Chapter I [1521-1522]
TORTURE OF GUATEMOZIN- SUBMISSION OF THE COUNTRY- REBUILDING OF THE
CAPITAL- MISSION TO CASTILE- COMPLAINTS AGAINST CORTES- HE IS CONFIRMED
IN HIS AUTHORITY
THE history of the Conquest of Mexico terminates with the surrender of
the capital. But the history of the Conquest is so intimately blended
with that of the extraordinary man who achieved it, that there would
seem to be an incompleteness in the narrative, if it were not continued
to the close of his personal career. The first ebullition of triumph was
succeeded in the army by very different feelings, as they beheld the
scanty spoil gleaned from the conquered city, and as they brooded over
the inadequate compensation they were to receive for all their toils and
sufferings. Some of the soldiers of Narvaez, with feelings of bitter
disappointment, absolutely declined to accept their shares. Some
murmured audibly against the general, and others against Guatemozin,
who, they said, could reveal, if he chose, the place where the treasures
were secreted. The white walls of the barracks were covered with
epigrams and pasquinades levelled at Cortes, whom they accused of taking
"one fifth of the booty as Commander-in-chief, and another fifth as
King." As Guatemozin refused to make any revelation in respect to the
treasure, or rather declared there was none to make, the soldiers loudly
insisted on his being put to the torture. But for this act of violence,
so contrary to the promise of protection recently made to the Indian
prince, Cortes was not prepared; and he resisted the demand, until the
men, instigated, it is said, by the royal treasurer, Alderete, accused
the general of a secret understanding with Guatemozin, and of a design
to defraud the Spanish sovereigns and themselves. These unmerited taunts
stung Cortes to the quick, and in an evil hour he delivered the Aztec
prince into the hands of his enemies to work their pleasure on him. But
the hero, who had braved death in its most awful forms, was not to be
intimidated by bodily suffering. When his companion, the cacique of
Tacuba, who was put to the torture with him, testified his anguish by
his groans, Guatemozin coldly rebuked him by exclaiming, "And do you
think I, then, am taking my pleasure in my bath?" At length Cortes,
ashamed of the base part he was led to play, rescued the Aztec prince
from his tormentors before it was too late;- not, however, before it was
too late for his own honour, which has suffered an indelible stain from
this treatment of his royal prisoner. All that could be wrung from
Guatemozin by the extremity of his sufferings was the confession that
much gold had been thrown into the water. But, although the best divers
were employed, under the eye of Cortes himself, to search the oozy bed
of the lake, only a few articles of inconsiderable value were drawn from
it. They had better fortune in searching a pond in Guatemozin's
gardens, where a sun, as it is called, probably one of the Aztec
calendarwheels, made of pure gold, of great size and thickness, was
discovered. The tidings of the fall of Mexico were borne on the wings of
the wind over the plateau, and down the broad sides of the Cordilleras.
Many an envoy made his appearance from the remote Indian tribes,
anxious to learn the truth of the astounding intelligence, and to gaze
with their own eyes on the ruins of the detested city. Among these were
ambassadors from the kingdom of Mechoacan, a powerful and independent
state, inhabited by one of the kindred Nahuatlac races, and lying
between the Mexican Valley and the Pacific. His example was followed by
ambassadors from the remote regions which had never yet had intercourse
with the Spaniards. Cortes, who saw the boundaries of his empire thus
rapidly enlarging, availed himself of the favourable dispositions of the
natives to ascertain the products and resources of their several
countries. Two small detachments were sent into the friendly state of
Mechoacan, through which country they penetrated to the borders of the
great Southern Ocean. No European had as yet descended on its shores so
far north of the equator. The Spaniards eagerly advanced into its
waters, erected a cross on the sandy margin, and took possession of it,
with all the usual formalities, in the name of their Most Catholic
Majesties. On their return, they visited some of the rich districts
towards the north, since celebrated for their mineral treasures, and
brought back samples of gold and Californian pearls, with an account of
their discovery of the Ocean. The imagination of Cortes was kindled, and
his soul swelled with exultation at the splendid prospects which their
discoveries unfolded. "Most of all," he writes to the emperor, "do I
exult in the tidings brought me of the great Ocean. For in it, as
cosmographers, and those learned men who know most about the Indies,
inform us, are scattered the rich isles teeming with gold and spices and
precious stones." He at once sought a favourable spot for a colony on
the shores of the Pacific, and made arrangements for the construction of
four vessels to explore the mysteries of these unknown seas. This was
the beginning of his noble enterprises for discovery in the Gulf of
California. Although the greater part of Anahuac, overawed by the
successes of the Spaniards, had tendered their allegiance, there were
some, especially on the southern slopes of the Cordilleras, who showed a
less submissive disposition. Cortes instantly sent out strong
detachments under Sandoval and Alvarado to reduce the enemy and
establish colonies in the conquered provinces. The highly coloured
reports which Alvarado, who had a quick scent for gold, gave of the
mineral wealth of Oaxaca, no doubt operated with Cortes in determining
him to select this region for his own particular domain. Cortes did not
immediately decide in what quarter of the valley to establish the new
capital which was to take the place of the ancient Tenochtitlan. The
situation of the latter, surrounded by water and exposed to occasional
inundations, had some obvious disadvantages. But there was no doubt that
in some part of the elevated and central plateau of the valley the new
metropolis should be built, to which both European and Indian might look
up as to the head of the colonial empire of Spain. At length he decided
on retaining the site of the ancient city, moved to it, as he says, "by
its past renown, and the memory"- not an enviable one, surely- "in
which it was held among the nations"; and he made preparations for the
reconstruction of the capital which should, in his own language, "raise
her to the rank of Queen of the surrounding provinces, in the same
manner as she had been of yore." The labour was to be performed by the
Indian population, drawn from all quarters of the valley, and including
the Mexicans themselves, great numbers of whom still lingered in the
neighbourhood of their ancient residence. At first they showed
reluctance, and even symptoms of hostility, when called to this work of
humiliation by their conquerors. But Cortes had the address to secure
some of the principal chiefs in his interests, and, under their
authority and direction, the labour of their countrymen was conducted.
The deep groves of the valley and the forests of the neighbouring hills
supplied cedar, cypress, and other durable woods, for the interior of
the buildings, and the quarries of tetzontli and the ruins of the
ancient edifices furnished abundance of stone. As there were no beasts
of draught employed by the Aztecs, an immense number of hands was
necessarily required for the work. All within the immediate control of
Cortes were pressed into the service. The spot so recently deserted now
swarmed with multitudes of Indians of various tribes, and with
Europeans, the latter directing, while the others laboured. The prophecy
of the Aztecs was accomplished. The work of reconstruction went forward
rapidly. Yet the condition of Cortes, notwithstanding the success of
his arms, suggested many causes of anxiety. He had not received a word
of encouragement from home,- not a word, indeed, of encouragement or
censure. In what light his irregular course was regarded by the
government or the nation was still matter of painful uncertainty. He now
prepared another letter to the emperor, the third in the published
series, written in the same simple and energetic style which has
entitled his Commentaries, as they may be called, to a comparison with
those of Caesar. It was dated at Cojohuacan, 15th of May, 1522; and in
it he recapitulated the events of the final siege of the capital, and
his subsequent operations, accompanied by many sagacious reflections, as
usual, on the character and resources of the country. With this letter
he purposed to send the royal fifth of the spoils of Mexico, and a rich
collection of fabrics, especially of gold and jewellery wrought into
many rare and fanciful forms. One of the jewels was an emerald, cut in a
pyramidal shape, of so extraordinary a size, that the base was as broad
as the palm of the hand! The collection was still further augmented by
specimens of many of the natural products, as well as of animals
peculiar to the country. The army wrote a letter to accompany that of
Cortes, in which they expatiated on his manifold services, and besought
the emperor to ratify his proceedings and confirm him in his present
authority. The important mission was intrusted to two of the general's
confidential officers, Quinones and Avila. It proved to be unfortunate.
The agents touched at the Azores, where Quinones lost his life in a
brawl. Avila, resuming his voyage, was captured by a French privateer,
and the rich spoils of the Aztecs went into the treasury of his Most
Christian Majesty. Francis the First gazed with pardonable envy on the
treasures which his imperial rival drew from his colonial domains; and
he intimated his discontent by peevishly expressing a desire "to see the
clause in Adam's testament which entitled his brothers of Castile and
Portugal to divide the New World between them." Avila found means,
through a private hand, of transmitting his letters, the most important
part of his charge, to Spain, where they reached the court in safety.
While these events were passing, affairs in Spain had been taking an
unfavourable turn for Cortes. It may seem strange, that the brilliant
exploits of the Conqueror of Mexico should have attracted so little
notice from the government at home. But the country was at that time
distracted by the dismal feuds of the comunidades. The sovereign was in
Germany, too much engrossed by the cares of the empire to allow leisure
for those of his own kingdom. The reins of government were in the hands
of Adrian, Charles's preceptor; a man whose ascetic and studious habits
better qualified him to preside over a college of monks, than to fill,
as he successively did, the most important posts in Christendom,- first
as Regent of Castile, afterwards as Head of the Church. Yet the slow and
hesitating Adrian could not have so long passed over in silence the
important services of Cortes, but for the hostile interference of
Velasquez, the governor of Cuba, sustained by Fonseca, Bishop of Burgos,
the chief person in the Spanish colonial department. This prelate, from
his elevated station, possessed paramount authority in all matters
relating to the Indies, and he had exerted it from the first, as we have
already seen, in a manner most prejudicial to the interests of Cortes.
He had now the address to obtain a warrant from the regent which was
designed to ruin the Conqueror at the very moment when his great
enterprise had been crowned with success. The instrument, after
recapitulating the offences of Cortes, in regard to Velasquez, appoints a
commisioner with full powers to visit the country, to institute an
inquiry into the general's conduct, to suspend him from his functions,
and even to seize his person and sequestrate his property, until the
pleasure of the Castilian court could be known. The warrant was signed
by Adrian, at Burgos, on the 11th of April, 1521, and countersigned by
Fonseca. The individual selected for the delicate task of apprehending
Cortes, and bringing him to trial, on the theatre of his own discoveries
and in the heart of his own camp, was named Christoval de Tapia,
veedor, or inspector of the gold foundries in St. Domingo. He was a
feeble, vacillating man, as little competent to cope with Cortes's in
civil matters, as Narvaez had shown himself to be in military. The
commissioner, clothed in his brief authority, landed in December, at
Villa Rica. But he was coldly received by the magistrates of the city.
