The Mastering of Mexico/Chapter 9
CHAPTER IX
Telling how kind the Tlaxcalans were, and what happened to us afterwards at Cholula; and also in what an adventure the clever Donna Marina found herself.
We had come barely within a mile of Tlaxcala when the caciques came out to meet us, accompanied by their families and many of their leading people. Members of the five tribes of Tlaxcala, flocking in from all parts of the country, wore their different dresses, which, for want of cotton, they made of hennequen, hemp from the aloe, and very neatly and prettily painted. Next the caciques came the papas, of whom there were great numbers, carrying pans of glowing embers and incensing us. Some of them had on long white cloaks, after the fashion of surplices, and hoods like those worn by our canon, and their hair was long and matted so that it could not be parted or ordered, and it was besmeared with blood which oozed from their ears, for they had cut their ears by way of sacrifice. Their finger-nails were very long, and in token of humility they lowered their heads when they approached us. These men were greatly revered for their religion.
The caciques now gathered round Cortes and formed a guard of honor, and when we entered the town happy-faced men and women were so many they could scarcely find room on the streets and balconies. They brought baskets of sweet-scented roses and gave them to Cortes and other soldiers they thought officers, particularly to those who were on horseback. Under such circumstance we came to spacious courtyards where were our quarters—which they had trimmed with green boughs—and where the two elder caciques took Cortes by the hand and led him to his lodgings. For each of us they had made a bed of dried grass and spread with sheets of hennequen. Our friends from Cempoala lodged near us and Cortes asked that the ambassadors from Montezuma might also be close by.
Good will and friendly feeling we soon saw in every one, and the officer whose duty it was to post sentinels told Cortes that the people were so peaceful we did not need our usual watchfulness. "That may be true," answered Cortes, "but we will not give up that very good old habit of ours. Better to be on guard, just as if we expected attack any moment. Many a captain has lost through carelessness and overconfidence." Especially the two chief caciques felt hurt by our military precautions, and said to Cortes, through our interpreters, "You have no confidence in us, Malinche.[1] You order your men to patrol exactly as you did when you attacked our lines, and we believe you do this because the Mexicans, wishing to estrange you and us, have whispered in your ears fears that we prove treacherous. Ask for as many hostages as you like, Malinche, and you shall have them."
Cortes and all of us were moved by the kindness and grace with which the old men spoke, and our captain answered that he wanted no hostages, he knew their good will, but to be on guard was always a custom of ours. At this moment other chiefs arrived with supplies of fowls, maize bread, prickly pears and vegetables. Indeed we had everything in abundance during the whole of the twenty days we lay in the town.
One of those days Cortes took the two elder chiefs aside and questioned them intimately about affairs in Mexico. Montezuma, they assured him, could march one hundred and fifty thousand men from his capital to the field when he wished to capture a city. Besides these he kept strong garrisons in all the provinces. He was such a powerful and rich prince that he had everything he desired, and forced all his provinces to pay him tribute of gold, silver, feathers, precious stones, cotton cloths and men and women for sacrifice and slaves. The houses in which he dwelt were stored with riches which he had seized by force. In short, all the wealth of the country was in his hands. Of his capital city and its causeways, its houses and bridges, they told us as we had already heard; and also of an aqueduct carrying sweet water from springs of Chapultepec, about two miles from the town, and reaching a place in the city from which porters carried it in canoes and sold it to the people.
These two caciques told also about the arms of the Mexicans—two-pronged lances which go through any cuirass; bows and arrows, with which they are excellent shot; javelins [2] with flint edges as sharp as knives; and stone-edged, two-handed swords; and rounded stones for which they had many slingers.
Because we had heard about all the caciques were telling, we changed the subject to another more profound, and the caciques told of a tradition they had from their forefathers—how one of their gods, to whom they paid great honors, had told them that in a time to come, from the direction of the rising of the sun, a people should come and rule over them. If we were these people, the kind old caciques said, they rejoiced, for we were both brave and good. At this account we were all astonished and said to one another, "Can what they tell us be true?" But at once our captain answered, "We do indeed come from the rising of the sun, and our master, the king, has purposely sent us to become your brothers. May God give us grace to save you from eternal death." To which we all answered, "Amen."
