proceedings at cempoalla—the spaniards climb the table-land—picturesque scenery—transactions with the natives—embassy to tlascala

1519

while at cempoalla, cortés received a message from escalante, his commander at villa rica, informing him there were four strange ships hovering off the coast, and that they took no notice of his repeated signals. this intelligence greatly alarmed the general, who feared they might be a squadron sent by the governor of cuba to interfere with his movements. in much haste, he set out at the head of a few horsemen, and, ordering a party of light infantry to follow, posted back to villa rica. the rest of the army he left in charge of alvarado and of gonzalo de sandoval, a young officer who had begun to give evidence of the uncommon qualities which have secured to him so distinguished a rank among the conquerors of mexico.{84}

escalante would have persuaded the general, on his reaching the town, to take some rest, and allow him to go in search of the strangers. but cortés replied with the homely proverb, “a wounded hare takes no nap,”[75] and, without stopping to refresh himself or his men, pushed on three or four leagues to the north, where he understood the ships were at anchor. on the way, he fell in with three spaniards, just landed from them. to his eager inquiries whence they came, they replied that they belonged to a squadron fitted out by francisco de garay, governor of jamaica. this person, the year previous, had visited the florida coast, and obtained from spain—where he had some interest at court—authority over the countries he might discover in that vicinity. the three men, consisting of a notary and two witnesses, had been sent on shore to warn their countrymen under cortés to desist from what was considered an encroachment on the territories of garay. probably neither the governor of jamaica nor his officers had any precise notion of the geography and limits of these territories.

cortés saw at once there was nothing to apprehend from this quarter. he would have been glad, however, if he could by any means have induced the crews of the ships to join his expedition. he found no difficulty in persuading the notary and his companions. but when he came in sight of the vessels, the people on board, distrusting the good terms on which their comrades appeared to be with the spaniards, refused to send their boat{85} ashore. in this dilemma, cortés had recourse to a stratagem.

he ordered three of his own men to exchange dresses with the new-comers. he then drew off his little band in sight of the vessels, affecting to return to the city. in the night, however, he came back to the same place, and lay in ambush, directing the disguised spaniards, when the morning broke, and they could be discerned, to make signals to those on board. the artifice succeeded. a boat put off, filled with armed men, and three or four leaped on shore. but they soon detected the deceit, and cortés, springing from his ambush, made them prisoners. their comrades in the boat, alarmed, pushed off, at once, for the vessels, which soon got under way, leaving those on shore to their fate. thus ended the affair. cortés returned to cempoalla, with the addition of half a dozen able-bodied recruits, and, what was of more importance, relieved in his own mind from the apprehension of interference with his operations.[76]

he now made arrangements for his speedy departure from the totonac capital. the forces reserved for the expedition amounted to about four hundred foot and fifteen horse, with seven pieces of artillery. he obtained, also, from the cacique of cempoalla, thirteen hundred warriors, and a thousand tamanes, or porters, to drag the guns and transport the baggage. he took forty more of their principal men as hostages, as well as to{86} guide him on the way and serve him by their counsels among the strange tribes he was to visit. they were, in fact, of essential service to him throughout the march.[77]

the remainder of his spanish force he left in garrison at villa rica de vera cruz, the command of which he had intrusted to the alguacil, juan de escalante, an officer devoted to his interests. the selection was judicious. it was important to place there a man who would resist any hostile interference from his european rivals, on the one hand, and maintain the present friendly relations with the natives, on the other. cortés recommended the totonac chiefs to apply to this officer in case of any difficulty, assuring them that so long as they remained faithful to their new sovereign and religion they should find a sure protection in the spaniards.

before marching, the general spoke a few words of encouragement to his own men. he told them they were now to embark in earnest on an enterprise which had been the great object of their desires, and that the blessed saviour would carry them victorious through every battle with their enemies. “indeed,” he added, “this assurance must be our stay, for every other refuge is now cut off but that afforded by the providence of god{87} and your own stout hearts.”[78] he ended by comparing their achievements to those of the ancient romans, “in phrases of honeyed eloquence far beyond anything i can repeat,” says the brave and simple-hearted chronicler who heard them. cortés was, indeed, master of that eloquence which went to the soldiers’ hearts. for their sympathies were his, and he shared in that romantic spirit of adventure which belonged to them. “we are ready to obey you,” they cried as with one voice. “our fortunes, for better or worse, are cast with yours.”[79] taking leave, therefore, of their hospitable indian friends, the little army, buoyant with high hopes and lofty plans of conquest, set forward on their march to mexico.

