1520. Proposals of peace rejected by the Mexi cans. Death of ma. as often receiving a vigorous repulse, Cortes, though suffering from a severe wound in his left hand, joined the assailants in person, and, tying his shield to his arm, began to ascend the stairs with a great part of his men. Their passage was obstinately disputed; but they at last gained the upper area, where a terrible engagement of three hours ensued. "Every man of us," says Bernal Diaz," was covered with blood;" and 46 Spaniards were left dead on the spot.1 Cortes, ordering the temple to be set on fire, returned in good order to his quarters. The violence of hostilities still continuing, and the situation of the Spaniards soon becoming absolutely desperate, Cortes applied to Montezuma by a message, to address his subjects from a terrace, and request them to desist from their attacks, with an offer from the Spaniards to evacuate Mexico. The captive monarch, standing at the railing of the terraced roof, attended by many of the Spanish soldiers, affectionately addressed the people below him, to that purpose. The chiefs and nobility, when they saw their sovereign coming forward, called to their troops to stop, and be silent. Four of them, approaching still nearer to him, addressed him with great sympathy and respect; but told him, that they had promised their gods never to desist, but with the total destruction of the Spaniards. A shower of arrows and stones now fell about the spot where Montezuma stood; but he was protected by the Spaniards, who interposed their shields. At the instant of removing their shields, that Montezuma might resume his address, three stones and an arrow struck him to the ground. He was carried to his apartment; where he died, in a few days, "less of his wound, which was but inconsiderable, than of sorrow and indignation."2 1 B. Diaz, i. 310, 311. Not one of the poor Mexicans, engaged in the action, survived it. Inflamed by the exhortations of their priests, and fighting in defence of their temples and families, under the eye of their gods, and in view of their wives and children, they contemned death. Part of them died by the point of the sword, and part threw themselves down to the lower floors of the temple, where they continued to fight until they were all killed. Robertson, b. 5. Clavigero, ii. 108. B. Diaz says, while the Spaniards were setting fire to the temple, above 3000 noble Mexicans with their priests attacked them with great violence, which caused them to retreat. 2 Grynæus, 583. B. Diaz, i. 257-314. Clavigero, ii. 103–112. Robertson, b. 5. De Solis, lib. 4. c. 14, 15. Europ. Settlements, i. c. 11. Clavigero thinks it probable, that Montezuma died on the 30th of June. He was in the 54th year of his age. His body was honourably borne out, and delivered to the Mexicans, who received it with strong expressions of sorrow. B. Diaz. Of its treatment the accounts are various. P. Martyr [366] stops here. "Corpus humandum civibus tradiderunt nostri. Quid ultra nesciunt." Cortes himself says, "Quid fuerit actum ignoro." Montezuma was a prince of majestic and graceful presence; of vigorous understanding; of martial genius, and distinguished bravery. He was just, magnificent, and liberal; but his justice often degenerated into cruelty, and his magnificence and liberality were supported by heavy burdens on his subjects. In every thing pertaining to religion, he was exact and punctual, and was jealous of the worship of his gods and the observ 1520. Noche ico. The Mexicans now most violently attacked the Spaniards, who making another sally in return, had 20 soldiers slain. Death being before their eyes in every direction, the Spaniards determined to leave the city during the night. On the 1st of July, a July 1. little before midnight, they silently commenced their march, but triste. were soon discovered by the Mexicans, who assailed them on all Retreat sides; and it was with great loss, and the utmost hazard of entire from Mexdestruction, that they effected their retreat. On the 6th day, this maimed and wretched army, pursued by hosts of enraged enemies, was compelled to give them battle near Otompan, Battle of toward the confines of the Tlascalan territories. This battle Otompan. was extremely bloody, and lasted upwards of four hours; but the Spaniards, with their Indian auxiliaries, obtained a decisive victory over the whole power of Mexico; and, proceeding in The Spantheir march, reached the province of