His credentials were disputed, on the ground of some technical
informality. It was objected, moreover, that his commission was founded
on obvious misrepresentations to the government; and, notwithstanding a
most courteous and complimentary epistle which he received from Cortes,
congratulating him, as old friend, on his arrival, the veedor soon found
that he was neither to be permitted to penetrate far into the country,
nor to exercise any control there. He loved money, and, as Cortes knew
the weak side of his "old friend," he proposed to purchase his horses,
slaves, and equipage, at a tempting price. The dreams of disappointed
ambition were gradually succeeded by those of avarice; and the
discomfited commissioner consented to re-embark for Cuba, well freighted
with gold if not with glory. Thus left in undisputed possession of
authority, the Spanish commander went forward with vigour in his plans
for the settlement of his conquests. The Panuchese, a fierce people, on
the borders of the Panuco, on the Atlantic coast, had taken up arms
against the Spaniards. Cortes marched at the head of a considerable
force into their country, defeated them in two pitched battles, and
after a severe campaign, reduced the warlike tribe to subjection. During
this interval, the great question in respect to Cortes and the colony
had been brought to a decisive issue. The general must have succumbed
under the insidious and implacable attacks of his enemies, but for the
sturdy opposition of a few powerful friends zealously devoted to his
interests. Among them may be mentioned his own father, Don Martin
Cortes, a discreet and efficient person, and the Duke de Bejar, a
powerful nobleman, who from an early period had warmly espoused the
cause of Cortes. By their representations the timid regent was at length
convinced that the measures of Fonseca were prejudicial to the
interests of the crown, and an order was issued interdicting him from
further interference in any matters in which Cortes was concerned. While
the exasperated prelate was chafing under this affront, both the
commissioners Tapia and Narvaez arrived in Castile. The latted had been
ordered to Cojohuacan after the surrender of the capital, where his
cringing demeanour formed a striking contrast to the swaggering port
which he had assumed on first entering the country. When brought into
the presence of Cortes, he knelt down and would have kissed his hand,
but the latter raised him from the ground, and, during his residence in
his quarters, treated him with every mark of respect. The general soon
afterwards permitted his unfortunate rival to return to Spain, where he
proved, as might have been anticipated, a most bitter and implacable
enemy. These two personages, reinforced by the discontented prelate,
brought forward their several charges against Cortes with all the
acrimony which mortified vanity and the thirst of vengeance could
inspire. Adrian was no longer in Spain, having been called to the chair
of St. Peter; but Charles the Fifth, after his long absence, had
returned to his dominions, in July, 1522. The royal ear was instantly
assailed with accusations of Cortes on the one hand and his vindication
on the other, till the young monarch, perplexed, and unable to decide on
the merits of the question, referred the whole subject to the decision
of a board selected for the purpose. It was drawn partly from the
members of his privy council, and partly from the Indian department,
with the Grand Chancellor of Naples as its president; and constituted
altogether a tribunal of the highest respectability for integrity and
wisdom. By this learned body a patient and temperate hearing was given
to the parties. The enemies of Cortes accused him of having seized and
finally destroyed the fleet intrusted to him by Velasquez, and fitted
out at the governor's expense; of having afterwards usurped powers in
contempt of the royal prerogative; of the unjustifiable treatment of
Narvaez and Tapia, when they had been lawfully commissioned to supersede
him; of cruelty to the natives, and especially to Guatemozin; of
embezzling the royal treasures, and remitting but a small part of its
dues to the crown; of squandering the revenues of the conquered
countries in useless and wasteful schemes, and particularly in
rebuilding the capital on a plan of unprecedented extravagance; of
pursuing, in short, a system of violence and extortion, without respect
to the public interest, or any other end than his own selfish
aggrandisement. In answer to these grave charges, the friends of Cortes
adduced evidence to show that he had defrayed with his own funds
two-thirds of the cost of the expedition. The powers of Velasquez
extended only to traffic, not to establish a colony. Yet the interests
of the crown required the latter. The army had therefore necessarily
assumed this power to themselves; but, having done so, they had sent
intelligence of their proceedings to the emperor and solicited his
confirmation of them. The rupture with Narvaez was that commander's own
fault; since Cortes would have met him amicably, had not the violent
measures of his rival, threatening the ruin of the expedition, compelled
him to an opposite course. The treatment of Tapia was vindicated on the
grounds alleged to that officer by the municipality at Cempoalla. The
violence to Guatemozin was laid at the door of Alderete, the royal
treasurer, who had instigated the soldiers to demand it. The remittances
to the crown, it was clearly proved, so far from falling short of the
legitimate fifth, had considerably exceeded it. If the general had
expended the revenues of the country on costly enterprises and public
works, it was for the interest of the country that he did so, and he had
incurred a heavy debt by straining his own credit to the utmost for the
same great objects. Neither did they deny, that, in the same spirit, he
was now rebuilding Mexico on a scale which should be suited to the
metropolis of a vast and opulent empire. They enlarged on the opposition
he had experienced, throughout his whole career, from the governor of
Cuba, and still more from the Bishop of Burgos, which latter
functionary, instead of affording him the aid to have been expected, had
discouraged recruits, stopped his supplies, sequestered such property
as, from time to time, he had sent to Spain, and falsely represented his
remittances to the crown, as coming from the governor of Cuba. In
short, such and so numerous were the obstacles thrown in his path, that
Cortes had been heard to say, "he had found it more difficult to contend
against his own countrymen than against the Aztecs." They concluded
with expatiating on the brilliant results of his expedition, and asked
if the council were prepared to dishonour the man who, in the face of
such obstacles, and with scarcely other resources than what he found in
himself, had won an empire for Castile, such as was possessed by no
European potentate! This last appeal was irresistible. However irregular
had been the manner of proceeding, no one could deny the grandeur of
the results. There was not a Spaniard that could be insensible to such
services, or that would not have cried out "Shame!" at an ungenerous
requital of them. There were three Flemings in the council; but there
seems to have been no difference of opinion in the body. It was decided,
that neither Velasquez nor Fonseca should interfere further in the
concerns of New Spain. The difficulties of the former with Cortes were
regarded in the nature of a private suit; and, as such, redress must be
sought by the regular course of law. The acts of Cortes were confirmed
in their full extent. He was constituted 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 he might deem prejudicial to the interests of the crown.
This judgment of the council was ratified by Charles the Fifth, and the
commission investing Cortes with these ample powers was signed by the
emperor at Valladolid, 15th of October, 1522. A liberal salary was
provided, to enable the governor of New Spain to maintain his office
with suitable dignity. The principal officers were recompensed with
honours and substantial emoluments; and the troops, together with some
privileges, grateful to the vanity of the soldier, received the promise
of liberal grants of land. The emperor still further complimented them
by a letter written to the army with his own hand, in which he
acknowledged its services in the fullest manner.
Chapter II [1522-1524]
MODERN MEXICO- SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTRY- CONDITION OF THE NATIVES-
CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES- CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL- VOYAGES AND EXPEDITIONS
IN less than four years from the destruction of Mexico, a new city had
risen on its ruins, which, if inferior to the ancient capital in extent,
surpassed it in magnificence and strength. It occupied so exactly the
same site as its predecessor that the plaza mayor, or great square, was
the same spot which had been covered by the huge teocalli and the palace
of Montezuma; while the principal streets took their departure as
before from this central point, and passing through the whole length of
the city, terminated at the principal causeways. Great alteration,
however, took place in the fashion of the architecture. The streets were
widened, many of the canals were filled up, and the edifices were
constructed on a plan better accommodated to European taste and the
wants of a European population. On the site of the temple of the Aztec
war-god rose the stately cathedral dedicated to St. Francis; and, as if
to complete the triumphs of the Cross, the foundations were laid with
the broken images of the Aztec gods. In a corner of the square, on the
ground once covered by the House of Birds, stood a Franciscan convent, a
magnificent pile, erected a few years after the Conquest by a lay
brother, Pedro de Gante, a natural son, it is said, of Charles the
Fifth. In an opposite quarter of the same square, Cortes caused his own
palace to be constructed. It was built of hewn stone, and seven thousand
cedar beams are said to have been used for the interior. The government
afterwards appropriated it to the residence of the viceroys; and the
Conqueror's descendants, the Dukes of Monteleone, were allowed to erect a
new mansion in another part of the plaza, on the spot which, by an
ominous coincidence, had been covered by the palace of Montezuma. The
general's next care was to provide a population for the capital. He
invited the Spaniards thither by grants of lands and houses, while the
Indians, with politic liberality, were permitted to live under their own
chiefs as before, and to enjoy various immunities. With this
encouragement, the Spanish quarter of the city in the neighbourhood of
the great square could boast in a few years two thousand families; while
the Indian district of Tlatelolco included no less than thirty
thousand. The various trades and occupations were resumed; the canals
were again covered with barges; two vast markets in the respective
quarters of the capital displayed all the different products and
manufactures of the surrounding country; and the city swarmed with a
busy, industrious population, in which the white man and the Indian, the
conqueror and the conquered, mingled together promiscuously in peaceful
and picturesque confusion. Not twenty years had elapsed since the
Conquest, when a missionary who visited it had the confidence, or the
credulity, to assert, that "Europe could not boast a single city so fair
and opulent as Mexico." Cortes stimulated the settlement of his several
colonies by liberal grants of land and municipal privileges. The great
difficulty was to induce women to reside in the country, and without
them he felt that the colonies, like a tree without roots, must soon
perish. By a singular provision, he required every settler, if a married
man, to bring over his wife within eighteen months, on pain of
forfeiting his estate. If he were too poor to do this himself, the
government would assist him. Another law imposed the same penalty on all
bachelors who did not provide themselves with wives within the same
period! The general seems to have considered celibacy as too great a
luxury for a young country. His own wife, Dona Catalina Xuarez, was
among those who came over from the Islands to New Spain. According to
Bernal Diaz, her coming gave him no particular satisfaction. It is
possible; since his marriage with her seems to have been entered into
with reluctance, and her lowly condition and connections stood somewhat
in the way of his future advancement. Yet they lived happily together
for several years, according to the testimony of Las Casas; and whatever
he may have felt, he had the generosity, or the prudence not to betray
his feelings to the world. On landing, Dona Catalina was escorted by
Sandoval to the capital, where she was kindly received by her husband,
and all the respect paid to her to which she was entitled by her
elevated rank. But the climate of the tableland was not suited to her
constitution, and she died in three months after her arrival. An event
so auspicious to his worldly prospects did not fail, as we shall see
hereafter, to provoke the tongue of scandal to the most malicious, but
is scarcely necessary to say, unfounded inferences. In the distribution
of the soil among the Conquerors, Cortes adopted the vicious system of
repartimientos, universally practised among his countrymen. In a letter
to the emperor, he states, that the superior capacity of the Indians in
New Spain had made him regard it as a grievous thing to condemn them to
servitude, as had been done in the Islands. But, on further trial, he
had found the Spaniards so much harassed and impoverished, that they
could not hope to maintain themselves in the land without enforcing the
services of the natives, and for this reason he had at length waived his
own scruples in compliance with their repeated remonstrances. This was
the wretched pretext used on the like occasions by his countrymen to
cover up this flagrant act of injustice. The crown, however, in its
instructions to the general, disavowed the act and annulled the
repartimientos. It was all in vain. The necessities, or rather the
cupidity, of the colonists, easily evaded the royal ordinances. The
colonial legislation of Spain shows, in the repetition of enactments
against slavery, the perpetual struggle that subsisted between the crown
and the colonists, and the impotence of the former to enforce measures
repugnant to the interests, at all events to the avarice, of the latter.
The Tlascalans, in gratitude for their signal services, were exempted,
at the recommendation of Cortes, from the doom of slavery. It should be
added, that the general, in granting the repartimientos, made many
humane regulations for limiting the power of the master, and for
securing as many privileges to the native as were compatible with any
degree of compulsory service. These limitations, it is true, were too
often disregarded; and in the mining districts in particular the
situation of the poor Indian was often deplorable. Yet the Indian
population, clustering together in their own villages, and living under
their own magistrates, have continued to prove by their numbers, fallen
as these have below their primitive amount, how far superior was their
condition to that in most other parts of the vast colonial empire of
Spain. Whatever disregard he may have shown to the political rights of
the natives, Cortes manifested a commendable solicitude for their
spiritual welfare. He requested the emperor to send out holy men to the
country; not bishops and pampered prelates, who too often squandered the
substance of the Church in riotous living, but godly persons, members
of religious fraternities, whose lives might be a fitting commentary on
their teaching. Thus only, he adds,- and the remark is worthy of note,-
can they exercise any influence over the natives, who have been
accustomed to see the least departure from morals in their own
priesthood punished with the utmost rigour of the law. In obedience to
these suggestions, twelve Franciscan friars embarked for New Spain,
which they reached early in 1524. They were men of unblemished purity of
life, nourished with the learning of the cloister, and, like many
others whom the Romish Church has sent forth on such apostolic missions,
counted all personal sacrifices as little in the cause to which they
were devoted. The conquerors settled in such parts of the country as
best suited their inclinations. Many occupied the south-eastern slopes
of the Cordilleras towards the rich valley of Oaxaca. Many more spread
themselves over the broad surface of the tableland, which, from its
elevated position; reminded them of the plateau of their own Castiles.
