Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican/Volume 1/Book 1/Chapter 12
CHAPTER XII.
1522—1547.
The royal commission, of which we have spoken in the last chapter, was speedily borne to New Spain, where it was joyfully received by all who had participated in the conquest or joined the original forces since that event. Men not only recognized the justice of the act, but they felt that if the harvest was rightfully due to him who had planted the seed, it was also most probable that no one could be found in Spain or the Islands more capable than Cortéz of consolidating the new empire. Velasquez, the darling object of whose latter years had been to circumvent, entrap or foil the conqueror, was sadly stricken by the defeat of his machinations. The reckless but capable soldier, whom he designed to mould into the pliant tool of his avarice and glory, had suddenly become his master. Wealth, renown, and even royal gratitude, crowned his labors; and the disobedience, the errors, and the flagrant wrongs he was charged with whilst subject to gubernatorial authority, were passed by in silence or forgotten in the acclamation that sounded his praise throughout Spain and Europe. Even Fonseca,—the chief of the council,—had been unable to thwart this darling of genius and good fortune. Velasquez, himself, was nothing. The great error of his life had been in breaking with Cortéz before he sailed for Mexico. He was straitened in fortune, foiled in ambition, mocked by the men whose career of dangerous adventure he had personally failed to share; and, at last, disgusted with the time and its men, he retired to brood over his melancholy reverses until death soon relieved him of his earthly jealousies and annoyances.
Four years had not entirely elapsed since the fall of Mexico, when a new and splendid city rose from its ruins and attracted the eager Spaniards, of all classes, from the old world and the islands. Cortéz designed this to be the continental nucleus of population. Situated on the central plateau of the realm, midway between the two seas, in a genial climate whose heat never scorched and whose cold never froze, it was, indeed, an alluring region to which men of all temperaments might resort with safety. Strongholds, churches, palaces, were erected on the sites of the royal residences of the Aztecs and their blood-stained Teocallis. Strangers were next invited to the new capital, and, in a few years, the Spanish quarter contained two thousand families, while the Indian district of Tlatelolco, numbered not less than thirty thousand inhabitants. The city soon assumed the air and bustle of a great mart. Trades-men, craftsmen and merchants, thronged its streets and remaining canals.
Cortéz was not less anxious to establish, in the interior of the old Aztec empire, towns or points of rendezvous, which in the course of time, would grow up into important cities. These were placed with a view to the future wants of travel and trade in New Spain. Liberal grants of land were made to settlers who were compelled to provide themselves with wives under penalty of forfeiture within eighteen months. Celibacy was too great a luxury for a young country.[1] The Indians were divided among the Spaniards by the system of repartimientos, which will be more fully discussed in a subsequent part of this work. The necessities and cupidity of the early settlers in so vast a region rendered this necessary perhaps, though it was promptly discountenanced but never successfully suppressed by the Spanish crown. The scene of action was too remote, the subjects too selfish, and the ministers too venal or interested to carry out, with fidelity, the benign ordinances of the government at home. From this apportionment of Indians, which subjected them, in fact, to a species of slavery, it is but just to the conquerors to state that the Tlascalans, upon whom the burden of the fighting had fallen, were entirely exempted at the recommendation of Cortéz.
Among all the tribes the work of conversion prospered, for the ceremonious ritual of the Aztec religion easily introduced the native worshippers to the splendid forms of the Roman Catholic. Agriculture and the mines were not neglected in the policy of Cortéz, and, in fact he speedily set in motion all the machinery of civilization, which was gradually to operate upon the native population whilst it attracted the overflowing, industrious or adventurous masses of his native land. Various expeditions, too, for the purpose of exploration and extension, were fitted out by the Captain General of New Spain; so that, within three years after the conquest, Cortéz had reduced to the Spanish sway, a territory of over four hundred leagues, or twelve hundred miles on the Atlantic coast, and of more than five hundred leagues or fifteen hundred miles on the Pacific.[2]
This sketch of a brief period after the subjugation of Mexico develops the constructive genius of Cortéz, as the preceding chapters had very fully exhibited his destructive abilities. It shows, however, that he was not liable justly to the censure which has so often been cast upon him,—of being, only, a piratical plunderer who was seduced into the conquest by the spirit of rapine alone.
