Part 9 (1/2)
Encouraged by these wonderful successes, and by the tame submission of the monarch, Cortez resolved upon the entire overthrow, by violence if necessary, of the whole system of idolatry, and to introduce Catholic Christianity in its stead. He had often, with the most importunate zeal, urged Montezuma to renounce his false G.o.ds and to embrace the Christian faith. But superst.i.tion was too firmly enthroned in the heart of the Mexican monarch to be easily supplanted. To every thing but this the monarch was ready to yield; but every proposition to renounce his G.o.ds he rejected with horror. Cortez at length firmly ordered his soldiers to march to the temples and sweep them clean of every vestige of paganism. This roused the priests. They seized their arms, and the alarm was spread rapidly through the streets of the city. Vast mult.i.tudes, grasping such weapons as they could get, a.s.sembled around the temples, resolved to brave every peril in defense of their religion. Matters a.s.sumed an aspect so threatening, that, for the first time, Cortez found it necessary to draw back. He contented himself with simply ejecting the G.o.ds from one of the shrines, and in erecting in their stead an image of the Virgin.
There were now many indications of approaching trouble. The natives were greatly provoked, and it was evident that they were watching for a favorable opportunity to rise against their invaders. Cortez practiced the most sleepless vigilance. Diaz speaks thus of the hards.h.i.+ps he and his comrades endured:
”During the nine months that we remained in Mexico, every man, without any distinction between officers and soldiers, slept on his arms, in his quilted jacket and gorget. They lay on mats or straw spread on the floor, and each was obliged to hold himself as alert as if he had been on guard. This became so habitual to me, that even now, in my advanced age, I always sleep in my clothes, and never in any bed.”
Just in this crisis alarming intelligence was received from the commander of the garrison at Vera Cruz. One of the s.h.i.+ps of the delegation sent to Spain, of which we have previously spoken, had, contrary to the orders of Cortez, stopped at Cuba. In this way the indignant governor, Velasquez, learned that Cortez had renounced all connection with him, and had set up an independent colony. His anger was roused to the utmost, and he resolved upon summary vengeance. It so happened that Velasquez had just received from his sovereign the appointment of governor _for life_, and was authorized to prosecute discoveries in Mexico with very extensive and exclusive privileges and powers.
He immediately fitted out an armament consisting of nineteen s.h.i.+ps, with eighty hors.e.m.e.n, fourteen hundred soldiers, and twenty pieces of cannon. This was, in that day, a formidable force. The commandant, Narvaez, was ordered to seize Cortez and his princ.i.p.al officers, and send them in chains to Cuba. He was then, in the name of Velasquez, to prosecute the discovery and the conquest of the country.
After a prosperous voyage, the fleet cast anchor in the Bay of St.
Juan de Ulua, and the soldiers were landed. Narvaez then sent a summons to the governor of Vera Cruz to surrender. Sandoval, the commandant, however, being zealously attached to Cortez, seized the envoy and his attendants, and sent them in chains to the capital, with intelligence of the impending peril. Cortez, with his wonted sagacity, received them as friends, ordered their chains to be struck off, condemned the severity of Sandoval, and loaded them with caresses and presents. He thus won their confidence, and drew from them all the particulars of the force, and the intentions of the expedition. Cortez had great cause for alarm when he learned that Narvaez was instructed to espouse the cause of Montezuma; to a.s.sure the Mexican monarch that the violence which he had suffered was unauthorized by the King of Spain, and that he was ready to a.s.sist Montezuma and his subjects in repelling the invaders from the capital. From peril so imminent no ordinary man could have extricated himself. Narvaez was already on the march, and the natives, enraged against Cortez, were in great numbers joining the standard of the new-comers. Already emissaries from the camp of Narvaez had reached the capital, and had communicated to Montezuma, through the n.o.bles, intelligence that Narvaez was marching to his relief. Montezuma was overjoyed, and his n.o.bles were elated with hope, as they secretly collected arms and marshaled their forces for battle.
