Footnote[7]The writer sounded the lake in the channel from Mexico to Tezcoco in 1842, and did not find more than 2½1/2 feet in the deepest path. The Indians, at present, wade over all parts of the lake.
[7]The writer sounded the lake in the channel from Mexico to Tezcoco in 1842, and did not find more than 2½1/2 feet in the deepest path. The Indians, at present, wade over all parts of the lake.
Ornamental ending
AZTEC PREDICTION—IT IS NOT VERIFIED.—CORTÉZ REINFORCED BY FRESH ARRIVALS.—FAMINE IN THE CITY.—CORTÉZ LEVELS THE CITY TO ITS FOUNDATION.—CONDITION OF THE CAPITAL—ATTACK RENEWED.—CAPTURE OF GUATEMOZIN—SURRENDER OF THE CITY.—FRIGHTFUL CONDITION OF THE CITY.
AZTEC PREDICTION—IT IS NOT VERIFIED.—CORTÉZ REINFORCED BY FRESH ARRIVALS.—FAMINE IN THE CITY.—CORTÉZ LEVELS THE CITY TO ITS FOUNDATION.—CONDITION OF THE CAPITAL—ATTACK RENEWED.—CAPTURE OF GUATEMOZIN—SURRENDER OF THE CITY.—FRIGHTFUL CONDITION OF THE CITY.
The desertion of numerous allies, which we have noticed in the last chapter, was not alone prompted by the judgment of the flying Indians, but was stimulated in a great degree by the prophecy of the Aztec priests, that, within eight days from the period of prediction, the beleaguered city would be delivered from the Spaniards. But the sun rose on the ninth over the inexorable foes still in position on the causeways and on the lake. The news was soon sent by the allies who had remained faithful, to those who had fled, and the deficient ranks were quickly restored by the numbers who flocked back to the Spanish standard as soon as they were relieved from superstitious fear.
About this time, moreover, a vessel that had been destined for Ponce de Leon, in his romantic quest of Florida, put into Vera Cruz with ammunition and military stores, which were soon forwarded to the valley. Thus strengthened by his renerved Indian auxiliaries, and reinforced with Spanish powder and guns, Cortéz was speedily again in train to assail the capital; for he was not content to be idle except when the most serious disasters forced him to endure the slow and murderous process of subduing the city by famine. There may, perhaps, be something noble and chivalrous in this feeling of the Castilian hero. His heart revolted at the sight of misery inflicted without a chance of escape, and it delighted in those conflicts which matched man with man, and gave the ultimate victory to valor and not to stratagem.
Accordingly the conqueror resolved again to commence active hostilities. But, this time, he designed to permit no hazards of the moment, and no personal carelessness of his officers to obstruct his entry or egress from the city. As he advanced the town was to be demolished; the canals filled up; the breaches in the dykes perfectly repaired; and, as he moved onwards to the north and west, he determined that his path should be over a level and solid surface on which he might encounter none of the dangers that had hitherto proved so disastrous. The necessity of this course will be evident when it is recollected that all the houses were terraced with flat roofs and protecting parapets, which sheltered the assailants, whilst the innumerable canals bisecting the streets served as so many pitfalls for cavalry, footmen and Indians, when they became confused in the hurry of a promiscuous onset or retreat.
*****
Meanwhile the Aztecs within the city suffered the pangs of famine. The stores that had been gathered for the siege were gone. Human bodies, roots, rats, reptiles, served for a season, to assuage the famished stomachs of the starving crowds;—when suddenly, Cortéz despatched three Aztec nobles to Guatemozin, who were instructed to praise his defence, to assure him he had saved the honor of himself and soldiery, and to point out the utter uselessness of longer delay in submitting to inevitable fate. The message of the conqueror was weighed by the court with more favor than by the proud and spirited Emperor, whose patriotic bosom burned at the disgraceful proposal of surrender. The priests turned the tide against the white men; and, after two days, the answer to the summons came in a warlike sortie from the city which well nigh swept the Spanish defenders from the dykes. But cannon and musketry were too strong for mere numbers. The vessels poured in their volumes of iron hail on the flanks, and the last dread effort of defensive despair expired before the unflinching firmness of the Castilian squadrons. At length, Cortéz believed that the moment for final action had arrived. He gave orders for the advance of the several corps of the army simultaneously by their several causeways; and although it pained him greatly to destroy a capital which he deemed "the gem of the world," yet he put into execution his resolve to raze the city to its foundation unless it surrendered at discretion. The number of laborers was increased daily by the hosts that flocked like vultures to the carcase of an expiring victim. The palaces, temples and dwellings were plundered, thrown down, and cast into the canalsThe water was entirely excluded from the city. On all sides there was fast and level land. But the Mexicans were not mere idle, contemptible spectators of their imperial city's ruin. Day after day squadrons sallied from the remains of the capital, and engaged the harrassed invaders. Yet the indomitable constancy of the Spaniards was not to be resisted. Cortéz and Alvarado had toiled onward towards each other, from opposite sides, till they met. The palace of Guatemozin fell and was burned. The district of Tlatelolco, in the north of the city, was reached, and the great market-place secured. One of the great Teocallis, in this quarter, was stormed, its sanctuaries burned, and the standard of Castile placed on its summit. Havoc, death, ruin, starvation, despair, hatred, were every where manifest. Every hour added to the misery of the numerous and retreating Aztecs who were pent up, as the besieging circle narrowed and narrowed by its advances. Women remained three days and nights up to their necks in water among the reeds. Hundreds died daily. Others became insane from famine and thirst.