In a historical narrative which is designed to treat exclusively of Mexico, it might perhaps be considered inappropriate to relate that portion of the biography of Cortéz which is covered by his expedition to Honduras, whither he marched after he learned the defection of his lieutenant Olid whom he had sent to that distant region with a body of Spanish soldiers to found a dependant colony. It was whilst on this disastrous march that the report of a conspiracy to slay the Spaniards, in which Guatemozin was implicated, reached his ears, and that the dethroned monarch, together with several princes and inferior nobles, was hanged, by his orders, on the branches of a tree. There is a difference of opinion among contemporary writers as to the guilt of Guatemozin and the Aztec nobles; but it is probable that the unfortunate prince had become a dangerous and formidable captive and that the grave was a safer prison for such a personage, than the tents and bivouacs of a menaced army.
Another renowned character in this drama—the serviceable and gentle Indian girl Dona Mariana,—was no longer needed and was disposed of during this expedition, by marriage with Don Martin Xamarillo, to whom she brought a noble dowry of estates, which were assigned her by the conqueror in her native province, where, in all likelihood she ended her romantic career. Her son by Cortéz, named after his grand-father Don Martin, became distinguished in the annals of the colony and of Spain, but in 1568, he was cruelly treated in the capital which had been won by the valor and fidelity of his parents.
From this digression in his Mexican career, Cortéz was suddenly recalled by the news of disturbances in the capital, which he reached after a tempestuous and dangerous voyage. His journey from the coast to the valley was a continued scene of triumphs; and, from Tezcoco, in June, 1526, he made his stately entrance into the city of Mexico amid brilliant cavalcades, decorated streets, and lakes and canals covered with the fanciful skiffs of Indians.
A month later, the joy of his rapturous reception was disturbed by the announcement that the Spanish Court had sent a commissioner to supercede him temporarily in the government. The work of sapping his power and influence had long been carried on at home; and false reports, involving Cortéz in extreme dishonesty not only to the subjects but to the crown of Spain itself, at length infused suspicions into the sovereign's mind. The Emperor resolved to search the matter fairly to its core, and, accordingly, despatched Don Luis Ponce de Leon, a young, but able nobleman to perform this delicate task, at the same time that he wrote with his own hand to the conqueror, assuring him that his sole design was not to distrust or deprive him of his honors, but to afford him the opportunity of placing his integrity in a clear light before the world.
De Leon, and the delegate chosen on his death bed, died within a few months, and were succeeded by Estrada, the royal treasurer, who was hostile to Cortéz, and whose malicious mismanagement of the investigation soon convinced even the Spanish court that it was unjust to leave so delicate and tangled a question in his hands. Accordingly the affair was transferred from Estrada to a commission styled the Audiencia Real de España, and Cortéz was commanded to hasten across the Atlantic in order to vindicate himself from the aspersions before this august body, which sat in the midst of his countrymen.
Cortéz resolved to go at once; and, loyal to the last, rejected all the offers that were made him to reassume the reins of power, independently of Spain. He carried with him a number of natives, together with specimens of all the natural and artificial products of his viceroyalty; nor did he forget a plentiful supply of gold, silver, and jewels, with which he might maintain, in the eyes of his luxurious countrymen, the state that was appropriate for one whose conquests and acquisitions were so extensive. Sandoval and Tapia, too, departed with their beloved companion in arms, the former of whom, only, lived to land once more on his native land.
As he journeyed from the sea-port towards Toledo, the curious crowds poured out on the way side to behold and welcome the hero of the New World; and from the gates of the city a gallant crowd of cavaliers poured forth, with the Duke de Bejar and the Count de Aguilar, to attend him to his dwelling.