Tlascala, where, in the iards enter bosom of their faithful ally, they found entire security.1 Cortes, having subjugated the districts in the vicinity of Tlas ance of rites. Though often zealously urged by Cortes to renounce his false gods, and embrace the Christian faith, he had always rejected the proposal with horror; and to this rejection he inflexibly adhered in the prospect of death. See Clavigero, De Solis, and Robertson. Why did he admit Cortes into his capital, and subject himself to the grossest indignities, when he might unquestionably have expelled, if not annihilated, his army? Antonio De Solis, the Spanish historiographer, is at no loss for a reason:-" sirviendose de su manseaumbre para la primera introduccion de los Españoles: principio, de que resultò despues la conversion de aquella Gentilidad." "The very effects of it have since discovered, that God took the reins into his own hand on purpose to tame that monster; making his unusual gentleness instrumental to the first introduction of the Spaniards, a beginning from whence afterward resulted the conversion of those heathen nations." Conquest of Mexico, lib. 4. c. 15. We ought to adore that Providence, which we cannot comprehend; but it is impious presumption to assign such reasons for its measures, as are contradicted by facts. The natural causes of the abject submission of Montezuma may, perhaps, be traced to a long and traditionary expectation of the subjection of the Mexican empire to a foreign power; to the predictions of soothsayers, with their expositions of recent and present omens; to the forebodings of a superstitious mind; to the astonishmenr excited by the view of a new race of men with unknown and surprising implements of war; and to the extraordinary success of the Spanish arms from the first moment of the arrival of Cortes on the Mexican coast. 1 B. Diaz, c. 128. Clavigero, ii. 113-120. De Solis, ii. 178-189. Herrera, d. 2. lib. 9, 10. F. Cortesii Narratio Secunda, in Grynæo. Robertson, b. 5. The disastrous night was called by the Spaniards, Noche triste; and by this name, Clavigero says, it is still distinguished in New Spain. In the subsequent dates, authors disagree. I follow Clavigero, who thus adjusted them after a careful comparison.-Dr. Robertson, after examining the various accounts of the Spanish historians, gives it as his opinion, that the loss of the Spaniards, in this retreat from Mexico, cannot well be estimated at less than 600 men. Clavigero, following the computation of Gomara, inclines to the opinion, that there fell, on the sad night, "beside 450 Spaniards, more than 4000 auxiliaries, and among them, as Cortes says, all the Cholulans; almost all the prisoners, the men and women who were in the service of the Spaniards, were killed, also 40 horses: and all the riches they had amassed, all their artillery, and all the manuscripts belonging to Cortes, containing an account of every thing which had happened to the Spaniards until that period, were lost." Many of the Spanish prisoners were sacrificed in the great temple of Mexico. 8. Tlascala. Dec. 23. Cortes marches towards Mexico. 1520. cala, was encouraged by the reception of a fresh supply of men and ammunition, to resume his enterprise. A merchantman from the Canaries, with fire arms, powder, and warlike provisions, coming to trade at Vera Cruz, the captain, master, and thirteen Spanish soldiers of fortune, went with Cortes' commissary to the camp, and joined the army. Cortes, unexpectedly receiving these and some other reinforcements, marched back toward the coast of Mexico, six months after his disastrous retreat, and on the last day of the year made an entry into Tezcuco. This city, though somewhat inferior to Mexico in splendour and magnificence, was the largest and most populous city of the country of Anahuac. Cortes entered it, accompanied by two princes and many of the Acolhuan nobility, amidst an immense concourse of people, and was lodged with all his army in the principal palace of the king. This is the first city in the Mexican empire, in which the Spanish government was established.2 Enters Tezcuco. Voyage of 1 Reports in Europe of the discovery of the South Sea excited in many persons an ardent desire to navigate it; but the question was, whether or not it communicated with the North Sea. While the subject engaged the attention of the curious in cosmography, hydrography, and navigation, none had hitherto offered themselves for the enterprise. At length Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese in the service of Spain, undertook a voyage for the discovery of the South Sea, with an intention of proceeding in that direction to the Molucca or Spice Islands. Approaching to the fifty second degree of south latitude, on the 7th of November, Discovery he entered the famous Straits which bear his name. He found of Straits. them to be, in some places, 110 leagues in length, in some parts very broad, in others little more than half a league. On the 28th of November, he entered the great Southern ocean, which he called, The Pacific.3 Pacific ocean. 