Here, too, they were in the range of those inexhaustible mines which
have since poured their silver deluge over Europe. The mineral resources
of the land were not, indeed, fully explored, or comprehended till at a
much later period; but some few, as the mines of Zacatecas, Guanaxuato,
and Tasco,- the last of which was also known in Montezuma's time,- had
begun to be wrought within a generation after the Conquest. But the best
wealth of the first settlers was in the vegetable products of the soil,
whether indigenous, or introduced from abroad by the wise economy of
Cortes. He had earnestly recommended the crown to require all vessels
coming to the country, to bring over a certain quantity of seeds and
plants. He made it a condition of the grants of land on the plateau,
that the proprietor of every estate should plant a specified number of
vines in it. He further stipulated, that no one should get a clear title
to his estate until he had occupied it eight years. He knew that
permanent residence could alone create that interest in the soil which
would lead to its efficient culture; and that the opposite system had
caused the impoverishment of the best plantations in the Islands. While
thus occupied with the internal economy of the country, Cortes was still
bent on his great schemes of discovery and conquest. In the preceding
chapter we have seen him fitting out a little fleet at Zacatula, to
explore the shores of the Pacific. It was burnt in the dock-yard, when
nearly completed. This was a serious calamity, as most of the materials
were to be transported across the country from Villa Rica. Cortes,
however, with his usual promptness, took measures to repair the loss. He
writes to the emperor, that another squadron will soon be got ready at
the same port. A principal object of this squadron was the discovery of a
strait which should connect the Atlantic with the Pacific. Another
squadron, consisting of five vessels, was fitted out in the Gulf of
Mexico, to take the direction of Florida, with the same view of
detecting a strait. For Cortes trusted- we, at this day, may smile at
the illusion- that one might be found in that direction, which should
conduct the navigator to those waters which had been traversed by the
keels of Magellan! The discovery of a strait was the great object to
which nautical enterprise in that day was directed, as it had been ever
since the time of Columbus. It was in the sixteenth century what the
discovery of the North-West passage has been in our own age; the great
ignis fatuus of navigators. The vast extent of the American continent
had been ascertained by the voyages of Cabot in the North, and of
Magellan very recently in the South. The proximity, in certain quarters,
of the two great oceans that washed its eastern and western shores had
been settled by the discoveries both of Balboa and of Cortes. European
scholars could not believe, that Nature had worked on a plan so
repugnant to the interests of humanity, as to interpose, through the
whole length of the great continent, such a barrier to communication
between the adjacent waters. It was partly with the same view, that the
general caused a considerable armament to be equipped and placed under
the command of Christoval de Olid, the brave officer who, as the reader
will remember, had charge of one of the great divisions of the besieging
army. He was to steer for Honduras, and plant a colony on its northern
coast. A detachment of Olid's squadron was afterwards to cruise along
its southern shore towards Darien in search of the mysterious strait.
The country was reported to be full of gold; so full, that "the
fishermen used gold weights for their nets." The life of the Spanish
discoverers was one long day-dream. Illusion after illusion chased one
another like the bubbles which the child throws off from his pipe, as
bright, as beautiful, and as empty. They lived in a world of
enchantment. Together with these maritime expeditions Cortes fitted out a
powerful expedition by land. It was intrusted to Alvarado, who, with a
large force of Spaniards and Indians, was to descend the southern slant
of the Cordilleras, and penetrate into the countries that lay beyond the
rich valley of Oaxaca. The campaigns of this bold and rapacious chief
terminated in the important conquest of Guatemala. In the prosecution of
his great enterprises, Cortes, within three short years after the
Conquest, had reduced under the dominion of Castile an extent of country
more than four hundred leagues in length, as he affirms, on the
Atlantic coast, and more than five hundred on the Pacific; and, with the
exception of a few interior provinces of no great importance, had
brought them to a condition of entire tranquillity. In accomplishing
this, he had freely expended the revenues of the crown, drawn from
tributes similar to those which had been anciently paid by the natives
to their own sovereigns; and he had, moreover, incurred a large debt on
his own account, for which he demanded remuneration from government. The
celebrity of his name, and the dazzling reports of the conquered
countries, drew crowds of adventurers to New Spain, who furnished the
general with recruits for his various enterprises. Whoever would form a
just estimate of this remarkable man, must not confine himself to the
history of the Conquest. His military career, indeed, places him on a
level with the greatest captains of his age. But the period subsequent
to the Conquest affords different, and in some respects nobler, points
of view for the study of his character. For we then see him devising a
system of government for the motley and antagonist races, so to speak,
now first brought under a common dominion; repairing the mischiefs of
war; and employing his efforts to detect the latent resources of the
country, and to stimulate it to its highest power of production. The
narration may seem tame after the recital of exploits as bold and
adventurous as those of a paladin of romance. But it is only by the
perusal of this narrative that we can form an adequate conception of the
acute and comprehensive geinus of Cortes.
Chapter III [1524-1526]
DEFECTION OF OLID- DREADFUL MARCH TO HONDURAS- EXECUTION OF GUATEMOZIN-
DONA MARINA- ARRIVAL AT HONDURAS
IN the last chapter we have seen that Christoval de Olid was sent by
Cortes to plant a colony in Honduras. The expedition was attended with
consequences which had not been foreseen. Made giddy by the possession
of power, Olid, when he had reached his place of destination, determined
to assert an independent jurisdiction for himself. His distance from
Mexico, he flattered himself, might enable him to do so with impunity.
He misunderstood the character of Cortes, when he supposed that any
distance would be great enough to shield a rebel from his vengeance. It
was long before the general received tidings of Olid's defection. But no
sooner was he satisfied of this, than he despatched to Honduras a
trusty captain and kinsman, Francisco de las Casas, with directions to
arrest his disobedient officer. Las Casas was wrecked on the coast, and
fell into Olid's hands; but eventually succeeded in raising an
insurrection in the settlement, seized the person of Olid, and beheaded
that unhappy delinquent in the market-place of Naco. Of these
proceedings Cortes learned only what related to the shipwreck of his
lieutenant. He saw all the mischievous consequences than must arise from
Olid's example, especially if his defection were to go unpunished. He
determined to take the affair into his own hands, and to lead an
expedition in person to Honduras. He would thus, moreover, be enabled to
ascertain from personal inspection the resources of the country, which
were reputed great on the score of mineral wealth; and would, perhaps,
detect the point of communication between the great oceans, which had so
long eluded the efforts of the Spanish discoverers. He was still
further urged to this step by the uncomfortable position in which he had
found himself of late in the capital. Several functionaries had
recently been sent from the mother country for the ostensible purpose of
administering the colonial revenues. But they served as spies on the
general's conduct, caused him many petty annoyances and sent back to
court the most malicious reports of his purposes and proceedings.
Cortes, in short, now that he was made Governor General of the country,
had less real power than when he held no legal commission at all. The
Spanish force which he took with him did not probably exceed a hundred
horse and forty or perhaps fifty foot; to which were added about three
thousand Indian auxiliaries. Among them were Guatemozin and the cacique
of Tacuba, with a few others of highest rank, whose consideration with
their countrymen would make them an obvious nucleus, round which
disaffection might gather. The general's personal retinue consisted of
several pages, young men of good family, and among them Montejo, the
future conqueror of Yucatan; a butler and steward; several musicians,
dancers, jugglers, and buffoons, showing, it might seem, more of the
effeminacy of the Oriental satrap, than the hardy valour of a Spanish
cavalier. Yet the imputation of effeminacy is sufficiently disproved by
the terrible march which he accomplished. On the 12th of October, 1524,
Cortes commenced his march. As he descended the sides of the
Cordilleras, he was met by many of his old companions in arms, who
greeted their commander with a hearty welcome, and some of them left
their estates to join the expedition. He halted in the province of
Coatzacualco (Huasacualco), until he could receive intelligence
respecting his route from the natives of Tabasco. They furnished him
with a map, exhibiting the principal places whither the Indian traders,
who wandered over these wild regions, were in the habit of resorting.
With the aid of this map, a compass, and such guides as from time to
time he could pick up on his journey, he proposed to traverse that broad
and level tract which forms the base of Yucatan, and spreads from the
Coatzacualco river to the head of the Gulf of Honduras. "I shall give
your Majesty," he begins his celebrated letter to the emperor,
describing this expedition, "an account, as usual, of the most
remarkable events of my journey, every one of which might form the
subject of a separate narration." Cortes did not exaggerate. The
beginning of the march lay across a low and marshy level, intersected by
numerous little streams, which form the head waters of the Rio de
Tabasco, and of the other rivers that discharge themselves to the north,
into the Mexican Gulf. The smaller streams they forded, or passed in
canoes, suffering their horses to swim across as they held them by the
bridle. Rivers of more formidable size they crossed on floating bridges.
It gives one some idea of the difficulties they had to encounter in
this way, when it is stated, that the Spaniards were obliged to
construct no less than fifty of these bridges in a distance of less than
a hundred miles. One of them was more than nine hundred paces in
length. Their troubles were much augmented by the difficulty of
obtaining subsistence, as the natives frequently set fire to the
villages on their approach, leaving to the wayworn adventurers only a
pile of smoking ruins. The first considerable place which they reached
was Iztapan, pleasantly situated in the midst of a fruitful region, on
the banks of the tributaries of the Rio de Tabasco. Such was the
extremity to which the Spaniards had already, in the course of a few
weeks, been reduced by hunger and fatigue, that the sight of a village
in these dreary solitudes was welcomed by his followers, says Cortes,
"with a shout of joy that was echoed back from all the surrounding
woods." The army was now at no great distance from the ancient city of
Palenque, the subject of so much speculation in our time. The village of
Las Tres Cruzes, indeed, situated between twenty and thirty miles from
Palenque, is said still to commemorate the passage of the Conquerors by
the existence of three crosses which they left there. Yet no allusion is
made to the ancient capital. Was it then the abode of a populous and
flourishing community, such as once occupied it, to judge from the
extent and magnificence of its remains? Or was it, even then, a heap of
mouldering ruins, buried in a wilderness of vegetation, and thus hidden
from the knowledge of the surrounding country? If the former, the
silence of Cortes is not easy to be explained. On quitting Iztapan, the
Spaniards struck across a country having the same character of a low and
marshy soil, chequered by occasional patches of cultivation, and
covered with forests of cedar and Brazil-wood, which seemed absolutely
interminable. The overhanging foliage threw so deep a shade, that as
Cortes says, the soldiers could not see where to set their feet. To add
to their perplexity, their guides deserted them; and when they climbed
to the summits of the tallest trees, they could see only the same
cheerless, interminable line of waving woods. The compass and the map
furnished the only clue to extricate them from this gloomy labyrinth;
and Cortes and his officers, among whom was the constant Sandoval,
spreading out their chart on the ground, anxiously studied the probable
direction of their route. Their scanty supplies meanwhile had entirely
failed them, and they appeased the cravings of appetite by such roots as
they dug out of the earth, or by the nuts and berries that grew wild in
the woods. Numbers fell sick, and many of the Indians sank by the way,
and died of absolute starvation. When at length the troops emerged from
these dismal forests, their path was crossed by a river of great depth,
and far wider than any which they had hitherto traversed. The soldiers,
disheartened, broke out into murmurs against their leader, who was
plunging them deeper and deeper in a boundless wilderness, where they
must lay their bones. It was in vain that Cortes encouraged them to
construct a floating bridge, which might take them to the opposite bank
of the river. It seemed a work of appalling magnitude, to which their
wasted strength was unequal. He was more succesful in his appeal to the
Indian auxiliaries, till his own men, put to shame by the ready
obedience of the latter, engaged in the work with a hearty good will,
which enabled them, although ready to drop from fatigue, to accomplish
it at the end of four days. It was, indeed, the only expedient by which
they could hope to extricate themselves from their perilous situation.
