista, cap. 65.
[147] So says Bernal Diaz; who at the same time, by the epithets _los
muertos_, _los cuerpos_, plainly contradicts his previous boast that
only one Christian fell in the fight. (Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 65.)
Cortés has not the grace to acknowledge that one.
[148] Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 3.--Rel. Seg.
de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 52.--Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2,
lib. 6, cap. 6.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 83.--Gomara,
Crónica, cap. 46.--Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 4, cap. 32.--Bernal
Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 65, 66.--The warm, chivalrous glow
of feeling which colors the rude composition of the last chronicler
makes him a better painter than his more correct and classical rivals.
And, if there is somewhat too much of the self-complacent tone of the
_quorum pars magna fui_ in his writing, it may be pardoned in the hero
of more than a hundred battles and almost as many wounds.
[149] The Anonymous Conqueror bears emphatic testimony to the valor of
the Indians, specifying instances in which he had seen a single warrior
defend himself for a long time against two, three, and even four
Spaniards! “Sono fra loro di valētissimi huomini et che ossano morir
ostinatissimamēte. Et io ho veduto un d’ essi difendersi valetemente
da duoi caualli leggieri, et un altro da tre, et quattro.” Rel. d’un
gentil’ huomo, ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 305.
[150] The appalling effect of the cavalry on the natives reminds one of
the confusion into which the Roman legions were thrown by the strange
appearance of the elephants in their first engagements with Pyrrhus, as
told by Plutarch in his life of that prince.
[151] Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, pp. 53, 54.--Oviedo, Hist.
de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 3.--P. Martyr, De Orbe Novo, dec. 2,
cap. 2.--Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 4, cap. 32.--Herrera, Hist.
general, dec. 2, lib. 6, cap. 8.--Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista,
cap. 66.
[152] “Though she heard them every day talk of killing us and eating
our flesh, though she had seen us surrounded in past battles, and knew
that we were now all of us wounded and suffering, yet we never saw any
weakness in her, but a courage far beyond that of woman.” Bernal Diaz,
Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 66.
[153] Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 67.--Camargo, Hist. de
Tlascala, MS.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 83.
[154] The effect of the medicine--though rather a severe dose,
according to the precise Diaz--was suspended during the general’s
active exertions. Gomara, however, does not consider this a miracle.
(Crónica, cap. 49.) Father Sandoval does. (Hist. de Cárlos Quinto, tom.
i. p. 127.) Solís, after a conscientious inquiry into this perplexing
matter, decides--strange as it may seem--against the father! Conquista,
lib. 2, cap. 20.
[155] “Dios es sobre natura.” Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 54.
[156] Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 64.--Not so Cortés, who says,
boldly, “I burned more than ten towns.” (Ibid., p. 52.) His reverend
commentator specifies the localities of the Indian towns destroyed by
him in his forays. Viaje, ap. Lorenzana, pp. ix-xi.
[157] [Lorenzana speaks of two standards as borne by Cortés in the
Conquest, one having the image of the Virgin emblazoned on it, the
other that of the Cross. It may be the latter which is still preserved
in the Museum of Artillery at Madrid. (Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap.
Lorenzana, p. 52, nota.) In a letter written to me from that capital,
a few years since, by my friend Mr. George Summer, he remarks, “In
Madrid, in the Museum of Artillery, is a small mahogany box, about a
foot square, locked and sealed, which contains, as the inscription
above it states, the _pendon_ which Hernan Cortés carried to the
conquest of Mexico. On applying to the Brigadier Leon de Palacio, the
director of the museum, he was so kind as not only to order this to
be opened, but to come himself with me to examine it. The standard is
probably the same which Lorenzana, in 1770, speaks of as being then in
the Secretario de Gobierno. It is of red Damascus silk, and has marks
of the painting once upon it, but is now completely in rags.”]
[158] “E como trayamos la Bandera de la Cruz, y puñabamos por nuestra
Fe, y por servicio de Vuestra Sacra Magestad, en su muy Real ventura
nos dió Dios tanta victoria, que les matámos mucha gente, sin que los
nuestros recibiessen daño.” Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 52.
[159] “It was a notable thing,” exclaims Herrera, “to see with what
humility and devotion all returned praising God, who gave them
victories so miraculous, by which it was clearly apparent that they
were favored with the divine assistance.”
[160] “Porque entrar en México, teníamoslo por cosa de risa, á causa de
sus grandes fuerças.” Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 66.