To one whose perverted imagination can dwell with pleasure on 'the pomp
and circumstance of glorious war,' no better study can be recommended
than the history of the siege of Mexico, which may be considered as one
single battle, lasting for the space of ninety-three days, counting from
the time when the different divisions of the besieging army had taken
their positions in form, upon the different causeways. This does not
include the period occupied in the march of these bodies from Tezcuco,
and which was not devoted to inactivity. On the contrary, the
Captain-General took advantage of the occasion to discipline his naval
force, by sweeping over the lake from bay to bay, and town to town,
destroying every piragua that made its appearance, as well as such
chinampas, or floating gardens, as he could approach, and frequently by
cannonading the imperial city itself. Besides this, he assaulted and
took, on each occasion after a most sanguinary combat, certain
fortresses upon two island rocks, one of which rose near to Iztapalapan:
the other, though no longer insulated, still lies a little to the east
of the republican city, and is called the Penon, or Crag, of Montezuma.
The preparations of the Mexicans were extensive and anticipative of all
the peculiar evils which they thought it in the power of their great
enemy to inflict. They had cut through the causeways numberless ditches,
each of which was furnished with a light bridge, to be withdrawn, when
about to fall into the power of the Spaniards; and the earth and stones
thus removed, were built up before and behind the chasms, into strong
ramparts, which were still further strengthened with palisades. In this
manner, while opposing the greatest obstructions to the passage of the
foot-soldiers, they made it impossible for horses to be brought against
them,--a precaution that, for a long time, robbed the Spaniards of their
greatest advantage.
The beginning of the siege of Mexico, then, lay in the struggles of the
besiegers to obtain possession of the ditches, which were to be filled
up, by levelling the ramparts. This was a work both of infinite danger
and toil, the besieged fighting from behind the advanced barriers with
unexampled resolution, and, however overpowered, never retreating beyond
the ditch, until their companions had left but a single plank for their
passage, which was immediately afterwards withdrawn. After this, the
Spaniards were forced to overturn the first barrier into the chasm,
before they could rush across the slough of mud and water, to attack the
second; and all this was to be done not only against violent opposition
in front, but with a most dangerous and audacious species of annoyance
practised on one flank or the other, and sometimes on both. Wherever the
shallows admitted, the Mexicans drove into the bottom of the lake, and
at but a short distance from the dike, strong piles, to which they
secured their canoes, furnished with high and thick bulwarks of planks,
almost musket-proof; and from these they drove arrows, darts, and stones
against the soldiers with destructive effect. Nay, with such wisdom had
the young king of Mexico devised means to embarrass his adversary, that
he had even secured his little flotillas from the possibility of
approach, by sinking rows of piles in the lake, parallel with the
causeways, through which the brigantines could not pass, to disperse
them. It was to but little purpose that Cortes battered them from a
distance with his falconets; the following morning saw replaced every
loss of men and canoes. The soldiers were excited to fury by an
annoyance so irritating, and some were found at times frantic enough to
leap into the lake, where the waters happened to be sufficiently
shallow, and endeavour to carry the flotillas, sword in hand.
The narrowness and obstructed condition of the dikes making it
impossible that all the forces could act upon them together, the vast
multitudes of native allies were left in reserve, with the cavalry, on
the shore,--where they were not idle, the numbers, as well as the
boldness of the Mexicans being so great, that they frequently sent
armies to the shore by night, who, at the dawn, fell upon the reserved
troops with all the rancour of opponents in a civil war.
This was the condition of the war at its commencement. The grand
desiderata,--the removal of the flotillas, and the profitable employment
of the confederates, were not effected until Cortes had seized all the
piraguas of the shore-towns, and sent them, manned with Tlascalans,
against the palisaded posts, where, besides doing what execution they
could upon the enemy, the allies tore away the piles, and thus admitted
some of the lighter brigantines among the canoes.
Aided in this manner, the soldiers were able to advance along the
several dikes, until they got possession of certain military stations,
on each, which might have been called the gates of Mexico.
It has been already said, that the causeways of Iztapalapan and
Cojohuacan, coming respectively from the south and southwest, united
together at the distance of less than a league from Mexico. At the point
of junction, the causeway expanded into a mole or quay, where was a
strong and lofty stone wall, the passage through which was contrived by
the overlapping of the walls, in the manner described at Tezcuco. This
rampart was defended by very strong towers and by a parapet with
embrasures, from which the defenders could easily repel any enemy,
inferior in strength and determination to the Spaniards. The point was
called Xoloc, and when wrested from the hands of the Mexicans, became
the head-quarters of Cortes.
