The Mastering of Mexico/Contents

by Kate Stephens

CONTENTS

CHAPTER		PAGE
I	How we discovered Yucatan	1
II	How the Governor of Cuba ordered another fleet sent out, and what happened	15
III	How Diego Velasquez petitioned the king of Spain to grant him commission to conquer, settle and apportion land; and we came again with a new fleet with Cortes as captain	34
IV	How we found the Spaniard, Aguilar, slave to a cacique; and what happened at Tabasco	47
V	Of reaching San Juan de Ulua, and what Montezuma did for and against us	66
VI	How suspicion and dissent arose; how we chose Cortes captain general and chief justice, and founded Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz	75
VII	Our varying fortunes with the Totonacs of Cempoala and Quiahuitztlan; and of our letters to his majesty the king of Spain	86
VIII	How, having settled to go to Mexico, we destroyed all our ships and marched across the mountains; and how after fierce battles we came to peace with the people of Tlaxcala	104
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	125
X	What happened to us as we neared the great and splendid City of Mexico; and how we made our bold and daring entrance, and Montezuma met us in solemn state and visited with Cortes	140
XI	How the great Montezuma looked, how he dined, his arsenals, his craftsmen and craftswomen, his gardens, aviary, beasts of prey; how we viewed the great market place and what else we saw when we ascended the chief temple	155
XII	How, in setting up an altar, we found a secret treasure; and why we visited Montezuma and took him to our quarters as prisoner; how he spent his time; and how we built two sloops and sailed them on the lake; adding the story of a hawk	172
XIII	How Montezuma visited the chief temple; his nephew, Cacamatzin, conspired against him; and finally how the caciques swore allegiance to our king. What the Spaniards whom Cortes sent out to find gold, reported. Montezuma's gift of the vast treasure of his fathers and its division among us	189
XIV	How we set an altar on the chief temple, and the anger of the Mexican gods and people at our act; and of the fleet Velasquez sent out from Cuba, what Montezuma did about it; and our plan to go against Narvaez	207
XV	What Cortes said to a so-called notary; how he addressed us at Cempoala and we rallied to his call; our victory over Narvaez and his forces, and the surrender of mates and masters of the fleet; how the smallpox reached New Spain	222
XVI	How rebellion against Alvarado broke out, and we marched back and re-entered the great city; how Cortes felt and what he said, and how the Mexicans warred fiercely against us several days; and how the mighty Montezuma died	237
XVII	How we retreated from Mexico; our night of sorrows; the days following the sorrowful night; our punitive expeditions, and how various towns begged Cortes to stop Mexican violence; why we laughed at Olid's expedition and how arrival of ships increased our forces	251
XVIII	How Cortes used the ships, and ordered Martin Lopez to model thirteen sloops for the lake of Mexico; what happened as our army marched to Texcoco and Sandoval went to fetch timber of the sloops; of the great thirst we endured; our march about the lake, and the plot to stab Cortes	269
XIX	How Cortes ordered the towns to furnish us arrows and arrow-heads, and, before beginning the siege of Mexico, held a muster and published articles of war; and how having divided our troops, he ordered the three divisions to invest the city and break the aqueduct of Chapultepec; how the sloops aided in our daily battles and difficulties they met	291
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	304
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	320

 

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Bernal Diaz del Castillo	Frontispiece
	facing page
Hernando Cortes	38
Donna Marina	64
Ancient Temple of New Spain.	98
The Great Montezuma	146
Terra Cotta Figure of a Warrior	158
Pedro de Alvarado.	218
Gonzalo de Sandoval	218
Christobal de Olid	264