The Mastering of Mexico/Chapter 20
CHAPTER XX
Why Cortes suffered defeat on the narrow causeway and many other disasters came; and of the abominable barbarities of the Mexicans in sacrificing sixty soldiers they had taken; and how Cortes again offered peace, and what the papas advised.
Pn a Sunday morning, the 30th of June, having commended ourselves to the protection of God, we set out from camp and advanced, forcing bridges and entrenchments. We fought very cheerfully and with victory, till Cortes captured a deep opening which the Mexicans had taken care to make narrow and cover with mud. When the enemy saw that Cortes had passed this fatal opening without filling it in, and that his soldiers and the allies with him crowded in vigorous pursuit, they, pretending to flee, lured our captain and his troops still further on. Then (for ever does the wheel of fortune turn and great prosperity change to bitter adversity) masses of Mexican warriors, some in canoes, rushed suddenly from hiding places and with incredible fierceness and most fearful yells and whistles fell on the ill-fated division. Their power was overwhelming. Cortes strove to rally his forces and cried, "Stand firm, gentlemen, stand! Do you turn your backs?" But his cries were in vain. Each sought to save his own life. Nothing remained but retreat.
On this narrow causeway the Mexicans now took sixty-six soldiers captive, killed eight horses, wounded Cortes in the leg, and after a fight in which it seemed for a time they would succeed, they, yelling and calling us cowards, finally pursued our soldiers to their very camp. There, after a little delay, they cast in three heads of our countrymen, crying that these were from men with Sandoval and Alvarado whom, with all their teules, they had put to death.
We, under Alvarado, likewise advanced along our causeway and with like confidence of victory, when many squadrons of Mexicans rushed upon us and hurled In front of us five bloody heads of Spaniards they had captured from Cortes' division. "So we shall kill you," they shouted, "just as we have killed Malinche and Sandoval and all their troops." Saying this they fell on us so furiously that crossbows and muskets availed nothing, and we began to retreat. Our friends, the Tlaxcalans, crediting the shout of triumph uttered with the hurling of the five bleeding heads, and thinking Malinche and Sandoval and all their teules had been killed, fled off the causeway in terror."
As we retreated we could hear the beating of the drum which stood near the idols Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca on top of the great temple. The sound was most melancholy. An instrument of the devil it was indeed, for every time its doleful tones startled our ears, they were offering the hearts and blood of our comrades before their idols. Beset from housetop, canoes and causeway, we had not near accomplished our retreat when Guatemoc ordered the great horn to be sounded—the signal of the monarch that he permitted his troops no choice but victory or death. Echoings and re-echoings of this horn roused the warriors to terrific fury, and they threw themselves forward till they fairly ran upon our swords. If the Almighty had not lent us strength, we must have perished; without God's aid we should never have reached our quarters. Miserable we were, every one of us wounded, and the distress we were in was more terrible from our uncertainty as to what had happened to Cortes' and Sandoval's divisions. The cry of the Mexicans when they threw before us the five heads tied together by the hair and beards still rang in our ears.
Let us now turn to Sandoval, who was marching victoriously along the causeway his men had captured, when the Mexicans, stimulated by the defeat of Cortes, turned on him and his forces. And they turned so effectively that he had to begin a retreat. At this moment the enemy also cast among his men the bleeding heads of six of our fellow-soldiers from Cortes' division, and shouted that those were the heads of Malinche, Alvarado and other officers, and what they had done with these they would do with Sandoval and his men. But the brave Sandoval was not daunted. He told his soldiers to begin an orderly retreat under cover of the sloops, musketeers and crossbowmen; and thus he came to his quarters.
But what had happened to Cortes? Sandoval, wounded and bandaged with rags, set off to learn. On his way warriors of Guatemoc, trying to cut off our communication, constantly harassed him, but at length he came up to Cortes, and when he saw him he cried, "Alas, my captain, how has this disaster befallen us? Is this the warfare you have taught? "Tears started to the eyes of Cortes as he said, "Oh, my son Sandoval, for my sins this has come upon us. But I deserve not all the blame. The royal treasurer, Juan de Alderete, did not obey my orders to fill in the gap where they defeated us. War the royal treasurer does not know; nor how to obey." Alderete was standing by when Cortes spoke these words, and he quickly threw back the guilt, maintaining that not he, but Cortes was to blame, for if he had ordered him to fill in the opening, he would have done so. Alderete also reproached Cortes for not ordering the allies off the causeway.
