discontent of the troops—insurrection in the capital—return of cortés—general signs of hostility—massacre by alvarado—rising of the aztecs

1520

the tempest, that had raged so wildly during the night, passed away with the morning, which rose bright and unclouded on the field of battle. as the light advanced, it revealed more strikingly the disparity of the two forces so lately opposed to each other. those of narvaez could not conceal their chagrin; and murmurs of displeasure became audible, as they contrasted their own superior numbers and perfect appointments with the way-worn visages and rude attire of their handful of enemies! it was with some satisfaction, therefore, that the general beheld his dusky allies from chinantla, two thousand in number, arrive upon the field. they were a fine, athletic set of men; and, as they advanced in a sort of promiscuous order, so to speak, with their gay banners of feather-work, and their long lances tipped with itztli and copper glistening in the morning sun, they had something of an air of military discipline.{75} they came too late for the action, indeed, but cortés was not sorry to exhibit to his new followers the extent of his resources in the country. as he had now no occasion for his indian allies, after a courteous reception and a liberal recompense he dismissed them to their homes.[78]

he then used his utmost endeavors to allay the discontent of the troops. he addressed them in his most soft and insinuating tones, and was by no means frugal of his promises.[79] he suited the action to the word. there were few of them but had lost their accoutrements or their baggage, or horses taken and appropriated by the victors. this last article was in great request among the latter, and many a soldier, weary with the long marches hitherto made on foot, had provided himself, as he imagined, with a much more comfortable as well as creditable conveyance for the rest of the campaign. the general now commanded everything to be restored.[80] “they were embarked in the same cause,” he said, “and should share with one another equally.” he went still further, and distributed among the soldiers of narvaez a quantity of gold and other precious commodities gathered{76} from the neighboring tribes or found in his rival’s quarters.[81]

these proceedings, however politic in reference to his new followers, gave great disgust to his old. “our commander,” they cried, “has forsaken his friends for his foes. we stood by him in his hour of distress, and are rewarded with blows and wounds, while the spoil goes to our enemies!” the indignant soldiery commissioned the priest olmedo and alonso de avila to lay their complaints before cortés. the ambassadors stated them without reserve, comparing their commander’s conduct to the ungrateful proceeding of alexander, who, when he gained a victory, usually gave away more to his enemies than to the troops who enabled him to beat them. cortés was greatly perplexed. victorious or defeated, his path seemed equally beset with difficulties.

he endeavored to soothe their irritation by pleading the necessity of the case. “our new comrades,” he said, “are formidable from their numbers, so much so that we are even now much more in their power than they are in ours. our only security is to make them not merely confederates, but friends. on any cause of disgust, we shall have the whole battle to fight over again, and, if they are united, under a much greater disadvantage than before. i have considered your interests,” he added, “as much as my own. all that i{77} have is yours. but why should there be any ground for discontent, when the whole country, with its riches, is before us? and our augmented strength must henceforth secure the undisturbed control of it.”

but cortés did not rely wholly on argument for the restoration of tranquillity. he knew this to be incompatible with inaction, and he made arrangements to divide his forces at once and to employ them on distant services. he selected a detachment of two hundred men, under diego de ordaz, whom he ordered to form the settlement before meditated on the coatzacualco. a like number was sent with velasquez de leon, to secure the province of panuco, some three degrees to the north, on the mexican gulf. twenty in each detachment were drafted from his own veterans.

two hundred men he despatched to vera cruz, with orders to have the rigging, iron, and everything portable on board of the fleet of narvaez, brought on shore, and the vessels completely dismantled. he appointed a person named cavallero superintendent of the marine, with instructions that if any ships hereafter should enter the port they should be dismantled in like manner, and their officers imprisoned on shore.[82]{78}

but, while he was thus occupied with new schemes of discovery and conquest, he received such astounding intelligence from mexico as compelled him to concentrate all his faculties and his forces on that one point. the city was in a state of insurrection. no sooner had the struggle with his rival been decided, than cortés despatched a courier with the tidings to the capital. in less than a fortnight the messenger returned with a letter from alvarado, conveying the alarming information that the mexicans were in arms and had vigorously assaulted the spaniards in their own quarters. the enemy, he added, had burned the brigantines, by which cortés had secured the means of retreat in case of the destruction of the bridges. they had attempted to force the defences, and had succeeded in partially undermining them, and they had overwhelmed the garrison with a tempest of missiles, which had killed several and wounded a great number. the letter concluded with beseeching the commander to hasten to the relief of his men, if he would save them or keep his hold on the capital.

