About Mexico - Past and Present/Chapter 16
CHAPTER XVI.
A CAPTIVE CHIEF.
THE only opportunity which Europeans ever had of seeing the Aztecs at home, pursuing the ordinary business of life, was during the first five months which Cortez and his companions spent in the valley. Although a city invaded by the inhabitants of another world—as the Spaniards seemed to the Mexicans to be—must have been excited by their presence, it is probable that Mexico and its people appeared to these visitors much as they had been for nearly a hundred years. Possibly it had not been so long since it had been beneath the dignity of a chief of high rank to walk up stairs. Mexican officials appear then to have indulged in a pomp unknown before and quite out of keeping with the democratic principles of the tribe. An instance of this occurred during this first week in Mexico, when Cortez and Montezuma were together visiting the great temple. They had come to the foot of the first flight of stairs, when Montezuma ordered two stout Indian porters to pick up his guest and carry him in their arms to the top of the building. Cortez resisted, but the chief did not yield the point. He considered that Cortez was the representative of the lord of the whole earth, and that as such he ought to receive all the honors which Mexico could heap upon him. "You ought not to walk up stairs," urged the chief; "you will be tired."
"Tut, tut!" exclaimed Cortez; "a Spaniard is never tired ;" and, suiting the action to the word, he sprang up the steps, followed by his stalwart soldiers, leaving the astonished Montezuma far behind in the arms of his carriers.
The markets were inspected by the Spaniards, who drove sharp bargains with the fruit-sellers and the mechanics. They visited the parks, the museum, the botanical gardens, aviaries and menageries, and fished and rowed on lake and canal. Six days thus passed pleasantly away without any disturbance between the Spaniards and their entertainers. Even the Tlascalans, usually so defiant and suspicious, seemed to forget, as they walked the streets gazing on the splendors of the Aztec capital, the vows taken in infancy never to be at peace with their hated neighbors. But such a state of things could not be expected to last long. As Cortez remarked in his letter to the king about that time, "we Spaniards are somewhat troublesome and difficult to please." He was thinking, perhaps, of the strain which would soon be put upon Montezuma's loyalty to his new liege across the sea. Cortez intended to make of Mexico a Spanish city, to gain and to keep its treasure, to colonize the country, to convert the people and to become its princely ruler under the king and the pope of Rome.
Cortez soon decided that his first step must be to get possession of Montezuma and hold him as a hostage while he was teaching the people to submit to their foreign rulers. He supposed that the chief was the hereditary sovereign of Anahuac, and that while he could hold him he would have control of the government. He had the more reason to expect success in this daring scheme when he saw what power he had already gained over Montezuma through his superstitious fears. The plot did not at first meet the approval of the Spanish officers—not because they felt it to be unjust to their kind and unsuspecting host, but because they were less daring than their leader. Yet he was not long in persuading them to yield to his will, especially when he explained that tidings from the garrison at Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz would furnish him with a good pretext for arresting Montezuma and holding him prisoner. Bernal Diaz tells us that "they were so anxious over this proposition that some of them prayed all night about it."
It seems that since the army had left Vera Cruz a tribe living to the north of that place had appealed to the garrison for help against Aztec oppression. They wished to ally themselves with the Spaniards as the Totonacs had done, and they declared that they would have sent tribute to Cortez while he was at Villa Rica but for fear of a hostile tribe whose lands they would be obliged to cross. However, such was the awe inspired by the white man that they would dare even to do this if the commandant would send them four Spaniards to protect them from their enemies on this dangerous journey. This request was granted, and the four soldiers immediately set out. It was not long before two of them came back with a terrible story of Indian cruelty. They were the victims of an Aztec plot. The tribe to whose assistance they had been sent were still loyal to their Aztec masters. By the orders of Quancapopoca, the revenue-officer in charge, the four Spaniards had been seized, and all would have been killed had not two escaped to tell the tale. The commandant immediately went with fifty of his men and several hundred Indian allies to avenge this murder. In the battle which followed, the Spanish commander and several of his men were killed. The Aztec deputy and his forces were, however, completely routed, and fled to the mountains. Prisoners were found in the city, ready to be sacrificed, who accused the Aztecs of decoying the Spaniards into the clutches of their tribe, and said that an attack on Cempoalla was also part of this plan. It was arranged that this story should be told by Cortez during one of his morning visits to Montezuma. Taking with him five of his bravest cavaliers, the Spanish leader arranged that others should drop in as if by accident. The rest of the Spaniards were told to take their places quietly on the street-corners in the neighborhood, to check any attempt the people might make to rescue their chief.