The bridge consisted of one thousand pieces of timber, each of the
thickness of a man's body and full sixty feet long. When we consider
that the timber was all standing in the forest at the commencement of
the labour, it must be admitted to have been an achievement worthy of
the Spaniards. The arrival of the army on the opposite bank of the river
involved them in new difficulties. The ground was so soft and saturated
with water, that the horses floundered up to their girths, and,
sometimes plunging into quagmires, were nearly buried in the mud. It was
with the greatest difficulty that they could be extricated by covering
the wet soil with the foliage and the boughs of trees, when a stream of
water, which forced its way through the heart of the morass, furnished
the jaded animals with the means of effecting their escape by swimming.
As the Spaniards emerged from these slimy depths, they came on a broad
and rising ground, which by its cultivated fields teeming with maize,
agi, or pepper of the country, and the yuca plant, intimated their
approach to the capital of the fruitful province of Aculan. It was the
beginning of Lent, 1525, a period memorable for an event of which I
shall give the particulars from the narrative of Cortes. The general at
this place was informed by one of the Indian converts in his train, that
a conspiracy had been set on foot by Guatemozin, with the cacique of
Tacuba, and some other of the principal Indian nobles, to massacre the
Spaniards. They would seize the moment when the army should be entangled
in the passage of some defile, or some frightful morass like that from
which it had just escaped, where, taken at disadvantage, it could be
easily overpowered by the superior number of the Mexicans. After the
slaughter of the troops, the Indians would continue their march to
Honduras, and cut off the Spanish settlements there. Their success would
lead to a rising in the capital, and throughout the land, until every
Spaniard should be exterminated, and vessels in the ports be seized, and
secured from carrying the tidings across the waters. No sooner had
Cortes learned the particulars of this formidable plot, than he arrested
Guatemozin, and the principal Aztec lords in his train. The latter
admitted the fact of the conspiracy, but alleged, that it had been
planned by Guatemozin, and that they had refused to come into it.
Guatemozin and the chief of Tacuba neither admitted nor denied the truth
of the accusation, but maintained a dogged silence.- Such is the
statement of Cortes. Bernal Diaz, however, who was present at the
expedition, assures us, that both Guatemozin and the cacique of Tacuba
avowed their innocence. They had, indeed, they said, talked more than
once together of the sufferings they were then enduring, and had said
that death was preferable to seeing so many of their poor followers
dying daily around them. They admitted, also, that a project for rising
on the Spaniards had been discussed by some of the Aztecs; but
Guatemozin had discouraged it from the first, and no scheme of the kind
could have been put into execution without his knowledge and consent.
These protestations did not avail the unfortunate princes; and Cortes,
having satisfied, or affected to satisfy, himself of their guilt,
ordered them to immediate execution. When brought to the fatal tree,
Guatemozin displayed the intrepid spirit worthy of his better days. "I
knew what it was," said he, "to trust to your false promises, Malinche; I
knew that you had destined me to this fate, since I did not fall by my
own hand when you entered my city of Tenochtitlan. Why do you slay me so
unjustly? God will demand it of you!" The cacique of Tacuba, protesting
his innocence, declared that he desired no better lot than to die by
the side of his lord. The unfortunate princes, with one or more inferior
nobles (for the number is uncertain), were then executed by being hung
from the huge branches of a ceiba tree, which overshadowed the road. In
reviewing the circumstances of Guatemozin's death, one cannot attach
much weight to the charge of conspiracy brought against him. That the
Indians, brooding over their wrongs and present sufferings, should have
sometimes talked of revenge, would not be surprising. But that any
chimerical scheme of an insurrection, like that above mentioned, should
have been set on foot, or even sanctioned by Guatemozin, is altogether
improbable. That prince's explanation of the affair, as given by Diaz,
is, to say the least, quite as deserving of credit as the accusation of
the Indian informer. The defect of testimony and the distance of time
make it difficult for us, at the present day, to decide the question. We
have a surer criterion of the truth in the opinion of those who were
eyewitnesses of the transaction. It is given in the words of the old
chronicler, so often quoted. "The execution of Guatemozin," says Diaz,
"was most unjust; and was thought wrong by all of us." The most probable
explanation of the affair seems to be, that Guatemozin was a
troublesome, and, indeed, formidable captive. Thus much is intimated by
Cortes himself in his letter to the emperor. The Spaniards, during the
first years after the Conquest, lived in constant apprehension of a
rising of the Aztecs. This is evident from numerous passages in the
writings of the time. It was under the same apprehension that Cortes
consented to embarrass himself with his royal captive on this dreary
expedition. The forlorn condition of the Spaniards on the present march,
which exposed them to any sudden assault from their wily Indian
vassals, increased the suspicions of Cortes. Thus predisposed to think
ill of Guatemozin, the general lent a ready ear to the first accusation
against him. Charges were converted into proofs, and condemnation
followed close upon the charges. By a single blow he proposed to rid
himself and the state for ever of a dangerous enemy. Had he but
consulted his own honour and his good name, Guatemozin's head should
have been the last on which he should have suffered an injury to fall.
It was not long after the sad scene of Guatemozin's execution, that the
wearied troops entered the head town of the great province of Aculan; a
thriving community of traders, who carried on a profitable traffic with
the furthest quarters of Central America. Cortes notices in general
terms the excellence and beauty of the buildings, and the hospitable
reception which he experienced from the inhabitants. After renewing
their strength in these comfortable quarters, the Spaniards left the
capital of Aculan, the name of which is to be found on no map, and held
on their toilsome way in the direction of what is now called the lake of
Peten. It was then the property of an emigrant tribe of the hardy Maya
family, and their capital stood on an island in the lake, "with its
houses and lofty teocallis glistening in the sun," says Bernal Diaz, "so
that it might be seen for the distance of two leagues." These edifices,
built by one of the races of Yucatan. displayed, doubtless, the same
peculiarities of construction as the remains still to be seen in that
remarkable peninsula. But, whatever may have been their architectural
merits, they are disposed of in a brief sentence by the Conquerors. The
inhabitants of the island showed a friendly spirit, and a docility
unlike the warlike temper of their countrymen of Yucatan. They willingly
listened to the Spanish missionaries who accompanied the expedition, as
they expounded the Christian doctrines through the intervention of
Marina. The Indian interpreter was present throughout this long march,
the last in which she remained at the side of Cortes. As this, too, is
the last occasion on which she will appear in these pages, I will
mention, before parting with her, an interesting circumstance that
occurred when the army was traversing the province of Coatzacualco.
This, it may be remembered, was the native country of Marina, where her
infamous mother sold her, when a child, to some foreign traders, in
order to secure her inheritance to a younger brother. Cortes halted for
some days at this place, to hold a conference with the surrounding
caciques on matters of government and religion. Among those summoned to
this meeting was Marina's mother, who came attended by her son. No
sooner did they make their appearance than all were struck with the
great resemblance of the cacique to her daughter. The two parties
recognised each other, though they had not met since their separation.
The mother, greatly terrified, fancied that she had been decoyed into a
snare, in order to punish her inhuman conduct. But Marina instantly ran
up to her, and endeavoured to allay her fears, assuring her that she
should receive no harm, and, addressing the bystanders, said, "that she
was sure her mother knew not what she did, when she sold her to the
traders, and that she forgave her." Then tenderly embracing her
unnatural parent, she gave her such jewels and other little ornaments as
she wore about her own person, to win back, as it would seem, her lost
affection. Marina added, that "she felt much happier than before, now
that she had been instructed in the Christian faith, and given up the
bloody worship of the Aztecs." In the course of the expedition to
Honduras, Cortes gave Marina away to a Castilian knight, Don Juan
Xamarillo, to whom she was wedded as his lawful wife. She had estates
assigned to her in her native province, where she probably passed the
remainder of her days. From this time the name of Marina disappears from
the page of history. But it has been always held in grateful
remembrance by the Spaniards, for the important aid which she gave them
in effecting the Conquest, and by the natives, for the kindness and
sympathy which she showed them in their misfortunes. By the Conqueror,
Marina left one son, Don Martin Cortes. He rose to high consideration,
and was made a comendador of the order of St. Jago. He was subsequently
suspected of treasonable designs against the government; and neither his
parents' extraordinary services, nor his own deserts, could protect him
from a cruel persecution; and in 1568, the son of Hernando Cortes was
shamefully subjected to the torture in the very capital which his father
had acquired for the Castilian crown! At length the shattered train
drew near the Golfo Dolce, at the head of the Bay of Honduras. Their
route could not have been far from the site of Copan, the celebrated
city whose architectural ruins have furnished such noble illustrations
for the pencil of Catherwood. But the Spaniards passed on in silence.
Nor, indeed, can we wonder that, at this stage of the enterprise, they
should have passed on without heeding the vicinity of a city in the
wilderness, though it were as glorious as the capital of Zenobia; for
they were arrived almost within view of the Spanish settlements, the
object of their long and wearisome pilgrimage. The place which they were
now approaching was Naco, or San Gil de Buena Vista, a Spanish
settlement on the Golfo Dolce. Cortes advanced cautiously, prepared to
fall on the town by surprise. He had held on his way with the
undeviating step of the North American Indian, who, traversing morass
and mountain and the most intricate forests, guided by the instinct of
revenge, presses straight towards the mark, and, when he has reached it,
springs at once on his unsuspecting victim. Before Cortes made his
assault, his scouts fortunately fell in with some of the inhabitants of
the place, from whom they received tidings of the death of Olid, and of
the reestablishment of his own authority. Cortes, therefore, entered the
place like a friend, and was cordially welcomed by his countrymen,
greatly astonished, says Diaz, "by the presence among them of the
general so renowned throughout these countries." The colony was at this
time sorely suffering from famine; and to such extremity was it soon
reduced, that the troops would probably have found a grave in the very
spot to which they had looked forward as the goal of their labours, but
for the seasonable arrival of a vessel with supplies from Cuba. After he
had restored the strength and spirits of his men, the indefatigable
commander prepared for a new expedition, the object of which was to
explore and to reduce the extensive province of Nicaragua. One may well
feel astonished at the adventurous spirit of the man, who, unsubdued by
the terrible sufferings of his recent march, should so soon be prepared
for another enterprise equally appalling. It is difficult, in this age
of sober sense, to conceive the character of a Castilian cavalier of the
sixteenth century, a true counterpart of which it would not have been
easy to find in any other nation, even at that time,- or anywhere,
indeed, save in those tales of chivalry, which, however wild and
extravagant they may seem, were much more true to character than to
situation. The mere excitement of exploring the strange and unknown was a
sufficient compensation to the Spanish adventurer for all his toils and
trials. Yet Cortes, though filled with this spirit, proposed nobler
ends to himself than those of the mere vulgar adventurer. In the
expedition to Nicaragua, he designed, as he had done in that to
Honduras, to ascertain the resources of the country in general, and,
above all, the existence of any means of communication between the great
oceans on its borders. If none such existed, it would at least
establish this fact, the knowledge of which, to borrow his own language,
was scarcely less important. The general proposed to himself the
further object of enlarging the colonial empire of Castile. The conquest
of Mexico was but the commencement of a series of conquests. To the
warrior who had achieved this, nothing seemed impracticable; and
scarcely would anything have been so, had he been properly sustained.
But from these dreams of ambition Cortes was suddenly aroused by such
tidings as convinced him, that his absence from Mexico was already too
far prolonged, and that he must return without delay, if he would save
the capital or the country.
