xi. Prescott abandons himself to the guidance of Clavigero

for the occurrences of these days, but embellishes the narrative with some incidents belonging to the siege of Alvarado.

[817] ‘Botello ... afirmò que ... supiessen que moriria el o su hermano, y algunos de la cõpañia, y qui se saluaria el Capitan, y otros muchos, y ninguno si salian de dia.’ _Herrera_, dec. ii. lib. x. cap. xi. ‘Hora lo creyesen, hora no.’ _Gomara_, _Hist. Mex._, 159. ‘Anteponendo le vane osservazioni di quel meschino Soldato alla luce della prudenza militare,’ is the indignant comment of Clavigero, _Storia Mess._, iii. 135. But there is no doubt that ‘military prudence’ had more weight in the matter than Botello’s words, and that the result was not due to his advice. Solis casts the blame of crediting the ‘ignorant charlatan’ Botello chiefly on the majority of the council, to whom Cortés yielded. _Hist. Mex._, ii. 171-2. In order to lull any suspicions among the Mexicans, says Bernal Diaz, a leading priest and some other captives were sent to the Mexican camp with a proposal to surrender all the gold if the Spaniards were allowed to leave in peace eight days later. _Hist. Verdad._, 105.

[818] _Lejalde_, _Segunda Prob._, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. Doc._, ii. 424. For carrying the royal treasures ‘les dió siete cauallos heridos, y cojos, y vna yegua, y muchos Indios Tlascaltecas, que segun dixeron, fueron mas de ochenta.’ _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Verdad._, 106.

[819] Bernal Diaz, for instance, states that he had hardly taken the four chalchiuites for his share, from a collection in a mat, when Cortés gave orders to his mayordomo to secure it. loc. cit. His penchant for appropriating large shares to himself is well known. Greed of gold was not now his motive, however, but rather a prudential care to secure means for his plans, and he could hardly neglect them when taking so great care of the royal portion. Martyr, Gomara, and Herrera estimate the treasure at 700,000 ducats, chiefly in bulky jewels according to Gomara. Bernal Diaz reckons in pesos, which may mean pesos de oro. Peter Martyr assumes it to have been the general fund, from which the royal fifth had been set apart only at the last moment, but not apportioned. dec. v. cap. vi. Solis assumes that 700,000 pesos remained after the king’s portion had been deducted. _Hist. Mex._, 174-5. One witness estimates that over 2,000,000 pesos were lost during that night. _Cortés_, _Residencia_, ii. 414. The _Carta del Ejército_ reduces the loss to 400,000 pesos de oro. Another witness states that 300,000 castellanos remained when the soldiers were told to help themselves; afterward the general compelled them to surrender what had been thus given, only to keep it for himself. _Cortés_, _Residencia_, i. 241-2. ‘Lo demás ... lo dimos y repartimos por los españoles para que lo sacasen,’ says Cortés, _Cartas_, 135, which may be interpreted as either giving or intrusting. Whatever may have been left after the Spaniards had taken their loads was gleaned by the allies. _Gomara_, _Hist. Mex._, 159.

[820] Bernal Diaz gives Sandoval 100 young unmarried soldiers, with Francisco de Acevedo, the dandy, Ordaz, Tapia, and eight or nine of Narvaez’ men, captains on his staff. To Cortés he gives 50 men, and adds B. V. de Tapia to his staff. _Hist. Verdad._, 105. This author is contradictory, however. Herrera places Antonio de Quiñones as Sandoval’s chief aid, and Olid and Ordaz in the rear. dec. ii. lib. x. cap. xi.; _Gomara_, _Hist. Mex._, 160; _Cortés_, _Cartas_, 134; _Ramirez_, _Proceso contra Alvarado_, 30 et seq.

[821] Herrera adds a brother of Montezuma, and Sahagun names two sons. _Hist. Conq._, 33. So does Vetancurt, although he assumes that one was saved. _Teatro Mex._, pt. iii. 142-3. Ixtlilxochitl gives a longer list, including two sons of Montezuma, and two sons and four daughters of Nezahualpilli, of Tezcuco. One of the daughters escaped, but it was not the beloved of Cortés, who had been baptized and named Juana. Cacama is not included in the list, because he is assumed to have been stabbed to death before the fort was evacuated. _Hist. Chich._, 302; _Relaciones_, 390. With the prisoners’ division went Marina, the interpreter, the Tlascaltec princesses Luisa and Elvira, and some other women, protected, says Bernal Diaz, by 30 soldiers and 300 Tlascaltecs.

