cortés descends from the table-land—negotiates with narvaez—prepares to assault him—quarters of narvaez—attack by night—narvaez defeated

1520

traversing the southern causeway, by which they had entered the capital, the little party were soon on their march across the beautiful valley. they climbed the mountain screen which nature had so ineffectually drawn around it, passed between the huge volcanoes that, like faithless watch-dogs on their posts, have long since been buried in slumber, threaded the intricate defiles where they had before experienced such bleak and tempestuous weather, and, emerging on the other side, descended the western slope which opens on the wide expanse of the fruitful plateau of cholula.

they heeded little of what they saw on their rapid march, nor whether it was cold or hot. the anxiety of their minds made them indifferent to outward annoyances; and they had fortunately none to encounter from the natives, for the name of spaniard was in itself a charm,—a better guard than helm or buckler to the bearer.{49}

in cholula, cortés had the inexpressible satisfaction of meeting velasquez de leon, with the hundred and fifty soldiers intrusted to his command for the formation of a colony. that faithful officer had been some time at cholula, waiting for the general’s approach. had he failed, the enterprise of cortés must have failed also.[55] the idea of resistance, with his own handful of followers, would have been chimerical. as it was, his little band was now trebled, and acquired a confidence in proportion.

cordially embracing their companions in arms, now knit together more closely than ever by the sense of a great and common danger, the combined troops traversed with quick steps the streets of the sacred city, where many a dark pile of ruins told of their disastrous visit on the preceding autumn. they kept the high-road to tlascala, and, at not many leagues’ distance from that capital, fell in with father olmedo and his companions on their return from the camp of narvaez, to which, it will be remembered, they had been sent as envoys. the ecclesiastic bore a letter from that commander, in which he summoned cortés and his followers to submit to his authority as captain-general of the country, menacing them with condign punishment in case of refusal or delay. olmedo gave many curious particulars of the state of the enemy’s camp. narvaez he described as{50} puffed up by authority, and negligent of precautions against a foe whom he held in contempt. he was surrounded by a number of pompous, conceited officers, who ministered to his vanity, and whose braggart tones the good father, who had an eye for the ridiculous, imitated, to the no small diversion of cortés and the soldiers. many of the troops, he said, showed no great partiality for their commander, and were strongly disinclined to a rupture with their countrymen; a state of feeling much promoted by the accounts they had received of cortés, by his own arguments and promises, and by the liberal distribution of the gold with which he had been provided. in addition to these matters, cortés gathered much important intelligence respecting the position of the enemy’s force and his general plan of operations.

at tlascala the spaniards were received with a frank and friendly hospitality.{*} it is not said whether any of the tlascalan allies had accompanied them from mexico. if they did, they went no farther than their native city. cortés requested a reinforcement of six hundred fresh troops to attend him on his present expedition. it was readily granted; but, before the army had proceeded many miles on its route, the indian auxiliaries fell off, one after another, and returned to their city. they had no personal feeling of animosity to gratify in the present instance, as in a war against mex{51}ico. it may be, too, that, although intrepid in a contest with the bravest of the indian races, they had had too fatal experience of the prowess of the white men to care to measure swords with them again. at any rate, they deserted in such numbers that cortés dismissed the remainder at once, saying, good-humoredly, “he had rather part with them then than in the hour of trial.”

{*} [most of the accounts state that cortés did not himself visit tlascala, but hastened to the coast by a more southerly route. he sent one of his officers to that city to ask for several thousand warriors. bernal diaz, hist. verd. 91, says, “embio cortés a tlascala a rogar ... quatro mil hombres.”—m.]

the troops soon entered on that wild district in the neighborhood of perote, strewed with the wreck of volcanic matter, which forms so singular a contrast to the general character of beauty with which the scenery is stamped. it was not long before their eyes were gladdened by the approach of sandoval and about sixty soldiers from the garrison of vera cruz, including several deserters from the enemy. it was a most important reinforcement, not more on account of the numbers of the men than of the character of the commander, in every respect one of the ablest captains in the service. he had been compelled to fetch a circuit in order to avoid falling in with the enemy, and had forced his way through thick forests and wild mountain-passes, till he had fortunately, without accident, reached the appointed place of rendezvous and stationed himself once more under the banner of his chieftain.[56]

at the same place, also, cortés was met by tobillos, a spaniard whom he had sent to procure the lances from chinantla. they were perfectly well{52} made, after the pattern which had been given,—double-headed spears, tipped with copper, and of great length. tobillos drilled the men in the exercise of this weapon, the formidable uses of which, especially against horse, had been fully demonstrated, towards the close of the last century, by the swiss battalions, in their encounters with the burgundian chivalry, the best in europe.[57]