Chapter IV [1526-1530]
DISTURBANCES IN MEXICO- RETURN OF CORTES- DISTRUST OF THE COURT- HIS
RETURN TO SPAIN- DEATH OF SANDOVAL- BRILLIANT RECEPTION OF CORTES-
HONOURS CONFERRED ON HIM
THE intelligence alluded to in the preceding chapter was conveyed in a
letter to Cortes from the licentiate Zuazo, one of the functionaries to
whom the general had committed the administration of the country during
his absence. It contained full particulars of the tumultuous proceedings
in the capital. No sooner had Cortes quitted it, than dissensions broke
out among the different members of the provisional government. The
misrule increased as his absence was prolonged. At length tidings were
received, that Cortes with his whole army had perished in the morasses
of Chiapa. The members of the government showed no reluctance to credit
this story. They now openly paraded their own authority; proclaimed the
general's death; caused funeral ceremonies to be performed in his
honour; took possession of his property wherever they could meet with
it, piously devoting a small part of the proceeds to purchasing masses
for his soul, while the remainder was appropriated to pay off what was
called his debt to the state. They seized, in like manner, the property
of other individuals engaged in the expedition. From these outrages they
proceeded to others against the Spanish residents in the city, until
the Franciscan missionaries left the capital in disgust, while the
Indian population were so sorely oppressed, that great apprehensions
were entertained of a general rising. Zuazo, who communicated these
tidings, implored Cortes to quicken his return. He was a temperate man,
and the opposition which he had made to the tyrannical measures of his
comrades had been rewarded with exile. The general, greatly alarmed by
this account, saw that no alternative was left but to abandon all
further schemes of conquest, and to return at once, if he would secure
the preservation of the empire which he had won. He accordingly made the
necessary arrangements for settling the administration of the colonies
at Honduras, and embarked with a small number of followers for Mexico.
He had not been long at sea, when he encountered such a terrible tempest
as seriously damaged his vessel, and compelled him to return to port
and refit. A second attempt proved equally unsuccessful; and Cortes,
feeling that his good star had deserted him, saw, in this repeated
disaster, an intimation from Heaven that he was not to return. He
contented himself, therefore, with sending a trusty messenger to advise
his friends of his personal safety in Honduras. He then instituted
processions and public prayers to ascertain the will of Heaven, and to
deprecate its anger. His health now showed the effects of his recent
sufferings, and declined under a wasting fever. His spirits sank with
it, and he fell into a state of gloomy despondency. Bernal Diaz,
speaking of him at this time, says, that nothing could be more wan and
emaciated than his person, and that so strongly was he possessed with
the idea of his approaching end, that he procured a Franciscan habit,-
for it was common to be laid out in the habit of some one or other of
the monastic orders,- in which to be carried to the grave. From this
deplorable apathy Cortes was roused by fresh advices urging his presence
in Mexico, and by the judicious efforts of his good friend Sandoval,
who had lately returned, himself, from an excursion into the interior.
By his persuasion, the general again consented to try his fortunes on
the seas. He embarked on board of a brigantine, with a few followers,
and bade adieu to the disastrous shores of Honduras, 25th of April,
1526. He had nearly made the coast of New Spain, when a heavy gale threw
him off his course, and drove him to the island of Cuba. After staying
there some time to recruit his exhausted strength, he again put to sea
on the 16th of May, and in eight days landed near San Juan de Ulua,
whence he proceeded about five leagues on foot to Medellin. Cortes was
so much changed by disease, that his person was not easily recognised.
But no sooner was it known that the general had returned, than crowds of
people, white men and natives, thronged from all the neighbouring
country to welcome him. The tidings spread on the wings of the wind and
his progress was a triumphal procession. At all the great towns where he
halted he was sumptuously entertained. Triumphal arches were thrown
across the road, and the streets were strewed with flowers as he passed.
After a night's repose at Tezcuco, he made his entrance in great state
into the capital. The municipality came out to welcome him, and a
brilliant cavalcade of armed citizens formed his escort; while the lake
was covered with barges of the Indians, all fancifully decorated with
their gala dresses, as on the day of his first arrival among them. The
streets echoed to music, and dancing, and sounds of jubilee, as the
procession held on its way to the great convent of St. Francis, where
thanksgivings were offered up for the safe return of the general, who
then proceeded to take up his quarters once more in his own princely
residence.- It was in June, 1526, when Cortes re-entered Mexico; nearly
two years had elapsed since he had left it, on his difficult march to
Honduras, a march which led to no important results, but which consumed
nearly as much time, and was attended with sufferings as severe, as the
conquest of Mexico itself. Cortes did not abuse his present advantage.
He, indeed, instituted proceedings against his enemies; but he followed
them up so languidly as to incur the imputation of weakness, the only
instance in which he has been so accused. He was not permitted long to
enjoy the sweets of triumph. In the month of July, he received advices
of the arrival of a juez de residencia on the coast, sent by the court
of Madrid to supersede him temporarily in the government. The crown of
Castile, as its colonial empire extended, became less and less capable
of watching over its administration. It was therefore obliged to place
vast powers in the hands of its viceroys; and, as suspicion naturally
accompanies weakness, it was ever prompt to listen to accusations
against these powerful vassals. In such cases the government adopted the
expedient of sending out a commissioner, or juez de residencia, with
authority to investigate the conduct of the accused, to suspend him in
the meanwhile from his office, and, after a judicial examination, to
reinstate him in it, or to remove him altogether, according to the issue
of the trial. The enemies of Cortes had been, for a long time, busy in
undermining his influence at court, and in infusing suspicions of his
loyalty in the bosom of the emperor. Since his elevation to the
government of the country, they had redoubled their mischievous
activity, and they assailed his character with the foulest imputations.
They charged him with appropriating to his own use the gold which
belonged to the crown, and especially with secreting the treasures of
Montezuma. He was said to have made false reports of the provinces he
had conquered, that he might defraud the exchequer of its lawful
revenues. He had distributed the principal offices among his own
creatures; and had acquired an unbounded influence, not only over the
Spaniards, but the natives, who were all ready to do his bidding. He had
expended large sums in fortifying both the capital and his own palace;
and it was evident from the magnitude of his schemes and his
preparations, that he designed to shake off his allegiance, and to
establish an independent sovereignty in New Spain. The government,
greatly alarmed by these formidable charges, the probability of which
they could not estimate, appointed a commissioner with full powers to
investigate the matter. The person selected for this delicate office was
Luis Ponce de Leon, a man of high family, young for such a post, but of
a mature judgment, and distinguished for his moderation and equity. The
nomination of such a minister gave assurance that the crown meant to do
justly by Cortes. The emperor wrote at the same time with his own hand
to the general, advising him of this step, and assuring him that it was
taken, not from distrust of his integrity, but to afford him the
opportunity of placing that integrity in a clear light before the world.
Ponce de Leon reached Mexico in July, 1526. He was received with all
respect by Cortes and the municipality of the capital; and the two
parties interchanged those courtesies with each other, which gave augury
that the future proceedings would be conducted in a spirit of harmony.
Unfortunately, this fair beginning was blasted by the death of the
commissioner in a few weeks after his arrival, a circumstance which did
not fail to afford another item in the loathsome mass of accusation
heaped upon Cortes. The commissioner fell the victim of a malignant
fever, which carried off a number of those who had come over in the
vessel with him. On his death-bed, Ponce de Leon delegated his authority
to an infirm old man, who survived but a few months, and transmitted
the reins of government to a person named Estrada or Strada, the royal
treasurer, one of the officers sent from Spain to take charge of the
finances, and who was personally hostile to Cortes. The Spanish
residents would have persuaded Cortes to assert for himself at least an
equal share of the authority, to which they considered Estrada as having
no sufficient title. But the general, with singular moderation,
declined a competition in this matter, and determined to abide a more
decided expression of his sovereign's will. To his mortification, the
nomination of Estrada was confirmed, and this dignitary soon contrived
to inflict on his rival all those annoyances by which a little mind, in
possession of unexpected power, endeavours to make his superiority felt
over a great one. The recommendations of Cortes were disregarded; his
friends mortified and insulted; his attendants outraged by injuries. One
of the domestics of his friend Sandoval, for some slight offence, was
sentenced to lose his hand; and when the general remonstrated against
these acts of violence, he was peremptorily commanded to leave the city!
The Spaniards, indignant at this outrage, would have taken up arms in
his defence; but Cortes would allow no resistance, and, simply
remarking, "that it was well, that those, who at the price of their
blood, had won the capital, should not be allowed a footing in it,"
withdrew to his favourite villa of Cojohuacan, a few miles distant, to
wait there the result of these strange proceedings. The suspicions of
the court of Madrid, meanwhile, fanned by the breath of calumny, had
reached the most preposterous height. One might have supposed, that it
fancied the general was organising a revolt throughout the colonies, and
meditated nothing less than an invasion of the mother country.
Intelligence having been received, that a vessel might speedily be
expected from New Spain, orders were sent to the different ports of the
kingdom, and even to Portugal, to sequestrate the cargo, under the
expectation that it contained remittances to the general's family, which
belonged to the crown; while his letters, affording the most luminous
account of all his proceedings and discoveries, were forbidden to be
printed. Fortunately, three letters, forming the most important part of
the Conqueror's correspondence, had already been given to the world by
the indefatigable press of Seville. The court, moreover, made aware of
the incompetency of the treasurer, Estrada, to the present delicate
conjuncture, now intrusted the whole affair of the inquiry to a
commission dignified with the title of the Royal Audience of New Spain.
This body was clothed with full powers to examine into the charges
against Cortes, with instructions to send him back, as a preliminary
measure, to Castile,- peacefully if they could, but forcibly if
necessary. Still afraid that its belligerent vassal might defy the
authority of this tribunal, the government resorted to artifice to
effect his return. The president of the Indian Council was commanded to
write to him, urging his presence in Spain to vindicate himself from the
charges of his enemies, and offering his personal co-operation in his
defence. The emperor further wrote a letter to the Audience, containing
his commands for Cortes to return, as the government wished to consult
him on matters relating to the Indies, and to bestow on him a recompense
suited to his high deserts. This letter was intended to be shown to
Cortes. But it was superfluous to put in motion all this complicated
machinery to effect a measure on which Cortes was himself resolved.
Proudly conscious of his own unswerving loyalty, and of the benefits he
had rendered to his country, he felt deeply sensible to this unworthy
requital of them, especially on the very theatre of his achievements. He
determined to abide no longer where he was exposed to such indignities;
but to proceed at once to Spain, present himself before his sovereign,
boldly assert his innocence, and claim redress for his wrongs, and a
just reward for his services. In the close of his letter to the emperor,
detailing the painful expedition to Honduras, after enlarging on the
magnificent schemes he had entertained of discovery in the South Sea,
and vindicating himself from the charge of a too lavish expenditure, he
concludes with the lofty, yet touching, declaration, "that he trusts his
Majesty will in time acknowledge his deserts; but, if that unhappily
shall not be, the world at least will be assured of his loyalty, and he
himself shall have the conviction of having done his duty; and no better
inheritance than this shall he ask for his children." No sooner was the
intention of Cortes made known, than it excited a general sensation
through the country. Even Estrada relented; he felt that he had gone too
far, and that it was not his policy to drive his noble enemy to take
refuge in his own land. Negotiations were opened, and an attempt at a
reconciliation was made through the Bishop of Tlascala. Cortes received
these overtures in a courteous spirit, but his resolution was unshaken.
Having made the necessary arrangements, therefore, in Mexico, he left
the valley, and proceeded at once to the coast. Had he entertained the
criminal ambition imputed to him by his enemies, he might have been
sorely tempted by the repeated offers of support which were made to him,
whether in good or in bad faith, on the journey, if he would but
re-assume the government, and assert his independence of Castile. On his
arrival at Villa Rica, he received the painful tidings of the death of
his father, Don Martin Cortes, whom he had hoped so soon to embrace,
after his long and eventful absence. Having celebrated his obsequies
with every mark of filial respect, he made preparations for his speedy
departure. Two of the best vessels in the port were got ready and
provided with everything requisite for a long voyage. He was attended by
his friend, the faithful Sandoval, by Tapia, and some other cavaliers,
most attached to his person. He also took with him several Aztec and
Tlascalan chiefs, and among them a son of Montezuma, and another of
Maxixca, the friendly old Tlascalan lord, both of whom were desirous to
accompany the general to Castile. He carried home a large collection of
plants and minerals, as specimens of the natural resources of the
country; several wild animals and birds of gaudy plumage; various
fabrics of delicate workmanship, especially the gorgeous feather-work;
and a number of jugglers, dancers, and buffoons, who greatly astonished
the Europeans by the marvellous facility of their performances, and were
thought a suitable present for his Holiness, the Pope. Lastly, Cortes
displayed his magnificence in a rich treasure of jewels, among which
were emeralds of extraordinary size and lustre, gold to the amount of
two hundred thousand pesos de oro, and fifteen hundred marks of silver.