The conqueror hoped, for several days, that this disastrous condition of the people would have induced the Emperor to come to terms; but, failing in this, he resolved upon a general assault. Before he resorted to this dreadful alternative, which his chivalrous heart taught him could result only in the slaughter of men so famished, dispirited and broken, he once more sought an interview with the Emperor. This was granted; but, at the appointed time, Guatemozin did not appear. Again the appeal was renewed, and, again, was Cortéz disappointed in the arrival of the sovereign. Nothing, then, remained for him but an assault, and, as may readily be imagined, the carnage in this combined attack of Spaniards and confederate Indians was indescribably horrible. The long endurance of the Aztecs; their prolonged resistance and cruelty to the Spaniards; the dreadful sacrifice of the captives during the entire period of the siege; the memory of the first expulsion, and the speedy hope of golden rewards, nerved the arms and hearts of these ferocious men, and led them on, in the work of revenge and conquest, until the sun sunk and night descended on the tragic scene.
On the 13th of August, 1521, the last appeal was made by Cortéz to the Emperor for a surrender of his capital. After the bloody scenes of the preceding day, and the increased misery of the last night, it was not to be imagined that even insane patriotism or savage madness could induce the sovereign to refrain fromsaving, at least, the unfortunate non-combatants who still were loyal to his throne and person. But the judgment of the conqueror was wrong. "Guatemozin would die where he was!" was the reply of the royal stoic.
*****
Again the infuriate troops were let loose, and again were the scenes of the day before re-enacted on the bloody theatre. Many escaped in boats by the lake; but the brave or reckless Guatemozin, who seems, at the last moment, to have changed his mind as to perishing, was taken prisoner and brought, with his family, into the presence of Cortéz. As soon as his noble figure and dignified face were seen on theazotéaor terraced roof, beside the conqueror, the battle ceased. The Indians beheld their monarch captive! And she who had witnessed the beginning of these adventures,—who had followed the fortunes of the General through all their vicissitudes—the gentle but brave Indian girl—Mariana—stood by the intrepid Cortéz to act as his interpreter in this last scene of the splendid and eventful drama.
*****
It was on the following day that the Mexicans who still survived the slaughter and famine, evacuated the city. It was a desert—but a desert covered with dead. The men who rushed in to plunder,—plundered as if robbing graves. Between one and two hundred thousand people perished during the three months' siege, and their festering bodies tainted the air. The booty, though considerable, was far beneath the expectations of the conquerors; yet there was doubtless enough to reward amply the stout men at arms who had achieved a victory unparalleled in the annals of modern warfare.
"What I am going to say is truth, and I swear, and say Amen to it!"—exclaims Bernal Diaz del Castillo, in his quaint style—"I have read of the destruction of Jerusalem, but I cannot conceive that the mortality there exceeded that of Mexico; for all the people from the distant provinces, which belonged to this empire, had concentrated themselves here, where they mostly died. The streets, and squares, and houses, and the courts of the Tlatelolco were covered with dead bodies; we could not step without treading on them; the lake and canals were filled with them, and the stench was intolerable.
"When all those who had been able, quitted the city, we went to examine it, which was as I have described; and some poor creatures were crawling about in different stages of the most offensivedisorders, the consequences of famine and improper food. There was no water; the ground had been torn up and the roots gnawed. The very trees were stripped of their bark; yet, notwithstanding they usually devoured their prisoners, no instance occurred when, amidst all the famine and starvation of this siege, they preyed upon each other.[8]The remnant of the population went, at the request of the conquered Guatemozin, to the neighboring villages, until the town could be purified and the dead removed."
Footnote[8]This fact, as stated by Bernal Diaz, is doubted by some other writers, and seems, unfortunately, not fully sustained by authority.
[8]This fact, as stated by Bernal Diaz, is doubted by some other writers, and seems, unfortunately, not fully sustained by authority.
DUTY OF A HISTORIAN.—MOTIVES OF THE CONQUEST.—CHARACTER AND DEEDS OF CORTÉZ.—MATERIALS OF THE CONQUEST.—ADVENTURERS—PRIESTS—INDIAN ALLIES.—HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF THE CONQUEST.
DUTY OF A HISTORIAN.—MOTIVES OF THE CONQUEST.—CHARACTER AND DEEDS OF CORTÉZ.—MATERIALS OF THE CONQUEST.—ADVENTURERS—PRIESTS—INDIAN ALLIES.—HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF THE CONQUEST.
It is perhaps one of the most difficult duties of a historian, who desires to present a faithful picture of a remote age, to place himself in such a position as to draw the moral from his story with justice to the people and the deeds he has described. He is obliged to forget, not only his individuality and all the associations or prejudices with which he has grown up surrounded, but he must, in fact, endeavor to make himself a man and an actor in the age of which he writes. He must sympathize justly, but impartially, with the past, and estimate the motives of his fellow beings in the epoch he describes. He must measure his heroes, not by the standard of advanced Christian civilization under which he has been educated, but by the scale of enlightened opinion which was then acknowledged by the most respectable and intellectual classes of society.
