ARRIVAL OF THE SPANIARDS AT THE CAPITAL--THEIR RECEPTION
BY MONTEZUMA--DETERMINED HOSTILITY OF GUATIMOZIN.
~Hark! at the very portals now they stand,
Demanding entrance. Can I shut them out,
When all the gods commission them to come?
Can we admit them, and preserve intact
Our honor and the state?~
The spectacle of this day, the eighth of November, 1519, has not its
parallel in the annals of history, and will probably never be repeated
in the history of man. The sovereign and absolute monarch of a populous
and powerful empire, stooping from his imperial throne, flinging wide
open the gates of his capital, and condescending to go out, and receive
with an apparent welcome an invading foe, whom he had in vain attempted
to keep out, but whom he had now the power to crush under his feet in a
moment. That invading foe consisted only of a few hundred adventurers,
three thousand miles from home, in the heart of the country they had
ravaged, and surrounded by countless thousands of exasperated foes,
burning to revenge the injuries and insults they had received at the
hands of the strangers, and only held back from rushing upon them, like
herds of ravening tigers, by the strong arm of the royal prohibition.
Their position was like that of a group of children in a menagerie,
amusing themselves with teasing and exasperating the caged animals
around them. The furious creatures glare on them with looks of rage,
growling fiercely, and gnashing their teeth. The keeper sympathizes with
his enraged subjects, burning to let them loose upon their annoyers, but
restrained by that mysterious agency, in which the divine hand is every
where moulding and subduing the natural impulses of humanity, and
working out its own wise ends by the wrath and passions of men.
Let the keeper but raise the bar of that cage for a moment, and not one
of the bright group would be left to tell the tragic issue of their
sport. Let the terror-stricken Montezuma put on once more the air of a
monarch, and raise his finger as a signal for the onset, before the
enemy has become entrenched in his fortress, and few, if any, of that
brave band would be left to tell the world of their fate--the marvellous
story of the Conquest would never be told; the Aztec dynasty would
outlive the period assigned it by those mystic oracles; and Montezuma,
recovered from the dark dreams of an imagination disordered by
superstition--the long dreaded crisis of his destiny passed--would have
swayed again the sceptre of undisputed empire over the broad and
beautiful realms of Anahuac. Having once vanquished and destroyed the
terrible strangers, and stripped them of that supernatural defence,
which the idea of their celestial origin threw around them, he would
never again have yielded his soul to so unmanly a fear. If such had
been the issue of the invasion of Cortez and his band, it is doubtful
whether the Aztec dynasty would ever have been overthrown. The
civilization of Europe would soon have been engrafted upon its own.
Christianity would have taken the place of their dark and bloody
paganism; which, with a people so far enlightened as they were, could
not have endured for a moment the noon-day blaze of the gospel; and the
terrible power of that heathen despot would have been softened, without
weakening it, into the consolidated colossal strength of an enlightened,
Christian, peaceful empire. Christianity propagated by fire and sword
consumes centuries, and wastes whole generations of men, in effecting a
revolution, which they who go with the olive branch in their hand, and
the gospel of peace in their hearts, require only a few years to
accomplish. Witness the recent triumphs of a peaceful Christianity in
the Sandwich Islands, as contrasted with the bloody and wasting Crusades
of Spaniards in all portions of the new world.
With the earliest dawn, the reveille was beaten in the Spanish camp, and
all the forces were mustered and drawn up in the order of their march.
Cortez, at the head of the cavalry, formed the advanced guard, followed
immediately by the Castilian infantry in solid column. The artillery and
baggage occupied the centre, while the dark files of the Tlascalan
savages brought up the rear. The whole number was less than seven
thousand, not more than three hundred and fifty of whom were Spaniards.