cortés now took a review of his army,—if so paltry a force may be called an army,—and found their numbers were two hundred and sixty-six, only five of whom were mounted. a few muskets and cross-bows were sprinkled among them. in defensive armor they were sadly deficient. they were for the most part cased in the quilted doublet of the country, thickly stuffed with cotton, the escaupil, recommended by its superior lightness, but which, though competent to turn the arrow of the indian, was ineffectual against a musket-ball. most of this cotton mail was exceedingly out of repair, giving evidence, in its unsightly gaps, of much rude service and hard blows. few, in this emergency, but would have given almost any price—the best of the gold chains which they wore in tawdry display over their poor habiliments—for a steel morion or cuirass, to take the place of their own hacked and battered armor.[58]{53}

under this coarse covering, however, they bore hearts stout and courageous as ever beat in human bosoms. for they were the heroes, still invincible, of many a hard-fought field, where the odds had been incalculably against them. they had large experience of the country and of the natives, and knew well the character of their own commander, under whose eye they had been trained till every movement was in obedience to him. the whole body seemed to constitute but a single individual, in respect of unity of design and of action. thus its real effective force was incredibly augmented; and, what was no less important, the humblest soldier felt it to be so.

the troops now resumed their march across the table-land, until, reaching the eastern slope, their labors were lightened, as they descended towards the broad plains of the tierra caliente, spread out like a boundless ocean of verdure below them. at some fifteen leagues’ distance from cempoalla, where narvaez, as has been noticed, had established his quarters, they were met by another embassy from that commander. it consisted of the priest, guevara, andres de duero, and two or three others. duero, the fast friend of cortés, had been the person most instrumental, originally, in obtaining him his commission from velasquez. they now greeted each other with a warm embrace, and it was not till after much preliminary conversation on private matters that the secretary disclosed the object of his visit.{54}

he bore a letter from narvaez, couched in terms somewhat different from the preceding. that officer required, indeed, the acknowledgment of his paramount authority in the land, but offered his vessels to transport all, who desired it, from the country, together with their treasures and effects, without molestation or inquiry. the more liberal tenor of these terms was, doubtless, to be ascribed to the influence of duero. the secretary strongly urged cortés to comply with them, as the most favorable that could be obtained, and as the only alternative affording him a chance of safety in his desperate condition. “for, however valiant your men may be, how can they expect,” he asked, “to face a force so much superior in numbers and equipment as that of their antagonist?” but cortés had set his fortunes on the cast, and he was not the man to shrink from it. “if narvaez bears a royal commission,” he returned, “i will readily submit to him. but he has produced none. he is a deputy of my rival, velasquez. for myself, i am a servant of the king; i have conquered the country for him; and for him i and my brave followers will defend it, be assured, to the last drop of our blood. if we fall, it will be glory enough to have perished in the discharge of our duty.”[59]{55}

his friend might have been somewhat puzzled to comprehend how the authority of cortés rested on a different ground from that of narvaez; and if they both held of the same superior, the governor of cuba, why that dignitary should not be empowered to supersede his own officer, in case of dissatisfaction, and appoint a substitute.[60] but cortés here reaped the full benefit of that legal fiction, if it may be so termed, by which his commission, resigned to the self-constituted municipality of vera cruz, was again derived through that body from the crown. the device, indeed, was too palpable to impose on any but those who chose to be blinded. most of the army were of this number. to them it seemed to give additional confidence, in the same manner as a strip of painted canvas, when substituted, as it has sometimes been, for a real parapet of stone, has been found not merely to impose on the enemy, but to give a sort of artificial courage to the defenders concealed behind it.[61]{56}

duero had arranged with his friend in cuba, when he took command of the expedition, that he himself was to have a liberal share of the profits. it is said that cortés confirmed this arrangement at the present juncture, and made it clearly for the other’s interest that he should prevail in the struggle with narvaez. this was an important point, considering the position of the secretary.[62] from this authentic source the general derived much information respecting the designs of narvaez, which had escaped the knowledge of olmedo. on the departure of the envoys, cortés intrusted them with a letter for his rival, a counterpart of that which he had received from him. this show of negotiation intimated a desire on his part to postpone, if not avoid, hostilities, which might the better put narvaez off his guard. in the letter he summoned that commander and his followers to present themselves before him without delay, and to acknowledge his authority as the representative of his sovereign. he should otherwise be compelled to proceed against them as rebels to the crown![63] with this missive, the vaunting tone of which was intended quite as much for his own troops as the enemy, cortés dismissed the envoys.{57} they returned to disseminate among their comrades their admiration of the general, and of his unbounded liberality, of which he took care they should experience full measure, and they dilated on the riches of his adherents, who, over their wretched attire, displayed, with ostentatious profusion, jewels, ornaments of gold, collars, and massive chains winding several times round their necks and bodies, the rich spoil of the treasury of montezuma.