When we approach the Conquest of Mexico with these impartial feelings, we are induced to pass lighter judgments on the prominent men of that wonderful enterprise. The love of adventure or glory, the passion of avarice, and the zeal of religion,—all of which mingled their threads with the meshes of this Indian web, were, unquestionably, the predominant motives that led the conquerors to Mexico. In some of them, a single one of these impulses was sufficient to set the bold adventurer in motion;—in others, perhaps, they were all combined. The necessary rapidity of our narrative has confined us more to the detail of prominent incidents than we would have desired had it been our task to disclose the wondrous tale of the conquest alone; but it would be wrong, even inthe briefest summary of the enterprise, to pass from the topic without awarding to the moving spirit of the romantic drama the fair estimate which his character and deeds demand.
*****
We have ever regarded Hernando Cortéz as the great controlling spirit and embodiment of the conquest, regardless of the brilliant and able men who were grouped around him, all of whom, tempered and regulated by his genius, moved the military machine, step by step, and act by act, until the capital fell before the united armies of discontented Indians and invading Spaniards. It was in the mind of this remarkable personage that every scheme appears to have originated and ripened. This is the report of the most authentic contemporaries. He took counsel, it is true, of his captains, and heard the reports of Sandoval, Olid, and Alvarado; but whenever a great enterprise, in all the wonderful and varied combinations of this adventure, was to be carried into successful execution, it was Cortéz himself who planned it, placed himself at its head, and fought in its midst. The rash youth whom we saw either idling over his tasks at school, or a reckless stripling as he advanced in life, seems to have mellowed suddenly into greatness under the glow of Indian suns which would have emasculated a character of less rude or nervous strength. As soon as a project, worthy of the real power of his genius, presented itself to his mind and opened to his grasp, he became a sobered, steadfast, serious, discreet man. He was at once isolated by his superiority, and contrived to retain, by his wisdom in command, the superiority which was so perfectly manifested by this isolation. This alone, was no trifling task. His natural adroitness not only taught him quickly the value of every man in his command, but also rendered keener the tact by which he strove to use those men when their talents, for good or evil, were once completely ascertained. There were jealousies of Cortéz, but no rivalries.Men from the ranksconspired to displace him, but noleaderever ventured, or perhaps even conceived the idea, whilst under his orders, of superceding the hero of the Mexican conquest. The skill with which he won the loyal heart of that clever Indian girl—his mistress and companion through all the warfare,—discloses to us his power of attaching a sex which is always quickest to detect merit and readiest to discard conceit. We speak now of Cortéz during that period of his career when he was essentially the soul of the conquest, and in which the stern demands of war upon his intellect and heart, didnot allow him to sleep for a moment on his post, or to tamper with the elements upon which he relied for success. In all this time he made but few mistakes. The loss of the capital during the first visit is not to be attributed to him. The stain of that calamity must rest forever upon the escutcheon of Alvarado, for the irreparable harm was already done when Cortéz returned from the subjugation of Narvaez.
Nor is it alone as a soldier, at this time, that we are called on to appreciate the talents of our hero. Whilst he planned, fought, travelled, retreated, and diplomatised, he kept an accurate account of the adventures of his troop; and, in his celebrated letters to the Emperor, he has presented us a series of military memoirs, which, after three hundred years, furnish, in reality, the best, but least pretending, narrative of the conquest. Other contemporaries, looking upon the scenes from a variety of points, may serve to add interesting details and more copious illustration to the story; but they support without diminishing the value and truth of the despatches of Cortéz.
The conqueror, in truth, was one of those men whose minds seem to reach results intuitively. Education often ripens genius, as the genial sun and air mature the fruits of the earth which would languish without them. But we sometimes find individuals whose dealings on earth are to be chiefly in energetic and constant action with their fellow creatures, and who are gifted with a finer tact which enables them to penetrate the hearts of all they approach, and by this skilful detection of character are empowered to mould them to their purposes. There are, it is true, many subordinate qualities, besides the mere perceptive faculties, that are needful in such a person. He must possess self-control and discrimination in a remarkable degree. His courage and self-reliance must be unquestionable. He must be able to win by gentleness as well as to control by command or to rule by stratagem; for there are persons whom neither kindness, reason nor authority can lead, but who are nevertheless too important to be disregarded in such an enterprise as that of the conquest of Mexico.
Nor is our admiration of the characteristics we have endeavored to sketch, diminished when we examine the elements of the original army that flocked to the standard of Cortéz. The Spanish court and camps,—the Spanish towns and sea-ports,—had sent forth a motley band to the islands. The sedate and worthier portions of Castilian society were not wooed abroad by the alluring accounts of the New World and its prolific wealth. They didnot choose to leave hereditary homes and comfortable emoluments which made those homes the permanent abodes of contentment if not of luxury. But there were others in the dense crowds of Spain whose habits, disposition and education, fostered in them all the love of ease and elegance, without bestowing the means of gratifying their desires. These men regarded the New World as a short and easy road to opulence and distinction. There were others too, whose reckless or dissipated habits had wasted their fortunes and blasted their names in their native towns, and who could not bear to look upon the scenes of their youth, or the companions of their more fortunate days, whilst poverty and disgrace deprived them of the rights of free and equal social intercourse. These were the poor and proud;—the noisy and the riotous;—the soldier, half bandit, half warrior;—the sailor, half mutineer, half pirate;—the zealot whose bigotry magnified the dangers of Indian life into the glory of martyrdom; and the avaricious man who dreamed that the very sands of the Indian Isles were strewn with gems and gold. Among all this mass of wayward lust and ambition, there were some lofty spirits whose love of glory, whose passionate devotion to adventure, and whose genuine anxiety to spread the true word of God among the infidels, sanctified and adorned the enterprise, whilst their personal efforts and influence were continually directed towards the noble purpose of redeeming it from cruelty. These men recollected that posterity would set its seal upon their deeds, whilst many of them acted from a higher and purer Christian motive, devoid of all that narrow selfishness with which others kept their eyes fixed on the present and the future for the popular opinion that was to disgrace or dignify them on the pages of history.