Cortez immediately dispatched Father Olmedo to meet Narvaez to propose terms of accommodation. He was fully aware that no such terms as he proposed could be acceded to; but Olmedo and his attendants were enjoined, as the main but secret object of their mission, to do every thing they could, by presents, caresses, promises, and glowing descriptions of the greatness of Cortez, his power, and the glory opening before him, to induce the officers and soldiers of Narvaez to abandon his standard, and range themselves under the banner of Cortez.
At the same time, Cortez, leaving one hundred and fifty men, under Alvarado, to guard the fortified camp in the metropolis, set out by forced marches, with the rest of his force, to fall unexpectedly upon Narvaez. His strength did not exceed two hundred and fifty men. In a great emergency like this, the natives could not be trusted. As Cortez drew near his foe, he found that Narvaez was encamped upon a great plain in the vicinity of Zempoalla. A terrible tempest arose. Black clouds darkened the sky, and the rain fell in floods. The soldiers of Narvaez, drenched through and through by the unceasing torrents, demanded to be led to the shelter of the houses in Zempoalla. They deemed it impossible that any foe could approach in such a storm; but the storm, in all its pitiless fury, was the very re-enforcement which Cortez and his men desired. Black midnight came, and the careering tempest swept the deluged streets of Zempoalla, driving even the sentinels to seek shelter.
Cortez gathered his little band around him, and roused them, by a vigorous harangue, for an immediate attack. The odds were fearful.
Cortez had but two hundred and fifty men. Narvaez had fifteen hundred, with nineteen pieces of artillery and eighty hors.e.m.e.n. Giving the soldiers for their countersign the inspiring words, ”The Holy Spirit,”
they rushed through the darkness and the raging storm upon the unsuspecting foe. They first directed their energies for the capture of the artillery. The party who made this attack was headed by Pizarro, ”an active lad,” says Diaz, ”whose name, however, was at that time as little known as that of Peru.” The guns were seized, after a short and not a very sanguinary struggle. They then, without a moment's delay, turned upon the hors.e.m.e.n. But the sleeping foe was now effectually aroused. A short scene of consternation, clamor, horror, and blood ensued. The companions of Cortez fought with the energies of despair. To them, defeat was certain death. The soldiers of Narvaez were bewildered. Many of them, even before the battle, were half disposed to abandon Narvaez and join the standard of Cortez, of whose renown they had heard such glowing accounts. Taken by a midnight surprise, they fought manfully for a time. But at length, in the hot and tumultuary fight, a spear pierced the cheek of Narvaez, and tore out one of his eyes. He was struck down and made a prisoner. This led to an immediate surrender. The genius of Cortez had most signally triumphed. Though many were wounded in this conflict, but two men on the side of Cortez were killed, and fifteen of the party of Narvaez.
The artful conqueror loaded the vanquished with favors, and soon succeeded in winning nearly all of them to engage in his service. With enthusiasm these new recruits, thus singularly gained, rallied around him, eager to march in the paths of glory to which such a leader could guide them.
This achievement was hardly accomplished ere a new peril menaced the victorious Spaniard. An express arrived from the Mexican metropolis with the intelligence that the Mexicans had risen in arms; that they had attacked the Spaniards in their quarters, and had killed several, and had wounded more; that they had also seized the two brigantines, destroyed the magazine of provisions, and that the whole garrison was in imminent danger of destruction.
Immediately collecting his whole force, now greatly augmented by the accession of the vanquished troops of Narvaez, with their cavalry and artillery, Cortez hastened back from Zempoalla to the rescue of his beleaguered camp. His army now, with his strangely acquired re-enforcement, amounted to over a thousand infantry and a hundred cavalry, besides several thousands of the natives, whom he recruited from his allies, the Totonacs.
The danger was so imminent that his troops were urged to the utmost possible rapidity of march. At Tlascala, two thousand of those fierce warriors joined him; but as he advanced into the territory of Montezuma, he met every where the evidences of strong disaffection to his cause. The n.o.bles avoided his camp. The inhabitants of cities and villages retired at his approach. No food was brought to him. The natives made no attempt to oppose a force so resistless, but they left before him a path of silence and solitude.