these tidings were a heavy blow to the general,—the heavier, it seemed, coming as they did in the hour of triumph, when he had thought to have all his enemies at his feet. there was no room for hesitation. to lose his footing in the capital, the noblest city in the western world, would be to lose the country itself, which looked up to it as its head.[83] he opened the matter fully to his soldiers,{79} calling on all who would save their countrymen to follow him. all declared their readiness to go; showing an alacrity, says diaz, which some would have been slow to manifest had they foreseen the future.

cortés now made preparations for instant departure. he countermanded the orders previously given to velasquez and ordaz, and directed them to join him with their forces at tlascala. he called the troops from vera cruz, leaving only a hundred men in garrison there, under command of one rodrigo rangre; for he could not spare the services of sandoval at this crisis. he left his sick and wounded at cempoalla, under charge of a small detachment, directing that they should follow as soon as they were in marching order. having completed these arrangements, he set out from cempoalla, well supplied with provisions by its hospitable cacique, who attended him some leagues on his way. the totonac chief seems to have had an amiable facility of accommodating himself to the powers that were in the ascendant.

nothing worthy of notice occurred during the first part of the march. the troops everywhere met with a friendly reception from the peasantry, who readily supplied their wants. for some time before reaching tlascala, the route lay through a country thinly settled; and the army experienced considerable suffering from want of food, and still more from that of water. their distress increased to an alarming degree, as, in the hurry of{80} their forced march, they travelled with the meridian sun beating fiercely on their heads. several faltered by the way, and, throwing themselves down by the roadside, seemed incapable of further effort, and almost indifferent to life.

in this extremity, cortés sent forward a small detachment of horse to procure provisions in tlascala, and speedily followed in person. on arriving, he found abundant supplies already prepared by the hospitable natives. they were sent back to the troops; the strugglers were collected one by one; refreshments were administered; and the army, restored in strength and spirits, entered the republican capital.

here they gathered little additional news respecting the events in mexico, which a popular rumor attributed to the secret encouragement and machinations of montezuma. cortés was commodiously lodged in the quarters of maxixca, one of the four chiefs of the republic. they readily furnished him with two thousand troops. there was no want of heartiness, when the war was with their ancient enemy the aztec.[84]

the spanish commander, on reviewing his forces after the junction with his two captains, found that they amounted to about a thousand foot, and one hundred horse, besides the tlascalan levies.[85] in the infantry were nearly a hundred{81} arquebusiers, with as many crossbowmen; and the part of the army brought over by narvaez was admirably equipped. it was inferior, however, to his own veterans in what is better than any outward appointments,—military training, and familiarity with the peculiar service in which they were engaged.

leaving these friendly quarters, the spaniards took a more northerly route, as more direct than that by which they had before penetrated into the valley. it was the road to tezcuco. it still compelled them to climb the same bold range of the cordilleras, which attains its greatest elevation in the two mighty volcans at whose base they had before travelled. the sides of the sierra were clothed with dark forests of pine, cypress, and cedar,[86] through which glimpses now and then opened into fathomless dells and valleys, whose depths, far down in the sultry climate of the tropics, were lost in a glowing wilderness of vegetation. from the crest of the mountain range the eye travelled over the broad expanse of country, which they had lately crossed, far away to the green plains of cholula. towards the west they looked{82} down on the mexican valley, from a point of view wholly different from that which they had before occupied, but still offering the same beautiful spectacle, with its lakes trembling in the light, its gay cities and villas floating on their bosom, its burnished teocallis touched with fire, its cultivated slopes and dark hills of porphyry stretching away in dim perspective to the verge of the horizon. at their feet lay the city of tezcuco, which, modestly retiring behind her deep groves of cypress, formed a contrast to her more ambitious rival on the other side of the lake, who seemed to glory in the unveiled splendors of her charms, as mistress of the valley.