Putting on their most imposing array, with gay flaunting banners, and
the stirring notes of the trumpet, swelling over lake and grove, and
rolling away in distant echoes among the mountains, they issued forth
from the city, just as the rising sun, surmounting the eastern
cordillera, poured the golden stream of day over the beautiful valley,
and lighted up a thousand resplendent fires among the gilded domes, and
enameled temples of the capital, and the rich tiara of tributary cities
and towns that encircled it. Moving rapidly forward, they soon entered
upon the grand causeway, which, passing through the capital, spans the
entire breadth of the Tezcucan lake, constituting then the main
entrance, as its remains do now the principal southern avenue, to the
city of Mexico. It was composed of immense stones, fashioned with
geometrical precision, well laid in cement, and capable of withstanding
for ages the play of the waters, and the ravages of time. It was of
sufficient width, throughout its whole extent, to allow ten horsemen to
ride abreast. It was interrupted in several places by well built draw
bridges for the accommodation of the numerous boats, that carried on a
brisk trade with the several towns on the lake, and for the better
defence of the city against an invading foe. At the distance of about
half a league from the capital, it was also traversed by a thick heavy
wall of stone, about twelve feet high, surmounted and fortified by
towers at each extremity. In the centre was a battlemented gateway, of
sufficient strength to resist any force that could be brought against
it, by the rude enginery of native warfare. This was called the Fort of
Xoloc.
Here they were met by a very numerous and powerful body of Aztec nobles,
splendidly arrayed in their gayest costume, who came to announce the
approach of Montezuma, and again in his name to bid the strangers
welcome to the capital. As each of the chiefs presented himself, in his
turn, to Cortez, and made the customary formal salutation, a
considerable time was consumed in the ceremony; which was somewhat more
tedious than interesting to the hot spirited Spaniards.
When this was over, they passed briskly on, and soon beheld the
glittering retinue of the Emperor emerging from the principal gate of
the city. The royal palanquin, blazing with burnished gold and precious
stones, was borne on the shoulders of the principal nobles of the land,
while crowds of others, of equal or inferior rank, thronged in
obsequious attendance around. It was preceded by three officers, bearing
golden wands. Over it was a canopy of gaudy feather-work, powdered with
jewels, and fringed with silver, resting on four richly carved and
inlaid pillars, and supported by four nobles of the same rank with the
bearers. These were all bare-footed, and walked with a slow measured
pace, as conscious of the majesty of their burden, and with eyes bent on
the ground. Arrived within a convenient distance, the train halted, and
Montezuma, alighting from his palanquin, came forward, leaning on the
arms of his royal relatives, the lords of Tezcuco and Iztapalapan. As
the monarch advanced, under the same gorgeous canopy which had before
screened him from the public gaze, and the glare of the mid-day sun, the
ground was covered with cotton tapestry, while all his subjects of high
and low degree, who lined the sides of the causeway, bent their heads
and fixed their eyes on the ground, as unworthy to look upon so much
majesty. Some prostrated themselves on the ground before him, and all
in that mighty throng were awed by his presence into a silence that was
absolutely oppressive.
The appearance of Montezuma was in the highest degree interesting to the
Spanish general and his followers. Flung over his shoulders was the
_tilmatli_, or large square cloak, manufactured from the finest cotton,
with the embroidered ends gathered in a knot round his neck. Under this
was a tunic of green, embroidered with exquisite taste, extending almost
to his knees, and confined at the waist, by a rich jeweled vest. His
feet were protected by sandals of gold, bound with leathern thongs
richly embossed with the same metal. The cloak, the tunic, and the
sandals were profusely sprinkled with pearls and precious stones. On his
head was a _panache_ of plumes of the royal green, waving gracefully in
the light breeze.
He was then about forty years of age. His person was tall, slender, and
well proportioned. His complexion was somewhat fairer than that of his
race generally. His countenance was expressive of great benignity. His
carriage was serious, dignified and even majestic, and, without the
least tincture of haughtiness, or affectation of importance, he moved
with the stately air of one born to command, and accustomed to the
homage of all about him.
The strangers halted, as the monarch drew near. Cortez, dismounting,
threw his reins to a page, and, supported by a few of his principal
cavaliers, advanced to meet him. What an interview! How full of
thrilling interest to both parties! How painfully thrilling to
Montezuma, who now saw before him, standing on the very threshold of
his citadel, the all-conquering white man, whose history was so
mysteriously blended with his own; whose coming and power had been
foreshadowed for ages in the prophetic traditions of his country,
confirmed again by his own most sacred oracles, and repeated by so many
signs, and omens, and fearful prognostics, that he was compelled either
to regard him as the heaven-sent representative of the ancient rightful
lords of the soil, or to abandon his early and cherished faith, the
religion of his fathers, and of the ancient race from which they sprung.