After a brief and prosperous voyage, Cortes came in sight once more of
his native shores, and crossing the bar of Saltes, entered the little
port of Palos in May, 1528,- the same spot where Columbus had landed
five and thirty years before on his return from the discovery of the
Western World. Cortes was not greeted with the enthusiasm and public
rejoicings which welcomed the great navigator; and, indeed, the
inhabitants were not prepared for his arrival. From Palos he soon
proceeded to the convent of La Rabida, the same place, also, within the
hospitable walls of which Columbus had found a shelter. An interesting
circumstance is mentioned by historians, connected with his short stay
at Palos. Francisco Pizarro, the Conqueror of Peru, had arrived there,
having come to Spain to solicit aid for his great enterprise. He was
then in the commencement of his brilliant career, as Cortes might be
said to be at the close of his. He was an old acquaintance, and a
kinsman, as is affirmed, of the general, whose mother was a Pizarro. The
meeting of these two extraordinary men, the Conquerors of the North and
of the South, in the New World, as they set foot, after their eventful
absence, on the shores of their native land, and that, too, on the spot
consecrated by the presence of Columbus, has something in it striking to
the imagination. While reposing from the fatigues of his voyage at La
Rabida, an event occurred which afflicted Cortes deeply, and which threw
a dark cloud over his return. This was the death of Gonzalo de
Sandoval, his trusty friend, and so long the companion of his fortunes.
He was taken ill in a wretched inn at Palos, soon after landing; and his
malady gained ground so rapidly, that it was evident his constitution,
impaired, probably, by the extraordinary fatigues he had of late years
undergone, would be unable to resist it. Cortes was instantly sent for,
and arrived in time to administer the last consolations of friendship to
the dying cavalier. Sandoval met his approaching end with composure,
and, having given the attention, which the short interval allowed, to
the settlement of both his temporal and spiritual concerns, he breathed
his last in the arms of his commander. Before departing from La Rabida,
Cortes had written to the court, informing it of his arrival in the
country. Great was the sensation caused there by the intelligence; the
greater, that the late reports of his treasonable practices had made it
wholly unexpected. His arrival produced an immediate change of feeling.
All cause of jealousy was now removed; and, as the clouds which had so
long settled over the royal mind were dispelled, the emperor seemed only
anxious to show his sense of the distinguished services of his so
dreaded vassal. Orders were sent to different places on the route to
provide him with suitable accommodations, and preparations were made to
give him a brilliant reception in the capital. The tidings of his
arrival had by this time spread far and wide throughout the country;
and, as he resumed his journey, the roads presented a spectacle such as
had not been seen since the return of Columbus. Cortes did not usually
effect an ostentation of dress, though he loved to display the pomp of a
great lord in the number and magnificence of his retainers. His train
was now swelled by the Indian chieftains, who, by the splendours of
their barbaric finery, gave additional brilliancy, as well as novelty,
to the pageant. But his own person was the object of general curiosity.
The houses and the streets of the great towns and villages were thronged
with spectators, eager to look on the hero, who, with his single arm,
as it were, had won an empire for Castile, and who, to borrow the
language of an old historian, "came in the pomp and glory, not so much
of a great vassal, as of an independent monarch." As he approached
Toledo, then the rival of Madrid, the press of the multitude increased,
till he was met by the Duke de Bejar, the Count de Aguilar, and others
of his steady friends, who, at the head of a large body of the principal
nobility and cavaliers of the city, came out to receive him, and
attended him to the quarters prepared for his residence. It was a proud
moment for Cortes; and distrusting, as he well might, his reception by
his countrymen, it afforded him a greater satisfaction than the
brilliant entrance, which, a few years previous, he had made into the
capital of Mexico. The following day he was admitted to an audience by
the emperor; and Cortes, gracefully kneeling to kiss the hand of his
sovereign, presented to him a memorial which succinctly recounted his
services and the requital he had received for them. The emperor
graciously raised him, and put many questions to him respecting the
countries he had conquered. Charles was pleased with the general's
answers, and his intelligent mind took great satisfaction in inspecting
the curious specimens of Indian ingenuity which his vassal had brought
with him from New Spain. In subsequent conversations the emperor
repeatedly consulted Cortes on the best mode of administering the
government of the colonies; and by his advice introduced some important
regulations, especially for ameliorating the condition of the natives,
and for encouraging domestic industry. The monarch took frequent
opportunity to show the confidence which he now reposed in Cortes. On
all public occasions he appeared with him by his side; and once, when
the general lay ill of a fever, Charles paid him a visit in person, and
remained some time in the apartment of the invalid. This was an
extraordinary mark of condescension in the haughty court of Castile; and
it is dwelt upon with becoming emphasis by the historians of the time,
who seem to regard it as an ample compensation for all the sufferings
and services of Cortes. The latter had now fairly triumphed over
opposition. The courtiers, with that ready instinct which belongs to the
tribe, imitated the example of their master; and even envy was silent,
amidst the general homage that was paid to the man who had so lately
been a mark for the most envenomed calumny. Cortes, without a title,
without a name but what he had created for himself, was, at once, as it
were, raised to a level with the proudest nobles in the land. He was so
still more effectually by the substantial honours which were accorded to
him by his sovereign in the course of the following year. By an
instrument, dated 6th July, 1529, the emperor raised him to the dignity
of the Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca. Two other instruments, dated in
the same month of July, assigned to Cortes a vast tract of land in the
rich province of Oaxaca, together with large estates in the city of
Mexico and other places in the valley. The princely domain thus granted
comprehended more than twenty large towns and villages, and twenty-three
thousand vassals. The language in which the gift was made greatly
enhanced its value. The unequivocal testimony thus borne by his
sovereign to his unwavering loyalty was most gratifying to Cortes;- how
gratifying, every generous soul, who has been the subject of suspicion
undeserved, will readily estimate. Yet there was one degree in the
scale, above which the royal gratitude would not rise. Neither the
solicitations of Cortes, nor those of the Duke de Bejar, and his other
powerful friends, could prevail on the emperor to reinstate him in the
government of Mexico. The country reduced to tranquillity had no longer
need of his commanding genius to control it; and Charles did not care to
place again his formidable vassal in a situation which might revive the
dormant spark of jealousy and distrust. It was the policy of the crown
to employ one class of its subjects to effect its conquests, and another
class to rule over them. For the latter it selected men in whom the
fire of ambition was tempered by a cooler judgment naturally, or by the
sober influence of age. Even Columbus, notwithstanding the terms of his
original "capitulation" with the crown, had not been permitted to
preside over the colonies; and still less likely would it be concede
this power to one possessed of the aspiring temper of Cortes. But
although the emperor refused to commit the civil government of the
colony into his hands, he reinstated him in his military command. By a
royal ordinance, dated also in July, 1529, the Marquess of the Valley
was named Captain-General of New Spain, and of the coasts of the South
Sea. He was empowered to make discoveries in the Southern Ocean, with
the right to rule over such lands as he should colonise, and by a
subsequent grant he was to become proprietor of one-twelfth of all his
discoveries. The government had no design to relinquish the services of
so able a commander. But it warily endeavoured to withdraw him from the
scene of his former triumphs, and to throw open a new career of
ambition, that might stimulate him still further to enlarge the
dominions of the crown. Thus gilded by the sunshine of royal favour,
with brilliant manners, and a person, which, although it showed the
effects of hard service, had not yet lost all the attractions of youth,
Cortes might now be regarded as offering an enviable alliance for the
best houses in Castile. It was not long before he paid his addresses,
which were favourably received, to a member of that noble house which
had so steadily supported him in the dark hour of his fortunes. The
lady's name was Dona Juana de Zuniga, daughter of the second Count de
Aguilar, and niece of the Duke de Bejar. She was much younger than
himself, beautiful, and, as event showed, not without spirit. One of his
presents to his youthful bride excited the admiration and envy of the
fairer part of the court. This was five emeralds, of wonderful size and
brilliancy. These jewels had been cut by the Aztecs into the shapes of
flowers, fishes, and into other fanciful forms, with an exquisite style
of workmanship which enhanced their original value. They were, not
improbably, part of the treasure of the unfortunate Montezuma, and,
being easily portable, may have escaped the general wreck of the noche
triste. The queen of Charles the Fifth, it is said,- it may be the idle
gossip of a court,- had intimated a willingness to become proprietor of
some of these magnificent baubles; and the preference which Cortes gave
to his fair bride caused some feelings of estrangement in the royal
bosom, which had an unfavourable influence on the future fortunes of the
marquess. Late in the summer of 1529, Charles the Fifth left his
Spanish dominions for Italy. Cortes accompanied him on his way, probably
to the place of embarkation: and in the capital of Aragon we find him,
according to the national historian, exciting the same general interest
and admiration among the people as he had done in Castile. On his
return, there seemed no occasion for him to protract his stay longer in
the country. He was weary of the life of idle luxury which he had been
leading for the last year, and which was so foreign to his active habits
and the stirring scenes to which he had been accustomed. He determined,
therefore, to return to Mexico, where his extensive property required
his presence, and where a new field was now opened to him for honourable
enterprise.
Chapter V [1530-1547]
CORTES REVISITS MEXICO- RETIRES TO HIS ESTATES- HIS VOYAGES OF
DISCOVERY- FINAL RETURN TO CASTILE- COLD RECEPTION- DEATH OF CORTES- HIS
CHARACTER
EARLY in the spring of 1530, Cortes embarked for New Spain. He was
accompanied by the marchioness, his wife, together with his aged mother
(who had the good fortune to live to see her son's elevation), and by a
magnificent retinue of pages and attendants, such as belonged to the
household of a powerful noble. How different from the forlorn condition
in which, twenty-six years before, he had been cast loose, as a wild
adventurer, to seek his bread upon the waters! The first point of his
destination was Hispaniola, where he was to remain until he received
tidings of the organisation of the new government that was to take
charge of Mexico. In the preceding chapter it was stated that the
administration of the country had been intrusted to a body called the
Royal Audience; one of whose first duties it was to investigate the
charges brought against Cortes. Nunez de Guzman, his avowed enemy, was
placed at the head of this board; and the investigation was conducted
with all the rancour of personal hostility. A remarkable document still
exists, called the Pesquisa Secreta, or "Secret Inquiry," which contains
a record of the proceedings against Cortes. The charges are eight in
number; involving, among other crimes, that of a deliberate design to
cast off his allegiance to the crown; that of the murder of two of the
commissioners who had been sent out to supersede him; of the murder of
his own wife, Catalina Xuarez; of extortion, and of licentious
practices,- of offences, in short, which, from their private nature,
would seem to have little to do with his conduct as a public man. The
testimony is vague and often contradictory; the witnesses are, for the
most part, obscure individuals, and the few persons of consideration
among them appear to have been taken from the ranks of his decided
enemies. When it is considered that the inquiry was conducted in the
absence of Cortes, before a court, the members of which were personally
unfriendly to him, and that he was furnished with no specification of
the charges and had no opportunity of disproving them, it is impossible,
at this distance of time, to attach any importance to this paper as a
legal document. When it is added, that no action was taken on it by the
government to whom it was sent, we may be disposed to regard it as a
monument of the malice of his enemies. The high-handed measures of the
Audience and the oppressive conduct of Guzman, especially towards the
Indians, excited general indignation in the colony, and led to serious
apprehensions of an insurrection. It became necessary to supersede an
administration so reckless and unprincipled. But Cortes was detained two
months at the island, by the slow movements of the Castilian court,
before tidings reached him of the appointment of a new Audience for the
government of the country. The person selected to preside over it was
the Bishop of St. Domingo, a prelate whose acknowledged wisdom and
virtue gave favourable augury for the conduct of his administration.