as they descended into the populous plains, their reception by the natives was very different from that which they had experienced on the preceding visit. there were no groups of curious peasantry to be seen gazing at them as they passed, and offering their simple hospitality. the supplies they asked were not refused, but granted with an ungracious air, that showed the blessing of the giver did not accompany them. this air of reserve became still more marked as the army entered the suburbs of the ancient capital of the acolhuans. no one came forth to greet them, and the population seemed to have dwindled away,—so many of them were withdrawn to the neighboring scene of hostilities at mexico.[87] their cold recep{83}tion was a sensible mortification to the veterans of cortés, who, judging from the past, had boasted to their new comrades of the sensation their presence would excite among the natives. the cacique of the place, who, as it may be remembered, had been created through the influence of cortés, was himself absent. the general drew an ill omen from all these circumstances, which even raised an uncomfortable apprehension in his mind respecting the fate of the garrison in mexico.[88]

but his doubts were soon dispelled by the arrival of a messenger in a canoe from that city, whence he had escaped through the remissness of the enemy, or, perhaps, with their connivance. he brought despatches from alvarado, informing his commander that the mexicans had for the last fortnight desisted from active hostilities and converted their operations into a blockade. the garrison had suffered greatly, but alvarado expressed his conviction that the siege would be raised, and tranquillity restored, on the approach of his countrymen. montezuma sent a messenger, also, to the same effect. at the same time, he exculpated himself from any part in the late hostilities, which he said had been conducted not only without his privity, but contrary to his inclination and efforts.

the spanish general, having halted long enough to refresh his wearied troops, took up his{84} march along the southern margin of the lake, which led him over the same causeway by which he had before entered the capital. it was the day consecrated to st. john the baptist, the 24th of june, 1520. but how different was the scene from that presented on his former entrance![89] no crowds now lined the roads, no boats swarmed on the lake, filled with admiring spectators. a single pirogue might now and then be seen in the distance, like a spy stealthily watching their movements, and darting away the moment it had attracted notice. a deathlike stillness brooded over the scene,—a stillness that spoke louder to the heart than the acclamations of multitudes.

cortés rode on moodily at the head of his battalions, finding abundant food for meditation, doubtless, in this change of circumstances. as if to dispel these gloomy reflections, he ordered his trumpets to sound, and their clear, shrill notes, borne across the waters, told the inhabitants of the beleaguered fortress that their friends were at hand. they were answered by a joyous peal of artillery, which seemed to give a momentary exhilaration to the troops, as they quickened their pace, traversed the great drawbridges, and once more found themselves within the walls of the imperial city.

the appearance of things here was not such as to allay their apprehensions. in some places they{85} beheld the smaller bridges removed, intimating too plainly, now that their brigantines were destroyed, how easy it would be to cut off their retreat.[90] the town seemed even more deserted than tezcuco. its once busy and crowded population had mysteriously vanished. and, as the spaniards defiled through the empty streets, the tramp of their horses’ feet upon the pavement was answered by dull and melancholy echoes that fell heavily on their hearts. with saddened feelings they reached the great gates of the palace of axayacatl. the gates were thrown open, and cortés and his veterans, rushing in, were cordially embraced by their companions in arms, while both parties soon forgot the present in the interesting recapitulation of the past.[91]

the first inquiries of the general were respecting the origin of the tumult. the accounts were various. some imputed it to the desire of the mexicans to release their sovereign from confinement; others to the design of cutting off the garrison while crippled by the absence of cortés and their countrymen. all agreed, however, in tracing the immediate cause to the violence of alvarado. it was common for the aztecs to celebrate{86} an annual festival in may, in honor of their patron war-god. it was called the “incensing of huitzilopochtli,” and was commemorated by sacrifice, religious songs, and dances, in which most of the nobles engaged, for it was one of the great festivals which displayed the pomp of the aztec ritual. as it was held in the court of the teocalli, in the immediate neighborhood of the spanish quarters, and as a part of the temple itself was reserved for a christian chapel, the caciques asked permission of alvarado to perform their rites there. they requested also, it is said, to be allowed the presence of montezuma. this latter petition alvarado declined, in obedience to the injunctions of cortés; but acquiesced in the former, on condition that the aztecs should celebrate no human sacrifices and should come without weapons.

they assembled accordingly on the day appointed, to the number of six hundred, at the smallest computation.[92] they were dressed in their most magnificent gala costumes, with their graceful mantles of feather-work sprinkled with precious stones, and their necks, arms, and legs ornamented with collars and bracelets of gold. they had that love of gaudy splendor which belongs to semi-civilized nations, and on these occa{87}sions displayed all the pomp and profusion of their barbaric wardrobes.