1 Clavigero, ii. 138, 139. Robertson, b. 5. De Solis, b. 5. c. 9. Grynæus, 607. 2 Alcedo, Art. TEZCoco, or TEZCUCO. "After the establishment of the Mexican empire, it was the court of the princes of the race of Moctezuma, and was, consequently, a place of great magnificence." Tezcuco was situated on the banks of the Mexican lake, about 20 miles from Mexico, and was the second city in the empire. 3 Herrera, d. 2. lib. 9. c. 14. Encyc. Methodique, Geog. Art. MAGELLAN and PACIFIQUE. Harris' Voy. b. 1. c. 3. Robertson, b. 5. Univ. Hist. xxxix. 215. Bibliotheca Americana, 52. Charlevoix, Paraguay, i. 30. Venegas, California, i. 120. Dalrymple's Voyages, i. 3-34, from Fr. Gaspar's Conquista de las Islas Philipinas. Collection of Voyages and Discoveries made by the Portuguese and Spaniards during the 15th and 16th centuries, from Ramusio. In this Collection there is the original account of this voyage by Pigafetta, an Italian, one of the adventurers. "On both sides of this strait," says Pigafetta, "are great and high mountains, covered with snow, beyond which is the entrance into the South Sea. This entrance the captain named Mare Pacificum." After Magellan entered the Pacific ocean, he sailed northwesterly 3000 leagues, and on the 13th of March, 1521, discovered the Philippine islands, in one of which Indians Luke Velazquez, of Aylon, a licentiate, wanting hands to work 1520. the Spanish mines, having entered into an agreement with some associates, to steal a number of the Indians from the neighbour- L. Velaz ing islands to be employed in that business, equipped two ships, quez steals and sailed from the harbour of La Plata. Steering, by chance from Florior design, a northwesterly course, he came to the most distant da. of the Lucayos islands; and thence to that part of Florida, in 32°, since called St. Helena. Having here decoyed a large number of the natives on board his ships, he sailed away with them toward Hispaniola. Most of these wretched captives pined to death, or were wrecked in one of the ships which foundered at sea. A few suffered a worse fate in Spanish slavery.1 pan. CORTES, having fixed his quarters at Tezcuco, resolved to make 1521. an assault upon the city of Iztapalapan. This resolution was Expedition taken in revenge for the offences he had received from its ancient against Iztapalalord Cuitlahuatzin, whom he knew to be the author of the memorable defeat of the 1st of July. Leaving a garrison of more than 300 Spaniards and many allies, under the command of Gonzales de Sandoval, he marched with upwards of 200 Spaniards, and more than 3000 Tlascalans, with many of the Tezcucan nobility, who were met by some troops of the enemy, that fought them, but retreated. The assailing army, on entering Iztapalapan, and finding it almost entirely evacuated, began in the night to sack the city; and the Tlascalans set fire to the houses. The light of this conflagration discovering to them the water overflowing he was killed by the natives. John Sebastian del Cano, afterward chosen captain, conducted the remainder of the voyage, which was finished 7th September, 1522. The ship, called the Victory, was the only one of Magellan's squadron that returned to Spain. This was the first circumnavigation of the earth. 