Part 29

The spread of the Nahuatlaca race by their various emigrating swarms brought them over all parts of the Mexican plateau, and also to the coast both of the Atlantic and Pacific, but the center of their rule lay in the narrow Valley of Mexico, probably once the crater of an immense volcano surrounded by a girdle of mountains. There were fifty pueblos in the valley placed on or near the four lakes which, by changes in the distribution of land and water, had taken the place of the one large body of water that had once filled the extinct crater. Before the coming of the Nahuatlaca the district was occupied by the Otomis, whose language is still spoken in the neighborhood of Mexico City.

When the migration took place, Tezcuco, situated on the northeastern shore of the lake, became a dominant pueblo, and was at the head of a considerable confederacy. On the western side of the lake was another group of pueblos known as the Tecpanecs, who were rivals of Tezcuco. Here there settled about the year 1200 a vagrant tribe of the Chichimecs; the new arrivals were named by the Tecpanecs crane people or Aztecs, probably from their habit of wading in the marshy shores of the lake while engaged in fishing. The newcomers proved industrious, and in the course of time reclaimed the marshy island, building on the land two towns, the villages of Tenochtitlan (place of a prickly pear) and Tlatelolco (place of a hill). According to Aztec folklore, when they took possession of the island, they found on it a prickly pear tree growing on a rock and on this rock they saw an eagle devouring a snake. This fable is still recalled in the present arms of the republic of Mexico.

The two Aztec pueblos on the lake remained distinct communities until 1473, a fact which suggests their being built on separate islands, according to the traditional account. By help of the Aztecs, who were skilled in the art of war, the Tecpanec confederacy made great advances in dominating the valley. There was a little contest with Tezcuco when the confederates demanded from its people the usual tribute of cotton cloth; Tezcuco was taken and handed over to the Aztecs as a reward for their valuable services. The growing importance of the island pueblos soon, however, aroused the jealousy of the Tecpanecs and they resolved to suppress the two island communities by transferring the inhabitants to the shores of the lake. In the war which followed, though many of the people of the islands were at first reluctant to try conclusions with their powerful neighbors, the counsels of their warlike leader, Ischohuatl, prevailed. Azcapozalco, the center of the Tecpanec confederacy was captured, and with this conquest, which took place in or about the year 1428, Tenochtitlan or Mexico became the dominant power in the valley.

The island pueblos showed a statesmanlike policy in dealing with their neighbors; Tezcuco was restored to something like an autonomous position, and in the group of pueblos in the valley, of which the island communities were now the head, an equitable distribution of the tribute formerly collected by the Tecpanecs was made. Tezcuco also, and Tlacopan, a Tecpanec pueblo, were given a specific district over which to preside, and were allowed to pursue untrammeled their own line of conquest. To secure the dominant power of Mexico, causeways were built in three directions to the shore, and with other works constructed on two of the lakes, by which the straits between the lakes of Tezcuco and Xochimilco were bridged, a strong fortified place came into existence which was practically impregnable. The warlike and aggressive traditions of Ischohuatl were so well maintained throughout the ninety-two years between the formation of the confederacy and the advent of the Spanish invaders that large tracts of country outside of the valley were turned into tributary regions.

A considerable portion of this work of expansion was done by Ischohuatl’s successor, his nephew Montezuma the First, who ruled over Tenochtitlan for twenty-eight years (1436-1464). During his reign the limits of Mexican rule were extended nearly to those formed by the Spaniards, the area of conquest being decided largely by commercial reasons. Wherever in the Pacific district there were honey, cacao, tangerines, precious stones, copal gums, cinnabar, and gold, that region was marked out for absorption. These Pacific regions extended 800 miles in length and, because of the value of their products, were the most important of all the Mexican dominion. On the side of the Gulf of Mexico the eastern part of the present state of Vera Cruz was rendered tributary; from this district the most prized object of exportation was the quetzalli feathers used for standards and for warriors’ plumes. There was trade from Mexico with the Caribs on the Gulf, for Columbus met, in 1502, a Carib vessel having a cargo of cotton cloaks, tunics, skirts, Mexican swords, stone knives, bronze hatchets and bells, pans for smelting bronze, and cacao. From the time of Montezuma I to the reign of the second of the name, the sovereignty was held by three brothers in succession. During this period there was a revolt of the sister community of Tlatelolco, the suppression of which brought to an end the long existing equality in the confederation headed by this pueblo. Apart from this the boundaries of the tributary area do not seem to have been enlarged.