alvarado and his soldiers attended as spectators, some of them taking their station at the gates as if by chance, and others mingling in the crowd. they were all armed,—a circumstance which, as it was usual, excited no attention. the aztecs were soon engrossed by the exciting movement of the dance, accompanied by their religious chant and wild, discordant minstrelsy. while thus occupied, alvarado and his men, at a concerted signal, rushed with drawn swords on their victims. unprotected by armor or weapons of any kind, they were hewn down without resistance by their assailants, who in their bloody work, says a contemporary, showed no touch of pity or compunction.[93] some fled to the gates, but were caught on the long pikes of the soldiers. others, who attempted to scale the coatepantli, or wall of serpents, as it was called, which surrounded the area, shared the like fate, or were cut to pieces, or shot by the ruthless soldiery. the pavement, says a writer of the age, ran with streams of blood, like water in a heavy shower.[94] not an aztec, of all that gay company, was left alive! it was repeating the dreadful scene of cholula, with the disgraceful addition that the spaniards, not content with slaughtering their victims, rifled them of the precious ornaments on their persons! on this sad{88} day fell the flower of the aztec nobility. not a family of note but had mourning and desolation brought within its walls.[95] and many a doleful ballad, rehearsing the tragic incidents of the story, and adapted to the plaintive national airs, continued to be chanted by the natives long after the subjugation of the country.[96]

various explanations have been given of this atrocious deed. but few historians have been content to admit that of alvarado himself. according to this, intelligence had been obtained through{89} his spies—some of them mexicans—of an intended rising of the indians. the celebration of this festival was fixed on as the period for its execution, when the caciques would be met together and would easily rouse the people to support them. alvarado, advised of all this, had forbidden them to wear arms at their meeting. while affecting to comply, they had secreted their weapons in the neighboring arsenals, whence they could readily withdraw them. but his own blow, by anticipating theirs, defeated the design, and, as he confidently hoped, would deter the aztecs from a similar attempt in future.[97]

such is the account of the matter given by alvarado. but, if true, why did he not verify his assertion by exposing the arms thus secreted? why did he not vindicate his conduct in the eyes of the mexicans generally, by publicly avowing the treason of the nobles, as was done by cortés at cholula? the whole looks much like an apology devised after the commission of the deed, to cover up its atrocity.

some contemporaries assign a very different motive for the massacre, which, according to them, originated in the cupidity of the conquerors, as shown by their plundering the bodies of their victims.[98] bernal diaz, who, though not present, had{90} conversed familiarly with those who were, vindicates them from the charge of this unworthy motive. according to him, alvarado struck the blow in order to intimidate the aztecs from any insurrectionary movement.[99] but whether he had reason to apprehend such, or even affected to do so before the massacre, the old chronicler does not inform us.

on reflection, it seems scarcely possible that so foul a deed, and one involving so much hazard to the spaniards themselves, should have been perpetrated from the mere desire of getting possession of the baubles worn on the persons of the natives. it is more likely this was an after-thought, suggested to the rapacious soldiery by the display of the spoil before them. it is not improbable that alvarado may have gathered rumors of a conspiracy among the nobles,—rumors, perhaps, derived through the tlascalans, their inveterate foes, and for that reason very little deserving of credit.[100] he proposed to defeat it by{91} imitating the example of his commander at cholula. but he omitted to imitate his leader in taking precautions against the subsequent rising of the populace. and he grievously miscalculated when he confounded the bold and warlike aztec with the effeminate cholulan.[101]

no sooner was the butchery accomplished, than the tidings spread like wildfire through the capital.{92} men could scarcely credit their senses. all they had hitherto suffered, the desecration of their temples, the imprisonment of their sovereign, the insults heaped on his person, all were forgotten in this one act.[102] every feeling of long-smothered hostility and rancor now burst forth in the cry for vengeance. every former sentiment of superstitious dread was merged in that of inextinguishable hatred. it required no effort of the priests—though this was not wanting—to fan these passions into a blaze. the city rose in arms to a man; and on the following dawn, almost before the spaniards could secure themselves in their defences, they were assaulted with desperate fury. some of the assailants attempted to scale the walls; others succeeded in partially undermining and setting fire to the works. whether they would have succeeded in carrying the place by storm is doubtful. but, at the prayers of the garrison, montezuma himself interfered, and, mounting the battlements, addressed the populace, whose fury he endeavored to mitigate by urging considerations for his own safety. they respected their monarch{93} so far as to desist from further attempts to storm the fortress, but changed their operations into a regular blockade. they threw up works around the palace to prevent the egress of the spaniards. they suspended the tianguez, or market, to preclude the possibility of their enemy’s obtaining supplies; and they then quietly sat down, with feelings of sullen desperation, waiting for the hour when famine should throw their victims into their hands.