the army now took its way across the level plains of the tierra caliente, on which nature has exhausted all the wonders of creation; it was covered more thickly then than at the present day with noble forests, where the towering cottonwood-tree, the growth of ages, stood side by side with the light bamboo or banana, the product of a season, each in its way attesting the marvellous fecundity of the soil, while innumerable creeping flowers, muffling up the giant branches of the trees, waved in bright festoons above their heads, loading the air with odors. but the senses of the spaniards were not open to the delicious influences of nature. their minds were occupied by one idea.

coming upon an open reach of meadow, of some extent, they were at length stopped by a river, or rather stream, called rio de canoas, “the river of canoes,” of no great volume ordinarily, but swollen at this time by excessive rains. it had rained hard that day, although at intervals the sun had broken forth with intolerable fervor, affording a good specimen of those alternations of heat and moisture which give such activity to vegeta{58}tion in the tropics, where the process of forcing seems to be always going on.

the river was about a league distant from the camp of narvaez. before seeking out a practical ford by which to cross it, cortés allowed his men to recruit their exhausted strength by stretching themselves on the ground. the shades of evening had gathered round; and the rising moon, wading through dark masses of cloud, shone with a doubtful and interrupted light. it was evident that the storm had not yet spent its fury.[64] cortés did not regret this. he had made up his mind to an assault that very night, and in the darkness and uproar of the tempest his movements would be most effectually concealed.

before disclosing his design, he addressed his men in one of those stirring, soldierly harangues to which he had recourse in emergencies of great moment, as if to sound the depths of their hearts, and, where any faltered, to reanimate them with his own heroic spirit. he briefly recapitulated the great events of the campaign, the dangers they had surmounted, the victories they had achieved over the most appalling odds, the glorious spoil they had won. but of this they were now to be defrauded; not by men holding a legal warrant from the crown, but by adventurers, with no better title than that of superior force. they had established a claim on the gratitude of their country and their sovereign. this claim was now to be{59} dishonored, their very services were converted into crimes, and their names branded with infamy as those of traitors. but the time had at last come for vengeance. god would not desert the soldier of the cross. those whom he had carried victorious through greater dangers would not be left to fail now. and, if they should fail, better to die like brave men on the field of battle, than, with fame and fortune cast away, to perish ignominiously like slaves on the gibbet. this last point he urged home upon his hearers; well knowing there was not one among them so dull as not to be touched by it.

they responded with hearty acclamations, and velasquez de leon, and de lugo, in the name of the rest, assured their commander, if they failed, it should be his fault, not theirs. they would follow wherever he led. the general was fully satisfied with the temper of his soldiers, as he felt that his difficulty lay not in awakening their enthusiasm, but in giving it a right direction. one thing is remarkable. he made no allusion to the defection which he knew existed in the enemy’s camp. he would have his soldiers, in this last pinch, rely on nothing but themselves.

he announced his purpose to attack the enemy that very night, when he should be buried in slumber, and the friendly darkness might throw a veil over their own movements and conceal the poverty of their numbers. to this the troops, jaded though they were by incessant marching, and half famished, joyfully assented. in their situation, suspense was the worst of evils. he next dis{60}tributed the commands among his captains. to gonzalo de sandoval he assigned the important office of taking narvaez. he was commanded, as alguacil mayor, to seize the person of that officer as a rebel to his sovereign, and, if he made resistance, to kill him on the spot.[65] he was provided with sixty picked men to aid him in this difficult task, supported by several of the ablest captains, among whom were two of the alvarados, de avila, and ordaz. the largest division of the force was placed under cristóval de olid, or, according to some authorities, of pizarro, one of that family so renowned in the subsequent conquest of peru. he was to get possession of the artillery, and to cover the assault of sandoval by keeping those of the enemy at bay who would interfere with it. cortés reserved only a body of twenty men for himself, to act on any point that occasion might require. the watch-word was espíritu santo, it being the evening of whitsunday. having made these arrangements, he prepared to cross the river.[66]