it was the sixteenth of august, 1519. during the first day, their road lay through the tierra caliente, the beautiful land where they had been so long lingering; the land of the vanilla, cochineal, cacao (not till later days of the orange and the sugar-cane), products which, indigenous to mexico, have now become the luxuries of europe; the land where the fruits and the flowers chase one another in unbroken circle through the year; where the gales are loaded with perfumes till the sense aches at their sweetness, and the groves are filled with many-colored birds, and insects whose enamelled wings glisten like diamonds in the bright sun of the tropics. such are the magical splendors of{88} this paradise of the senses. yet nature, who generally works in a spirit of compensation, has provided one here; since the same burning sun which quickens into life these glories of the vegetable and animal kingdoms calls forth the pestilent malaria, with its train of bilious disorders, unknown to the cold skies of the north. the season in which the spaniards were there, the rainy months of summer, was precisely that in which the vómito rages with greatest fury; when the european stranger hardly ventures to set his foot on shore, still less to linger there a day. we find no mention made of it in the records of the conquerors, nor any notice, indeed, of an uncommon mortality. the fact doubtless corroborates the theory of those who postpone the appearance of the yellow fever till long after the occupation of the country by the whites. it proves, at least, that, if existing before, it must have been in a very much mitigated form.

after some leagues of travel over roads made nearly impassable by the summer rains, the troops began the gradual ascent—more gradual on the eastern than the western declivities of the cordilleras—which leads up to the table-land of mexico. at the close of the second day they reached xalapa, a place still retaining the same aztec name that it has communicated to the drug raised in its environs, the medicinal virtues of which are now known throughout the world.[80] this town stands{89} midway up the long ascent, at an elevation where the vapors from the ocean, touching in their westerly progress, maintain a rich verdure throughout the year. though somewhat infected by these marine fogs, the air is usually bland and salubrious. the wealthy resident of the lower regions retires here for safety in the heats of summer, and the traveller hails its groves of oak with delight, as announcing that he is above the deadly influence of the vómito.[81] from this delicious spot, the spaniards enjoyed one of the grandest prospects in nature. before them was the steep ascent—much steeper after this point—which they were to climb. on the right rose the sierra madre, girt with its dark belt of pines, and its long lines of shadowy hills stretching away in the distance. to the south, in brilliant contrast, stood the mighty orizaba, with his white robe of snow descending far down his sides, towering in solitary grandeur, the giant spectre of the andes. behind them, they beheld, unrolled at their feet, the magnificent tierra caliente, with its gay confusion of meadows, streams, and flowering forests, sprinkled over with shining indian villages, while a faint line of light on the edge of the horizon told them that there was the ocean, beyond which were the kindred and country they were many of them never more to see.

still winding their way upward, amidst scenery{90} as different as was the temperature from that of the regions below, the army passed through settlements containing some hundreds of inhabitants each, and on the fourth day reached a “strong town,” as cortés terms it, standing on a rocky eminence, supposed to be that now known by the mexican name of naulinco. here they were hospitably entertained by the inhabitants, who were friends of the totonacs. cortés endeavored, through father olmedo, to impart to them some knowledge of christian truths, which were kindly received, and the spaniards were allowed to erect a cross in the place, for the future adoration of the natives. indeed, the route of the army might be tracked by these emblems of man’s salvation, raised wherever a willing population of indians invited it, suggesting a very different idea from what the same memorials intimate to the traveller in these mountain solitudes in our day.[82]{91}

the troops now entered a rugged defile, the bishop’s pass,[83] as it is called, capable of easy defence against an army. very soon they experienced a most unwelcome change of climate. cold winds from the mountains, mingled with rain, and, as they rose still higher, with driving sleet and hail, drenched their garments, and seemed to penetrate to their very bones. the spaniards, indeed, partially covered by their armor and thick jackets of quilted cotton, were better able to resist the weather, though their long residence in the sultry regions of the valley made them still keenly sensible to the annoyance. but the poor indians, natives of the tierra caliente, with little protection in the way of covering, sank under the rude assault of the elements, and several of them perished on the road.