the condition of the besieged, meanwhile, was sufficiently distressing. their magazines of provisions, it is true, were not exhausted; but they suffered greatly from want of water, which, within the enclosure, was exceedingly brackish, for the soil was saturated with the salt of the surrounding element. in this extremity, they discovered, it is said, a spring of fresh water in the area. such springs were known in some other parts of the city; but, discovered first under these circumstances, it was accounted as nothing less than a miracle. still they suffered much from their past encounters. seven spaniards, and many tlascalans, had fallen, and there was scarcely one of either nation who had not received several wounds. in this situation, far from their own countrymen, without expectation of succor from abroad, they seemed to have no alternative before them but a lingering death by famine, or one more dreadful on the altar of sacrifice. from this gloomy state they were relieved by the coming of their comrades.[103]{94}

cortés calmly listened to the explanation made by alvarado. but, before it was ended, the conviction must have forced itself on his mind that he had made a wrong selection for this important post. yet the mistake was natural. alvarado was a cavalier of high family, gallant and chivalrous, and his warm personal friend. he had talents for action, was possessed of firmness and intrepidity, while his frank and dazzling manners made the tonatiuh an especial favorite with the mexicans. but underneath this showy exterior the future conqueror of guatemala concealed a heart rash, rapacious, and cruel. he was altogether destitute of that moderation which, in the delicate position he occupied, was a quality of more worth than all the rest.

when alvarado had concluded his answers to the several interrogatories of cortés, the brow of the latter darkened, as he said to his lieutenant, “you have done badly. you have been false to your trust. your conduct has been that of a madman!” and, turning abruptly on his heel, he left him in undisguised displeasure.

yet this was not a time to break with one so popular, and, in many respects, so important to him, as this captain, much less to inflict on him the punishment he merited. the spaniards were like mariners laboring in a heavy tempest, whose bark nothing but the dexterity of the pilot and the hearty co-operation of the crew can save from foundering. dissensions at such a moment must be fatal. cortés, it is true, felt strong in his present resources. he now found himself at the head{95} of a force which could scarcely amount to less than twelve hundred and fifty spaniards, and eight thousand native warriors, principally tlascalans.[104] but, though relying on this to overawe resistance, the very augmentation of numbers increased the difficulty of subsistence. discontented with himself, disgusted with his officer, and embarrassed by the disastrous consequences in which alvarado’s intemperance had involved him, he became irritable, and indulged in a petulance by no means common; for, though a man of lively passions by nature, he held them habitually under control.[105]

on the day that cortés arrived, montezuma had left his own quarters to welcome him. but the spanish commander, distrusting, as it would seem, however unreasonably, his good faith, received him so coldly that the indian monarch withdrew, displeased and dejected, to his apartment. as the mexican populace made no show of submission, and brought no supplies to the army, the general’s ill humor with the emperor continued. when, therefore, montezuma sent some of the nobles to ask an interview with cortés, the latter, turning to his own officers, haughtily exclaimed, “what have{96} i to do with this dog of a king who suffers us to starve before his eyes?”