Putting a royal restraint upon the feelings which almost overwhelmed
him, the monarch received his guest with princely courtesy, expressing
great pleasure in seeing him personally, and extending to him the
hospitalities of his capital. The Castilian replied with expressions of
the most profound respect, and with many and ample acknowledgments for
the substantial proofs which the Emperor had already given of his more
than royal munificence. He then hung on the neck of the king a sparkling
chain of colored crystal, at the same time making a movement, as if he
would embrace him. He was prevented, however, by the timely interference
of two Aztec lords from thus profaning, before the assembled multitudes
of his people, the sacred person of their master.
After this formal introduction and interchange of civilities, Montezuma
appointed his brother, the bold Cuitlahua, to conduct the Spaniards to
their quarters in the city, and returned in the same princely state in
which he came, amid the prostrate thousands of his subjects. Pondering
deeply, as the train moved slowly on, upon the fearful crisis in his
affairs which had now arrived, his ear was arrested by a faint low voice
in the crowd, which he instantly recognized as Karee's, breathing out a
plaintive wail, as if in soliloquy with her own soul, or in high
communion with the spirits of the unseen world. The strain was wild and
broken, but its tenor was deeply mournful and deprecatory. It concluded
with these emphatic words--
The proud eagle may turn to his eyrie again,
But his pinions are clipped, and his foot feels the chain,
He is monarch no more in his wide domain--
The falcon has come to his nest.
With an air of bold and martial triumph, their colors flying, and music
briskly playing, the Spaniards, with the singular trail of half savage
Tlascalans, the deadly enemies of the Aztecs, made their entrance into
the southern quarter of the renowned Tenochtitlan, and were escorted by
the brave Cuitlahua, to the royal palace of Axayacatl, in the heart of
the city, once the residence of Montezuma's father, and now appropriated
to the accommodation of Cortez and his followers.
As they marched through the crowded streets, new subjects of wonder and
admiration greeted them on every side. The grandeur and extent of the
city, the superior style of its architecture, the ample dimensions,
immense strength, and costly ornaments of the numerous palaces, pyramids
and temples, separated and surrounded by broad terraced gardens in the
highest possible state of cultivation, and teeming with flowers of every
hue and name--the lofty tapering sanctuaries, and altars blazing with
inextinguishable fires,--and above all, the innumerable throngs of
people who swarmed through the streets and canals, filling every
door-way and window, and clustering on the flat roof of every building
as they passed, filled them with mingled emotions of admiration,
surprise and fear.
The swarming myriads of the Aztecs were, on their part, no less
interested and amazed at the spectacle presented by their strange
visitors. An intense and all-absorbing curiosity pervaded the entire
mass of the people. Nothing could surpass their wonder and admiration of
the prancing steeds, or four legged and double-headed men, as to their
simple view they seemed to be, the rider as he sat with ease in his
saddle, appearing to be but a part of the animal on which he rode. The
piercing tones of the loud mouthed trumpets, astonished and delighted
them exceedingly. But the deep thunder of the artillery as it burst upon
them amid volumes of sulphurous smoke and flame, and then rolled away in
long reverberated echoes among the mountains, filled them with
indescribable alarm, and made them feel that the all-destroying god of
war was indeed among them in the guise of men.
While these scenes were enacting in the city, the palace was shrouded in
the deepest gloom. When the monarch arrayed himself, in the morning, to
go forth to meet the strangers, several incidents occurred, which were
deemed peculiarly ominous, confirming all the superstitious forebodings
of the king, and tending to take away from the yet trusting hearts of
his household, their last remaining hope. The imperial clasp, which
bound his girdle in front, bearing as its device, richly engraven on the
precious _chalchivitl_, the emblem of despotic power, which was the
eagle pouncing upon the ocelot--snapped in twain, scattering the
fragments of the eagle's head upon the marble pavement. The principal
jewel in the royal diadem was found loose, and trembling in its setting.
But, more portentous than all to the mind of the devout Montezuma, the
priest, who had charge of the great altar on the Teocalli of
Huitzilopotchli, had been seized with convulsions during the preceding
night, and fallen dead at his post. The perpetual fire had gone out, for
want of a hand to replenish it, and when the morning sun shot his first
beams upon that high altar, there was not a spark among the blackened
embers, to answer his reviving glow.