The Emperor received him with marked respect on the following day, and from the bountiful gifts and splendid titles which were showered upon Cortéz before the close of 1529, it seems that his sovereign was soon personally satisfied in his frequent and frank interviews with the conqueror, that the tales he had heard from across the sea were mere calumnies unworthy his notice. The title of "Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca" was bestowed on him. Lands in the rich province of Oaxaca, and estates in the city of Mexico and other places, were also ceded to him. "The princely domain thus granted him," says Prescott, "comprehended more than twenty towns and villages and twenty-three thousand vassals." The court and sovereign vied with each other in honoring and appreciating his services, and every privilege was no sooner demanded than granted, save that of again assuming the government of New Spain!
It was the policy of the Spanish court not to entrust the rule of conquered countries to the men who had subdued them. There was fancied, and perhaps real danger in confiding such dearly acquired jewels to ambitious and daring adventurers who might ripen into disloyal usurpers.
Cortéz bowed submissively to the will of the Emperor. He was grateful for what had been graciously conceded to his merits and services; nor was he unwilling to enjoy the luxury of careless repose after so many years of toil. His first wife,—wedded as we have related in the Islands,—died a short time after she joined him in the capital after the conquest. Cortéz was yet young, nor was he ill favored or indisposed to slight the charms of the sex. A fair relative of the Aguilars and Bejars, Dona Juana Zuñiga, at this moment attracted his attention and was soon won. Her dower of jewels, wrested from the Aztecs, and carved by their most skilful workmen, was indescribably magnificent, and, after her splendid nuptials, she embarked, in 1530, with the conqueror and his aged mother to return to the Indian Islands, and finally to New Spain.
At Hispaniola he met an Audiencia Real, which was still to have jurisdiction of his case, if it ever came to trial, and at whose head was an avowed enemy of the conquerer, Nuño de Guzman. The evidence was taken upon eight scandalous charges against Cortéz, and is of so suspicious a character that it not only disgusts the general reader, but also failed in its effect upon the Spanish court by which no action was finally taken in regard to it.
Cortéz remained two months in the island before he set sail for Vera Cruz, in July 1530; and, in the meantime, the Bishop of San Domingo was selected to preside over a new Audiencia, inasmuch as the conduct of the late Audiencia, and of Guzman especially, in relation to the Indians, had become so odiously oppressive that fears were entertained of an outbreak. The bishop and his coadjutors were men of a different stamp, who inspired the conqueror with better hopes for the future prosperity of the Indian colonies.
So jealous was the home government of the dangerous influence of Cortéz,—a man so capable of establishing for himself an independent empire in the New World,—that he had been inhibited from approaching the capital nearer than thirty leagues. But this did not prevent the people from approaching him. He returned to the scene of his conquest, with all the personal resentments and annoyances that had been felt by individuals of old, softened by the lapse of time during his prolonged absence in Spain. He came back, too, with all the prestige of his Emperor's favor; and, thus, both by the new honors he had won at court, and the memory of his deeds, the masses felt disposed to acknowledge, at the moment of joyous meeting, that it was alone to him they owed their possessions, their wealth, their comfort, and their importance in New Spain.
Accordingly, Mexico was deserted by the courtiers, and Tezcoco, where he established his headquarters was thronged by eager crowds who came not only to visit but to consult the man whose wit and wisdom were as keen as his sword, and who revisited Mexico, ripened into an astute statesman.
Nevertheless, the seeming cordiality between the magistrates of the capital and the partly exiled Captain General, did not long continue. Occasions arose for difference of opinion and for disputes of even a more bitter character, until, at length, he turned his back on the glorious valley,—the scene of his noblest exploits,—forever, and took up his abode in his town of Cuernavaca, which, it will be recollected, he captured from the Aztecs before the capital fell into his hands. This was a place lying in the lap of a beautiful valley, sheltered from the north winds and fronting the genial sun of the south, and here he once more returned to the cares of agriculture,—introducing the sugar cane from Cuba, encouraging the cultivation of flax and hemp, and teaching the people the value of lands, cattle and husbandry which they had never known or fully appreciated. Gold and silver he drew from Zacatecas and Tehuantepec; but he seems to have wisely thought that the permanent wealth and revenue of himself and his heirs would best be found in tillage.