*****
Such were the Spanish materials of the armies with which Cortéz invaded Mexico; and yet, even with all the masterly genius he possessed to mould and lead such discordant elements, what could he have substantially effected, against the Aztec Empire, with his handful of men,—armed, mounted and equipped as they were,—without hisIndian allies? These he had to conquer, to win, to control, to bind to him, forever, with the chains of an indestructible loyalty. He did not even know their language, but relied on the double interpretation of an Indian girl and a Spanish soldier. Nor is it less remarkable that he not only gained these allies, but preserved their fealty, not in success alone, but under the most disheartening disaster, when it was really their interest todestroy rather than to sustain him, and when not only their allegiance but their religion invoked a dreadful vengeance on the sacreligious hands that despoiled their temples, overthrew their Gods, and made a jest of their most sacred rites. It was, indeed, not only a victory over the judgments, but over the superstitions, of an excitable, ardent and perhaps unreflective nation; and, in whatever aspect we regard the man who effected it solely by the omnipotence of his will, we are more and more forced to admire the majesty of his genius and the fortune or providence that made him a chosen and conspicuous instrument in the development of our continent.
*****
The conquest of Mexico,—in its relation to the rest of the world,—has a double aspect, worthy of examination. The subsequent history and condition of the country, which we design to treat in the following pages, will develope one of these topics;—the condition of the country, at the period of the conquest, will disclose another, whilst it palliates, if it does not altogether apologize for the cruelties and apparent rapine by which the subjugation of the empire was effected.
DISCONTENT AT NOT FINDING GOLD—TORTURE OF GUATEMOZIN.—RESULTS OF THE FALL OF THE CAPITAL.—MISSION FROM MICHOACAN.—REBUILDING OF THE CAPITAL.—LETTERS TO THE KING.—INTRIGUES AGAINST CORTÉZ—FONSECA—NARVAEZ—-TAPIA.—CHARLES V. PROTECTS CORTÉZ AND CONFIRMS HIS ACTS.
DISCONTENT AT NOT FINDING GOLD—TORTURE OF GUATEMOZIN.—RESULTS OF THE FALL OF THE CAPITAL.—MISSION FROM MICHOACAN.—REBUILDING OF THE CAPITAL.—LETTERS TO THE KING.—INTRIGUES AGAINST CORTÉZ—FONSECA—NARVAEZ—-TAPIA.—CHARLES V. PROTECTS CORTÉZ AND CONFIRMS HIS ACTS.
The capital had no sooner fallen and the ruins been searched in vain for the abundant treasures which the conquerors imagined were hoarded by the Aztecs, than murmurs of discontent broke forth in the Spanish camp against Cortéz for his supposed concealment of the plunder. There was a mingled sentiment of distrust both of the conqueror and Guatemozin; and, at last, the querulousness and taunts rose to such an offensive height, that it was resolved to apply the torture to the dethroned prince in order to wrest from him the secret hiding place of his ancestral wealth. We blush to record that Cortéz consented to this iniquity, but it was probably owing to an avaricious and mutinous spirit in his ranks which he was unable at the moment to control. The same Indian stoicism that characterised the unfortunate prince during the war, still nerved him in his hours of abject disaster. He bore the pangs without quivering or complaint and without revealing any thing that could gratify the Spanish lust of gold, save that vast quantities of the precious metal had been thrown into the lake,—from which but little was ultimately recovered even by the most expert divers.
*****
The news of the fall of Mexico was soon spread from sea to sea, and couriers were despatched by distant tribes and princes to ascertain the truth of the prodigious disaster. The independent kingdom of Michoacan, lying between the vale of Anahuac or Mexico and the Pacific, was one of the first to send its envoys,and finally even its king, to the capital;—and two small detachments of Spaniards returned with the new visitors, penetrating their country and passing with them even to the waters of the western ocean itself, on whose shores they planted the cross in token of rightful possession. They returned by the northern districts, and brought with them the first specimens of gold and pearls from the region now known as California.
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It was not long, however, before Cortéz resolved to make his conquest available by the reconstruction of the capital that he had been forced reluctantly to mutilate and partly level during the siege. The ancient city was nearly in ruins. The massive relics of idolatry, and the huge stones of which the chief palaces had been constructed, were cast into the canals. The desolation was complete on the site of the ancient imperial residence. And the Indians, who had served in the work of dilapidation, were even compelled by their Spanish leader and his task masters to be the principal laborers in the toil of building up a city which should surpass in splendor the ancient pride of Anahuac.
Meanwhile the sagacious mind of Cortéz was not only busy with the present duties and occupations of his men in Mexico, but began to dwell,—now that the intense excitement of active war was over,—upon the condition of his relations with the Spanish Court and the government in the islands. He despatched to Castile, letters, presents, and the "royal fifth," together with an enormous emerald whose base was as broad as the palm of his hand. With the General's missives, went a letter from his army, commending the heroic leader, and beseeching its royal master to confirm Cortéz in his authority and to ratify all his proceedings. Quinoñes and Avila, the two envoys, sailed for home; but one of them, lucklessly, perished in a brawl at the Azores, whilst Avila, who resumed the voyage to Spain, after the loss of his companion, was taken by a French privateer, who bore the spoils of the Mexicans to the Court of Francis the First. The letters and despatches of Cortéz and his army, however, were saved, and Avila, privately and safely forwarded them to the Spanish sovereign.