At last one morning we broke quarters and marched for Cholula, on guard and in best possible order, as whenever we thought attacks possible. But envoys from the caciques of Cholula met and bade us welcome to their territory, and within a short distance of the town the caciques, papas and a number of Indians came out to meet us. When we made our entry the people crowded the streets and housetops to gaze on us. And who can wonder? Never had they seen men like ourselves, nor any horses. We marched to our quarters, in which we found plenty of room, and to which they at once brought us abundance of good food. The city lay in a plain, a land bearing maize and vegetables and the maguey from which the people ferment a wine. And they also make a very good pottery of white, black and red clay, and supply all Mexico and its provinces.
They certainly meant well and honestly the splendid reception they gave us. All seemed in profound peace, and they furnished regular and plentiful supplies. The third day, however, a change came over them. They neither brought us anything to eat nor did any cacique or papa appear, and if any Indians from curiosity came to gaze at us, they smiled mockingly. Our captain seeing this, told our interpreters, Donna Marina and Aguilar, to tell the ambassadors of Montezuma, still in our company, that they must order the caciques to send us food. Wood and water now reached us, but the old men who brought it said that in all Cholula there was no more maize.
That very day, also, other ambassadors arrived from Montezuma, joining those staying with us, and they said in impudent tones that their monarch sent them to say we should not come to his city, for he could not give us food; and, moreover, they were in a hurry to go back to Mexico with our answer. As soon as Cortes saw the unfriendliness their speech implied, he answered in most courteous manner that he marvelled how so great a ruler as Montezuma should so often change his mind, and he begged them not to return to Mexico, for he himself thought of starting the very next day.
As soon as the conference was ended Cortes called us together and told us, "These people are very much set against us, and we must be particularly on our guard." He then sent to the chief cacique, telling him if he could not himself come to send some other chief. In answer the cacique said that he himself was ill and no other could come. When our captain heard this, he ordered us to bring to him, with every respect to their person, two papas from a large temple near our quarters. To each papa he gave a chalchihuite, a stone, I have said, held by them as valuable as emeralds are by us, and he asked in most kindly way why they no longer came to see us, though we invited them. One of these priests had a superior rank, like that of a bishop, for he had charge or command of all the temples in the city and the people held him in great veneration, and he in answer stated that the papas had no fear of us, and if the caciques would not come he would go himself and call them, adding that if he spoke to them, he believed they would come at once.
Cortes accordingly desired him to go and the other papa would await his return. It was not long before the papa reappeared, bringing with him the chief cacique and other men. Why, Cortes proceeded to ask, did they no longer send us anything to eat? If our stay in their town had proved burdensome, we would leave the very next morning for Mexico—they had merely to provide us porters for our baggage and tepusques (cannon), and send us food. The cacique was now so embarrassed that he scarcely could speak, but at length he found voice to say they would send the provisions we wanted, although their lord, Montezuma, had commanded them to withhold all food and not permit us to go further toward his great city.
While this conference was going on, three of our Cempoalan friends came in and secretly told Cortes that in the streets close by their quarters they had found deep holes, so covered over with wood and earth that without careful inspection they would not be noticed; and that they had had the curiosity to remove the earth from off one of the holes and had found pointed stakes sticking up from the bottom, no doubt set there to wound our horses when they fell into the holes. Moreover, the housetops had breastworks of burnt bricks and heaps of stones, while thick timbers barricaded one of the streets.
At this very moment also eight Tlaxcalans, who had had orders not to enter Cholula, arrived from their quarters outside the city and said, "Beware of the treachery that is going on in this town, Malinche. Last night the Cholulans sacrificed to their god of war seven persons, among them five children, so that the god may grant them victory over you. They are moving their wives and children out of town and all their belongings."