during the interval thus occupied by cortés, narvaez had remained at cempoalla, passing his days in idle and frivolous amusement. from this{61} he was at length roused, after the return of duero, by the remonstrances of the old cacique of the city. “why are you so heedless?” exclaimed the latter; “do you think malinche is so? depend on it, he knows your situation exactly, and, when you least dream of it, he will be upon you.”[67]

alarmed at these suggestions and those of his friends, narvaez at length put himself at the head of his troops, and, on the very day on which cortés arrived at the river of canoes, sallied out to meet him. but, when he had reached this barrier, narvaez saw no sign of an enemy. the rain, which fell in torrents, soon drenched the soldiers to the skin. made somewhat effeminate by their long and luxurious residence at cempoalla, they murmured at their uncomfortable situation. “of what use was it to remain there fighting with the elements? there was no sign of an enemy, and little reason to apprehend his approach in such tempestuous weather. it would be wiser to return to cempoalla, and in the morning they should be all fresh for action, should cortés make his appearance.”

narvaez took counsel of these advisers, or rather of his own inclinations. before retracing his steps, he provided against surprise by stationing a couple of sentinels at no great distance from the river, to give notice of the approach of cortés. he also detached a body of forty horse in another direction, by which he thought it not improbable the{62} enemy might advance on cempoalla. having taken these precautions, he fell back again before night on his own quarters.

he there occupied the principal teocalli. it consisted of a stone building on the usual pyramidal basis; and the ascent was by a flight of steep steps on one of the faces of the pyramid. in the edifice or sanctuary above he stationed himself with a strong party of arquebusiers and crossbowmen. two other teocallis in the same area were garrisoned by large detachments of infantry. his artillery, consisting of seventeen or eighteen small guns, he posted in the area below, and protected it by the remainder of his cavalry. when he had thus distributed his forces, he returned to his own quarters, and soon after to repose, with as much indifference as if his rival had been on the other side of the atlantic, instead of a neighboring stream.

that stream was now converted by the deluge of waters into a furious torrent. it was with difficulty that a practicable ford could be found. the slippery stones, rolling beneath the feet, gave way at every step. the difficulty of the passage was much increased by the darkness and driving tempest. still, with their long pikes, the spaniards contrived to make good their footing,—at least, all but two, who were swept down by the fury of the current. when they had reached the opposite side, they had new impediments to encounter, in traversing a road, never good, now made doubly difficult by the deep mire, and the tangled brushwood with which it was overrun.{63}

here they met with a cross, which had been raised by them on their former march into the interior. they hailed it as a good omen; and cortés, kneeling before the blessed sign, confessed his sins, and declared his great object to be the triumph of the holy catholic faith. the army followed his example, and, having made a general confession, received absolution from father olmedo, who invoked the blessing of heaven on the warriors who had consecrated their swords to the glory of the cross. then rising up and embracing one another, as companions in the good cause, they found themselves wonderfully invigorated and refreshed. the incident is curious, and well illustrates the character of the time,—in which war, religion, and rapine were so intimately blended together. adjoining the road was a little coppice; and cortés, and the few who had horses, dismounting, fastened the animals to the trees, where they might find some shelter from the storm. they deposited there, too, their baggage, and such superfluous articles as would encumber their movements. the general then gave them a few last words of advice. “everything,” said he, “depends on obedience. let no man, from desire of distinguishing himself, break his ranks. on silence, despatch, and, above all, obedience to your officers, the success of our enterprise depends.”

silently and stealthily they held on their way, without beat of drum or sound of trumpet, when they suddenly came on the two sentinels who had been stationed by narvaez to give notice of their approach. this had been so noiseless that the ve{64}dettes were both of them surprised on their post, and one only, with difficulty, effected his escape. the other was brought before cortés. every effort was made to draw from him some account of the present position of narvaez. but the man remained obstinately silent; and, though threatened with the gibbet, and having a noose actually drawn round his neck, his spartan heroism was not to be vanquished. fortunately, no change had taken place in the arrangements of narvaez since the intelligence previously derived from duero.