Altogether there are found in the roll of tributary pueblos 358 names when Montezuma II was dominant chief (1502-1520). These were small industrial settlements in all of which a particular kind of tribute was prepared; some sent cotton cloths, others raw cotton, others timber for fuel or building; from others came weapons, deerskins, tobacco. The tributes were generally paid annually in prescribed quantities. Under this system the great bulk of the population, the Nahuatlacan peasantry, were condemned to a life of severest toil of all kinds done in behalf of the warrior and priestly classes. The warriors, too, every twenty days, had to take the field, partly as a military exercise, partly also to provide the human sacrifices that, according to their old elaborate Mexican ritual, had to be offered to the gods. The priests took charge of the prisoners, prepared them for the sacrifices, divided the flesh of the victims, and arranged their skulls in the precincts of the temple, this being the method of keeping a regular toll of the offerings. There were more commonplace tasks of the priestly order, the Teopixqui, that must have filled up the intervals between the frequent great sacrificial festivals. In each teopan, or temple dedicated to a divinity, the sacred fire was kept ever burning; besides, there was the regular offering of incense, four times a day, at sunrise, noon, sunset, and midnight. To keep up this sequence of devotion and also the prescribed immolations, at stated intervals the heavens were scrutinized with official vigilance day and night. At midnight all those attached to the teopan were aroused for the solemn offering of blood that took place in a penitential chamber, each worshiper supplying his share of blood by tearing his own body with a strap of aloe thorns.

In their religious system the Aztecs, like the other members of the Nahua stock, had reached, in a technical sense, a highly differentiated standard. They had long left behind that stage of the lowest savage life where there is no recognition even of spirits, those substantial and active beings who are made responsible for the changes in the material world that the savage cannot otherwise explain. When the spirit is supposed to be composed, not of flesh and blood, but of some ethereal matter the era of civilization begins. According to savage belief the spirits are made in the image of a man, consisting of flesh and blood like man, and also requiring, like him, nourishment of food and drink. This principle took the widest extension in the Nahuatlacan worship; with the development of tribal life and the organization of confederacies there went hand in hand the regular provision of meat and drink offerings organized on a very large scale to secure the benevolence of the divinities. Various familiar forms of fetich worship were employed. Probably before the fashioning of idols by the hand of man natural objects such as plants, trees, mountains, and animals were worshipped; for example, in Mexico there was a national annual sacrifice to the mountains. In the frequent human sacrifices the victim was slain with a stone knife, on a stone slab, while the neck and limbs were kept in place by a collar and fetters made of stone. From the maize plant developed some of the most important deities in the Mexican religion. There was a long midsummer festival of eight days devoted to this vegetable, one of the prime necessities of life, at which one victim, a slave girl, was offered to the spirit dwelling in the maize. At the end of the eighteenth century the idol before which the sacrificial ceremony was performed was discovered in one of the squares in Mexico, recalling the procession in which it was carried, bound round with skulls, dead snakes, maize leaves, and ears. The toad, as the offspring of water and the symbol of the water spirit, was an object of veneration. The rabbit, as an animal considered totally devoid of sense, was worshipped as a drink god, to whom offerings were made that the worshipper might escape the deleterious effects of an over indulgence in pulque. Like other people in the primitive stage of culture the Mexicans venerated rivers and lakes as manifestations of will.

The common practice of worship of the dead prevailed also in Mexico, where its existence is attested by the preservation of the skull, or by the blocks of stone surmounted by enormous human heads which invariably denote the distinguished dead, because the gods are always represented with all their limbs. There was also a large heavenly hierarchy, gods of the atmosphere and stellar powers, some being associated with particular mountains, but the most important of all was Tezcatlipoca the giver and sustainer of life, the symbol of the wind, the bestower of life and death. Next to him came the sun god, Huitzilopochtli. He being a living person was, as appeared from the natural phenomena seen in the succession of the seasons and the change from day to night, especially in need of food. His vitality frequently shows signs of failing. It is therefore especially incumbent upon man to help him in this struggle for existence. So necessary was the maintenance of this principle of religious faith that the sun always received a share of the human victims offered to the other divinities. But all sorts of vegetable and animal life were offered to this needy divinity, who seemed to the Mexicans to show such constant signs of an impaired vitality. In the pictures of the Aztecs the rays of the sun, significantly represented as long crimson tongues licking up blood, constantly appear. The order of society was so regulated as to keep the sun in full vigorous condition; hence the never ending slaughter of human victims supplied by incessant warfare with neighboring tribes to provide the food supply for the sun. If there had been large animals in Mexico, these ghastly immolations of human victims might not have stained the progress of the Aztec people, for it is an established principle that the search for food is closely related to the development of religion among primitive races.