After this, Cortes resumed his voyage, and landed at Villa Rica on the
15th of July, 1530. An edict, issued by the empress during her husband's
absence, had interdicted Cortes from approaching within ten leagues of
the Mexican capital, while the present authorities were there. The
empress was afraid of a collision between the parties. Cortes, however,
took up his residence on the opposite side of the lake, at Tezcuco. No
sooner was his arrival there known in the metropolis, than multitudes,
both of Spaniards and natives, crossed the lake to pay their respects to
their old commander, to offer him their services, and to complain of
their manifold grievances. It seemed as if the whole population of the
capital was pouring into the neighbouring city, where the marquess
maintained the state of an independent potentate. The members of the
Audience, indignant at the mortifying contrast which their own
diminished court presented, imposed heavy penalties on such of the
natives as should be found in Tezcuco; and, affecting to consider
themselves in danger, made preparations for the defence of the city. But
these belligerent movements were terminated by the arrival of the new
Audience; though Guzman had the address to maintain his hold on a
northern province, where he earned a reputation for cruelty and
extortion unrivalled even in the annals of the New World. Everything
seemed now to assure a tranquil residence to Cortes. The new magistrates
treated him with marked respect, and took his advice on the most
important measures of government. Unhappily, this state of things did
not long continue; and a misunderstanding arose between the parties, in
respect to the enumeration of the vassals assigned by the crown to
Cortes, which the marquess thought was made on principles prejudicial to
his interests, and repugnant to the intentions of the grant. He was
still further displeased by finding that the Audience were intrusted, by
their commission, with a concurrent jurisdiction with himself in
military affairs. This led, occasionally, to an interference, which the
proud spirit of Cortes, so long accustomed to independent rule, could
ill brook. After submitting to it for a time, he left the capital in
disgust, no more to return there, and took up his residence in his city
of Cuernavaca. It was the place won by his own sword from the Aztecs,
previous to the siege of Mexico. It stood on the southern slope of the
Cordilleras, and overlooked a wide expanse of country, the fairest and
most flourishing portion of his own domain. He had erected a stately
palace on the spot, and henceforth made this city his favourite
residence. It was well situated for superintending his vast estates, and
he now devoted himself to bringing them into proper cultivation. He
introduced the sugar cane from Cuba, and it grew luxuriantly in the rich
soil of the neighbouring lowlands. He imported large numbers of merino
sheep and other cattle, which found abundant pastures in the country
around Tehuantepec. His lands were thickly sprinkled with groves of
mulberry trees, which furnished nourishment for the silk-worm. He
encouraged the cultivation of hemp and flax, and, by his judicious and
enterprising husbandry, showed the capacity of the soil for the culture
of valuable products before unknown in the land; and he turned these
products to the best account, by the erection of sugar-mills, and other
works for the manufacture of the raw material. He thus laid the
foundation of an opulence for his family, as substantial, if not as
speedy, as that derived from the mines. Yet this latter source of wealth
was not neglected by him; and he drew gold from the region of
Tehuantepec, and silver from that of Zacatecas. The amount derived from
these mines was not so abundant as at a later day. But the expense of
working them was much less in the earlier stages of the operation, when
the metal lay so much nearer the surface. But this tranquil way of life
did not long content his restless and adventurous spirit; and it sought a
vent by availing itself of his new charter of discovery to explore the
mysteries of the Great Southern Ocean. In 1527, two years before his
return to Spain, he had sent a little squadron to the Moluccas. Cortes
was preparing to send another squadron of four vessels in the same
direction, when his plans were interrupted by his visit to Spain; and
his unfinished little navy, owing to the malice of the Royal Audience,
who drew off the hands employed in building it, went to pieces on the
stocks. Two other squadrons were now fitted out by Cortes, in the years
1532 and 1533, and sent on a voyage of discovery to the North-west. They
were unfortunate, though, in the latter expedition, the Californian
peninsula was reached, and a landing effected on its southern extremity
at Santa Cruz, probably the modern port La Paz. One of the vessels,
thrown on the coast of New Galicia, was seized by Guzman, the old enemy
of Cortes, who ruled over that territory, the crew were plundered, and
the ship was detained as a lawful prize. Cortes, indignant at the
outrage, demanded justice from the Royal Audience; and, as that body was
too feeble to enforce its own decrees in his favour, he took redress
into his own hands. He made a rapid but difficult march on Chiametla,
the scene of Guzman's spoliation; and as the latter did not care to face
his incensed antagonist, Cortes recovered his vessel, though not the
cargo. He was then joined by the little squadron which he had fitted out
from his own port of Tehuantepec,- a port which, in the sixteenth
century, promised to hold the place since occupied by that of Acapulco.
The vessels were provided with everything requisite for planting a
colony in the newly discovered region, and transported four hundred
Spaniards and three hundred Negro slaves, which Cortes had assembled for
that purpose. With this intention he crossed the Gulf, the Adriatic- to
which an old writer compares it- of the Western World. Our limits will
not allow us to go into the details of this disastrous expedition, which
was attended with no important results either to its projector or to
science. It may suffice to say, that, in the prosecution of it, Cortes
and his followers were driven to the last extremity by famine; that he
again crossed the Gulf, was tossed about by terrible tempests, without a
pilot to guide him, was thrown upon the rocks, where his shattered
vessel nearly went to pieces, and, after a succession of dangers and
disasters as formidable as any which he had ever encountered on land,
succeeded, by means of his indomitable energy, in bringing his crazy
bark safe into the same port of Santa Cruz from which he had started.
While these occurrences were passing, the new Royal Audience, after a
faithful discharge of its commission, had been superseded by the arrival
of a viceroy, the first ever sent to New Spain. Cortes, though invested
with similar powers, had the title only of governor. This was the
commencement of the system afterwards pursued by the crown, of
intrusting the colonial administration to some individual, whose high
rank and personal consideration might make him the fitting
representative of majesty. The jealousy of the court did not allow the
subject clothed with such ample authority to remain long enough in the
same station to form dangerous schemes of ambition, but at the
expiration of a few years he was usually recalled, or transferred to
some other province of the vast colonial empire. The person now sent to
Mexico was Don Antonio de Mendoza, a man of moderation and practical
good sense, and one of that illustrious family who in the preceding
reign furnished so many distinguished ornaments to the church, to the
camp, and to letters. The long absence of Cortes had caused the deepest
anxiety in the mind of his wife, the Marchioness of the Valley. She
wrote to the viceroy immediately on his arrival, beseeching him to
ascertain, if possible, the fate of her husband, and, if he could be
found, to urge his return. The viceroy, in consequence, despatched two
ships in search of Cortes, but whether they reached him before his
departure from Santa Cruz is doubtful. It is certain that he returned
safe, after his long absence, to Acapulco, and was soon followed by the
survivors of his wretched colony. Undismayed by these repeated reverses,
Cortes, still bent on some discovery worthy of his reputation, fitted
out three more vessels, and placed them under the command of an officer
named Ulloa. This expedition, which took its departure in July, 1539,
was attended with more important results. Ulloa penetrated to the head
of the Gulf; then, returning and winding round the coast of the
peninsula, doubled its southern point, and ascended as high as the
twenty-eighth or twenty-ninth degree of north latitude on its western
borders. After this, sending home one of the squadron, the bold
navigator held on his course to the north, but was never more heard of.
Thus ended the maritime enterprises of Cortes; sufficiently disastrous
in a pecuniary point of view, since they cost him three hundred thousand
castellanos of gold, without the return of a ducat. He was even obliged
to borrow money, and to pawn his wife's jewels, to procure funds for
the last enterprise; thus incurring a debt which, increased by the great
charges of his princely establishment, hung about him during the
remainder of his life. But, though disastrous in an economical view, his
generous efforts added important contributions to science. In the
course of these expeditions, and those undertaken by Cortes previous to
his visit to Spain, the Pacific had been coasted from the Bay of Panama
to the Rio Colorado. The great peninsula of California had been
circumnavigated as far as to the isle of Cedros or Cerros, into which
the name has since been corrupted. This vast tract, which had been
supposed to be an archipelago of islands, was now discovered to be a
part of the continent; and its general outline, as appears from the maps
of the time, was nearly as well understood as at the present day.
Lastly, the navigator had explored the recesses of the Californian Gulf,
or Sea of Cortes, as, in honour, of the great discoverer, it is with
more propriety named by the Spaniards; and he had ascertained that,
instead of the outlet before supposed to exist towards the north, this
unknown ocean was locked up within the arms of the mighty continent.
These were results that might have made the glory and satisfied the
ambition of a common man; but they are lost in the brilliant renown of
the former achievements of Cortes. Notwithstanding the embarrassments of
the Marquess of the Valley, he still made new efforts to enlarge the
limits of discovery, and prepared to fit out another squadron of five
vessels, which he proposed to place under the command of a natural son,
Don Luis. But the viceroy Mendoza, whose imagination had been inflamed
by the reports of an itinerant monk respecting an El Dorado in the
north, claimed the right of discovery in that direction. Cortes
protested against this, as an unwarrantable interference with his own
powers. Other subjects of collision arose between them; till the
marquess, disgusted with this perpetual check on his authority and his
enterprises, applied for redress to Castile. He finally determined to go
there to support his claims in person, and to obtain, if possible,
renumeration for the heavy charges he had incurred by his maritime
expeditions, as well as for the spoliation of his property by the Royal
Audience, during his absence from the country; and, lastly, to procure
an assignment of his vassals on principles more comformable to the
original intentions of the grant. With these objects in view, he bade
adieu to his family, and, taking with him his eldest son and heir, Don
Martin, then only eight years of age, he embarked from Mexico, in 1540,
and, after a favourable voyage, again set foot on the shores of his
native land. The emperor was absent from the country. But Cortes was
honourably received in the capital, where ample accommodations were
provided for him and his retinue. When he attended the Royal Council of
the Indies to urge his suit, he was distinguished by uncommon marks of
respect. The president went to the door of the hall to receive him, and a
seat was provided for him among the members of the Council. But all
evaporated in this barren show of courtesy. justice, proverbially slow
in Spain, did not mend her gait for Cortes; and at the expiration of a
year, he found himself no nearer the attainment of his object than on
the first week after his arrival in the capital. In the following year,
1541, we find the Marquess of the Valley embarked as a volunteer in the
memorable expedition against Algiers. Charles the Fifth, on his return
to his dominions, laid siege to that stronghold of the Mediterranean
corsairs. Cortes accompanied the forces destined to meet the emperor,
and embarked on board the vessel of the Admiral of Castile. But a
furious tempest scattered the navy, and the admiral's ship was driven a
wreck upon the coast. Cortes and his son escaped by swimming; but the
former, in the confusion of the scene, lost the inestimable set of
jewels noticed in the preceding chapter. On arriving in Castile, Cortes
lost no time in laying his suit before the emperor. His applications
were received by the monarch with civility,- a cold civility, which
carried no conviction of its sincerity. His position was materially
changed since his former visit to the country. More than ten years had
elapsed, and he was now too well advanced in years to give promise of
serviceable enterprise in future. Indeed his undertakings of late had
been singularly unfortunate. Even his former successes suffered the
disparagement natural to a man of declining fortunes. They were already
eclipsed by the magnificent achievements in Peru, which had poured a
golden tide into the country, that formed a striking contrast to the
streams of wealth that, as yet, had flowed in but scantily from the
silver mines of Mexico. Cortes had to learn that the gratitude of a
court has reference to the future much more than to the past. He stood
in the position of an importunate suitor, whose claims, however just,
are too large to be readily allowed. He found, like Columbus, that it
was possible to deserve too greatly. In the month of February, 1544, he
addressed a letter to the emperor,- it was the last he ever wrote him,-
soliciting his attention to his suit. He begins by proudly alluding to
his past services to the crown and beseeching his sovereign to "order
the Council of the Indies, with the other tribunals which had cognisance
of his suits, to come to a decision; since he was too old to wander
about like a vagrant, but ought rather, during the brief remainder of
his life, to stay at home and settle his account with Heaven, occupied
with the concerns of his soul, rather than with his substance." This
appeal to his sovereign, which has something in it touching from a man
of the haughty spirit of Cortes, had not the effect to quicken the
determination of his suit. He still lingered at the court from week to
week, and from month to month, beguiled by the deceitful hopes of the
litigant, tasting all that bitterness of the soul which arises from hope
deferred. After three years more, passed in this unprofitable and
humiliating occupation, he resolved to leave his ungrateful country and
return to Mexico. He had proceeded as far as Seville, accompanied by his
son, when he fell ill of an indigestion, caused, probably, by
irritation and trouble of mind. This terminated in dysentery, and his
strength sank so rapidly under the disease, that it was apparent his
mortal career was drawing towards its close. He prepared for it by
making the necessary arrangements for the settlement of his affairs. He
had made his will some time before; and he now executed it. It is a very
long document, and in some respects a remarkable one. The bulk of his
property was entailed to his son, Don Martin, then fifteen years of age.