the other sentinel, who had escaped, carried the news of the enemy’s approach to the camp. but his report was not credited by the lazy soldiers whose slumbers he had disturbed. “he had been deceived by his fears,” they said, “and mistaken the noise of the storm and the waving of the bushes for the enemy. cortés and his men were far enough on the other side of the river, which they would be slow to cross in such a night.” narvaez himself shared in the same blind infatuation, and the discredited sentinel slunk abashed to his own quarters, vainly menacing them with the consequences of their incredulity.[68]

cortés, not doubting that the sentinel’s report must alarm the enemy’s camp, quickened his pace. as he drew near, he discerned a light in one of the lofty towers of the city. “it is the quarters of narvaez,” he exclaimed to sandoval, “and that light must be your beacon.” on entering the{65} suburbs, the spaniards were surprised to find no one stirring, and no symptom of alarm. not a sound was to be heard, except the measured tread of their own footsteps, half drowned in the howling of the tempest. still they could not move so stealthily as altogether to elude notice, as they defiled through the streets of this populous city. the tidings were quickly conveyed to the enemy’s quarters, where in an instant all was bustle and confusion. the trumpets sounded to arms. the dragoons sprang to their steeds, the artillery-men to their guns. narvaez hastily buckled on his armor, called his men around him, and summoned those in the neighboring teocallis to join him in the area. he gave his orders with coolness; for, however wanting in prudence, he was not deficient in presence of mind, or courage.

all this was the work of a few minutes. but in those minutes the spaniards had reached the avenue leading to the camp. cortés ordered his men to keep close to the walls of the buildings, that the cannon-shot might pass between the two files.[69] no sooner had they presented themselves before the enclosure, than the artillery of narvaez opened a general fire. fortunately, the pieces were pointed so high that most of the balls passed over their heads, and three men only were struck down. they did not give the enemy time to reload. cortés shouting the watch-word of the night, “es{66}píritu santo! espíritu santo! upon them!” in a moment olid and his division rushed on the artillery-men, whom they pierced or knocked down with their pikes, and got possession of their guns. another division engaged the cavalry, and made a diversion in favor of sandoval, who with his gallant little band sprang up the great stairway of the temple. they were received with a shower of missiles,—arrows and musket-balls, which, in the hurried aim, and the darkness of the night, did little mischief. the next minute the assailants were on the platform, engaged hand to hand with their foes. narvaez fought bravely in the midst, encouraging his followers. his standard-bearer fell by his side, run through the body. he himself received several wounds; for his short sword was no match for the long pikes of the assailants. at length he received a blow from a spear, which struck out his left eye. “santa maría!” exclaimed the unhappy man, “i am slain!” the cry was instantly taken up by the followers of cortés, who shouted “victory!”

disabled, and half mad with agony from his wound, narvaez was withdrawn by his men into the sanctuary. the assailants endeavored to force an entrance, but it was stoutly defended. at length a soldier, getting possession of a torch or firebrand, flung it on the thatched roof, and in a few moments the combustible materials of which it was composed were in a blaze. those within were driven out by the suffocating heat and smoke. a soldier named farfan grappled with the wounded commander, and easily brought him to the ground;{67} when he was speedily dragged down the steps, and secured with fetters. his followers, seeing the fate of their chief, made no further resistance.[70]

during this time, cortés and the troops of olid had been engaged with the cavalry, and had discomfited them, after some ineffectual attempts on the part of the latter to break through the dense array of pikes, by which several of their number were unhorsed and some of them slain. the general then prepared to assault the other teocallis, first summoning the garrisons to surrender. as they refused, he brought up the heavy guns to bear on them, thus turning the artillery against its own masters. he accompanied this menacing movement with offers of the most liberal import; an amnesty for the past, and a full participation in all the advantages of the conquest. one of the garrisons was under the command of salvatierra, the same officer who talked of cutting off the ears of cortés. from the moment he had learned the fate of his own general, the hero was seized with a violent fit of illness which disabled him from further action. the garrison waited only for one discharge of the ordnance, when they accepted the terms of capitulation. cortés, it is said, received, on this occasion, support from an unexpected auxiliary. the air was filled with the cocuyos,—a species of large beetle which emits an intense phosphoric light from its body, strong enough to enable one to read by it. these wandering fires, seen in the darkness of the night, were converted, by the{68} excited imaginations of the besieged, into an army with matchlocks! such is the report of an eye-witness.[71] but the facility with which the enemy surrendered may quite as probably be referred to the cowardice of the commander, and the disaffection of the soldiers, not unwilling to come under the banners of cortés.

the body of cavalry, posted, it will be remembered, by narvaez on one of the roads to cempoalla, to intercept his rival, having learned what had been passing, were not long in tendering their submission. each of the soldiers in the conquered army was required, in token of his obedience, to deposit his arms in the hands of the alguacils, and to take the oaths to cortés as chief justice and captain-general of the colony.