As the people of Nahuatlaca stock advanced economically and politically, they applied the results of their experience to their primitive tribal religion. Along with the system of tributes which maintained the dominant pueblo, there were expeditions made for securing the tribute to the sun god, called in the language of religious imagery “the plucking of flowers.” As the service of the god was connected with military expeditions, Huitzilopochtli was the Aztec god of war, the tutelar divinity of the warrior class. Twice a year in Mexico there were special rites in the building called the Abode of the Eagles, where the warriors assembled to send a messenger to their patron. In the principal court of the building there was a colossal symbol of the sun, in the shape of a solar wheel sending forth rays of gold. Before it was a great stone at the top of forty steps, called the cap of the eagles; the middle of the altar was hollowed out to receive the victim’s blood, and here the poor captive was brought dressed in the colors of the sun. He carried a staff, a shield, and a bundle of coloring matter, the purpose of which seems to have been to enable the sun to decorate his face. Just before the immolation the victim was addressed in the following words: “Sir, we pray you go to our god, the sun, and greet him on our behalf; tell him that his sons and warriors and chiefs, those who remain here, pray for him to remember them and to favor them from that place where he is, and to receive this small offering which we send him. Give him this staff to help him on his journey and this shield for his defense, and all the rest you have in this bundle.” Those who fell on the field of battle were believed, as a reward, to be transported into the house of the sun, where they became his servants and shared in his constant banquets.

With the eclecticism common to all religions and that specially marks its primitive type, an ancient god of the Toltecs, Quetzalcohuatl, also a solar deity, was adopted as a member of the Aztec divine hierarchy. According to tradition, this divine being left his abode in heaven for the purpose of showing beneficence to mankind. From him man learnt the arts of life, and while he was on earth the age of gold prevailed. Unlike the other deities, his character was mild and kindly, for he was described as being averse to war and sacrifice. Constantly crossed in his purposes by wizards, he floated away on a raft. There was a general belief that he would return and restore the reign of peace, an anticipation which was popular among the tribes who felt the burden of the Aztec domination. Each year, with an inconsistency not foreign to higher forms of religion, human sacrifices were offered under the guise of messengers sent to inform the benign Quetzalcohuatl of the need of a speedy deliverance.

As might have been expected, exaggerated estimates are given by the early authorities of the number of human beings slaughtered in the course of the year; but, in any case, it must have been great, for in the small and poor region of Tlaxcallan from one pueblo 405 captives were sacrificed at the chief feast of the local deity. Naturally, in the dominant pueblo the proportions of the human victims offered to the gods must have far exceeded these limits.

Closely connected with the Aztec religion was the development of an ingenious, if imperfect method of reckoning time. It was apparently evolved independently, for in the Old World there was nothing like it. The basis of time reckoning was the period of twenty days, and each day of this division had a proper sign or name. The periodic expeditions against neighboring hostile tribes were controlled by this division, as were also the holding of markets and the arrangement of tributes. There were eighteen of these divisions, which regulated the various festivals of the religious year. For secular purposes the 360 day year was corrected by adding to it a period of five days, a fractional part of the twenty-day period. On these supplementary five days all public ceremonies ceased. The chronological system consisted of a combination of great cycles, each of fifty-two years’ duration. And each great cycle was divided into four smaller cycles of thirteen years.

The economic and political basis of Aztec life was the pueblo, or tribal community, in which frequently each clan of the tribe had a localized quarter, each provided with the temple of the particular deity recognized by the clan as its protector. Through the wars of conquest with weaker pueblos there had grown up a rudimentary feudalism, according to which the distinguished warriors were established in the subject pueblos as proprietors of the best lands in them. The possession of these lands could descend to the sons or might be alienated for the benefit of a distinguished chieftain. The food supply of the country so controlled was regular, hence there was no need of a nomadic life. Wealth was increasing, and the population growing. Habits of industry were encouraged, with the result that the principle of the division of labor to a certain extent existed. Some forms of craftsmanship, too, were cultivated, specialized in particular communities; for example, Cholula was famous for its potters, while the art of the goldsmith was practised at Azcapozalco. Clothing was manufactured, the houses and buildings were decorated internally, and there was an elaborate cuisine. Montezuma’s meal is described as consisting of thirty sorts of stews. He used chafing-dishes to keep them warm, and he also drank chocolate and ate fruit as a second course.

There was a system of customary law administered by qualified officials, and, for controlling the conduct of the people, there existed an extremely elaborate rule of life which implied discipline and the recognition of social duties and family obligations. The Aztecs had standards of value, but no coined money and no standards of measurement, nor anything like an alphabet or even a syllabary. In the “pinturas,” however, there were a few purely phonetic symbols.

The darker side of Aztec rule is seen in the enforced human labor exacted to supply the tributes in kind, and in the revolting system of organized cannibalism, the outgrowth of their elaborate ritual. Some of the neighboring tribes successfully resisted both these types of oppression, while those who were too weak to do so depended on the mysteriously predicted deliverance from their yoke. In any case, the way for a rapid conquest had been well prepared.