his captains, among whom were olid, de avila, and velasquez de leon, endeavored to mitigate his anger, reminding him, in respectful terms, that had it not been for the emperor the garrison might even now have been overwhelmed by the enemy. this remonstrance only chafed him the more. “did not the dog,” he asked, repeating the opprobrious epithet, “betray us in his communications with narvaez? and does he not now suffer his markets to be closed, and leave us to die of famine?” then, turning fiercely to the mexicans, he said, “go tell your master and his people to open the markets, or we will do it for them, at their cost!” the chiefs, who had gathered the import of his previous taunt on their sovereign, from his tone and gesture, or perhaps from some comprehension of his language, left his presence swelling with resentment, and, in communicating his message, took care it should lose none of its effect.[106]

shortly after, cortés, at the suggestion, it is said, of montezuma, released his brother cuitlahua, lord of iztapalapan, who, it will be remembered, had been seized on suspicion of co-operating with the chief of tezcuco in his meditated revolt.{*}{97} it was thought he might be of service in allaying the present tumult and bringing the populace to a better state of feeling. but he returned no more to the fortress.[107] he was a bold, ambitious prince, and the injuries he had received from the spaniards rankled deep in his bosom. he was presumptive heir to the crown, which, by the aztec laws of succession, descended much more frequently in a collateral than in a direct line. the people welcomed him as the representative of their sovereign, and chose him to supply the place of montezuma during his captivity. cuitlahua willingly accepted the post of honor and of danger. he was an experienced warrior, and exerted himself to reorganize the disorderly levies and to arrange a more efficient plan of operations. the effect was soon visible.

{*} [this was the enormous blunder committed by cortés, because of his ignorance of aztec tribal customs, which was mentioned in the note on p. 346, vol. ii. in releasing cuitlahua from captivity cortés put away the last guaranty of safety his forces possessed. cuitlahua was next in the line of succession of the eligibles from whom the priest commander was chosen. the tlatocan, or tribal council, was the power which controlled all the affairs of the tribe. this council, which elected a ruler, could also in extraordinary circumstances depose him and set another man in his place. as soon as he was released cuitlahua convened the tlatocan. that body at once deposed montezuma and made cuitlahua priest commander. it was not a captive sovereign the spaniards guarded, but only a deposed priest commander whose person was no longer sacred. when, a little later, montezuma was put forward to address the mob that raged about the walls of the tecpan, another man wore the golden beak of the war-god. it was not against their hereditary ruler, but only against the discredited agent who had once directed the affairs of the tribe that the aztec warriors hurled their missiles. montezuma deposed was no more to them than was any member of the tribal council. the spell that had protected the invaders was broken when his office was taken from him.—m.]

cortés meanwhile had so little doubt of his abil{98}ity to overawe the insurgents, that he wrote to that effect to the garrison of villa rica by the same despatches in which he informed them of his safe arrival in the capital. but scarcely had his messenger been gone half an hour, when he returned breathless with terror and covered with wounds. “the city,” he said, “was all in arms! the draw-bridges were raised, and the enemy would soon be upon them!” he spoke truth. it was not long before a hoarse, sullen sound became audible, like that of the roaring of distant waters. it grew louder and louder; till, from the parapet surrounding the enclosure, the great avenues which led to it might be seen dark with the masses of warriors, who came rolling on in a confused tide towards the fortress. at the same time, the terraces and azoteas or flat roofs, in the neighborhood, were thronged with combatants brandishing their missiles, who seemed to have risen up as if by magic![108] it was a spectacle to appall the stoutest. but the dark storm to which it was the prelude, and which gathered deeper and deeper round the spaniards during the remainder of their residence in the capital, must form the subject of a separate book.

gonzalo fernandez de oviedo y valdés was born in 1478. he belonged to an ancient family of the asturias. every family, indeed, claims to be ancient in this last retreat of the intrepid goths. he was early introduced at court, and was appointed page to prince{99} juan, the only son of ferdinand and isabella, on whom their hopes, and those of the nation, deservedly rested. oviedo accompanied the camp in the latter campaigns of the moorish war, and was present at the memorable siege of granada. on the untimely death of his royal master, in 1496, he passed over to italy and entered the service of king frederick of naples. at the death of that prince he returned to his own country, and in the beginning of the sixteenth century we find him again established in castile, where he occupied the place of keeper of the crown jewels. in 1513 he was named by ferdinand the catholic veedor, or inspector, of the gold founderies in the american colonies. oviedo, accordingly, transported himself to the new world, where he soon took a commission under pedrarias, governor of darien, and shared in the disastrous fortunes of that colony. he obtained some valuable privileges from the crown, built a fortress on tierra firme and entered into traffic with the natives. in this we may presume he was prosperous, since we find him at length established with a wife and family at hispaniola, or fernandina, as it was then called. although he continued to make his principal residence in the new world, he made occasional visits to spain, and in 1526 published at madrid his sumario. it is dedicated to the emperor charles the fifth, and contains an account of the west indies, their geography, climate, the races who inhabited them, together with their animals and vegetable productions. the subject was of great interest to the inquisitive minds of europe, and one of which they had previously gleaned but scanty information. in 1535, in a subsequent visit to spain, oviedo gave to the world the first volume of his great work, which he had been many years in compiling,—the historia de las indias occidentales. in the same year he was appointed by charles the fifth alcayde of the fortress of hispaniola. he continued in the island the ten following years, actively engaged in the prosecution of his historical researches, and then returned for the last time to his native land. the veteran scholar was well received at court, and obtained the honorable appointment of chronicler of the indies. he occupied this post until the period of his death, which took place at valladolid in 1557, in the seventy-ninth year of his age, at the very time when he was employed in preparing the residue of his history for the press.