At the Court of Charles the Fifth there were, of course, numerous intrigues against the successful conqueror. The hatred of Velasquez had not been suffered to slumber in the breast of that disappointed governor, and Fonseca, Bishop of Burgos, who was chief of the colonial department, and doubtless adroitly plied and stimulated by Velasquez, managed to obtain from the churchman,Adrian, who was Regent whilst the Emperor resided in Germany, an order for the seizure of Cortéz and the sequestration of his property until the will of the court should be finally made known.
But, the avaricious Velasquez, the vindictive Fonseca, and theVeedorCristoval de Tapia, whom they employed to execute so delicate and dangerous a commission against a man who at that moment, was surrounded by faithful soldiers and whose troops had been augmented by recent arrivals at Vera Cruz,—reasoned with but little judgment when they planned their unjust and ungrateful measures against Cortéz. The commissioner, himself, seems to have soon arrived at the same conclusion, for, scarcely had he landed, before the danger of the enterprise and the gold of the conqueror, persuaded him prudently to decline penetrating into the heart of the country as the bearer of so ungrateful a reply to the wishes of a hero whose genius and sword had given an empire, and almost a world, to Spain.
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Thus, at last, was Cortéz, for a time, freed from the active hostility of the Spanish Court, whilst he retained his authority over his conquest merely by military right and power of forcible occupation. But he did not remain idly contented with what he had already done. His restless heart craved to compass the whole continent, and to discover, visit, explore, whatever lay within the reach of his small forces and of all who chose to swell them. He continually pressed his Indian visitors for information concerning the empire of the Montezumas and the adjacent territories of independent kings or tributaries. Wherever discontent lifted its head, or rebellious manifestations were made, he despatched sufficient forces to whip the mutineers into contrite submission. The new capital progressed apace, and stately edifices rose on the solid land which his soldiers had formed out of the fragments of ancient Mexico.
Whilst thus engaged in his newly-acquired domain, Narvaez, his old enemy, and Tapia, his more recent foe, had reached the Spanish Court, where, aided by Fonseca, they once more bestirred themselves in the foul labor of blasting the fame of Cortéz, and wresting from his grasp the splendid fruits of his valor. Luckily, however, the Emperor returned, about this period, from eastern Europe, and, from this moment the tide of intrigue seems to have been stayed if not altogether turned. Reviled as he had hitherto been in the purlieus of the court, Cortéz was not without staunch kinsmen and warm friends who stood up valiantly in hisbehalf, both before councils and king. His father, Don Martin, and his friend, the Duke of Bejar, had been prominent among many in espousing the cause of the absent hero, even before the sovereign's return;—and now, the monarch, whose heart was not indeed ungrateful for the effectual service rendered his throne by the conqueror, and whose mind probably saw not only the justice but the policy of preserving, unalienated, the fidelity and services of so remarkable a personage,—soon determined to look leniently upon all that was really censurable in the early deeds of Cortéz. Whilst Charles confirmed his acts in their full extent, he moreover constituted him "Governor, Captain General and Chief Justice of New Spain, with power to appoint to all offices, civil and military, and to order any person to leave the country whose residence there might be deemed prejudicial to the crown."
On the 15th of October, 1522, this righteous commission was signed by Charles V., at Valladolid. A liberal salary was assigned the Captain General; his leading officers were crowned with honors and emoluments, and the troops were promised liberal grants of land. Thus, the wisdom of the king, and of the most respectable Spanish nobility, finally crushed the mean, jealous, or avaricious spirits who had striven to leave their slimy traces on the fame of the conqueror; whilst the Emperor, himself, with his own hand, acknowledged the services of the troops and their leader, in a letter to the Spanish army in Mexico.
Among the men who felt severely the censure implied by this just and wise conduct of Charles V., was the ascetic Bishop of Burgos, Fonseca, whose baleful influence had fallen alike upon the discoveries of Columbus, and the conquests of Cortéz. His bigoted and narrow soul,—schooled in forms, and trained by early discipline, into a querulousness which could neither tolerate anything that did not accord with his rules or originate under his orders,—was unable to comprehend the splendid glory of the enterprises of these two heroic chieftains. Had it been his generous policy to foster them, history would have selected this son of the church as the guardian angel over the cradle of the New World; but he chose to be the shadow rather than the shining light of his era, and, whether from age or chagrin, he died in the year after this kingly rebuff from a prince whose councils he had long and unwisely served.
CORTÉZ COMMISSIONED BY THE EMPEROR.—VELASQUEZ—HIS DEATH.—MEXICO REBUILT.—IMMIGRATION—REPARTIMIENTOS OF INDIANS.—HONDURAS—GUATEMOZIN—MARIANA.—CORTÉZ ACCUSED—ORDERED TO SPAIN FOR TRIAL.—HIS RECEPTION, HONORS AND TITLES—HE MARRIES—HIS RETURN TO MEXICO—RESIDES AT TEZCOCO.—EXPEDITIONS OF CORTÉZ—CALIFORNIA—QUIVARA.—RETURNS TO SPAIN—DEATH—WHERE ARE HIS BONES?