II THE CAREER OF CORTEZ

In 1517 the governor of Cuba, Diego Velasquez, began to send some of his subordinates to explore the coast of Yucatan. One of them brought back ornaments and vessels of gold and also information as to the extent and importance of the great native power in the interior of the land. An expedition was then put in charge of Hernando Cortez, who for eight years had been an adventurer in the New World. The new leader was a native of Medellin in Estremadura, where he had been born in 1485. He had received a good education, graduating as bachelor of laws, but, after leading an irregular life at home, he had sailed for the West Indies, where he had spent eight years, first in Hispaniola, then in Cuba. Like other adventurers, he had taken part in Indian warfare and had been a planter. Powerful interests worked against his appointment; accordingly, when he left Cuba he was informed that Velasquez intended to supersede him in the command. His fleet carried 110 sailors, 553 Spanish soldiers, 200 Indians, some artillery, and a valuable asset for the conquest, sixteen horses.

On the 12th of March, Cortez’ squadron arrived at Potonchan, having previously stopped at Cozumel to pick up Geronimo de Aguilar, who had taken part in an earlier and unsuccessful expedition to the coast of the continent. He had become a member of a native pueblo, had married an Indian, and was especially useful because of his knowledge of the Indian tongue. At Potonchan the inhabitants brought out provisions in boats, but were not disposed to receive the newcomers in their village; indeed, they asked them to accept the food,--bread, fruit, and birds,--and take themselves off. Cortez arranged an ambush near the pueblo and, according to the agreement, two hundred men under Alvarado and Avila rushed upon the settlement when the natives came out a second time to bring provisions. In the meantime the Spaniards on the ships disembarked under the fire of their artillery. There was some sharp fighting, and by the time the pueblo was taken most of the inhabitants had fled to the highlands nearby. The dead were not counted, but there were many wounded and a few captives. Perhaps the actual fighting men on the native side in this first engagement were not more than four or five thousand. Plenty of food was found in the place, but no gold. There was soon another battle, in which eight hundred or a thousand Indians were killed. Apparently they fell into a panic when they confronted cavalry for the first time; “they thought the man and beast were one thing.”

Twenty-two days the expedition now halted, as the pueblo was well supplied with provisions, and the enemy was active outside. Finally the Indians, who were exposed to the prevailing bad weather and were without food, sued for peace, making a rich present to Cortez. But this was nothing, Diaz del Castillo naïvely says, in comparison with the twenty women, who were distributed as booty to the Spanish captains; one in particular was a prize--the celebrated Doña Marina, who spoke the language of the Aztecs, and also, because she had been a slave on the coast, knew the languages of Yucatan and Tabasco. As Aguilar understood Tabasco there was made possible, through Marina, direct communication with the people of the country. “It was a great beginning for our conquest,” says the worthy Diaz.

When Cortez received the natives’ peace offering, he was careful to inquire where they had acquired the gold and jewels. They replied by directing him to the setting sun, and mentioned the words Culchua and Mexico. This was a sufficient indication, and on the 18th of April, Cortez left Potonchan and in three days arrived at San Juan de Ulua. Here the emissaries of Montezuma, who from the accounts he had received through his messengers, was convinced that the Europeans were none other than the famous divine being Quetzalcohuatl and his companions returning by sea after a visit to the sun, greeted Cortez with extraordinary honors.

There was abundance of food,--chicken, maize, bread, and cherries,--drinks of very good cocoa, and, more welcome still, many pieces of gold, some well worked, and a large quantity of the feathered drapery and jewels. Cortez represented himself as the friendly ambassador of Charles V, sent on a special mission of peaceful curiosity. His chief interest was concentrated on the gold, however, for he particularly inquired of the Aztec Teuhtlilli who spoke for Montezuma whether his master had gold. When he answered in the affirmative, Cortez bluntly said, “Send me some of it.” In return for the generous welcome given them the Spaniards amused themselves, in the days following their disembarkation at San Juan, by showing the natives their arms and bloodhounds and explaining how they meant to use them in their passage through the country.

The news of the manners of the mysterious strangers threw Montezuma into a panic; he was more convinced than ever when he heard of the rapacity and cruelty of the Spaniards that Cortez was nothing less than Quetzalcohuatl, the description given being admirably suited to one of the principal divinities of the Aztec theology. To the king’s mind the sole remedy lay in incantations; he summoned therefore the most experienced experts to devise powerful enchantments to keep the whites from approaching the Aztec capital. The charms were inefficacious. At his wits’ end, the Aztec overlord sent peaceful directions to all his dependents.