the aspect of the country was as wild and dreary as the climate. their route wound along the spur of the huge cofre de perote, which borrows its name, both in mexican and castilian, from the coffer-like rock on its summit.[84] it is one of{92} the great volcanoes of new spain. it exhibits now, indeed, no vestige of a crater on its top, but abundant traces of volcanic action at its base, where acres of lava, blackened scori?, and cinders proclaim the convulsions of nature, while numerous shrubs and mouldering trunks of enormous trees, among the crevices, attest the antiquity of these events. working their toilsome way across this scene of desolation, the path often led them along the borders of precipices, down whose sheer depths of two or three thousand feet the shrinking eye might behold another climate, and see all the glowing vegetation of the tropics choking up the bottom of the ravines.

after three days of this fatiguing travel, the wayworn army emerged through another defile, the sierra del agua.[85] they soon came upon an open reach of country, with a genial climate, such as belongs to the temperate latitudes of southern europe. they had reached the level of more than seven thousand feet above the ocean, where the great sheet of table-land spreads out for hundreds of miles along the crests of the cordilleras. the country showed signs of careful cultivation, but the products were, for the most part, not familiar to the eyes of the spaniards. fields and hedges of the various tribes of the cactus, the towering organum, and plantations of aloes with rich yellow clusters of flowers on their tall stems, affording drink and clothing to the aztec, were everywhere{93} seen. the plants of the torrid and temperate zones had disappeared, one after another, with the ascent into these elevated regions. the glossy and dark-leaved banana, the chief, as it is the cheapest, aliment of the countries below, had long since faded from the landscape. the hardy maize, however, still shone with its golden harvest in all the pride of cultivation, the great staple of the higher equally with the lower terraces of the plateau.

suddenly the troops came upon what seemed the environs of a populous city, which, as they entered it, appeared to surpass even that of cempoalla in the size and solidity of its structures.[86] these were of stone and lime, many of them spacious and tolerably high. there were thirteen teocallis in the place; and in the suburbs they had seen a receptacle, in which, according to bernal diaz, were stored a hundred thousand skulls of human victims, all piled and ranged in order! he reports the number as one he had ascertained by counting them himself.[87] whatever faith we may attach to the precise accuracy of his figures, the result is almost equally startling. the spaniards were destined to become familiar with this appalling spectacle as they approached nearer to the aztec capital.{94}

the lord of the town ruled over twenty thousand vassals. he was tributary to montezuma, and a strong mexican garrison was quartered in the place. he had probably been advised of the approach of the spaniards, and doubted how far it would be welcome to his sovereign. at all events, he gave them a cold reception, the more unpalatable after the extraordinary sufferings of the last few days. to the inquiry of cortés, whether he were subject to montezuma, he answered, with real or affected surprise, “who is there that is not a vassal of montezuma?”[88] the general told him, with some emphasis, that he was not. he then explained whence and why he came, assuring him that he served a monarch who had princes for his vassals as powerful as the aztec monarch himself.

the cacique, in turn, fell nothing short of the spaniard in the pompous display of the grandeur and resources of the indian emperor. he told his guest that montezuma could muster thirty great vassals, each master of a hundred thousand men![89] his revenues were immense, as every subject, however poor, paid something. they were all expended on his magnificent state and in support of{95} his armies. these were continually in the field, while garrisons were maintained in most of the large cities of the empire. more than twenty thousand victims, the fruit of his wars, were annually sacrificed on the altars of his gods! his capital, the cacique said, stood in a lake, in the centre of a spacious valley. the lake was commanded by the emperor’s vessels, and the approach to the city was by means of causeways, several miles long, connected in parts by wooden bridges, which, when raised, cut off all communication with the country. some other things he added, in answer to queries of his guest, in which, as the reader may imagine, the crafty or credulous cacique varnished over the truth with a lively coloring of romance. whether romance, or reality, the spaniards could not determine. the particulars they gleaned were not of a kind to tranquillize their minds, and might well have made bolder hearts than theirs pause, ere they advanced. but far from it. “the words which we heard,” says the stout old cavalier so often quoted, “however they may have filled us with wonder, made us—such is the temper of the spaniard—only the more earnest to prove the adventure, desperate as it might appear.”[90]

in a further conversation cortés inquired of the chief whether his country abounded in gold, and intimated a desire to take home some, as specimens, to his sovereign. but the indian lord declined to give him any, saying it might displease monte{96}zuma. “should he command it,” he added, “my gold, my person, and all i possess, shall be at your disposal.” the general did not press the matter further.