[822] This date is based on Cortés’ letter, wherein he places the arrival on Tlascala’s border on Sunday, July 8th, after giving a clear account of the intermediate days. Any doubt about this date is removed by the testimony in _Lejalde_, _Segunda Probanza_, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. Doc._, i. 423, wherein the leading captains state that the siege lasted six days. This testimony also clears up the only doubtful point in Cortés’ account of the siege operations, where he disposes of the wounding and death of Montezuma in one sentence, and then resumes the description of the fighting in a manner that has assisted to mislead Gomara and many others into extending the stay in Mexico till July 10th. Ixtlilxochitl adopts this date, yet in the _Relaciones_, 390, 412-13, he states that the siege lasted only seven days. Bernal Diaz places the eve of the departure on a Thursday, July 10th [with Cortés it is Saturday], yet he dates the battle of Otumba just one week later than Cortés. _Hist. Verdad._, 105, 108. This latter date induces Zamacois to change the date of flight to July 8th. _Hist. Méj._, iii. 406-7. ‘La notte del 1 Luglio,’ says Clavigero, _Storia Mess._, iii. 135, but his reasons for the date are wrong, and the term he uses may apply also to the night following that adopted in the text.

[823] The Spaniards recognized this as a favoring shield direct from God, says Duran, _Hist. Ind._, MS., ii. 473-4.

[824] Ojeda was instructed to see that no somnolent or sick person was left. He found one man asleep on the roof and roused him. _Herrera_, dec. ii. lib. x. cap. xi. Gomara takes the trouble to deny the statement of Cano that 270 men, ignorant of Cortés’ departure, were left behind to perish. _Oviedo_, iii. 551. A later note will explain the cause of this rumor.

[825] The ravaging sallies of the preceding days, which had involved the destruction of houses in the vicinity and along the approaches to Tlacopan, had evidently obliged the enemy to retire from these streets and seek shelter elsewhere for the night. Oviedo assumes that Cortés led the way, but Diaz and Herrera let him advance only when the first troops are guided into Tlacopan.

[826] ‘Pasaron cuatro acequias, y antes que pasasen las demas salió vna muger á tomar agua y viólos.’ _Sahagun_, _Hist. Conq._, 32. ‘A devil, without doubt,’ adds Camargo, who describes her as a keeper of an eating-house, and indicates exactly the location of her house. _Hist. Tlax._, 167. Cortés states that the alarm was given by the guard at the first breach held by the Mexicans, where the portable bridge was laid down. _Cartas_, 136.

[827] Sahagun names this Mictlantonco, and the next two Tlantecayocan and Petlacalco. In another place he names the first Tecpantzinco, and the second or third Tolteacali. _Hist. Conq._, loc. cit., and [ed. 1840] 121-2. Torquemada gives the second breach of the causeway the latter name. The names should probably be written Tecpantzinco, Tolteca-Acalulco, and Petlacalco.

[828] This native rumor, as recorded in the manuscripts used by Duran, _Hist. Ind._, MS., ii. 476-7, is probably the foundation for Cano’s statement, that Cortés abandoned 270 men in the fort. Herrera reduces them to 100. ‘Que se boluieron a la torre del templo, adonde se hizieron fuertes tres dias.’ dec. ii. lib. x. cap. xii.

[829] Bernal Diaz, _Hist. Verdad._, 106, assumes that the enemy bore it down before the baggage train had crossed, and that the channel was filled in consequence with artillery, baggage, and dead bodies. Gomara gets the bridge across the second breach. Both must be mistaken, however.

[830] Camargo relates the incidents of the passage in detail, and says that Cortés fell into a hole as the enemy pounced upon him. The two deliverers disputed the honor of having rescued the general. _Hist. Tlax._, 169.

[831] ‘El foso se hinchó hasta arriba; ... y los de la retroguardia pasaron sobre los muertos. Los españoles que aquí quedaron muertos fueron trescientos, y de los tlaxcaltecas y otros indios amigos fueron mas de dos mil.’ _Sahagun_, _Hist. Conq._ (ed. 1840), 122.

[832] _Ramirez_, _Proceso contra Alvarado_, 4, 53, 68.

[833] ‘Casò esta Señora, con Pedro Sanchez Farfan [who seized Narvaez], y dieronle en Encomienda el Pueblo de Tetela.’ She married a second time, and died in Puebla. _Torquemada_, i. 504.

[834] Bernal Diaz formed one of a band of 50, who were repeatedly attacked with arms and midst insults. He quotes some of the low expressions used. _Hist. Verdad._, 106.