So the men stood exchanging angry words when the two sloops which Cortes had kept by the causeway came in. They had parried attacks from canoes, and after hard fighting, aided by a strong wind and the energy of their oars, had broken the stakes between which they were jammed, and, every man on board wounded, had returned. In all haste Cortes now despatched Sandoval to Tacuba to see how matters went with our division, sending Lugo with him. "Go, my son," said Cortes. "You see I am wounded and can not. Rescue the three divisions and inspire them with hope. Alvarado and his brothers have fought valiantly and defended themselves as gentlemen should, I well know, but I fear these hosts of dogs have overwhelmed them. How I fared you see."
Sandoval and Lugo found the Mexicans still storming our camp from that side the causeway where we had pulled down houses, and now they had driven one sloop between stakes and two of the soldiers in it lay dead and others wounded. When Sandoval saw me and six others standing waist deep in the water, he shouted, "Oh, brothers, put your strength to it and keep them from seizing the sloop"; and we then made such a drive that we soon hauled the boat to a safe place. Still many companies of Mexicans came nearer and struck at all of us, and gave Sandoval a blow with a stone in the face, till he ordered us to retreat little by little so they might not kill our horses. But we were slower than he thought we should be. "Are we then to perish through your selfishness?" he cried. "For heaven's, dear brothers, do fall back." The words were hardly out of his mouth before he and his horse were again wounded.
With excessive toil we at last gained our quarters, and Sandoval and Lugo stood telling Alvarado what had happened to the divisions, when the dismal drum of Huitzilopochtli, accompanied by the hellish music of shells, horns and things like trumpets, again sounded from the top of the temple. We all turned towards the lofty platform and there we saw the Mexicans carrying our companions by force up the steps. When they got them to the space in front of the chapel where the cursed idols stood, we saw them put plumes on their heads and mercilessly force them to dance before the idol, and after they had danced we saw them stretch them on their backs on stones and with stone knives cut open their breasts, tear out the palpitating heart and offer it to the idols. Alas! we saw all this! And then we saw how they seized the dead body by the legs, and threw it down the step, and Indian butchers waiting below severed arms, legs and heads from the bodies and drew the skin off the faces to tan with the beards on and keep for mockery and derision at their festivals.
While we were gazing at these abominable barbarities, and each saying to the other, "Thank God they are not carrying me to the sacrifice to-day!" fresh warriors fell suddenly on us, crying, "Look! That is the way you shall die. Our gods have promised"; while to the Tlaxcalans, throwing them roasted legs of their countrymen and arms of our soldiers from which the flesh had been torn, they shouted, "We are full of the flesh of the teules and your brothers. Take what is left on these bones. Go on helping the teules and we promise you shall be sacrificed with them."
After this celebration of their victory, Guatemoc sent to our Indian allies the heads of those horses they had killed, as well as feet and hands and bearded skins of our unhappy countrymen, with the message that one half of us were dead and he would soon have us all, and therefore the people must set aside their friendship for us and at once come to Mexico. Effects of this message were far-reaching, for about this time our allies of Tlaxcala, Texcoco and other towns by secret agreement with one another, and without a word to Cortes, Alvarado or Sandoval, suddenly left us and returned to their homes. A mere handful remained, who in our distress at the desertion said that their companions, seeing us all wounded and many of their own people dead, had at length come to believe the promise of the Mexican gods that we should all be destroyed, and had left us through fear. Worn out by hardships and by bearing arms without nourishing food, the troops of all three divisions now rested several days and took mature counsel. But every day the Mexicans sounded their diabolical shell trumpets and yelled and howled, and every night fires lighted the platform of the great temple as they sacrificed our unfortunate comrades before their accursed idols. For ten successive days these indescribable barbarities went on—until all their prisoners were gone.