When the Spaniards arrived at the causeway which led to the city, they found, to their surprise, that the Mexicans had not destroyed the bridges, but throughout the whole length of this narrow pa.s.sage no person was to be seen. No one welcomed or opposed. Fiercely those stern men strode on, over the causeway and through the now deserted streets, till they entered into the encampment of their comrades.
The insurrection had been suddenly excited by an atrocious ma.s.sacre on the part of Alvarado. This leader, a brave soldier, but dest.i.tute either of tact or judgment, suspected, or pretended to suspect, that the Mexican n.o.bles were conspiring to attack him. One of their religious festivals was at hand, when all the princ.i.p.al n.o.bles of the empire were to be a.s.sembled in the performance of the rites of their religion, in the court-yard of the great temple. Suddenly Alvarado came upon them, when they were thus unarmed and unsuspicious, and, cutting them off from every avenue of escape, with musketry, artillery, and the keen sabres of his hors.e.m.e.n, mercilessly hewed them down. Nearly six hundred of the flower of the Mexican n.o.bility were ma.s.sacred. Though Cortez was very indignant with his lieutenant when he heard this story from his lips, and exclaimed, ”Your conduct has been that of a madman,” he was still enraged with the Mexicans for venturing to attack his garrison, and declared that they should feel the weight of Spanish vengeance.
In his displeasure, he refused to call upon Montezuma. Elated by the success with which he had thus far triumphed over all obstacles, and deeming the forces he now had under his command sufficient to sweep, like chaff before the whirlwind, any armies which the natives could raise, he gave free utterance to expressions of contempt for both prince and people. There had been a tacit truce between the two parties for a few days, and had Cortez disavowed the conduct of his subaltern, and pursued conciliatory measures, it is possible that the natives might again have been appeased. The insolent tone he a.s.sumed, and his loud menace of vengeance, aroused the natives anew, and they grasped their arms with a degree of determination and ferocity never manifested before.
Bernal Diaz in the following terms records this event:
”Cortez asked Alvarado for what reason he fell upon the natives while they were dancing and holding a festival in honor of their G.o.ds. To this Alvarado replied that it was in order to be beforehand with them, having had intelligence of their hostile intentions toward him from two of their own n.o.bility and a priest. Cortez then asked of him if it was true that they had requested of him permission to hold their festival. The other replied that it was so, and that it was in order to take them by surprise, and to punish and terrify them, so as to prevent their making war upon the Spaniards, that he had determined to fall on them by antic.i.p.ation. At hearing this avowal, Cortez was highly enraged. He censured the conduct of Alvarado in the strongest terms, and in this temper left him.
”Some say that it was avarice which tempted Alvarado to make this attack, in order to pillage the Indians of the golden ornaments which they wore at their festival. I never heard any just reason for the a.s.sertion; nor do I believe any such thing, although it is so represented by Bartholome de las Casas. For my part, I am convinced that his intention in falling on them at that time was in order to strike terror into them, and prevent their insurrection, according to the saying that the first attack is half the battle.”
CHAPTER VIII.
BATTLE OF THE DISMAL NIGHT.
Augmented forces of Cortez.--The reconnaissance.--Success of the Mexicans.--The conflict continued.--Troops of Narvaez begin to murmur.--The sally.--Cortez obliged to retreat.--The conflagration.
--The desperate situation.--The appeal to Montezuma.--He is induced to interpose.--The dawn of the morning.--Attention of the natives.
--Address of Montezuma.--He is wounded.--He refuses nourishment.
--His death.--Raging of the battle.--The two Mexican n.o.bles.--Escape of Cortez.--Night and its scenes.--Endeavors to intimidate the natives.--Their heroism.--Defiance.--Cortez resolves to leave the city.--The moving towers.--The retreat.--The onset.--Arrival at the ca.n.a.l.--Imminent peril.--Filling the breach.--Slow advance.--The storm.--The causeway.--Mult.i.tude of the enemy.--Fury of the attack.
--Noche triste.--Separation of the Spaniards.--March to the rescue.
--Destruction of a part of the army.--Sorrow of Cortez.--They flee to a temple.--Condition of the party.--March over the mountains.