[150] I adopt Clavigero’s chronology, which cannot be far from truth. (Stor. del Messico, tom. iii. p. 131.) And yet there are reasons for supposing he must have died at least a day sooner.

[151] “De suerte que le tiráron una pedrada con una honda y le diéron en la cabeza, de que vino á morir el desdichado Rey, habiendo gobernado este nuevo Mundo con la mayor prudencia y gobierno que se puede imaginar, siendo el mas tenido y reverenciado y adorado Señor que en el mundo ha habido, y en su linaje, como es cosa pública y notoria en toda la maquina deste Nuevo Mundo, donde con la muerte de tan gran Señor se acabáron los Reyes Culhuaques Mejicanos, y todo su poder y mando, estando en la mayor felicidad de su monarquía; y ansí no hay de que fiar en las cosas desta vida sino en solo Dios.” Hist. de Tlascala, MS.

[152] “Y Cortés lloró por él, y todos nuestros Capitanes, y soldados: é hombres huvo entre nosotros de los que le conociamos, y tratauamos, que tan llorado fué, como si fuera nuestro padre, y no nos hemos de maravillar dello, viendo que tan bueno era.” Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 126.

[153] “He loved the Christians,” says Herrera, “as well as could be judged from appearances.” (Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 10, cap. 10.) “They say,” remarks the general’s chaplain, “that Montezuma, though often urged to it, never consented to the death of a Spaniard, nor to the injury of Cortés, whom he loved exceedingly. But there are those who dispute this.” (Gomara, Crónica, cap. 107.) Don Thoan Cano assured Oviedo that during all the troubles of the Spaniards with the Mexicans, both in the absence of Cortés and after his return, the emperor did his best to supply the camp with provisions. (See Appendix, No. 11.) And, finally, Cortés himself, in an instrument already referred to, dated six years after Montezuma’s death, bears emphatic testimony to the good will he had shown the Spaniards, and particularly acquits him of any share in the late rising, which, says the Conqueror, “I had trusted to suppress through his assistance.” (See Appendix, No. 12.)—The Spanish historians, in general,—notwithstanding an occasional intimation of a doubt as to his good faith towards their countrymen,—make honorable mention of the many excellent qualities of the Indian prince. Solís, however, the most eminent of all, dismisses the account of his death with the remark that “his last hours were spent in breathing vengeance and maledictions against his people; until he surrendered up to Satan—with whom he had frequent communication in his lifetime—the eternal possession of his soul!” (Conquista de México, lib. 4, cap. 15.) Fortunately, the historiographer of the Indians could know as little of Montezuma’s fate in the next world as he appears to have known of it in this. Was it bigotry, or a desire to set his own hero’s character in a brighter light, which led him thus unworthily to darken that of his Indian rival?

[154] “Dicen que venció nueve Batallas, i otros nueve Campos, en desafío vno á vno.” Gomara, Crónica, cap. 107.

[155] One other only of his predecessors, Tizoc, is shown by the Aztec paintings to have belonged to this knightly order, according to Clavigero. Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. p. 140.

[156] “Era mas cauteloso, y ardidoso, que valeroso. En las Armas, y modo de su govierno, fué muy justiciero; en las cosas tocantes á ser estimado y tenido en su Dignidad y Majestad Real de condicion muy severo, aunque cuerdo y gracioso.” Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 88.

[157] The whole address is given by Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 4, cap. 68.

[158]

[159] Señor de Calderon, the late Spanish minister at Mexico, informs me that he has more than once passed by an Indian dwelling where the Indians in his suite made a reverence, saying it was occupied by a descendant of Montezuma.