Our limits will not permit us to dwell upon the agricultural, mineral and commercial speculations of Cortéz, nor upon his various adventures in Mexico. It is sufficient to say that he planned several expeditions, the most important of which, was unsuccessful in consequence of his necessary absence in Spain, whither he had been driven, as we have seen, to defend himself against the attacks of his enemies. Immediately, however, upon his return to Mexico, he not only sent forth various navigators, to make further discoveries, but departed himself for the coast of Jalisco, which he visited in 1534 and 1535. He recovered a ship, which had been seized by Nuño de Guzman; and having assembled the vessels he had commanded to be built in Tehuantepec, he embarked every thing needful to found a colony. The sufferings he experienced in this expedition were extraordinarily great; his little fleet was assailed by famine and tempests, and, so long was he unheard of, in Mexico, that, at the earnest instance of his wife, the viceroy Mendoza sent two vessels to search for him. He returned, at length, to Acapulco; but not content with his luckless efforts, he made arrangements for a new examination of the coasts, by Francisco de Ulloa, which resulted in the discovery of California, as far as the Isle de Cedros, and of all that gulf, to which geographers have given the name of the "Sea of Cortéz."
His expenses in these expeditions exceeded three hundred thousand castellanos of gold, which were never returned to him by the government of Spain. Subsequently, a Franciscan missionary, Fray Marcos de Niza, reported the discovery, north of Sonoma, of a rich and powerful nation called Quivara, whose capital he represented as enjoying an almost European civilization. Cortéz claimed his right to take part in or command an expedition which the viceroy Mendoza was fitting out for its conquest. But he was baulked in his wishes, and was obliged to confine his future efforts for Mexico to works of beneficence in the capital.
That portion of the conqueror's life which impressed its powerful characteristics upon New Spain was now over. The rest of his story belongs rather to biography and the Old World than to a compressed narrative of Mexican history, for although he remained long in the country, and afterwards fought successfully under the Emperor's banner in other lands, it appears that he was unable to win the Spanish crown to grant him authority over the empire he had subdued. He died at Castilleja de la Cuesta, near Seville, on the 2d of December, 1547.
Cortéz provided in his will that his body should be interred in the place where he died, if that event occurred in Spain, and that, within ten years, his bones should be removed to New Spain and deposited in a convent of Franciscan nuns, which, under the name of La Concepcion, he ordered to be founded in Cuyoacan. Accordingly, his corpse was first of all laid in the convent of San Isidro, outside the walls of Seville, whence it was carried to Mexico and deposited in the church of San Francisco, at Tezcoco, inasmuch as the convent of Cuyoacan was not yet built. Thence the ashes of the hero were carried, in 1629, to the principal chapel of the church of San Francis, in the capital; and, at last, were translated, on the 8th of November, 1794, to the church of the Hospital of Jesus, which Cortéz had founded. When the revolution broke out, a vindictive feeling prevailed not only against the living Spaniards, but against the dead, and men were found, who invoked the people to tear these honored relics from their grave, and after burning them at San Lazaro, to scatter the hated ashes to the winds. But, in the government and among the principal citizens, there were many individuals who eagerly sought an opportunity to save Mexico from this disgraceful act. These persons secretly removed the monument, tablet, and remains of the conqueror from their resting place in the Church of Jesus, and there is reason to believe, that at length they repose in peaceful concealment in the vaults of the family in Italy. Past generations deprived him, whilst living, of the right to rule the country he had won by his valor. Modern Mexico has denied his corpse even the refuge of a grave.[3]