CORTÉZ COMMISSIONED BY THE EMPEROR.—VELASQUEZ—HIS DEATH.—MEXICO REBUILT.—IMMIGRATION—REPARTIMIENTOS OF INDIANS.—HONDURAS—GUATEMOZIN—MARIANA.—CORTÉZ ACCUSED—ORDERED TO SPAIN FOR TRIAL.—HIS RECEPTION, HONORS AND TITLES—HE MARRIES—HIS RETURN TO MEXICO—RESIDES AT TEZCOCO.—EXPEDITIONS OF CORTÉZ—CALIFORNIA—QUIVARA.—RETURNS TO SPAIN—DEATH—WHERE ARE HIS BONES?
The royal commission, of which we have spoken in the last chapter, was speedily borne to New Spain, where it was joyfully received by all who had participated in the conquest or joined the original forces since that event. Men not only recognized the justice of the act, but they felt that if the harvest was rightfully due to him who had planted the seed, it was also most probable that no one could be found in Spain or the Islands more capable than Cortéz of consolidating the new empire. Velasquez, the darling object of whose latter years had been to circumvent, entrap or foil the conqueror, was sadly stricken by the defeat of his machinations. The reckless but capable soldier, whom he designed to mould into the pliant tool of his avarice and glory, had suddenly become his master. Wealth, renown, and even royal gratitude, crowned his labors; and the disobedience, the errors, and the flagrant wrongs he was charged with whilst subject to gubernatorial authority, were passed by in silence or forgotten in the acclamation that sounded his praise throughout Spain and Europe. Even Fonseca,—the chief of the council,—had been unable to thwart this darling of genius and good fortune. Velasquez, himself, was nothing. The great error of his life had been in breaking with Cortéz before he sailed for Mexico. He was straitened in fortune, foiled in ambition, mocked by the men whose career of dangerous adventure he had personally failed to share; and, at last, disgusted with the time and its men, he retired to brood over his melancholy reverses until death soon relieved him of his earthly jealousies and annoyances.
Four years had not entirely elapsed since the fall of Mexico, when a new and splendid city rose from its ruins and attracted the eager Spaniards, of all classes, from the old world and the islands. Cortéz designed this to be the continental nucleus of population. Situated on the central plateau of the realm, midway between the two seas, in a genial climate whose heat never scorched and whose cold never froze, it was, indeed, an alluring region to which men of all temperaments might resort with safety. Strongholds, churches, palaces, were erected on the sites of the royal residences of the Aztecs and their blood-stained Teocallis. Strangers were next invited to the new capital, and, in a few years, the Spanish quarter contained two thousand families, while the Indian district of Tlatelolco, numbered not less than thirty thousand inhabitants. The city soon assumed the air and bustle of a great mart. Tradesmen, craftsmen and merchants, thronged its streets and remaining canals.
Cortéz was not less anxious to establish, in the interior of the old Aztec empire, towns or points of rendezvous, which in the course of time, would grow up into important cities. These were placed with a view to the future wants of travel and trade in New Spain. Liberal grants of land were made to settlers who were compelled to provide themselves with wives under penalty of forfeiture within eighteen months. Celibacy was too great a luxury for a young country.[9]The Indians were divided among the Spaniards by the system ofrepartimientos, which will be more fully discussed in a subsequent part of this work. The necessities and cupidity of the early settlers in so vast a region rendered this necessary perhaps, though it was promptly discountenanced but never successfully suppressed by the Spanish crown. The scene of action was too remote, the subjects too selfish, and the ministers too venal or interested to carry out, with fidelity, the benign ordinances of the government at home. From this apportionment of Indians, which subjected them, in fact, to a species of slavery, it is but just to the conquerors to state that the Tlascalans, upon whom the burden of the fighting had fallen, were entirely exempted at the recommendation of Cortéz.
Among all the tribes the work of conversion prospered, for the ceremonious ritual of the Aztec religion easily introduced the native worshippers to the splendid forms of the Roman Catholic. Agriculture and the mines were not neglected in the policy ofCortéz, and, in fact he speedily set in motion all the machinery of civilization, which was gradually to operate upon the native population whilst it attracted the overflowing, industrious or adventurous masses of his native land. Various expeditions, too, for the purpose of exploration and extension, were fitted out by the Captain General of New Spain; so that, within three years after the conquest, Cortéz had reduced to the Spanish sway, a territory of over four hundred leagues, or twelve hundred miles on the Atlantic coast, and of more than five hundred leagues or fifteen hundred miles on the Pacific.[10]
This sketch of a brief period after the subjugation of Mexico developes theconstructivegenius of Cortéz, as the preceding chapters had very fully exhibited hisdestructiveabilities. It shows, however, that he was not liable justly to the censure which has so often been cast upon him,—of being, only, a piratical plunderer who was seduced into the conquest by the spirit of rapine alone.
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In a historical narrative which is designed to treat exclusively of Mexico, it might perhaps be considered inappropriate to relate that portion of the biography of Cortéz which is covered by his expedition to Honduras, whither he marched after he learned the defection of his lieutenant Olid whom he had sent to that distant region with a body of Spanish soldiers to found a dependant colony. It was whilst on this disastrous march that the report of a conspiracy to slay the Spaniards, in which Guatemozin was implicated, reached his ears, and that the dethroned monarch, together with several princes and inferior nobles, was hanged, by his orders, on the branches of a tree. There is a difference of opinion among contemporary writers as to the guilt of Guatemozin and the Aztec nobles; but it is probable that the unfortunate prince had become a dangerous and formidable captive and that the grave was a safer prison for such a personage, than the tents and bivouacs of a menaced army.