A similar expansion of the dike of Tacuba, fortified in the same way,
and at the distance of two miles from the city, and one from the shore,
afforded a resting-place and garrison for the forces under Alvarado,
whose first act, after reaching Tacuba, was to destroy the aqueduct of
Chapoltepec, which consisted of a double line of baked earthenware
pipes, carried across the lake on a dike constructed only for that
purpose, and therefore so narrow and inconsiderable, that it does not
appear that the Spaniards derived any advantage from the possession of
it.
The division of De Olid united with that of Sandoval at the point Xoloc;
the latter of whom was afterwards directed to take possession of the
northern dike of Tepejacac, the remains of which may yet be traced
between the city and the hill of Our Lady of Guadalupe, on which was a
fortification resembling the others.
These positions being thus assumed, the Captain-General divided the
fleet of brigantines among the three captains, to whom they were of vast
service, by protecting the flanks of their divisions.
From this period, the siege may be considered to have been begun in
form; and it was continued with a fury of attack and resistance almost
without parallel in the history of conquest. Foot by foot, and inch by
inch, the invaders advanced, staining the causeways with their blood,
and choking the lake with the bodies of their foes. Ditch after ditch
was won and filled, and almost as often lost and re-opened. The day was
devoted to battle, the night to alarms. The only periods of rest were
when the daily tempests, for it was now the heart of the rainy season,
burst over the heads of the combatants, as if heaven had sent its floods
to efface the horrible dyes of carnage, and its thunders to drown the
roar of man's more destructive artillery. Then, the exhausted soldier
and the fainting barbarian flung themselves to rest upon the trodden mud
of their ramparts, within sight of each other, regardless of the wrath
of the elements, so much less enduring than their own.
At first, the Spaniards after winning a ditch and filling it, were
content to return for the night to the fortified stations, to shelter
themselves in the towers, and in miserable huts of reeds which they had
constructed, from the rains, that, usually, continued until midnight.
But finding that the infidels, more manly or more desperate, devoted the
night to repair the losses of the day, by again opening the chasms, they
denied themselves even this poor solace, and threw themselves to sleep
on the spots where they fought, ready to resume the conflict at the
first glimmer of dawn.
Thus, day by day, the approaches were effected, and by the end of the
second month, the besiegers had advanced almost to the suburbs, which
jutted out into the lake along the three causeways, supported upon
foundations of piles, and sometimes piers of stone. The houses stood
apart from each other, but were connected, in seasons of peace, by light
wooden drawbridges, running from terrace to terrace; so that the
_streets_ of these quarters may be said to have been on the tops of the
houses,--and the same thing was true of the gardens. The communication
below was effected always by means of canoes. Among these edifices, the
water was often of sufficient depth to float the brigantines of lighter
draught, which sometimes entered them, to fire the buildings, that were
so many fortresses, from which the soldiers on the causeways could be
annoyed.
The labours and sufferings of the besiegers were constant, and almost
intolerable; yet they endured them with a patience derived from the
assurance of a certain though tardy success. The toils and distresses of
the Mexicans were greater, and endured with heroism still more noble,
because almost without hope; and it may be said with justice of these
poor barbarians, whose memory has almost vanished from the earth, that
never yet did a people fight for their altars and firesides with greater
courage and devotion. They saw themselves each day confined to narrow
limits,--they fought the more resolutely; they beheld all the marine
forces of the neighbouring towns, late their feudatories, led against
them,--they sent navies of their own to chastise the insurgents, and
still kept their ground against the Spaniards.
It was certain that Cortes had found in the young king an antagonist far
more formidable than he had expected. The resistance at the ramparts,
the sallies by night that were often made with fatal effect, the secret
expeditions against the shores, and the stratagems put in execution to
cripple the brigantines, all indicated, in the infidel prince, a
capacity of mind worthy of his unconquerable courage. A single exploit
will prove his daring and his craft. He decoyed two of the largest
brigantines into a certain bay, where many of his strongest piraguas lay
in ambush among the reeds. With these, he attacked, boarded, and carried
the two vessels, and had he possessed any knowledge of the management of
sails, would have conducted them in safety to his palace walls. As it
was, they were maintained against an overpowering force, sent to retake
them, and not yielded until the captors had destroyed every Christian on
board, fifty in number, as well as the sails and cordage, and cast the
falconets into the lake.
Another stratagem of a still more daring character, and infinitely more
fatal to the Spaniards, was conceived and executed, almost at the moment
when they thought the young monarch reduced to despair. But of that we
shall have occasion to speak more at length hereafter. The thousand
conflicts on land and water, that marked the progress of a siege so
extraordinary, have but little connexion with the adventures of the two
outcasts; and we are glad of the privilege to pass them by.