One morning many squadrons of warriors fell on us in endeavor to surround us on all sides, and in the midst of their fierce attack they were shouting such insults as these:—" You are a set of lying cowards!" "You are fit neither to build houses nor to plant maize!" "You are a pack of knaves and can only plunder towns!" "You have fled from your own country, but within eight days not one of you will be alive!" "What villains you are! Even your flesh is as bitter as gall and we can not eat it!" It seems they had feasted off the bodies of our comrades and the Lord, in his mercy, had turned the flesh bitter.
Among the Indian allies who had remained with us was a cacique of uncommon bravery, who finally said to our captain, "Malinche, why do you humble yourself every day to renew conflict with the Mexicans? Take my advice. Keep your sloops cruising round the town and cut off its supplies of water and provisions. Within the great city are so many thousands of warriors that their stores must soon be exhausted. The water they drink is from wells lately dug and is half salt, or it is from rain that falls. What can they do if you cut off their supplies? War against hunger and thirst is the worst war of all." This very advice many of us soldiers had already offered, but now, at the suggestion, Cortes threw his arms round the cacique and promised him the chieftaincy of towns.
By this time the men who managed our sloops stood no longer in fear of the stakes which the Mexicans had driven in the bed of the lake, for they had learned that with a stiffish breeze and vigorous rowing the boats were sure to break down the stakes. We therefore soon became masters of the lake and of many houses standing apart from the city. Twelve or thirteen days now passed, the Mexicans furiously fighting, our divisions capturing breastworks, bridges and openings and never ceasing to advance, our launches continually on the watch and daring to sail anywhere in the lake. And now, when time showed the threat of the Mexicans to destroy us within ten days an empty boast, the Texcocans despatched warriors to our aid and the Tlaxcalans and others followed with many men.
I am tired of writing about battles, but, as I said, I have been able to do no less, for during more than eighty days we were fighting all the time. We welcomed the days when it rained in the afternoon, for when heavy showers fell the enemy left us unmolested at night.
After we had by degrees gained so many advantages, had captured most of the bridges, causeways and entrenchments, had levelled so many houses and had fought our way to wells from which the Mexicans drew their drinking water, and had destroyed the springs, then Cortes ordered three Mexican caciques who were our prisoners to go to Guatemoc and offer terms of peace. At first the caciques refused, but at length induced by fair words and promises, they bore the message to their monarch, saying that Cortes had great affection for so near a relative of his friend, the great Montezuma, and he would indeed be sorely grieved if he were forced to destroy the great city of Mexico. He grieved, too, to see not only many people of the city Itself but also of the country round about every day becoming victims of battles; therefore he offered peace in the name of his majesty, our king, who would pardon all the wrong they had done us. The monarch should remember that already, four several times, we had made this very offer, and through his youth and the bad advice of his papas and accursed idols, he had not accepted it, but had preferred war. Arrived before Guatemoc, with tears and sighs the three messengers told what Cortes had said. Although the monarch was angry at the presumption of the message, he assembled his chiefs and the priests of the temple and told them he was inclined to make peace and end the war. Already, he said, the Mexicans had tried every mode of attack, and every kind of defence, and yet when they thought us conquered we returned with new vigor. Just now, he continued, a great host of allies had joined us, every town had declared against Mexico, our sloops had broken down the stakes, and his people were threatened with want of both food and water. Therefore he begged each councillor fearlessly to give his opinion; especially the papas should give theirs and tell what the gods Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca had said and promised.
"Great and mighty monarch," the councillors in effect replied, "you are our master. You have shown great power of mind and deserve to be a monarch by right. Peace is an excellent thing. But reflect. From the moment these teules set foot in this country and in this city, our affairs have been growing worse. Call to mind the presents the great Montezuma gave them, the services he did them; what he received in return; what your relative caciques received. All the gold and silver of this great city have wasted away. Men and women at Tepeaca and other places have been marked on the face with a red-hot Iron. Consider what the gods have promised. Put no trust in Malinche and his fine words. Better to die sword In hand in this city than to see ourselves slaves and tortured for gold."
To this speech the priests added at once that three nights in succession they had sacrificed to their gods, who had promised victory. "If you will have it," answered Guatemoc sorrowfully. "Make the most of the maize and other food, and we will die fighting. From this moment let no man be rash enough to ask for peace. Him I will kill with my own hand." After this the Mexicans arranged with people of other towns to bring water in canoes by night, and they dug wells in Mexico.
