CHAPTER XXXVII.
ONCE MORE IN THE MEXICAN VALLEY
During the four months occupied by Cortes in reconquering the easternhalf of the Aztec kingdom, so that when he was ready to proceedagainst its capital city he might leave no enemy behind him, events ofimportance were taking place elsewhere. One of these was the death ofCuitlahua, Montezuma's brother and successor. He fell before a dreadscourge now sweeping over the land, and reaping such a harvest of deadas even that warlike country had never known. It was the small-pox,introduced to the Western World by a negro, the first of his race toset foot on the American continent, who had been one of the followersof Narvaez. Breaking out at Cempoalla, it swept over the land with thevirulence of a plague, seizing alike upon hut and palace. In Tlascala,the blind chieftain of Titcala was among its victims. Huetzin, hastilysummoned from a distant battle-field, stood at the bedside of his dyinggrandsire, and as the old man breathed his last under the holy sign ofthe Cross, the son of Tlahuicol was proclaimed head of the proud houseof Titcala, and ruled in his place.
At nearly the same time and in the same city, Marina closed forever theeyes of her parents, who expired within a few minutes of each other,of the same fatal disease. Thus the young chieftain and the orphanedIndian girl became companions in sorrow, as they had been in seasons ofrejoicing.
In the proud city of Tenochtitlan the dead king was succeeded by hisnephew, Guatamotzin, a young man of twenty-five, well instructed in theart of native warfare, fierce, energetic, and shrewd, hating the whitemen and their religion with a bitter hatred, fanatically devoted to thebloodthirsty gods of his own land, and influenced in all his actions bytheir priests. In him the white conquerors were to encounter their mostformidable opponent.
But they were not to encounter him unprepared, and their most importantpreparation was in progress during the four months of their militaryactivity. All that time Martin Lopez, the ship-builder, aided by afew Spanish carpenters and a great force of natives, was hewing downtimber in the forests of Tlascala, and converting it into a fleet ofthirteen brigantines. These were to be completely set up and launchedfor trial on a small lake near the city. Then they were to be taken topieces, transported on the shoulders of tamanes across the mountainsto Tezcuco, where they were to be again put together, and finallylaunched on the great salt lake washing Tenochtitlan. Their rigging,sails, iron-work, and anchors were transported on the backs of tamanesfrom the distant port of Vera Cruz, where this material had been storedever since the destruction of the ships that had brought the conquerorsto the country.
When Cortes returned to Tlascala from the subjugation of theneighboring provinces, he found this fleet well on its way towardcompletion. Several of the brigantines with which he proposed toconquer the distant island city were already floating bravely on thetiny lake, beside which they were built, to the wonder and delight ofall Tlascala.
As the Christian leader and his companions entered the city, theycompletely won the hearts of its inhabitants, by wearing badges ofdeep mourning in honor of the late chieftain of Titcala. After causinga solemn mass to be performed in memory of the dead, Cortes, in thepresence of the whole city, conferred the degree of knighthood upon theaged chieftain's successor, who, with the accolade, formally receivedthe christian name of "Juan." Thus, for his own noble qualities andunswerving loyalty to the faith of his fathers, even to the point ofdeath, Huetzin, the son of Tlahuicol, became a Knight of Castile, andthe first native of the New World to receive that honor.
By the Christmas of 1520, all preparations for again advancing onTenochtitlan were completed, and on the following day the Spanish army,together with an allied force of ten thousand warriors under command ofHuetzin, marched forth from the friendly city of Tlascala. As on formeroccasions, it was accompanied for miles by half the population, whomingled their acclamations with tears and prayers to the gods for itssafety and success. Besides the Tlascalans, the present army containednearly six hundred Spaniards, forty of whom were cavaliers, and eightybore muskets. The rest were armed with swords and Chinantla pikes. Inaddition to all this, Cortes had nine small cannon, and a fair supplyof powder, manufactured by himself with sulphur obtained at fearfulrisk from the smoking crater of lofty Popocatepetl.
In two days this army had scaled the western Cordilleras, and wereagain gazing, with mingled feelings and memories, into the fair valleyof Mexico that, bathed in its golden sunshine, lay outspread at theirfeet.
In spite of the ominous beacon flames streaming from the tower-liketemples of every city in the valley, they marched at once to the cityof Tezcuco, from which the Prince, who had succeeded Cacama, and manyof the inhabitants fled at their approach. They entered the city, thename of which is interpreted to mean "place of rest," on the last dayof the year that had been so filled with stirring events, and in whichdefeat and victory, disaster and triumph, had succeeded each other withsuch rapidity.
From Tezcuco as a base of operations, Cortes proposed to reduce, insuccession, every city of the valley, before proceeding to the attackof Tenochtitlan. Many of these, and conspicuous among them Chalco,on the fresh-water lake of the same name, he found heartily ready tothrow off the hated Aztec yoke, and enter into an alliance with thewhites. Others, such as the royal city of Iztapalapan, he assaulted andcaptured.