It was impossible to shake off the influence of presages like these.
From infancy, he had been taught to read in all such incidents, the
shadowy revealings of the will of the gods, the dark lines of destiny
foreshown to the faithful. The soul of Montezuma was oppressed almost to
sinking. But he roused himself to his task, and went forth, feeling, as
he went, that the ground trembled beneath his feet, while an untimely
night gathered at noon-day over the sky.
* * * * *
Among the noble princes who graced the court of Montezuma, there was no
one of a nobler bearing, or a loftier heart, than his nephew Guatimozin,
the favored lover of Tecuichpo. Unlike her disappointed suitor, the
Prince of Tezcuco, he had uniformly and powerfully opposed the timid
policy of the king, and urged, with Cuitlahua, a bold and unyielding
resistance to the encroachments of the intruding Spaniards. His
reluctance to their admission to the capital was so great, that he
refused to witness the humiliating spectacle; preferring to shut himself
up in the palace, and sustain, if he could, the fainting courage of the
princess, and her mother. All that could be done by eloquence, inspired
by patriotic zeal and inflamed by a pure and refined love, was attempted
by the accomplished youth, till, excited and inflamed by his own efforts
to comfort and persuade others, and nerved to higher resolves, by a new
contemplation of the inestimable heart-treasures, which were staked upon
the issue, a new hope seemed to dawn upon the clouded horizon of their
destiny.
"My fair princess," cried the impassioned lover, "it shall not be. These
wide and glorious realms, teeming with untold thousands of brave and
patriotic hearts, ready and able to defend our altars and our hearths,
shall never pass away to a mere handful of pale-faced invaders. They
_must_, they _shall_ be driven back. Or, if our gods have utterly
deserted us--if the time has indeed come, when the power and glory of
the Aztec is to pass away for ever, let the Aztec, to a man, pass away
with it. Let us perish together by our altars, and leave to the
rapacious intruder a ravaged and depopulated country. Let not one remain
to grace his triumph, or bow his neck to the ignominious yoke."
"Nay, my sweet cousin," she replied, with a tone and look of
indescribable tenderness, "we will indeed die together, if need be, but
let us first see if we cannot live together."
"Live?" exclaimed Guatimozin. "Oh! Tecuichpo, what would I not attempt,
what would I not sacrifice, to the hope of living, if I might share
that life with you. But my country! my allegiance! how can I sacrifice
that which is not my own?--that inheritance which was all my
birth-right, and which, as it preceded, must necessarily be paramount
to, all the other relations of life."
"But, my father! dear Guatimozin! must he not be obeyed?"
"Yes, and he shall be. But he _must_ be persuaded, even at this late
hour, to dismiss the strangers, and banish them for ever from his
domains. He has no right to yield it up. It belongs to his subjects no
less than to him. He belongs to them, by the same sacred bond that binds
them all to him. He may not sacrifice them to a scruple, which has in it
more of superstition than of religion. I must go to the Temple of
Cholula, and bring up the hoary old prophet of Quetzalcoatl, and see if
he cannot move the too tender conscience of your father, and persuade
him that his duty to his gods cannot, by any possibility, be made to
conflict with his duty to his empire, and the mighty family of dependent
children, whom the gods have committed to his care."
"Oh! not now, Guatimozin, I pray you. Do not leave us at this terrible
moment. Stay, and sustain with your courageous hopes the sad heart of my
dear father, who is utterly overwhelmed with the dire omens of this
dismal morning."
"Omens! Oh! Tecuichpo, shall we not rather say that the gods have thus
frowned upon our cowardly abandonment of their altars, than that they
design, in these dark portents, to denounce an irreversible doom, which
our prayers cannot avert, nor our combined wisdom and courage prevent?"
* * * * *
At this moment Montezuma returned. But the deep distress depicted in his
countenance, and the air of stern reserve which he assumed in the
presence of those whose counsels would tend to shake his resolve,
effectually prevented Guatimozin from pursuing, at that moment, the
object nearest his heart. He retired into the garden, where he was soon
joined by the fair princess, who wished to divert him from his purposed
visit to Cholula, knowing full well it would be a fruitless mission.