Cortes and all of us held from fighting two days, waiting for the answer of Guatemoc, when all of a sudden great masses of warriors fell on our camps with lionlike ferocity, and as if confident of defeating us. While they were making the attack the impelling horn of Guatemoc sounded, and then, in the mad fervor which it excited in them, they fairly ran upon the points of our lances and swords. "Why does Malinche go asking for peace?" they cried. "Our gods have promised us victory. We have plenty of food and water. Not one of you will leave here alive. Talk peace no more. Peace parley is for women; arms are for men." When they had said this they came at us verily like mad dogs. In such wise, for six or seven days in succession, our infuriated enemy fought. Great was the slaughter among them. And each time we remained master of the field.
To make events intelligible I must turn back and recall to the reader that Guatemoc, after the unfortunate day when we lost more than sixty men on the causeway, sent the feet and hands and skin of the faces of the murdered Spaniards to blazon his victory in certain towns and summon the towns' folks to help him. In answer to the call warriors put themselves in motion and went about ill-using some of the peoples friendly to us, plundering their farms and carrying off their children to kill for sacrifice. When Cortes received intelligence of these deeds he ordered Sandoval to the rescue. Much might be told of how in this expedition our troops suffered severe wounds and lacked all manner of refreshment, but nevertheless gained victories and speedily returned. But I will not detain the reader.
After this renewed glory of ours, Cortes again sent to Guatemoc begging him to make peace—saying he had not attacked the city, more than two thirds of which lay in ruins, or entered it for five days that it might not be wholly destroyed; and now that he offered sincere friendship the unhappy people had scarcely any food. The Mexicans' answer to this offer was in promptly sallying out and attacking our three camps with still greater fury, crying in their language as they struck hand to hand, "What will the king of Spain say to that? What will he say now? "and showering us with lances, arrows and stones till the missiles covered the ground.
Cortes now carried on the siege with more determination, and pushed forward into the city until we reached the great market place on which stood seven lofty temples. In a small temple on a little plaza not far off, we found some beams set upright and on them the heads of several of our companions; and the hair of the heads was much longer than when they were alive, which I certainly should not have believed if I had not seen it. Our hearts ached at the sight of our comrades' melancholy remains. We left them where they were, but twelve days later we took them with other Spanish heads offered before idols, and buried them in a church we founded, in this day called the Church of the Martyrs.
Several of our companies now made a most valiant attempt on the great temple of Huitzilopochtli. To take this elevated and strongly fortified building was a terrific labor. Priests who lived in great numbers in houses near the temple beat our men back, and were our particular assailants. They wounded us dreadfully, nevertheless we ascended the one hundred and fourteen steps, and capped our deed of arms by planting our standard on the top. When the flames we set to idols and chapel shot up from the summit of the building, Cortes was hotly engaged with the enemy in another quarter of town, but he heartily wished he were with us—they even said he was envious of our luck. But he could not come, for a good mile lay between him and us, and moreover, fierce attacks to overcome at many bridges and water openings.
Day after day passed without the Mexicans seeming inclined to sue for peace. We were all of us now fortified in the great market place to save the trouble of marching every morning from camps two miles off. But Cortes would not let us pull down any more houses or advance further into the city. In hopes of peace he forwarded still another message to Guatemoc begging him to surrender, promising that he should be respected and should continue to govern all his territory and cities. And Cortes sent the monarch such food as he had—maize cakes, fowls, prickly pears and cacao. Upon this Guatemoc took counsel with his caciques and they all agreed the answer should be, "Guatemoc wishes peace and at the end of three days will meet Cortes to settle terms." Four Mexican chiefs came to our camp with this reply. We really believed the promise true, and Cortes set forth plenty for them to eat and supplies to carry to their monarch—who returned the civility by sending two splendid mantles, with the assurance he would meet Cortes when things were ready. The message was a blind, however; Guatemoc never intended to come, and had parleyed for time in which to repair bridges, deepen canals and get fresh supplies of arms.
For us, when three days had passed, and the monarch did not appear, we concluded we had been fooled. The Mexicans, however, left us no time to vex ourselves with thought of the deceit, for they attacked us with such fierceness that we could hardly keep our ground.