[160] This son, baptized by the name of Pedro, was descended from one of the royal concubines. Montezuma had two lawful wives. By the first of these, named Teçalco, he had a son, who perished in the flight from Mexico; and a daughter named Tecuichpo, who embraced Christianity and received the name of Isabella. She was married, when very young, to her cousin Guatemozin, and lived long enough after his death to give her hand to four Castilians, all of honorable family. From two of these, Don Thoan Cano and Don Juan Andrada, descended the illustrious families of the Cano and Andrada Montezuma. From the last came the counts of Miravalle noticed by Humboldt (Essai politique, tom. ii. p. 73, note). See Alaman, Disertaciones históricas, tom. ii. p. 325.—Montezuma, by his second wife, the princess Acatlan, left two daughters, named, after their conversion, Maria and Leonor. The former died without issue. Doña Leonor married a Spanish cavalier, Cristóval de Valderrama, from whom descended the family of the Sotelos de Montezuma.—The royal genealogy is minutely exhibited in a Memorial setting forth the claims of Montezuma’s grandsons to certain property in right of their respective mothers. The document, which is without date, is among the MSS. of Muñoz.

[161] It is interesting to know that a descendant of the Aztec emperor, Don José Sarmiento Valladares, count of Montezuma, ruled as viceroy, from 1697 to 1701, over the dominions of his barbaric ancestors. (Humboldt, Essai politique, tom. ii. p. 93, note.){*} Solís speaks of this noble house, grandees of Spain, who intermingled their blood with that of the Guzmans and the Mendozas. Clavigero has traced their descent from the emperor’s son Iohualicahua, or Dom Pedro Montezuma (as he was called after his baptism), down to the close of the eighteenth century. (See Solís, Conquista, lib. 4, 15.—Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. i. p. 302, tom. iii. p. 132.) The title of count was bestowed on the head of the family by Philip the Second, in 1556. In 1765, under Charles the Third, the count of Montezuma was made a grandee of Spain, and he was in receipt of a yearly pension of 40,000 pesos. (Alaman, Disertaciones históricas, tom. i. p. 159.) The last of the line, of whom I have been able to obtain any intelligence, died not long since in this country. He was very wealthy, having large estates in Spain,—but was not, as it appears, very wise. When seventy years old or more, he passed over to Mexico, in the vain hope that the nation, in deference to his descent, might place him on the throne of his Indian ancestors, so recently occupied by the presumptuous Iturbide. But the modern Mexicans, with all their detestation of the old Spaniards, showed no respect for the royal blood of the Aztecs. The unfortunate nobleman retired to New Orleans, where he soon after put an end to his existence by blowing out his brains,—not for ambition, however, if report be true, but disappointed love!

{*} [Señor Alaman, in a note on this passage, says it was not the viceroy, but his wife, Doña María Gerónima Montezuma, who was a descendant of the Aztec emperor. She was third countess of Montezuma in her own right, her husband’s title being duke of Atlixco.—K.]

[162] Gomara, Crónica, cap. 107.—Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 10, cap. 10.

[163] Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 4, cap. 7.

[164] Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 47.—The astrologer predicted that Cortés would be reduced to the greatest extremity of distress, and afterwards come to great honor and fortune. (Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 128.) He showed himself as cunning in his art as the West Indian sibyl who foretold the destiny of the unfortunate Josephine.

[165] “Pues al astrólogo Botello, no le aprouechó su astrología, que tambien allí murió.” Bernal Diaz, ubi supra.

[166] The disposition of the treasure has been stated with some discrepancy, though all agree as to its ultimate fate. The general himself did not escape the imputation of negligence, and even peculation, most unfounded, from his enemies. The account in the text is substantiated by the evidence, under oath, of the most respectable names in the expedition, as given in the instrument already more than once referred to. “Hizo sacar el oro é joyas de sus Altezas é le dió é entregó á los otros oficiales Alcaldes é Regidores, é les dixo á la rason que así se lo entregó, que todos viesen el mejor modo é manera que habia para lo poder salvar, que él allí estaba para por su parte hacer lo que fuese posible é poner su persona á qualquier trance é riesgo que sobre lo salvar le viniese.... El qual les dió para ello una muy buena yegua, é quatro ó cinco Españoles de mucha confianza, á quien se encargó la dha yegua cargado con el otro oro.” Probanza á pedimento de Juan de Lexalde.

[167] “Desde aquí se lo doi, como se ha de quedar aquí perdido entre estos perros.” Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 128.—Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 47.

