The Mastering of Mexico/Chapter 21
CHAPTER XXI
How our conquest went on and we finally captured Guatemoc; and what famine did for the people of Mexico; Cortes orders to repair Chapultepec water-pipes and rebuild houses; discontent about the treasure and its division; and why we went to settle in other provinces.
It was as if the war had just begun. Cortes now ordered us to advance to that neighborhood where Guatemoc had taken refuge—who, when he saw we were capturing the whole city, sent two chiefs to tell Cortes that he wished to speak with him, he standing on one bank of a canal, and our captain on the other. They agreed upon next morning for the interview. Cortes went to the spot, but no Guatemoc appeared; instead he sent caciques who said their monarch did not come, for he feared we would kill him with crossbows or muskets while they were talking. On his oath Cortes promised that Guatemoc should not be injured. In vain; "for what had happened to Montezuma might happen to him." While these caciques were talking they drew from a bag they had with them some maize cakes, cherries and the leg of a fowl, and seating themselves began to eat in a leisurely manner so that Cortes might think they were not in want of provisions. To all this our captain answered that whether Guatemoc came or not was immaterial to him; he himself would soon pay their houses a visit to see how much maize and poultry they had.
For five days we made no attack; but many poor Indians, starving for lack of food, came to our camp every night. In this was the main reason Cortes ordered our attacks stayed—thinking they might make peace. But although we entreated them they would not. Cortes therefore commanded Sandoval with the twelve sloops to penetrate that part of the city where Guatemoc with the flower of his army had retreated. And at the same time he gave orders that our men should not wound or kill any Indians unless they should begin the attack—even if they should make an onset, our men were merely to defend themselves and not to do further harm. But houses our troops were to level to the ground and also to destroy the many defences the Mexicans had built on the lake. Cortes then mounted to the top of the temple to watch how the work went on.
Sandoval advanced the sloops with the ardor of a true soldier. Some time before this Guatemoc had ordered fifty large canoes always to stand ready, so that he might escape to the reed thickets and from there reach land and hiding in some friendly town, if he should find himself hard pressed in Mexico. So now, when he saw our troops coming and getting into the houses in which his caciques dwelt, he ordered put on board these canoes the gold, jewels and other property they could carry away, and he and his family took to flight. When Sandoval heard that Guatemoc had fled, he stayed the soldiers in their destruction of the houses and ordered Garcia Holguin, an intimate of his and master of a fast sloop manned by good rowers, to follow the monarch and take him, but without violence or injury.
Holguin flew in pursuit. It pleased God that he should overtake several canoes, and one that from the beauty of its workmanship and awnings and seat he knew must be the monarch's, and he signaled the boats to stop. But they would not, and so Holguin told his men to level crossbows and muskets at them; which, when Guatemoc saw he cried in fear, "Do not shoot. I am cacique of Mexico. I beg you not to touch my wife or my relatives, but carry me at once to Malinche." Greatly rejoiced, Holguin with much respect embraced the monarch and, spreading mats and cloths in the poop of his sloop, took the Mexican and his wife and thirty chiefs with him. But he touched nothing whatever in the canoe, but brought it in along with the sloop.
Cortes, who had stood on the summit of the temple, as I said, and watched Sandoval's movements, now heard the good news and straightway ordered a reception room prepared, as well as could be done with mats and cloaks and cushions, and a good meal also of such food as he himself had. Soon after Sandoval and Holguin arrived with the monarch and led him between them to our captain—who received him with the utmost respect and embraced him affectionately. But Guatemoc said, "Malinche, I have done my duty in defending my city. I can do no more. I am a prisoner before you, taken by a stronger force. Now draw the dagger you have in your belt and kill me"; and when he had spoken he wept and sobbed, and the caciques with him lamented loudly. But Cortes, through Donna Marina and Aguilar, answered in most kind manner that he esteemed him, the monarch, all the more for his courage and bravery in defending his city, and it was to his honor and not shame; what he, Cortes, could have wished, however, was that he had made peace of his own free will, and saved the razing of the city and the death of so many Mexicans. But now, since this had happened and could not be remedied, he should no longer grieve, but compose his spirit and remain master of Mexico and its provinces.