the curiosity of the natives was naturally excited by the strange dresses, weapons, horses, and dogs of the spaniards. marina, in satisfying their inquiries, took occasion to magnify the prowess of her adopted countrymen, expatiating on their exploits and victories, and stating the extraordinary marks of respect they had received from montezuma. this intelligence seems to have had its effect; for soon after the cacique gave the general some curious trinkets of gold, of no great value, indeed, but as a testimony of his good will. he sent him, also, some female slaves to prepare bread for the troops, and supplied the means of refreshment and repose, more important to them, in the present juncture, than all the gold of mexico.[91]

the spanish general, as usual, did not neglect the occasion to inculcate the great truths of revelation on his host, and to display the atrocity of the indian superstitions. the cacique listened with civil but cold indifference. cortés, finding him unmoved, turned briskly round to his soldiers, exclaiming that now was the time to plant the cross! they eagerly seconded his pious purpose, and the same scenes might have been enacted as at cempoalla, with perhaps very different results,{97} had not father olmedo, with better judgment, interposed. he represented that to introduce the cross among the natives, in their present state of ignorance and incredulity, would be to expose the sacred symbol to desecration so soon as the backs of the spaniards were turned. the only way was to wait patiently the season when more leisure should be afforded to instil into their minds a knowledge of the truth. the sober reasoning of the good father prevailed over the passions of the martial enthusiasts.

it was fortunate for cortés that olmedo was not one of those frantic friars who would have fanned his fiery temper on such occasions into a blaze. it might have had a most disastrous influence on his fortunes; for he held all temporal consequences light in comparison with the great work of conversion, to effect which the unscrupulous mind of the soldier, trained to the stern discipline of the camp, would have employed force whenever fair means were ineffectual.[92] but olmedo belonged to that class of benevolent missionaries—of whom the roman catholic church, to its credit, has furnished many examples—who rely on spiritual weapons for the great work, inculcating those doctrines of love and mercy which can best touch the sensibilities and win the affections of their rude audience. these, indeed, are the true weapons of the church, the weapons employed in{98} the primitive ages, by which it has spread its peaceful banners over the farthest regions of the globe. such were not the means used by the conquerors of america, who, rather adopting the policy of the victorious moslems in their early career, carried with them the sword in one hand and the bible in the other. they imposed obedience in matters of faith, no less than of government, on the vanquished, little heeding whether the conversion were genuine, so that it conformed to the outward observances of the church. yet the seeds thus recklessly scattered must have perished but for the missionaries of their own nation, who, in later times, worked over the same ground, living among the indians as brethren, and, by long and patient culture, enabling the germs of truth to take root and fructify in their hearts.

the spanish commander remained in the city four or five days, to recruit his fatigued and famished forces; and the modern indians still point out, or did, at the close of the last century, a venerable cypress, under the branches of which was tied the horse of the conquistador,—the conqueror, as cortés was styled, par excellence.[93] their route now opened on a broad and verdant valley, watered by a noble stream,—a circumstance of not too frequent occurrence on the parched table-land of new spain. the soil was well protected by woods,—a thing still rarer at the present{99} day; since the invaders, soon after the conquest, swept away the magnificent growth of timber, rivalling that of our southern and western states in variety and beauty, which covered the plateau under the aztecs.[94]{*}

{*} [the amount of timber in mexico at the time of the conquest has been greatly overestimated. humboldt complains of the spaniards for cutting down trees. yet bernal diaz says (cap. ccix.): “y han plantado sus tierras y heredades de todos los árboles y frutas que hemos traido de espa?a, y venden el fruto que procede dello: y han puesto tantos árboles, que porque los duraznos no son buenos para la salud y los platanales les hacen mucha sombra, han cortado y cortan muchos, y lo ponen de membrilleros y manzanas, y perales, que los tienen en mas estima.”—m.]