Another renowned character in this drama—the serviceable and gentle Indian girl Doña Mariana,—was no longer needed and was disposed of during this expedition, by marriage with Don Martin Xamarillo, to whom she brought a noble dowry of estates, which were assigned her by the conqueror in her native province, where, in all likelihood she ended her romantic career. Her son by Cortéz, named after his grand-father Don Martin, became distinguishedin the annals of the colony and of Spain, but in 1568, he was cruelly treated in the capital which had been won by the valor and fidelity of his parents.
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From this digression in his Mexican career, Cortéz was suddenly recalled by the news of disturbances in the capital, which he reached after a tempestuous and dangerous voyage. His journey from the coast to the valley was a continued scene of triumphs; and, from Tezcoco, in June, 1526, he made his stately entrance into the city of Mexico amid brilliant cavalcades, decorated streets, and lakes and canals covered with the fanciful skiffs of Indians.
A month later, the joy of his rapturous reception was disturbed by the announcement that the Spanish Court had sent a commissioner to supercede him temporarily in the government. The work of sapping his power and influence had long been carried on at home; and false reports, involving Cortéz in extreme dishonesty not only to the subjects but to the crown of Spain itself, at length infused suspicions into the sovereign's mind. The Emperor resolved to search the matter fairly to its core, and, accordingly, despatched Don Luis Ponce de Leon, a young, but able nobleman to perform this delicate task, at the same time that he wrote with his own hand to the conqueror, assuring him that his sole design was not to distrust or deprive him of his honors, but to afford him the opportunity of placing his integrity in a clear light before the world.
De Leon, and the delegate chosen on his death bed, died within a few months, and were succeeded by Estrada, the royal treasurer, who was hostile to Cortéz, and whose malicious mismanagement of the investigation soon convinced even the Spanish court that it was unjust to leave so delicate and tangled a question in his hands. Accordingly the affair was transferred from Estrada to a commission styled the Audiencia Real de España, and Cortéz was commanded to hasten across the Atlantic in order to vindicate himself from the aspersions before this august body, which sat in the midst of his countrymen.
Cortéz resolved to go at once; and, loyal to the last, rejected all the offers that were made him to reassume the reins of power,independently of Spain. He carried with him a number of natives, together with specimens of all the natural and artificial products of his viceroyalty; nor did he forget a plentiful supply of gold, silver, and jewels, with which he might maintain, in the eyes of his luxurious countrymen, the state that was appropriate for one whoseconquests and acquisitions were so extensive. Sandoval and Tapia, too, departed with their beloved companion in arms, the former of whom, only, lived to land once more on his native land.
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As he journeyed from the sea-port towards Toledo, the curious crowds poured out on the way side to behold and welcome the hero of the New World; and from the gates of the city a gallant crowd of cavaliers poured forth, with the Duke de Bejar and the Count de Aguilar, to attend him to his dwelling.
The Emperor received him with marked respect on the following day, and from the bountiful gifts and splendid titles which were showered upon Cortéz before the close of 1529, it seems that his sovereign was soon personally satisfied in his frequent and frank interviews with the conqueror, that the tales he had heard from across the sea were mere calumnies unworthy his notice. The title of "Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca" was bestowed on him. Lands in the rich province of Oaxaca, and estates in the city of Mexico and other places, were also ceded to him. "The princely domain thus granted him," says Prescott, "comprehended more than twenty towns and villages and twenty-three thousand vassals." The court and sovereign vied with each other in honoring and appreciating his services, and every privilege was no sooner demanded than granted, save that of again assuming the government of New Spain!
It was the policy of the Spanish court not to entrust the rule of conquered countries to the men who had subdued them. There was fancied, and perhaps real danger in confiding such dearly acquired jewels to ambitious and daring adventurers who might ripen into disloyal usurpers.
Cortéz bowed submissively to the will of the Emperor. He was grateful for what had been graciously conceded to his merits and services; nor was he unwilling to enjoy the luxury of careless repose after so many years of toil. His first wife,—wedded as we have related in the Islands,—died a short time after she joined him in the capital after the conquest. Cortéz was yet young, nor was he ill favored or indisposed to slight the charms of the sex. A fair relative of the Aguilars and Bejars, Doña Juana Zuñiga, at this moment attracted his attention and was soon won. Her dower of jewels, wrested from the Aztecs, and carved by their most skilful workmen, was indescribably magnificent, and, after her splendid nuptials, she embarked, in 1530, with the conquerorand his aged mother to return to the Indian Islands, and finally to New Spain.
At Hispaniola he met an Audiencia Real, which was still to have jurisdiction of his case, if it ever came to trial, and at whose head was an avowed enemy of the conqueror, Nuño de Guzman. The evidence was taken upon eight scandalous charges against Cortéz, and is of so suspicious a character that it not only disgusts the general reader, but also failed in its effect upon the Spanish court by which no action was finally taken in regard to it.
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Cortéz remained two months in the island before he set sail for Vera Cruz, in July 1530; and, in the meantime, the Bishop of San Domingo was selected to preside over a new Audiencia, inasmuch as the conduct of the late Audiencia, and of Guzman especially, in relation to the Indians, had become so odiously oppressive that fears were entertained of an outbreak. The bishop and his coadjutors were men of a different stamp, who inspired the conqueror with better hopes for the future prosperity of the Indian colonies.