Guatemoc and his caciques thanked Cortes for this promise, and then our captain asked after the monarch's wife and the other ladies, wives of caciques, who had come with Guatemoc. Guatemoc said he had begged they might stay in the canoes until Malinche's pleasure be known. Cortes at once sent for them and had set before them the best of every food he had. And now, as it was late and beginning to rain, our captain told Sandoval to take the monarch and all his family and chiefs to a town near by; and he ordered Alvarado and Sandoval to withdraw each to his own quarters.
Thus were Guatemoc and his chiefs captured on the 13th of August, about the hour of vespers, in the year 1521. Praise and glory be to our Lord Jesus Christ, and to Our Lady, his blessed mother! Amen. The night of this day it thundered and lightened unceasingly, and up to midnight unusually heavy rain fell.
After Guatemoc's capture we soldiers turned so deaf we could scarcely hear. We were like those standing in a belfry where many bells are ringing and then all of a sudden cease. I suggest this as comparison, for during the more than eighty days we were besieging the city, both night and day, our ears suffered great confusion of noises. In one quarter some of the Mexicans were yelling and piping war-whoops to muster their squadrons; in another warriors were calling to the canoes to attack the sloops, the bridges, the causeways; still further one side others were urging bands with exciting turmoil to deepen the openings, drive piles, cut through dykes, throw up breastworks; still others were crying for more javelins and arrows, and again others shouting to women rounding stones for the slings—while from the chapels and towers of the idols the drums and shell trumpets dinned day and night, particularly the horrible, mournful sound of the accursed drum of Huitzilopochtli, whose tones pierced the very soul, never ceased for a moment. On the capture of Guatemoc all the uproar ended, and this is the reason of my likening our condition to those who have been standing in a belfry amid a clangor of bells.
I have read of the destruction of Jerusalem. I know not if there were greater carnage there. But this I know, that of the great number of warriors from the provinces who had crowded into the city of Mexico, most of them were slain. Land and lake were full of dead bodies, and the place became intolerable, and in this was the reason why, after we captured Guatemoc, the three divisions drew off to their former quarters and Cortes himself was ill from that which assailed his nostrils.
The atmosphere at last became so pestiferous that Guatemoc asked Cortes to permit all the inhabitants and the remainder of the Mexican forces to leave the city. Our captain promptly urged them to go, and for three days and nights an unending stream of men, women and children, so emaciated, dirty and death-like that it was pitiful to see them, crowded the causeways. As soon as they had got away Cortes set out to examine the city. We found houses full of dead bodies, and a few poor creatures still having life but too weak to stand. Every patch of earth in town looked as if it had been ploughed up, for the starving people had dug out every root and had peeled the bark off the trees to ease their hunger; and we found no fresh water. And yet, during all this horrible famine, the Mexicans had not eaten of the flesh of their own people, only that of ours and our Tlaxcalan allies.
After we had thus subdued this great and populous city, and had given thanks to God, and had made certain offerings, Cortes ordered a joyous feast to celebrate our conquest, and for it procured wine from Spain, out of a ship just come to Vera Cruz, and pigs brought him from Cuba. To this banquet Cortes bade all officers and soldiers whom he esteemed. But when we went, there were neither seats nor tables for one third of us, and disorder and ill will prevailed. It would have been better if Cortes had not given that banquet, for at it many things happened in no wise worthy report. For some drank till they did foolish things, and they gambled and bragged of all the gold they had got. It would have been better if all the gold had been given for helpful purposes, and with thanks to God for the many benefits shown us.
The first service Cortes asked of Guatemoc was that the Mexicans at once repair the water-pipes leading from Chapultepec and supplying the city with fresh water. The next was that they clean the streets and all parts of the town of all remains of the dead, repair all the bridges and causeways, rebuild the houses and palaces we had pulled down, and after two months that they return and dwell in the city—Cortes marking out what part they were to live in and what part they were to leave for our use. For our own work our captain ordered a dock made to harbor our sloops, and a fort, also, and if I remember rightly he appointed Alvarado to take command of this till our king's officer should come from Spain.