Montezuma was in a very cheerful mood that morning, and so profuse in his gifts that he offered to marry one of his young daughters to Cortez or to one of his men, and to give with her some of his most valuable gems. Cortez refused the lady promptly unless she would become a Christian, but pocketed the gold and the jewels, since they did not need baptism. Leading the conversation toward graver topics, he introduced the story of the treacherous dealing on the coast. Cortez affected to consider the tidings as highly improbable; he said he did not believe his host was capable of such double dealing. Others, however, he said, would not be so charitable; and if Montezuma wished to clear himself, it would be necessary to arrest those who had been concerned in the murder and punish them as they deserved. Montezuma made no objection to this, and immediately gave orders that the proper officers should be sent after the deputy, who lived nearly two hundred miles from the city of Mexico. Cortez expressed his satisfaction with this despatch; "But," he added, coolly, "my duty to my sovereign will not be accomplished until you have given me some hostage as a guarantee of your good faith. If you will come yourself to my quarters and remain there until this affair has been cleared up, I will be satisfied that you mean to see that justice is done." The startled Montezuma earnestly protested against the seeming lack of confidence in his honor, and offered to provide some one else in his place; but Cortez was firm in his demand, assuring the chief that in no sense would he be a prisoner, and that he should not only have the services of his own followers, but that all the soldiers would cheerfully obey his commands. In his ignorance of the principles of government among these Indians, Cortez put duty before the chief in its strongest light. It was the council which had plotted against the Spaniards. Montezuma, as their executive officer, had given the deputy his orders, and no one could be found so suitable as himself to act as their hostage until justice could be dealt out to those who had only obeyed their despotic commands.
While Cortez was arguing with Montezuma, Velasquez de Leon became very impatient lest the Indians who stood around should become excited and attack them. He cried out at last,
"Why do you waste words on this barbarian? We have gone so far that we cannot go back. Seize him; and if the Indians resist, we will plunge our swords into their bodies."
"But finally," says Cortez in his letter to the king, "he expressed his willingness to go with me, and immediately gave orders to have the apartments he wished to occupy made ready for his use. This being done, many nobles came to him stripped of their robes, which they carried hanging on their arms, and barefooted, bringing a litter, on which, with tears in their eyes, they placed him in deep silence; and in this manner we proceeded to the quarters which I occupied."
Meanwhile, news of this strange visit began to circulate, and the people might have raised a disturbance had not Montezuma quietly bade them disperse. He said that he was only going on a visit to his friends and no one need be anxious for his safety. True to his promise, the soldiers of Cortez served the captive chief with great deference. His people came freely to see him, and the council held its meetings in the Spanish quarters. The chief's spirit had been thoroughly subdued. He was gentle and patient, very grateful for favors and generous to a fault to his grasping jailers.
The distinguished visitor had time to be fairly settled among the Spaniards when courtiers announced the arrival of the deputy Quancapopoca with a large retinue. He was brought, as became his rank, in an elegant litter, in which he had been carried over the mountains a distance of more than one hundred and eighty miles. He was immediately delivered to Cortez, who put him and his men under a strong guard. At first the whole party denied that what they had done was by the order of Montezuma, but on further questioning they accused him as the author of the plot. The confession, however, did not save them from death. Cortez ordered them to be taken to one of the large public squares of the city, bound to the stake and burned to ashes. Aztec laws were so severe, and the death-penalty was so common, that this scene made no commotion among the crowd who gathered round.
During the execution Cortez came into his prisoner's apartment with a soldier bearing iron fetters, and charged Montezuma with the murder of the Spaniards. Montezuma was completely overawed, as though he had fallen into the hands of a being who could read hearts, a divine avenger of ancient wrongs committed by the Aztecs. He did not resist when the shackles were put on him, but expressed his humiliation and anguish of soul in moans and tears.
After the victims had been burnt Cortez ordered the chief to be set at liberty. His intention had been to crush the spirit of his captive and make him contemptible in the eyes of his followers. He renewed his efforts to soothe Montezuma and make him content with his fate. At the same time, he publicly announced that it was his wish that the government should be carried on as before, with due obedience to the king of Spain as its acknowledged head. The Aztecs quietly submitted, supposing, as usual, that all Cortez asked was the tribute which they so often exacted of a conquered tribe. So docile had Montezuma become that when Cortez made the pretence of offering him his liberty he refused the boon, probably fearing that some of his brother-chiefs would kill him if he ventured from under the protection of the Spanish guns. He only asked to be allowed to visit the pleasure-gardens of the city and its neighborhood. Permission was readily granted, since nothing could please Cortez better than to keep his captive in a good humor while he fastened the chains more securely. None of the gay attendants around Montezuma's splendid litter were gayer than the captive chief himself during these excursions. He was fond of table-luxuries, and one entertainment followed another. The Spaniards were boon-companions, and for a while "all went merry as a marriage-bell." The generous spirit of the chief made it easy for him to satisfy his new friends and keep Marina busy with long descriptions of the treasures of his country.
The mountains which surrounded Mexico were rich in mines of silver and gold, and, as nothing interested the Spaniards so much as to hear of these, Montezuma commissioned some of his people to go with them to visit these vast mineral depositories. One party went with Aztec guides to inspect the mines of Oaxaca, lying about two hundred miles to the south. Their road lay along that great platform of hills on which were built many strongly-fortified towns occupied by a large and thriving population, some of whom surpassed the Aztecs in their homes and in their luxurious habits.