So jealous was the home government of the dangerous influence of Cortéz,—a man so capable of establishing for himself an independent empire in the New World,—that he had been inhibited from approaching the capital nearer than thirty leagues. But this did not prevent the people from approaching him. He returned to the scene of his conquest, with all the personal resentments and annoyances that had been felt by individuals of old, softened by the lapse of time during his prolonged absence in Spain. He came back, too, with all the prestige of his Emperor's favor; and, thus, both by the new honors he had won at court, and the memory of his deeds, the masses felt disposed to acknowledge, at the moment of joyous meeting, that it was alone to him they owed their possessions, their wealth, their comfort, and their importance in New Spain.
Accordingly, Mexico was deserted by the courtiers, and Tezcoco, where he established his headquarters was thronged by eager crowds who came not only to visit but to consult the man whose wit and wisdom were as keen as his sword, and who revisited Mexico, ripened into an astute statesman.
Nevertheless, the seeming cordiality between the magistrates of the capital and the partly exiled Captain General, did not long continue. Occasions arose for difference of opinion and for disputes of even a more bitter character, until, at length, he turned hisback on the glorious valley,—the scene of his noblest exploits,—forever, and took up his abode in his town of Cuernavaca, which, it will be recollected, he captured from the Aztecs before the capital fell into his hands. This was a place lying in the lap of a beautiful valley, sheltered from the north winds and fronting the genial sun of the south, and here he once more returned to the cares of agriculture,—introducing the sugar cane from Cuba, encouraging the cultivation of flax and hemp, and teaching the people the value of lands, cattle and husbandry which they had never known or fully appreciated. Gold and silver he drew from Zacatecas and Tehuantepec; but he seems to have wisely thought that the permanent wealth and revenue of himself and his heirs would best be found in tillage.
Our limits will not permit us to dwell upon the agricultural, mineral and commercial speculations of Cortéz, nor upon his various adventures in Mexico. It is sufficient to say that he planned several expeditions, the most important of which, was unsuccessful in consequence of his necessary absence in Spain, whither he had been driven, as we have seen, to defend himself against the attacks of his enemies. Immediately, however, upon his return to Mexico, he not only sent forth various navigators, to make further discoveries, but departed himself for the coast of Jalisco, which he visited in 1534 and 1535. He recovered a ship, which had been seized by Nuño de Guzman; and having assembled the vessels he had commanded to be built in Tehuantepec, he embarked every thing needful to found a colony. The sufferings he experienced in this expedition were extraordinarily great; his little fleet was assailed by famine and tempests, and, so long was he unheard of, in Mexico, that, at the earnest instance of his wife, the viceroy Mendoza sent two vessels to search for him. He returned, at length, to Acapulco; but not content with his luckless efforts, he made arrangements for a new examination of the coasts, by Francisco de Ulloa, which resulted in the discovery of California, as far as the Isle de Cedros, and of all that gulf, to which geographers have given the name of the "Sea of Cortéz."
His expenses in these expeditions exceeded three hundred thousand castellanos of gold, which were never returned to him by the government of Spain. Subsequently, a Franciscan missionary, Fray Marcos de Niza, reported the discovery, north of Sonoma, of a rich and powerful nation called Quivara, whose capital he represented as enjoying an almost European civilization. Cortéz claimed his right to take part in or command an expedition whichthe viceroy Mendoza was fitting out for its conquest. But he was baulked in his wishes, and was obliged to confine his future efforts for Mexico to works of beneficence in the capital.
That portion of the conqueror's life which impressed its powerful characteristics upon New Spain was now over. The rest of his story belongs rather to biography and the Old World than to a compressed narrative of Mexican history, for although he remained long in the country, and afterwards fought successfully under the Emperor's banner in other lands, it appears that he was unable to win the Spanish crown to grant him authority over the empire he had subdued. He died at Castilleja de la Cuesta, near Seville, on the 2d of December, 1547.
Cortéz provided in his will that his body should be interred in the place where he died, if that event occurred in Spain, and that, within ten years, his bones should be removed to New Spain and deposited in a convent of Franciscan nuns, which, under the name of La Concepcion, he ordered to be founded in Cuyoacan. Accordingly, his corpse was first of all laid in the convent of San Isidro, outside the walls of Seville, whence it was carried to Mexico and deposited in the church of San Francisco, at Tezcoco, inasmuch as the convent of Cuyoacan was not yet built. Thence the ashes of the hero were carried, in 1629, to the principal chapel of the church of San Francis, in the capital; and, at last, were translated, on the 8th of November, 1794, to the church of the Hospital of Jesus, which Cortéz had founded. When the revolution broke out, a vindictive feeling prevailed not only against the living Spaniards, but against the dead, and men were found, who invoked the people to tear these honored relics from their grave, and after burning them at San Lazaro, to scatter the hated ashes to the winds. But, in the government and among the principal citizens, there were many individuals who eagerly sought an opportunity to save Mexico from this disgraceful act. These persons secretly removed the monument, tablet, and remains of the conqueror from their resting place in the Church of Jesus, and there is reason to believe, that at length they repose in peaceful concealment in the vaults of the family in Italy. Past generations deprived him, whilst living, of the right to rule the country he had won by his valor. Modern Mexico has denied his corpse even the refuge of a grave.[11]