1 P. Martyr, 470, 471. Herrera, Descrip. des las Islas &c. iv. c. 8. Purchas, iv. 869. Roberts' Florida, 27, 28. Univ. Hist. xli. 379. Cardenas' Hist. Floride, A. D. 1520. Cardenas says, that Vazquez (so he and some others write the name) took off one hundred and thirty Indians: "Lucas Vazquez, por algun mal consejo, dejo entrar en los navios hasta 130. Indios &c." P. Martyr's account of this nefarious expedition is neat and pathetic: "Hospiti fidem violarunt Hispani tandem. Astu namque artibusque variis, post cuncta diligenter vestigata, operam dederunt ut una dierum ad naves visendi causa multi concurrerent, implentur naves inspectantibus: ubi refertas viris ac fœminis habuere, anchoris evulsis, velis protentis, lugentes abduxerunt in servitutem. Ita regiones eas universas ex amicis reliquerunt inimicas, et ex pacatis perturbatas, filis à parentibus, ab uxoribus maritis." The latitude of the place where Velazquez landed, with P. Martyr's description and opinion, fixes it in South Carolina, probably the island now called St. Helena :-"vel Bacchalaos anno abhinc vigesimo sexto ex Anglia per Cabotum repertos, aut Bacchalais contiguas, arbitror esse illas terras." Charlevoix [Hist. Nouv. France, i. p. xvii.] says, that Vazques disscovered the Cape of St. Helena, at the mouth of a great river, which has since been called The Jourdain. In his Map of the Coasts of French Florida, he makes the Jourdain the same as the Congaree, or Santee, of South Carolina, and near its mouth puts these words: "Ici devoit etre le Cap St. Helene." I conjecture that he should have said, The Combahee, which empties itself into St. Helena Sound, near the island of St. Helena. See A. D. 1562. 1521. the canals, and beginning to inundate the city, a retreat was sounded; but so far had the inundation risen, that the Spaniards made their passage back with difficulty; some of the Tlascalans were drowned; and the greatest part of the booty was lost. This disaster was soon compensated by new confederacies, formed with several neighbouring cities by means of their ambassadors.1 to Tezcuco. Brigantines Cortes, who never relinquished the thought of the conquest of transported Mexico, had taken care to have 13 brigantines built, while he was at Tlascala, in aid of the great enterprise. These vessels he now caused to be transported by land to Tezcuco. The command of the convoy, consisting of 200 foot soldiers, 15 horsemen, and two field pieces, he gave to Sandoval. Orders were given him to proceed by a place called by the Spaniards Puebla Moresca, to inflict an exemplary punishment on the inhabitants, who had robbed and put to death 40 Spanish soldiers, who were on their march from Vera Cruz to Mexico, for the relief of Alvarado. Eight thousand Tlascalans carried on their backs the beams, sails, and other materials, necessary for their construction; 2000 were loaded with provisions; and 30,000 were armed for defence, under the command of three Indian chiefs. After several expeditions into the neighbouring country; a fruitless attempt at a negotiation with Mexico; and the suppression of a conspiracy against his own life; Cortes made his final preparation for the siege of Mexico. On the 28th of April, the brigantines were launched into the Mexican lake. Notice of the grand movements was given to the allies, who now poured into Tezcuco, April 28. 1 Clavigero, ii. 142, 143. B. Diaz, ii. 34, 35. The citizens, in order to drown all their enemies, broke the mole of the lake, and entirely deluged the city. Two Spaniards only and one horse were lost; but upwards of 6000 of the hostile natives were slain. B. Diaz says, that he received a wound in his throat," the marks of which," he adds, "I carry to this day." 2 He had obtained of the Senate 100 men of burden, for the transportation of the sails, cordage, iron, and other materials of the vessels, which he had unrigged the preceding year, with a view to this very use; and for tar had extracted turpentine from the pines of a neighbouring mountain. The materials were so prepared, that they might be carried in pieces ready to be put together. The first brigantine was built by Martino Lopez, a Spanish soldier, who was an engineer in the army of Cortes. After that model the other 12 were built by the Tlascalans. Clavigero, ii. 135, 146. Robertson, b. 5. 3 In the temples at that place were found many traces of their blood upon the walls; their idols were besmeared with it; "and we found," says B. Diaz, "the skins of two of their faces with their beards, dressed like leather, and hung upon the altars, as were also the shoes of four horses, together with their skins, very well dressed." 4 Clavigero, ii. 146. B. Diaz, it. c. 2. Robertson, b. 5. But these authors differ from each other in their account of the number of armed Indians, that guarded this convoy. I have followed Clavigero. The line of march, according to B. Diaz, extended in some places, above 6 miles; and the entire materials for 13 brigantines were thus carried over land, through a mountainous country, 60 miles. |