We all agreed that the gold, silver, and jewels left in Mexico should be got together. There was little seemingly. Report went that four days before we captured him Guatemoc had thrown all the treasure in the lake. Then, too, the Tlaxcalans, and the rest of our Indian auxiliaries in the siege, besides those of our own number who went about in the sloops, had laid their hands on it. Still officers of the royal treasury declared that Guatemoc had hidden the greater part, and that Cortes was delighted and he would not say where it was concealed, for he would then be able to get hold of it himself; and that therefore, when these officers proposed to put Guatemoc and his cousin and intimate, the cacique of Tacuba, to the torture, Cortes was much pained at the bare thought of insulting so great a monarch, and that, too, for greed of gold. For their part, the stewards of Guatemoc alleged, they had no more than our king's officers already had in their possession—three and eighty thousand dollars, the whole of which had been cast into bars.
But we conquistadores were far from satisfied, and said the sum was much below the real amount; and some of us told the royal treasurer that Cortes' sole reason for not wanting Guatemoc and his officers tried by torture was that he might keep the gold himself. Our captain did not wish such a suspicion to lie at his door, and at last agreed to the torture. Thereupon the officers put Guatemoc to test, burning his feet with hot oil. They treated in the same way the cacique of Tacuba. What the two confessed under torture was that four days before Guatemoc was taken, they had thrown their gold, together with the cannon and muskets the Mexicans had captured on the night of our sorrows, and also when lately they had defeated Cortes on the causeway—that all they had thrown into the lake. Guatemoc pointed out the spot where he had thrown it, and good swimmers searched for the treasure. But they found nothing. When, however, we went with Guatemoc to the houses in which he had lived, and he took us to a stone reservoir of water, we fished up a sun of gold like the one Montezuma gave us, and besides many jewels and trinkets.
The cacique of Tacuba also told us that he had hidden rich things in gold in some houses twelve miles off, and if we would take him there he would tell us where he had burled them. So Alvarado and six soldiers went, and I was one. But when we came to the spot, the cacique said he had made up the story so as to be killed, and we were to kill him at once, for he had neither gold nor jewels. We went back without any treasure and there was no more casting of gold bars. It is undoubtedly true that little was left in the treasury of Montezuma when it came into the hands of Guatemoc, for Montezuma had taken the best for his offerings to us—which he had sent to our king.
I think there was some truth in what Guatemoc told about his having thrown gold and other things into the lake. By diving I and other soldiers proved this a fact. We were always able to bring up some piece of small value—which Cortes and the royal treasurer promptly demanded of us as gold belonging to his majesty. They themselves went with good divers to this spot, where they found ducks, dogs, pendants and small necklaces, a matter of say a hundred dollars. But the value was nothing to what report said the monarch had thrown into the lake.
Now our officers and men considered thoroughly when they saw how hardly worth accepting would be each man's share, and therefore Padre de Olmedo, Alvarado and others proposed to Cortes that the whole was so little, it should be divided among the maimed—the lame, the blind or one-eyed, the deaf, and those who had pains in their bodies or who had been burned by powder—that all the gold should be given to such, and the rest of us who were in comfortable health should agree that that was good use of it. After considerable thought, they proposed this to Cortes, believing they could induce him to add to the shares; for the suspicion was rife, as I said, that he had hidden away great part of Guatemoc's treasure. Cortes answered that he would try and satisfy us all. Officers and men then said they would like to know how much would be each allotment, and it was found that to every horseman eighty dollars, to a crossbowman, musketeer and shield-bearer, fifty or sixty dollars. None of the men would accept these pittances and they began to throw out bitter words against Cortes. The royal treasurer excused himself by answering he had done the best he could, for Cortes had taken for himself a portion equal to the king's, and had besides claimed repayment for the horses that had died; moreover, many pieces of gold had not gone into the heap; and finally over the whole matter we should faultfind with Cortes and not with him.
We were all deeply in debt. Some of us owed for crossbows, which could only be purchased for fifty or sixty dollars, and others for a sword at fifty. In the same way there were other cheatings, for all charges were exorbitant. A surgeon who called himself Maestre Juan charged heavy fees for curing some bad wounds. So also a quack who doctored us, and was also apothecary and barber.