the number of the slain is variously reported. it seems probable that not more than twelve perished on the side of the vanquished, and of the victors half that number. the small amount may be explained by the short duration of the action, and the random aim of the missiles in the darkness. the number of the wounded was much more considerable.[72]{69}

the field was now completely won. a few brief hours had sufficed to change the condition of cortés from that of a wandering outlaw at the head of a handful of needy adventurers, a rebel with a price upon his head, to that of an independent chief, with a force at his disposal strong enough not only to secure his present conquests, but to open a career for still loftier ambition. while the air rung with the acclamations of the soldiery, the victorious general, assuming a deportment corresponding with his change of fortune, took his seat in a chair of state, and, with a rich, embroidered mantle thrown over his shoulders, received, one by one, the officers and soldiers, as they came to tender their congratulations. the privates were graciously permitted to kiss his hand. the officers he noticed with words of compliment or courtesy; and when duero, bermudez, the treasurer, and some others of the vanquished party, his old friends, presented themselves, he cordially embraced them.[73]

narvaez, salvatierra, and two or three of the other hostile leaders were led before him in chains. it was a moment of deep humiliation for the{70} former commander, in which the anguish of the body, however keen, must have been forgotten in that of the spirit. “you have great reason, se?or cortés,” said the discomfited warrior, “to thank fortune for having given you the day so easily, and put me in your power.” “i have much to be thankful for,” replied the general; “but for my victory over you, i esteem it as one of the least of my achievements since my coming into the country!”[74] he then ordered the wounds of the prisoners to be cared for, and sent them under a strong guard to vera cruz.

notwithstanding the proud humility of his reply, cortés could scarcely have failed to regard his victory over narvaez as one of the most brilliant achievements in his career. with a few scores of followers, badly clothed, worse fed, wasted by forced marches, under every personal disadvantage, deficient in weapons and military stores, he had attacked in their own quarters, routed, and captured the entire force of the enemy, thrice his superior in numbers, well provided with cavalry and artillery, admirably equipped, and complete in all the munitions of war! the amount of troops engaged on either side was, indeed, inconsiderable. but the proportions are not affected by this; and the relative strength of the parties made a result{71} so decisive one of the most remarkable events in the annals of war.

it is true there were some contingencies on which the fortunes of the day depended, that could not be said to be entirely within his control. something was the work of chance. if velasquez de leon, for example, had proved false, the expedition must have failed.[75] if the weather, on the night of the attack, had been fair, the enemy would have had certain notice of his approach, and been prepared for it. but these are the chances that enter more or less into every enterprise. he is the skilful general who knows how to turn them to account; to win the smiles of fortune, and make even the elements fight on his side.

if velasquez de leon was, as it proved, the very officer whom the general should have trusted with the command, it was his sagacity which originally discerned this and selected him for it. it was his address that converted this dangerous foe into a friend, and one so fast that in the hour of need he{72} chose rather to attach himself to his desperate fortunes than to those of the governor of cuba, powerful as the latter was, and his near kinsman. it was the same address which gained cortés such an ascendency over his soldiers and knit them to him so closely that in the darkest moment not a man offered to desert him.[76] if the success of the assault may be ascribed mainly to the dark and stormy weather which covered it, it was owing to him that he was in a condition to avail himself of this. the shortest possible time intervened between the conception of his plan and its execution. in a very few days he descended by extraordinary marches from the capital to the sea-coast. he came like a torrent from the mountains, pouring on the enemy’s camp, and sweeping everything away, before a barrier could be raised to arrest it. this celerity of movement, the result of a clear head and determined will, has entered into the strategy of the greatest captains, and forms a prominent feature in their most brilliant military exploits. it was undoubtedly in the present instance a great cause of success.

but it would be taking a limited view of the subject to consider the battle which decided the fate of narvaez as wholly fought at cempoalla. it was begun in mexico. with that singular power{73} which he exercised over all who came near him, cortés converted the very emissaries of narvaez into his own friends and agents. the reports of guevara and his companions, the intrigues of father olmedo, and the general’s gold, were all busily at work to shake the loyalty of the soldiers, and the battle was half won before a blow had been struck. it was fought quite as much with gold as with steel. cortés understood this so well that he made it his great object to seize the person of narvaez. in such an event, he had full confidence that indifference to their own cause and partiality to himself would speedily bring the rest of the army under his banner. he was not deceived. narvaez said truly enough, therefore, some years after this event, that “he had been beaten by his own troops, not by those of his rival; that his followers had been bribed to betray him.”[77] this affords the only explanation of their brief and ineffectual resistance.