considering the intimate footing on which oviedo lived with the eminent persons of his time, it is singular that so little is preserved of his personal history and his character. nic. antonio speaks of him as a “man of large experience, courteous in his manners, and of great probity.” his long and active life is a sufficient voucher for his experience, and one will hardly doubt his good breeding when we know the high society in which he moved. he left a large mass of manuscripts, embracing a vast range both of civil and natural history. by far the most important is his historia general de las indias. it is divided into three parts, containing fifty books. the first part, con{100}sisting of nineteen books, is the one already noticed as having been published during his lifetime. it gives in a more extended form the details of geographical and natural history embodied in his sumario, with a narrative, moreover, of the discoveries and conquests of the islands. a translation of this portion of the work was made by the learned ramusio, with whom oviedo was in correspondence, and is published in the third volume of his inestimable collection. the two remaining parts relate to the conquests of mexico, of peru, and other countries of south america. it is that portion of the work consulted for these pages. the manuscript was deposited, at his death, in the casa de la contratacion, at seville. it afterwards came into the possession of the dominican monastery of monserrat. in process of time, mutilated copies found their way into several private collections; when, in 1775, don francisco cerda y rico, an officer in the indian department, ascertained the place in which the original was preserved, and, prompted by his literary zeal, obtained an order from the government for its publication. under his supervision the work was put in order for the press, and oviedo’s biographer, alvarez y baena, assures us that a complete edition of it, prepared with the greatest care, would soon be given to the world. (hijos de madrid (madrid, 1790), tom. ii. pp. 354-361.) it still remains in manuscript.{*}

{*} [the historia general y natural de las indias, islas y tierrafirme del mar océano, por el capitan gonzalo fernandez de oviedo y valdéz, primer cronista del nuevo mundo, was published in four volumes at madrid, 1851-55, by the real academia de la historia.—m.]

no country has been more fruitful in the field of historical composition than spain. her ballads are chronicles done into verse. the chronicles themselves date from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. every city, every small town, every great family, and many a petty one, has its chronicler. these were often mere monkish chroniclers, who in the seclusion of the convent found leisure for literary occupation. or, not unfrequently, they were men who had taken part in the affairs they described, more expert with the sword than with the pen. the compositions of this latter class have a general character of that indifference to fine writing which shows a mind intent on the facts with which it is occupied, much more than on forms of expression. the monkish chroniclers, on the other hand, often make a pedantic display of obsolete erudition, which contrasts rather whimsically with the homely texture of the narrative. the chronicles of both the one and the other class of writers may frequently claim the merit of picturesque and animated detail, showing that the subject was one of living interest, and that the writer’s heart was in his subject.

many of the characteristic blemishes of which i have been speaking may be charged on oviedo. his style is cast in no classic mould. his thoughts find themselves a vent in tedious, interminable sen{101}tences, that may fill the reader with despair; and the thread of the narrative is broken by impertinent episodes that lead to nothing. his scholarship was said to be somewhat scanty. one will hardly be led to doubt it, from the tawdry display of latin quotations with which he garnishes his pages, like a poor gallant who would make the most of his little store of finery. he affected to take the elder pliny as his model, as appears from the preface to his sumario. but his own work fell far short of the model of erudition and eloquence which that great writer of natural history has bequeathed to us.