Among the soldiers in the three camps, and also in the sloops, were friends and partisans of the governor of Cuba, Diego Velasquez, and also soldiers of Narvaez, who not only bore Cortes no good will, they hated him; and when these saw he did not give them the shares they had calculated for their lot, they asked, "How comes it that all the gold belongs to him who held it?"
Our captain was staying in a small town near Mexico, lodging in a palace, the walls of which had been so lately plastered and whitewashed that charcoal or ink stood out clear. And on these walls every morning satires or lampoons appeared. One day, for instance, you would find, "The sun, moon, stars, the sea and land, follow their fixed courses, and if they deviate from their courses, they return to their original elements: Cortes in his ambition and love of power should take this as a lesson"; "Cortes has mastered us in a worse defeat than we mastered Mexico, and we should not call ourselves the conquerors of New Spain, but the conquered of Hernando Cortes"; "A general's share does not satisfy him, but he must have a king's share, not counting the profits"; "How sad is my heart till Cortes gives back the gold he has hidden"; "Diego Velasquez spent his fortune to discover the north coast, and Cortes came and took the gain." There were others I can not repeat.
When of a morning he came from his quarters, Cortes did not pass these epigrams without reading them, and as the greater part were in handsomely turned verse, each sentence, it is evident from the homely versions given above, with a pointed meaning and reproof, and since our captain was a bit of a poet himself, he took it upon himself to write answers praising his deeds. But as days went on, and the couplets became more severe, Cortes wrote, "A blank wall is the paper of fools." Soon after was found added, "and of wise men and truth-tellers." Cortes knew who had written it, and he was angry and ordered that henceforth no one should dare stain the walls with malicious sayings.
Our captain, at last worn with unceasing faultfinding—that he had stolen all for himself—and weary also of the everlasting begging for loans and advance in pay, determined to get rid of the whole imbroglio by sending the most marked troublemakers out to form settlements in those provinces which he thought eligible for settlement. He accordingly chose Sandoval to go to Tustepec, and form a colony there, and punish some Mexican garrisons for putting to death, about the time of our sorrowful retreat from Mexico, seventy-eight Spanish men and women, all of the company of Narvaez, who had attempted to form a settlement in a small town they called Medellin. Then Sandoval was to proceed to Coatzacoalcos to form a colony at its very harbor. Two other officers were to go out and conquer the province of Panuco, and others to form other colonies.
When the news spread throughout the provinces that Mexico had fallen, the governing caciques of these provinces could not believe it true, and they sent ambassadors to felicitate Cortes on his victories and to announce them as vassals of our king. But above all, the envoys were to see if it were really true that we had leveled to the ground the great city they had feared. Each of these ambassadors brought presents of gold, and many even brought their little children and showed them the ruins of Mexico, and explained it to them, just as we would point out to our children the spot where Troy stood.
I now answer a question that many interested readers have asked me: "Why did the true Conquistadores of the strong city of Mexico and of New Spain not settle down in Mexico? Why did they go to other provinces?" The reason is that we learned from tribute-books of Montezuma from what districts the greatest tribute of gold came, where there were mines, cacao, garments of cotton cloth. We were bent on going to those places from which we saw by the books and their accounts the people brought these chief tributes. And when we found even Sandoval, so notable an officer and such a friend of Cortes, starting out from Mexico, and when we considered that in the towns of the neighborhood of Mexico they had neither gold, nor mines, nor cotton, merely maize and maguey plantations, all the more did we seek to follow his, Sandoval's, example. We concluded that the country about the metropolis was poor, and so went off to settle in other provinces. And greatly were we deceived in our expectations.
This disappointment Cortes had foreseen. I remember when I went to ask him to give me leave to go with Sandoval, he said, "On my conscience, brother Bernal Diaz del Castillo, you are making a great mistake. I should like better your staying in Mexico with me. But if your choice is to go with your friend Sandoval, go. And God be with you. If I can I shall promote your welfare, but I am sure you will be sorry you left me."
Soon after we began our march.