[168] Captain Diaz tells us that he contented himself with four chalchivitl,—the green stone so much prized by the natives,—which he cunningly picked out of the royal coffers before Cortés’ majordomo had time to secure them. The prize proved of great service, by supplying him the means of obtaining food and medicine when in great extremity, afterwards, from the people of the country. Ibid., loc. cit.

[169] Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., ubi supra.

[170] Gomara, Crónica, cap. 109.—Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 143.—Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 13, 47.

[171] There is some difficulty in adjusting the precise date of their departure, as, indeed, of most events in the Conquest; attention to chronology being deemed somewhat superfluous by the old chroniclers. Ixtlilxochitl, Gomara, and others fix the date at July 10th. But this is wholly contrary to the letter of Cortés, which states that the army reached Tlascala on the eighth of July, not the tenth, as Clavigero misquotes him (Stor. del Messico, tom. iii. pp. 135, 136, nota); and from the general’s accurate account of their progress each day, it appears that they left the capital on the last night of June, or rather the morning of July 1st. It was the night, he also adds, following the affair of the bridges in the city. Comp. Rel. Seg., ap. Lorenzana, pp. 142-149.

[172] [This second breach, says Ramirez, “the scene of the rout and slaughter of the Spaniards, was in front of San Hipolito, where a chapel was built, to commemorate the event, and dedicated to the Martyrs,—though assuredly none of those who had fallen there had any claim to the crown of martyrdom.” Notas y Esclarecimientos, p. 104.]

[173] Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 143.—Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.—Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 128.—Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 13, 47.—Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-España, MS., lib. 12, cap. 24.—Martyr, De Orbe Novo, dec. 5, cap. 6.—Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 10, cap. 4.—Probanza en la Villa Segura, MS.

[174] “Pues la grita, y lloros, y lástimas q̃ deziā demādando socorro: Ayudadme, q̃ me ahogo, otros: Socorredme, q̃ me matā, otros demādando ayuda á N. Señora Santa María, y á Señor Santiago.” Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 128.

[175] “In this combat Maria de Estrada, oblivious of her sex, showed herself most valorous, and armed with sword and shield did marvellous deeds, rushing into the midst of the enemy with a courage and spirit equal to that of the bravest of men.... This lady became the wife of Pedro Sanchez Farfan, and the village of Tetela was granted to them en encomienda.” Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 4, cap. 72.

[176] Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.—Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 128.—“Por la gran priesa que daban de ambas partes de el camino, comenzáron á caer en aquel foso, y cayéron juntos, que de Españoles, que de Indios y de caballos, y de cargas, el foso se hinchó hasta arriba, cayendo los unos sobre los otros, y los otros sobre los otros, de manera que todos los del bagage quedáron allí ahogados, y los de la retaguardia pasáron sobre los muertos.” Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-España, MS., lib. 12, cap. 24.

[177] “E los que habian ido con Narvaez arrojáronse en la sala, é cargáronse de aquel oro é plata quanto pudiéron; pero los menos lo gozáron, porque la carga no los dexaba pelear, é los Indios los tomaban vivos cargados; é á otros llevaban arrastrando, é á otros mataban allí; E así no se salvaron sino los desocupados é que iban en la delantera.” Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 47.

[178] Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 10, cap. 11.—Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 13.—Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 128.

[179] “Luego encontráron con Pedro de Alvarado bien herido con vna lança en la mano á pie, que la yegua alaçana ya se la auian muerto.” Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 128.

[180] “Y los amigos vista tan gran hazaña quedáron maravillados, y al instante que esto viéron se arrojáron por el suelo postrados por tierra en señal de hecho tan heroico, espantable y raro, que ellos no habian visto hacer á ningun hombre, y ansi adoráron al Sol, comiendo puñados de tierra, arrancando yervas del campo, diciendo á grandes voces, verdaderamente que este hombre es hijo del Sol.” (Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.) This writer consulted the process instituted by Alvarado’s heirs, in which they set forth the merits of their ancestor, as attested by the most valorous captains of the Tlascalan nation, present at the Conquest. It may be that the famous leap was among these “merits” of which the historian speaks. M. de Humboldt, citing Camargo, so considers it. (Essai politique, tom. ii. p. 75.) This would do more than anything else to establish the fact. But Camargo’s language does not seem to me necessarily to warrant the inference.