all along the river, on both sides of it, an unbroken line of indian dwellings, “so near as almost to touch one another,” extended for three or four leagues; arguing a population much denser than at present.[95] on a rough and rising ground stood a town that might contain five or six thousand inhabitants, commanded by a fortress, which, with its walls and trenches, seemed to the spaniards quite “on a level with similar works in eu{100}rope.” here the troops again halted, and met with friendly treatment.[96]

cortés now determined his future line of march. at the last place he had been counselled by the natives to take the route of the ancient city of cholula, the inhabitants of which, subjects of montezuma, were a mild race, devoted to mechanical and other peaceful arts, and would be likely to entertain him kindly. their cempoallan allies, however, advised the spaniards not to trust the cholulans, “a false and perfidious people,” but to take the road to tlascala, that valiant little republic which had so long maintained its independence against the arms of mexico. the people were frank as they were fearless, and fair in their dealings. they had always been on terms of amity with the totonacs, which afforded a strong guarantee for their amicable disposition on the present occasion.

the arguments of his indian allies prevailed with the spanish commander, who resolved to propitiate the good will of the tlascalans by an embassy. he selected four of the principal cempoallans for this, and sent by them a martial gift,—a cap of crimson cloth, together with a sword and a cross-bow, weapons which, it was observed, excited general admiration among the natives. he added a letter, in which he asked permission to pass{101} through their country. he expressed his admiration of the valor of the tlascalans, and of their long resistance to the aztecs, whose proud empire he designed to humble.[97] it was not to be expected that this epistle, indited in good castilian, would be very intelligible to the tlascalans. but cortés communicated its import to the ambassadors. its mysterious characters might impress the natives with an idea of superior intelligence, and the letter serve instead of those hieroglyphical missives which formed the usual credentials of an indian ambassador.[98]

the spaniards remained three days in this hospitable place, after the departure of the envoys, when they resumed their progress. although in a friendly country, they marched always as if in a land of enemies, the horse and light troops in the van, with the heavy-armed and baggage in the rear, all in battle-array. they were never without their armor, waking or sleeping, lying down with their weapons by their sides. this unintermitting and restless vigilance was, perhaps, more oppressive to the spirits than even bodily fatigue. but they were confident in their superiority in a fair field, and felt that the most serious danger they had to fear from indian warfare was surprise. “we are few against many, brave companions,” cortés would say to them; “be prepared, then, not as if{102} you were going to battle, but as if actually in the midst of it!”[99]

the road taken by the spaniards was the same which at present leads to tlascala; not that, however, usually followed in passing from vera cruz to the capital, which makes a circuit considerably to the south, towards puebla, in the neighborhood of the ancient cholula. they more than once forded the stream that rolls through this beautiful plain, lingering several days on the way, in hopes of receiving an answer from the indian republic. the unexpected delay of the messengers could not be explained, and occasioned some uneasiness.

as they advanced into a country of rougher and bolder features, their progress was suddenly arrested by a remarkable fortification. it was a stone wall nine feet in height, and twenty in thickness, with a parapet, a foot and a half broad, raised on the summit for the protection of those who defended it. it had only one opening, in the centre, made by two semicircular lines of wall overlapping each other for the space of forty paces, and affording a passage-way between, ten paces wide, so contrived, therefore, as to be perfectly commanded by the inner wall. this fortification, which extended more than two leagues, rested at either end on the bold natural buttresses formed by the sierra. the work was built of immense blocks of stones nicely laid together without{103} cement;[100] and the remains still existing, among which are rocks of the whole breadth of the rampart, fully attest its solidity and size.[101]

this singular structure marked the limits of tlascala, and was intended, as the natives told the spaniards, as a barrier against the mexican invasions. the army paused, filled with amazement at the contemplation of this cyclopean monument, which naturally suggested reflections on the strength and resources of the people who had raised it. it caused them, too, some painful solicitude as to the probable result of their mission to tlascala, and their own consequent reception there. but they were too sanguine to allow such uncomfortable surmises long to dwell in their minds. cortés put himself at the head of his cavalry, and, calling out, “forward, soldiers, the holy cross is our banner, and under that we shall conquer,” led his little army through the undefended passage, and in a few moments they trod the soil of the free republic of tlascala.