When Cortes heard this he sent the Tlaxcalans back to their caciques with orders to be ready if we should summon them, and turning to the caciques and papas told them to have no fear and to remain true to the obedience they had pledged him, otherwise he should feel obliged to punish them; and now, as he had already said, he purposed to take his departure to-morrow for Mexico, and he should require warriors and porters of theirs to join his army. The caciques answered that their men would be ready, and they took their leave to make the necessary preparations, very well contented in mind, for there seemed to them no doubt of the success of their plans. They had made sacrifices to their god of war and he had promised them victory.
Cortes now made every effort to find what their plans were, and commissioned Donna Marina to present still other chalchihuite stones to the two papas. She accordingly went and spoke to the priests and, adding also the presents, led them to our quarters, where Cortes asked them to tell the truth, which as papas and caciques they were twice bound to do. They then averred that the truth was their sovereign, Montezuma, could not make up his mind whether he should permit us to march to his city or not, and he changed his mind several times a day—at one time ordering them to pay us the greatest reverence and guide us to Mexico, at another time sending word that his gods, Tezcatlipoca and Huitzilopochtli, in whose advice he confided, counselled him to imprison or kill us in Cholula. To this end he had the very day before sent twenty thousand men, one half of whom were now secreted in the town and the other half lying in ambush in mountain ravines. Between these troops and the two thousand warriors of Cholula who were to accompany us and act in concert with the Mexicans, we should not be able to escape death, or at least capture and transport to Mexico—all save twenty, who were to be sacrificed before the idols of Cholula. After Cortes had gained this information he presented both papas with finely embroidered cloth, and told them not to tell what had passed between him and them; if they did, they should on our return from Mexico certainly die.
That night Cortes called a council of war. Opinions, as happens on such occasions, were various. Some thought we should change our course; others that we should go back to Tlaxcala; others that if we let such treachery go unpunished we should meet worse, and it would be better to make an attack right there in the town, where we could find ample supplies and do more effective work than in the open field. To this last opinion all at length agreed, and as Cortes had given out that we were to start the following morning, we should therefore make as if we were tying up our knapsacks, and attack the Indian warriors in the ample square where we lodged, and within its high walls pay them their dues. To the ambassadors of Montezuma we should say some villains of Cholula had formed a conspiracy and attempted to lay it at the door of their monarch, but we could not for a moment believe Montezuma had given such orders; however, we must beg them to stay in our quarters and have no converse with the Cholulans.
That we were to be attacked we also gained further certainty through an elderly Indian woman, wife of a cacique. The beldame had seen and admired the youth and good looks and rich trinkets of Donna Marina, and had gone so far as to tell her, if she wanted to save her life she should come to her house, for we were all to be killed that night or the very next day; that the great Montezuma had sent an army of Mexicans to join the Cholulans and had ordered them to leave no one of us alive; and because she felt a sort of compassion for Donna Marina she advised her to pack her things in all haste and come to her house. There she would marry her to her second son.
Now Donna Marina had a good deal of native mother-wit and shrewdness, and she said to the dame, "How thankful I am to you, good mother! I would go with you this minute, but I have a lot of mantles and jewels and no one here to carry them. May I beg you, good mother, to wait a little, you and your son?—and sometime to-night we will leave. You see these teules have eyes and ears everywhere."
The beldame stayed on, chatting, and Donna Marina questioned her as to the manner in which they planned to kill us. The woman's answers agreed perfectly with the account the two papas had given. "I know all this from my husband," she continued, "for he is chief of one of the divisions of this city and has already joined the men under his command. I have known it three days, for my husband had a gilded drum sent him from Mexico, and three officers had rich cloaks and jewels of gold with orders to take all the teules prisoners and send them to the great city."