Wishing to test the temper of the new king, and to avoid furtherbloodshed if possible, Cortes liberated several Aztec nobles madeprisoners in Iztapalapan, and sent them with a message to the capital.They were instructed to say that, if the city would return to theallegiance sworn to by Montezuma, and renounce human sacrifices to itsgods, the authority of Guatamotzin should be confirmed, and the personsand property of his subjects respected by the Christians.
To this message no direct answer was received, but a royal proclamationwas made, commanding that every Spaniard or Tlascalan captured withinthe kingdom should be immediately sent to Tenochtitlan for sacrifice.It also offered tempting rewards for every one thus taken, or for hisdead body.
Then Cortes knew that the war must be fought out to its bitter end, andimmediately set forth with another expedition for the reduction of thesurrounding country. This time he advanced as far as Tlacopan, where,in his mind and in those of his veterans, sad memories of the terriblenight, the _noche triste_, were revived. Two well-fought battles werenecessary for the reduction of this city, and after its capture Cortesoccupied it for several days, during which he made sorties into theneighborhood.
In one of these he, with a small body of troops, pursued a flying partyof Aztecs out over the fatal causeway. The enemy fled as far as thefirst bridge, and there, suddenly opening to either side, displayedto the astonished Spaniard a large and well-appointed force advancingrapidly toward them. At the same time a great fleet of canoes appeared,and directly Cortes found himself engaged in another desperate struggleon this sadly remembered battle-ground. Ere they could make good theirretreat, a dozen of the Spaniards and twice that number of Tlascalanshad been killed or borne off to a more horrible fate in the canoes, andall were more or less wounded. It was a severe lesson in the tactics ofGuatamotzin, and the Conqueror meditated it deeply, as he led his forceback to Tezcuco.
At this place he received word from Tlascala that his brigantines werefinished and ready for transportation across the mountains. Thereupon,he immediately despatched Sandoval and Huetzin, with two hundredSpanish foot, fifteen horsemen, and two thousand Tlascalan warriors,to convoy them to the scene of their intended usefulness. On their waythese passed through the little town of Zaltepec, the place in whichthe five-and-forty Spanish explorers had been treacherously capturedand sacrificed.
The inhabitants fled at Sandoval's approach; but in their desertedtemples he found many traces of his unfortunate countrymen. Not onlywere their armor and clothing hung about the walls as trophies, buttheir heads were found embalmed and suspended before the altars. Here,too, were the skins of their horses, so skilfully mounted that for amoment the Spaniards stared at them in amazement, thinking them liveanimals. As
a punishment for this crime Sandoval ordered that the townbe destroyed by fire, and that such of its inhabitants as might becaptured should be branded as slaves.
From Zaltepec, Sandoval and Huetzin rapidly crossed the mountains; butbefore they reached Tlascala they met the advanced guard of an immensearmy, headed by Xicoten, and threading its sinuous way through thenarrow defiles of the sierra. Old Martin Lopez, having finished hisvessels, tested them, and taken them to pieces again, was impatientto see them in action. So he persuaded the Tlascalan councillors tofurnish him with a convoy to Tezcuco. Xicoten, the war-chief, refusedto march at the head of less than fifty thousand men. Consequentlythis number of warriors had to be gathered and placed under hiscommand. His instructions were to join his forces with those already atTezcuco, and place them at the disposal of Cortes, for the capture ofTenochtitlan.
Sandoval, knowing that it would be almost impossible to feed such anarmy at Tezcuco, kindly but firmly dismissed two-thirds of Xicoten'sforce as soon as he met it; the remainder, still under Xicoten's lead,he allowed to act as a vanguard. With his Spaniards he protected theflanks of the army of Cortes bearing the precious brigantines, and toHuetzin he entrusted the responsibility of the rear.
For twenty leagues was this inland-built fleet of war-ships thustransported over rugged mountains. The thousands of tamanes bearingits timbers, spars, sails, rigging, anchors, and, in fact, its entireequipment, formed a compact line of over six miles in length; and as,on the fifth day after leaving Tlascala, this unique procession filedinto the streets of Tezcuco, joyfully welcomed by Cortes and his entirearmy, it occupied six hours in passing a given point. On this greatoccasion Sandoval had insisted that to Huetzin and his tried warriorsshould be accorded the honor of heading the brilliant train. This sofilled Xicoten with mortification and jealous rage, that from thatmoment he plotted, not only the overthrow of his rival, but of theChristian army.
That very night he caused Huetzin to be seized in his own quarters andhurried away toward the mountains. At the same time he ordered thesecret departure of the entire Tlascalan army. In the morning he wasthe first to report to Cortes this defection of the allied force. Heattributed it to Huetzin, who, he declared he had reason to know, haddeserted to the enemy.
To his confusion, even while he was making this statement, the youngToltec, who by the aid of some of his own faithful followers, hadsucceeded in making his escape, returned and confronted the Tlascalanwar-chief. Greatly incensed at this baseness, and at the same timedesirous of making an example that should impress his allies as well ashis enemies, Cortes caused Xicoten to be tried by court-martial. By ithe was without hesitation condemned to death, and that same evening hewas publicly executed, in the presence of the entire army.