"But why, my brave cousin, may not my father be right, in feeling that
these strangers are sent to us from the gods? And if from the gods, then
surely for our good; for the gods are all beneficence, and can only
intend the well-being of their children, in all the changes that befal
us here. Perhaps these strangers will teach us more of the beings whom
we worship, and direct us how we may serve them better than we now do,
and so partake more largely of their favor."
"Alas! my beloved, how can we hope that they who come to destroy, whose
only god is gold--to the possession of which they are ready to sacrifice
life, love, honor, every thing--how can we hope that they will teach us
any thing better or higher than we learn from the ancient oracles of our
faith, and the holy priesthood of our religion? No, it cannot be. Their
pathway is drenched in blood, and so it will be, till the throne, and he
who honors it, are laid in dust at their feet, and you and I, and all
the myriads of our people, have become their abject slaves."
"Say not so, I beseech you, dear Guatimozin. Where my father leads, I
must follow, and hope for the best. And you must follow too, for I
cannot go without you. Here, take this rose, and wear it as a pledge to
me, over this sparkling fountain, that you will no more hazard the
imperial displeasure, and the anger of the gods, by your bold and rash
resistance of the known decrees of fate. And I will weave a chaplet of
the same, to lay upon the altar, to propitiate for us all the favor of
heaven."
There was too much real chivalry in the heart of Guatimozin, to resist
the earnest love and eloquent persuasion of his lady-love. He kissed her
fair cheek in token of submission to her sway, and then led her to the
palace, to learn if any thing new had transpired to encourage his hope
that his wishes would yet be realized, in the exclusion of the Spaniards
from the city. As they passed along, they heard Karee-o-than, the
garrulous pet of the Princess, seemingly soliloquising among the
branches of the flowering orange that hung over her favorite arbor. They
paused a moment, but could gather nothing from his chatterings but
"Brave Guatimozin! noble Guatimozin! all is yours."
"An omen! my sweet cousin, a genuine emphatic omen! Even Karee-o-than
encourages me in my treason. I wish I knew how she would respond to the
name of this redoubtable Cortez. Pray ask her, Tecuichpo, what she
thinks of the Spaniard."
"Fear you not to trifle thus?" asked Tecuichpo.
"Fear not, brave Guatimozin!" responded the parrot.
"There, I have it again, my love; all she says is against you. And what
do you say of Malinche, pretty Karee-o-than?"
"Poor Malinche! brave Guatimozin."
"Bravo!" exclaimed the Prince, "the bird is as good as an omen, and
I"----
At that moment, Karee appeared, and coming towards them in great haste
and trepidation, informed them that the Spaniards had already reached
their quarters in the old palace, and that Montezuma had gone thither,
in royal state, to receive them.
"And what think you of all these things, my fairy queen," asked
Guatimozin, playfully.
"Wo! wo! wo! to the imperial house of Tenochtitlan!" energetically
replied Karee,--"its glory is departed for ever,--its crown has fallen
from the head of the great Montezuma, and there is none able to wear it,
or to redeem it from the hand of the spoiler. Thou, most noble Prince,
wilt do all that mortal courage and prowess can do, to rescue it from
desecration, and to protect the house of Montezuma from the cruel fate
to which he has delivered it up; but it will be all in vain. _He_ must
perish by an ignominious death. _They_ must pass under the yoke of the
strangers, and thou, too, after all thy noble struggles and sacrifices,
must perish miserably under their cruel and implacable rapacity."
This was too much for Tecuichpo. She looked upon Karee as an inspired
prophetess, and had always found it exceedingly difficult to sustain the
filial confidence which sanctified every act and every purpose of her
royal father, when the powerful incantations of Karee were directed
against them. It was a continual struggle between an affectionate
superstition, and filial love. But that first, and holiest, and
strongest instinct of her heart prevailed, and she clung the more warmly
to her father, when she found that every thing else was against him. But
now the shaft had pierced her at another and an unguarded point. Her
spirit fainted within her. She swooned in the arms of Guatimozin, and
was borne to her apartment in a state of insensibility, where, under the
kind and skilful nursing of Karee, and the affectionate assurances of
Guatimozin, she was soon restored to health, and her accustomed
cheerfulness. But these ceaseless agitations, these painful alternations
of hope and fear, were slowly wearing upon her gentle spirit, and
undermining a frame so delicately sensitive, that, like the aspen,
------It trembled when the sleeping breeze
But dreamed of waking.