"How delighted I am!" returned Donna Marina, "that your son, to whom you intend to marry me, is a man of such rank! Good mother, wait here while I go and pack my things, for I can not carry all alone. You must help me." Then Donna Marina went swiftly to our captain and told him all the Indian woman had said, and he ordered the woman brought to him and he questioned her, finally placing her under guard so that she would not disclose anything to the Cholulans.
When dawn came it was astonishing to see the air of contempt and confidence with which the caciques and papas brought more warriors than we had asked, so many, in fact, that the courtyards could not hold them. But early as it was, they found us quite ready for our day's work. Our captain mounted his horse, and surrounded by several of us as a guard to his person, with Donna Marina also near to interpret, he severely upbraided the assembled caciques and papas, asking them why it was, when we had done them no harm, that they wished to kill us; that he had merely exhorted the tribes we had met to live cleaner lives, to do away with human sacrifice, to cease eating human flesh. Why had they dug holes in their streets, built barricades, sent away their families and property? Why had they refused us food? He knew perfectly well that many warriors lay secreted in the town and others waited to attack us on our way to Mexico. If they wanted to kill us, why did they not meet us in open field as their neighbors, the Tlaxcalans, had done? He knew they had sacrificed seven Indians to their god of war that they might gain the victory. But their god's promises were lies and deceits and their treachery would strike back on them.
The caciques and papas, when they heard all this, confessed that it was true, but added that they were not the guilty ones, for the ambassadors of Montezuma had ordered it in the name of their lord. Cortes answered that Spanish law did not permit such treason to go unpunished, and, so speaking, he ordered the firing of a cannon. This was the agreed signal for us to fall upon them. We gave them a blow which they will forever remember. After a couple of hours our friends of Tlaxcala came storming into the town and taking the Cholulans prisoners, so deeply rooted was their hatred.
At last the Cholulans begged us to pardon them, saying we had punished the real traitors. Upon this Cortes desired them all to come back to their homes, and he promised no harm should befall them. The long feud between Tlaxcalans and Cholulans Cortes also at this time healed, and a good understanding grew between them that has never since been disturbed.
As soon as the town was again filled with its people and the markets open as usual, Cortes called together all the papas, caciques and other leaders of the city, and set clearly before them matters of our holy religion, telling them they must cease worshiping idols and committing other offences; that they now saw how their gods had lied only five days before when they promised them victory. They must pull down their idols, he told them, and clean and whitewash their temples that we might fit up a chapel and set a cross there. Through several days they kept delaying, though many times Cortes ordered them to do this. Finally Padre de Olmedo eased the mind of our captain by assuring him that it was too much to take away their idols before they had some understanding of our faith, that time would give us experience in the way to guide them, and we ought first to see how our expedition to Mexico turned out. For the present, he said, we had given pious counsel.[3]
- ↑ The tribes through whose territory the conquistadores passed so named Cortes because the Interpreter, Donna Marina, was always by him when ambassadors arrived and interpreted for both parties. They therefore called him Marina's captain, or for short, Malinche.
- ↑ The main weapon of Mexico, "a short spear made of hard and elastic canewood, whose point, shaped after the manner of the well-known arrow-head, was mostly of flint, of obsidian, and perhaps occasionally of copper." A. F. A. Bandelier.
- ↑ With this opinion of Olmedo stood also Las Casas, famed as "the apostle of the Indies" and "protector of the Indians," who testified, "Before the idols can be taken from their hearts we must know the estimation the idolaters have formed of their gods. Then we must paint on their hearts the conception of the true God. Afterwards, shocked at their error, they themselves will throw down and destroy willingly and with their own hands the idols they venerated. . . . This was not the last of the blunders made with these Indians in this matter of religion; they have made them erect crosses, inducing the Indians to reverence them. . . . The most certain and convenient rule and doctrine Christians ought to give and hold when they go for a short time into a place, as these went, and also when they go to live among the people, is to give them examples of virtuous and Christian works, in order that, seeing their deeds, the natives praise and give glory to the God and Father of the Christians, judging that he who has such worshipers cannot but be the good and true God."