[835] One authority states that Cortés was nearing Tlacopan, when Olid and others called out to him that the fugitives were accusing the captains of abandoning them, and urged that they should turn back. ‘It is a miracle to have escaped,’ was his reply, ‘and fewer will be left if we return.’ Saying this he headed a dozen horsemen and a few foot-soldiers and galloped back. _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Verdad._, 106. But Cortés was not the man to wait in such a case till entreaty came. ‘Yo con tres ó cuatro de caballo,’ he says, ‘y hasta veinte peones, que osaron quedar conmigo, me fuí en la rezaga.’ _Cartas_, 135. He takes the palm from all American conquerors, exclaims Oviedo, iii. 326.

[836] Zamacois makes atonement for a lack of research by inventing doughty deeds for this hero. _Hist. Méj._, iii. 417-18.

[837] Among the soldiers contributed in later times by Garay’s expedition was one Ocampo, who, fond of scandal and pasquinades, libelled many of the captains, among them Alvarado, declaring that he had left Velazquez with over 200 men to die. _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Verdad._, 106-7. The charge came forward in the residencia, but Alvarado brought witnesses to prove that he had lost all control over the men, and could do nothing else than to save himself, wounded and unhorsed as he was. There were other witnesses who did all they could to blacken his fame, and to attribute to his neglect of duty a great portion of the loss sustained during that sad night. _Ramirez_, _Proceso_, 4, 38, 53, 68, and 288. Ramirez decides against the accused. But Alvarado was admittedly brave, recklessly so, and it must be regarded rather as his misfortune that a panic seized the men. Perhaps, as commander intrusted with this section, he should have remained longer at his post. This signified death, and such men as then comprised his command he regarded as hardly worth dying for. He chose to save life at the expense of a blemish on his honor. More it never amounted to, for the court absolved him. He redeemed the fault afterward by brave achievements.

[838] Camargo intimates that several Tlascalan chiefs of the expedition testified to the feat. _Hist. Tlax._, 168; and Gomara adds that several followers tried to imitate it, but failed, and were drowned. _Hist. Mex._, 160. Contradictory as Bernal Diaz is about the incidents of the night, he strenuously insists that the channel was examined during the following siege and found to be too wide and too deep to allow of such a leap. _Hist. Verdad._, 107. This solitary denial of a story which has been adopted by almost every writer, from Oviedo to Prescott, finds support in testimony during the hero’s residencia, wherein it is distinctly stated that he crossed the channel on a fixed beam. His own testimony gives assent to the charge so formulated, although hitherto he had no doubt allowed the other version to be believed. _Ramirez_, _Proceso_, 4, 53, 68 et seq.

[839] Seven Spaniards and eight Tlascaltecs, all badly wounded. _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Verdad._, 106.

[840] ‘Durò poco este nombre, pues tampoco les convenia à los muertos, que iban cargados de Oro.’ _Monarq. Ind._, i. 504. Zamacois describes the site as he found it not long ago. _Hist. Méj._, iii. 421-3. Bernal Diaz implies that the ‘martyr’ name was given in honor of those captured and sacrificed during the siege, a year later. _Hist. Verdad._, 153.

[841] Alvarado was taken on Gamboa’s horse, Laso on Sandoval’s. _Ramirez_, _Proceso contra Alvarado_, 69, 119.

[842] Alvarado said that only the dead remained behind, but Olid insisted that a number were still fighting the enemy. Cortés accordingly went back again and rescued several more. _Castañeda_, in _Id._, 44. Bernal Diaz also states that Cortés returned as far as the bridges. _Hist. Verdad._, 106.

[843] The same who sprang into the sea, off Yucatan, to replace the rudder of his vessel, unshipped during the storm.

[844] La Noche Triste, as it has ever since been called. Amid so much that is romantic the tendency to further romance is often uncontrollable. The truth of this statement is open to grave doubts. ‘Llegó [Alvarado] á Cortés, que estaba ençima de unas gradas de un qü, sentado diçiendo muchas lástimas.’ _Oviedo_, iii. 514. Zamacois describes the enormous tree, yet standing, which shaded the stone and bears the name of ‘_Arbol de la Noche Triste_.’ _Hist. Méj._, iii. 424. Prescott improves the occasion by allowing the army to file past in sad dilapidation, regardless of the fact that the army was already gathered in Tlacopan. _Mex._, ii. 371-2. Testimony confirms the statement of Cortés that ‘fuí en la rezaga, peleando con los indios hasta llegar á una ciudad que se dice Tacuba’ [Tlacopan]. _Cartas_, 135-6.