[181] “Se llama aora la puente del salto de Alvarado: y platicauamos muchos soldados sobre ello, y no hallavamos razon, ni soltura de vn hombre que tal saltasse.” Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 128.

[182] Gomara, Crónica, cap. 109.—Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, ubi supra.—Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 47.—Which last author, however, frankly says that many who had seen the place declared that it seemed to them impossible. “Fué tan estremado de grande el salto, que á muchos hombres que han visto aquello, he oido decir que parece cosa imposible haberlo podido saltar ninguno hombre humano. En fin él lo saltó é ganó por ello la vida, é perdiéronla muchos que atras quedaban.”

[183] The spot is pointed out to every traveller. It is where a ditch, of no great width, is traversed by a small bridge not far from the western extremity of the Alameda. A house, lately erected there, may somewhat interfere with the meditations of the antiquary. (Alaman, Disertaciones históricas, tom. i. p. 202.) As the place received its name in Alvarado’s time, the story could scarcely have been discountenanced by him. But, since the length of the leap, strange to say, is nowhere given, the reader can have no means of passing his own judgment on its probability. [Unfortunately for the lovers of the marvellous, another version is now given of the account of Alvarado’s escape, which deprives him of the glory claimed for him by this astounding feat. In the process against him, which was not brought to light till several years after the present work was published, one of the charges was that he fled from the field, leaving his soldiers to their fate, and escaping by means of a beam which had survived the demolition of the bridge and still stretched across the chasm from one side to the other. The chief, in his reply, said that, far from deserting his men, they deserted him, and that he did not fly till he was wounded and his horse killed under him, when he escaped across the breach, was taken up behind a mounted cavalier on the other side, and carried out of the fray. That he should not have alluded to the account given of the manner of his escape, so much less glorious than that usually claimed for him, may lead us to infer that it was too true to be disputed. Such is the judgment of Señor Ramirez, who, in his account of the affair, tells us that, far from being an object of admiration, Alvarado’s escape was, in his own time, deemed rather worthy of punishment, as an act of desertion which cost the lives of many brave followers whom he left behind him. (See the Proceso de Alvarado, pp. 53, 68, with the caustic remarks of Ramirez, pp. xiv., 288, et seq.) It is natural that a descendant of the conquered race should hold in peculiar detestation the most cruel persecutor of the Aztecs.]

[184] “Fué Dios servido de que los Mejicanos se ocupasen en recojer los despojos de los muertos, y las riquezas de oro y piedras que llevaba el bagage, y de sacar los muertos de aquel acequia, y á los caballos y otros bestias. Y por esto no siguiéron el alcanze, y los Españoles pudiéron ir poco á poco por su camino sin tener mucha molestia de enemigos.” Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-España, MS., lib. 12, cap. 25.

[185] Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 47.—Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 89.—Gomara, Crónica, cap. 109.

[186] Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 10, cap. 12.

[187] “Tacuba,” says that interesting traveller, Latrobe, “lies near the foot of the hills, and is at the present day chiefly noted for the large and noble church which was erected there by Cortés. And hard by you trace the lines of a Spanish encampment. I do not hazard the opinion, but it might appear by the coincidence, that this was the very position chosen by Cortés for his intrenchment, after the retreat just mentioned, and before he commenced his painful route towards Otumba.” (Rambler in Mexico, Letter 5.) It is evident, from our text, that Cortés could have thrown up no intrenchment here, at least on his retreat from the capital.

[188] Lorenzana, Viage, p. xiii.

[189] Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-España, MS., lib. 12, cap. 24.—Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 128.—Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.—Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 89.