yet, with his obvious defects, oviedo showed an enlightened curiosity, and a shrewd spirit of observation, which place him far above the ordinary range of chroniclers. he may even be said to display a philosophic tone in his reflections, though his philosophy must be regarded as cold and unscrupulous wherever the rights of the aborigines are in question. he was indefatigable in amassing materials for his narratives, and for this purpose maintained a correspondence with the most eminent men of his time who had taken part in the transactions which he commemorates. he even condescended to collect information from more humble sources, from popular tradition and the reports of the common soldiers. hence his work often presents a medley of inconsistent and contradictory details, which perplex the judgment, making it exceedingly difficult, at this distance of time, to disentangle the truth. it was perhaps for this reason that las casas complimented the author by declaring that “his works were a wholesale fabrication, as full of lies as of pages!” yet another explanation of this severe judgment may be found in the different characters of the two men. oviedo shared in the worldly feelings common to the spanish conquerors, and, while he was ever ready to magnify the exploits of his countrymen, held lightly the claims and the sufferings of the unfortunate aborigines. he was incapable of appreciating the generous philanthropy of las casas, or of rising to his lofty views, which he doubtless derided as those of a benevolent, it might be, but visionary fanatic. las casas, on the other hand, whose voice had been constantly uplifted against the abuses of the conquerors, was filled with abhorrence at the sentiments avowed by oviedo, and it was natural that his aversion to the principles should be extended to the person who professed them. probably no two men could have been found less competent to form a right estimate of each other.

oviedo showed the same activity in gathering materials for natural history as he had done for the illustration of civil. he collected the different plants of the islands in his garden, and domesticated many of the animals, or kept them in confinement under his eye, where he could study their peculiar habits. by this course, if he did not himself rival pliny and hernandez in science, he was, at least, enabled to furnish the man of science with facts of the highest interest and importance.

besides these historical writings, oviedo left a work in six volumes,{102} called by the whimsical title of quincuagenas. it consists of imaginary dialogues between the most eminent spaniards of the time, in respect to their personal history, their families, and genealogy. it is a work of inestimable value to the historian of the times of ferdinand and isabella, and of charles the fifth. but it has attracted little attention in spain, where it still remains in manuscript. a complete copy of oviedo’s history of the indies is in the archives of the royal academy of history in madrid, and it is understood that this body has now an edition prepared for the press. such parts as are literally transcribed from preceding narratives, like the letters of cortés, which oviedo transferred without scruple entire and unmutilated into his own pages, though enlivened, it is true, by occasional criticism of his own, might as well be omitted. but the remainder of the great work affords a mass of multifarious information which would make an important contribution to the colonial history of spain.

an authority of frequent reference in these pages is diego mu?oz camargo. he was a noble tlascalan mestee, and lived in the latter half of the sixteenth century. he was educated in the christian faith, and early instructed in castilian, in which tongue he composed his historia de tlascala. in this work he introduces the reader to the different members of the great nahuatlac family who came successively up the mexican plateau. born and bred among the aborigines of the country, when the practices of the pagan age had not wholly become obsolete, camargo was in a position perfectly to comprehend the condition of the ancient inhabitants; and his work supplies much curious and authentic information respecting the social and religious institutions of the land at the time of the conquest. his patriotism warms as he recounts the old hostilities of his countrymen with the aztecs; and it is singular to observe how the detestation of the rival nations survived their common subjection under the castilian yoke.

camargo embraces in his narrative an account of this great event, and of the subsequent settlement of the country. as one of the indian family, we might expect to see his chronicle reflect the prejudices, or, at least, partialities, of the indian. but the christian convert yielded up his sympathies as freely to the conquerors as to his own countrymen. the desire to magnify the exploits of the latter, and at the same time to do full justice to the prowess of the white men, produces occasionally a most whimsical contrast in his pages, giving the story a strong air of inconsistency. in point of literary execution the work has little merit; as great, however, as could be expected from a native indian, indebted for his knowledge of the tongue to such imperfect instruction as he could obtain from the missionaries. yet in style of composition it may compare not unfavorably with the writings of some of the missionaries themselves.

the original manuscript was long preserved in the convent of san{103} felipe neri in mexico, where torquemada, as appears from occasional references, had access to it. it has escaped the attention of other historians, but was embraced by mu?oz in his magnificent collection, and deposited in the archives of the royal academy of history at madrid; from which source the copy in my possession was obtained. it bears the title of pedazo de historia verdadera, and is without the author’s name, and without division into books or chapters.