[190] The table below may give the reader some idea of the discrepancies in numerical estimates, even among eye-witnesses, and writers who, having access to the actors, are nearly of equal authority:

Bernal Diaz does not take the trouble to agree with himself. After stating that the rear, on which the loss fell heaviest, consisted of 120 men, he adds, in the same paragraph, that 150 of these were slain, which number swells to 200 in a few lines further! Falstaff’s men in buckram! See Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 128.—Cano’s estimate embraces, it is true, those—but their number was comparatively small—who perished subsequently on the march. The same authority states that 270 of the garrison, ignorant of the proposed departure of their countrymen, were perfidiously left in the palace of Axayacatl, where they surrendered on terms, but were subsequently all sacrificed by the Aztecs! (See Appendix, No. 11.) The improbability of this monstrous story, by which the army with all its equipage could leave the citadel without the knowledge of so many of their comrades,—and this be permitted, too, at a juncture which made every man’s co-operation so important,—is too obvious to require refutation. Herrera records, what is much more probable, that Cortés gave particular orders to the captain, Ojeda, to see that none of the sleeping or wounded should, in the hurry of the moment, be overlooked in their quarters. Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 10, cap. 11.

[191] “Pues de los de Narvaez, todos los mas en las puentes quedáron, cargados de oro.” Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 128.

[192] According to Diaz, part of the gold intrusted to the Tlascalan convoy was preserved. (Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 136.) From the document already cited,—Probanza de Villa Segura, MS.,—it appears that it was a Castilian guard who had charge of it.

[193] Gomara, Crónica, cap. 109.—Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 13.—Probanza en la Villa Segura, MS.—Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 128.

[194] Lorenzana, Viage, p. xiii.

[195] The last instance, I believe, of the direct interposition of the Virgin in behalf of the metropolis was in 1833, when she was brought into the city to avert the cholera. She refused to pass the night in town, however, but was found the next morning in her own sanctuary at Los Remedios, showing, by the mud with which she was plentifully bespattered, that she must have performed the distance—several leagues—through the miry ways on foot! See Latrobe, Rambler in Mexico, Letter 5.

[196] The epithet by which, according to Diaz, the Castilians were constantly addressed by the natives, and which—whether correctly or not—he interprets into gods, or divine beings. (See Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 48, et alibi.) One of the stanzas of Ercilla intimates the existence of a similar delusion among the South American Indians,—and a similar cure of it:

[197] Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 147.—Hunger furnished them a sauce, says Oviedo, which made their horse-flesh as relishing as the far-famed sausages of Naples, the delicate kid of Avila, or the savory veal of Saragossa! “Con la carne del caballo tubiéron buen pasto, é se consoláron ó mitigáron en parte su hambre, é se lo comiéron sin dexar cuero, ni otra cosa dél sino los huesos, é las vñas, y el pelo; é aun las tripas no les pareció de menos buen gusto que las sobreasados de Nápoles, ó los gentiles cabritos de Abila, ó las sabrosas Terneras de Zaragosa, segun la estrema necesidad que llevaban; por que despues que de la gran cibdad de Temixtitan havian salido, ninguna otra cosa comiéron sino mahiz tostado, é cocido, é yervas del campo, y desto no tanto quanto quisieran ó ovieran menester.” Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 13.

[198] Herrera mentions one soldier who had succeeded in carrying off his gold to the value of 3000 castellanos across the causeway, and afterwards flung it away by the advice of Cortés. “The devil take your gold,” said the commander bluntly to him, “if it is to cost you your life.” Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 10, cap. 11.

[199] Gomara, Crónica, cap. 110.

[200] The meaning of the word Tlascala, and so called from the abundance of maize raised in the country. Boturini, Idea, p. 78.

[201] “Empero la Nacion nuestra Española sufre mas hambre que otra ninguna, i estos de Cortés mas que todos.” Gomara, Crónica, cap. 110.

[202] For the foregoing pages, see Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.,—Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 128,—Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 13,—Gomara, Crónica, ubi supra,—Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 89,—Martyr, De Orbe Novo, dec. 5, cap. 6,—Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, pp. 147, 148,—Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-España, MS., lib. 12, cap. 25, 26.

[203] “Su nombre, que quiere decir habitacion de los Dioses, y que ya por estos tiempos era ciudad tan famosa, que no solo competia, pero excedia con muchas ventajas á la corte de Tollan.” Veytia, Hist. antig., tom. i. cap. 27.

[204] The pyramid of Mycerinos is 280 feet only at the base, and 162 feet in height. The great pyramid of Cheops is 728 feet at the base, and 448 feet high. See Denon, Egypt Illustrated (London, 1825), p. 9.