In the testament he fixes his majority at twenty-five; but at twenty
his guardians were to allow him his full income, to maintain the state
becoming his rank. In a paper accompanying the will, Cortes specified
the names of the agents to whom he had committed the management of his
vast estates scattered over many different provinces; and he requests
his executors to confirm the nomination, as these agents have been
selected by him from a knowledge of their peculiar qualifications.
Nothing can better show the thorough supervision which, in the midst of
pressing public concerns, he had given to the details of his widely
extended property. He makes a liberal provision for his other children,
and a generous allowance to several old domesties and retainers in his
household. By another clause he gives away considerable sums in charity,
and he applies the revenues of his estates in the city of Mexico to
establish and permanently endow three public institutions,- a hospital
in the capital, which was to be dedicated to Our Lady of the Conception,
a college in Cojohuacan for the education of missionaries to preach the
gospel among the natives, and a convent, in the same place, for nuns.
To the chapel of this convent, situated in his favourite town, he orders
that his own body shall be transported for burial, in whatever quarter
of the world he may happen to die. After declaring that he has taken all
possible care to ascertain the amount of tributes formerly paid by his
Indian vassals to their native sovereigns, he enjoins on his heir, that,
in case those which they have hitherto paid shall be found to exceed
the right valuation, he shall restore them a full equivalent. In another
clause, he expresses a doubt whether it is right to exact personal
service from the natives; and commands that strict inquiry shall be made
into the nature and value of such services as he had received, and,
that, in all cases, a fair compensation shall be allowed for them.
Lastly, he makes this remarkable declaration: "It has long been a
question, whether one can conscientiously hold property in Indian
slaves. Since this point has not yet been determined, I enjoin it on my
son Martin and his heirs, that they spare no pains to come to an exact
knowledge of the truth; as a matter which deeply concerns the conscience
of each of them, no less than mine." Cortes names, as his executors,
and as guardians of his children, the Duke of Medina Sidonia, the
Marquess of Astorga, and the Count of Aguilar. For his executors in
Mexico, he appoints his wife, the marchioness, the Archbishop of Toledo,
and two other prelates. The will was executed at Seville, 11th of
October, 1547. Finding himself much incommoded, as he grew weaker, by
the presence of visitors, to which he was necessarily exposed at
Seville, he withdrew to the neighbouring village of Castilleja de la
Cuesta, attended by his son, who watched over his dying parent with
filial solicitude. Cortes seems to have contemplated his approaching end
with the composure not always to be found in those who have faced death
with indifference on the field of battle. At length, having devoutly
confessed his sins and received the sacrament, he expired on the 2nd of
December, 1547, in the sixty-third year of his age. The inhabitants of
the neighbouring country were desirous to show every mark of respect to
the memory of Cortes. His funeral obsequies were celebrated with due
solemnity by a long train of Andalusian nobles and of the citizens of
Seville, and his body was transported to the chapel of the monastery,
San Isidro, in that city, where it was laid in the family vault of the
Duke of Medina Sidonia. In the year 1562, it was removed, by order of
his son, Don Martin, to New Spain, not as directed by his will, to
Cojohuacan, but to the monastery of St. Francis, in Tezcuco, where it
was laid by the side of a daughter, and of his mother, Dona Catalina
Pizarro. In 1629, the remains of Cortes were again removed; and on the
death of Don Pedro, fourth Marquess of the Valley, it was decided by the
authorities of Mexico to transfer them to the church of St. Francis, in
that capital. Yet his bones were not permitted to rest here
undisturbed; and in 1794, they were removed to the Hospital of Jesus of
Nazareth. It was a more fitting place, since it was the same institution
which, under the name of "Our Lady of the Conception," had been founded
and endowed by Cortes, and which, with a fate not too frequent in
similar charities, has been administered to this day on the noble
principles of its foundation. The mouldering relics of the warrior, now
deposited in a crystal coffin secured by bars and plates of silver, were
laid in the chapel, and over them was raised a simple monument,
displaying the arms of the family, and surmounted by a bust of the
Conqueror, executed in bronze, by Tolsa, a sculptor worthy of the best
period of the arts. Unfortunately for Mexico, the tale does not stop
here. In 1823, the patriot mob of the capital, in their zeal to
commemorate the era of the national independence, and their detestation
of the "old Spaniards," prepared to break open the tomb which held the
ashes of Cortes, and to scatter them to the winds! The authorities
declined to interfere on the occasion; but the friends of the family, as
is commonly reported, entered the vault by night, and secretly removing
the relics, prevented the commission of a sacrilege which must have
left a stain, not easy to be effaced, on the scutcheon of the fair city
of Mexico. Cortes had no children by his first marriage. By his second
he left four; a son, Don Martin,- the heir of his honours,- and three
daughters, who formed splendid alliances. He left, also, several natural
children, whom he particularly mentions in his testament and honourably
provides for. Two of these, Don Martin, the son of Marina, and Don Luis
Cortes, attained considerable distinction, and were created
comendadores of the Order of St. Jago. The male line of the Marquess of
the Valley became extinct in the fourth generation. The title and
estates descended to a female, and by her marriage were united with
those of the house of Terranova, descendants of the "Great Captain"
Gonsalvo de Cordova. By a subsequent marriage they were carried into the
family of the Duke of Monteleone, a Neapolitan noble. The present
proprietor of these princely honours and of vast domains, both in the
Old and the New World, dwells in Sicily, and boasts a descent- such as
few princes can boast- from two of the most illustrious commanders of
the sixteenth century, the "Great Captain," and the Conqueror of Mexico.
The personal history of Cortes has been so minutely detailed in the
preceding narrative, that it will be only necessary to touch on the more
prominent features of his character. Indeed, the history of the
Conquest, as I have already had occasion to remark, is necessarily that
of Cortes, who is, if I may so say, not merely the soul, but the body,
of the enterprise, present everywhere in person, in the thick of the
fight, or in the building of the works, with his sword or with his
musket, sometimes leading his soldiers, and sometimes directing his
little navy. The negotiations, intrigues, correspondence, are all
conducted by him; and, like Caesar, he wrote his own Commentaries in the
heat of the stirring scenes which form the subject of them. His
character is marked with the most opposite traits, embracing qualities
apparently the most incompatible. He was avaricious, yet liberal; bold
to desperation, yet cautious and calculating in his plans; magnanimous,
yet very cunning; courteous and affable in his deportment, yet
inexorably stern; lax in his notions of morality, yet (not uncommon) a
sad bigot. The great feature in his character was constancy of purpose; a
constancy not to be daunted by danger, nor baffled by disappointment,
nor wearied out by impediments and delays. He was a knight-errant, in
the literal sense of the word. Of all the band of adventurous cavaliers
whom Spain, in the sixteenth century, sent forth on the career of
discovery and conquest, there was none more deeply filled with the
spirit of romantic enterprise than Hernando Cortes. Dangers and
difficulties, instead of deterring, seemed to have a charm in his eyes.
They were necessary to rouse him to a full consciousness of his powers.
He grappled with them at the outset, and, if I may so express myself,
seemed to prefer to take his enterprises by the most difficult side. He
conceived, at the first moment of his landing in Mexico, the design of
its conquest. When he saw the strength of its civilisation, he was not
turned from his purpose. When he was assailed by the superior force of
Narvaez, he still persisted in it; and, when he was driven in ruin from
the capital, he still cherished his original idea. How successfully he
carried it into execution, we have seen. After the few years of repose
which succeeded the Conquest, his adventurous spirit impelled him to
that dreary march across the marshes of Chiapa; and, after another
interval, to seek his fortunes on the stormy Californian Gulf. When he
found that no other continent remained for him to conquer, he made
serious proposals to the emperor to equip a fleet at his own expense,
with which he would sail to the Moluccas, and subdue the Spice Islands
for the crown of Castile! This spirit of knight-errantry might lead us
to undervalue his talents as a general, and to regard him merely in the
light of a lucky adventurer. But this would be doing him injustice; for
Cortes was certainly a great general, if that man be one, who performs
great achievements with the resources which his own genius has created.
There is probably no instance in history where so vast an enterprise has
been achieved by means apparently so inadequate. He may be truly said
to have effected the conquest by his own resources. If he was indebted
for his success to the co-operation of the Indian tribes, it was the
force of his genius that obtained command of such materials. He arrested
the arm that was lifted to smite him, and made it do battle in his
behalf. He beat the Tlascalans, and made them his staunch allies. He
beat the soldiers of Narvaez, and doubled his effective force by it.
When his own men deserted him, he did not desert himself. He drew them
back by degrees, and compelled them to act by his will, till they were
all as one man. He brought together the most miscellaneous collection of
mercenaries who ever fought under one standard; adventurers from Cuba
and the Isles, craving for gold; hidalgos, who came from the old country
to win laurels; broken-down cavaliers, who hoped to mend their fortunes
in the New World; vagabonds flying from justice; the grasping followers
of Narvaez, and his own reckless veterans,- men with hardly a common
tie, and burning with the spirit of jealousy and faction; wild tribes of
the natives from all parts of the country, who had been sworn enemies
from their cradles, and who had met only to cut one another's throats,
and to procure victims for sacrifice; men, in short, differing in race,
in language, and in interests, with scarcely anything in common among
them. Yet this motley congregation was assembled in one camp, compelled
to bend to the will of one man, to consort together in harmony, to
breathe, as it were, one spirit, and to move on a common principle of
action! It is in this wonderful power over the discordant masses thus
gathered under his banner, that we recognise the genius of the great
commander, no less than in the skill of his military operations. Cortes
was not a vulgar conqueror. He did not conquer from the mere ambition of
conquest. If he destroyed the ancient capital of the Aztecs, it was to
build up a more magnificent capital on its ruins. If he desolated the
land and broke up its existing institutions, he employed the short
period of his administration in digesting schemes for introducing there a
more improved culture and a higher civilisation. In all his expeditions
he was careful to study the resources of the country, its social
organisation, and its physical capacities. He enjoined it on his
captains to attend particularly to these objects. If he was greedy of
gold, like most of the Spanish cavaliers in the New World, it was not to
hoard it, nor merely to lavish it in the support of a princely
establishment, but to secure funds for prosecuting his glorious
discoveries. Witness his costly expeditions to the Gulf of California.
His enterprises were not undertaken solely for mercenary objects; as is
shown by the various expeditions he set on foot for the discovery of a
communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific. In his schemes of
ambition he showed a respect for the interests of science, to be
referred partly to the natural superiority of his mind, but partly, no
doubt, to the influence of early education. It is, indeed, hardly
possible that a person of his wayward and mercurial temper should have
improved his advantages at the university, but he brought away from it a
tincture of scholarship, seldom found among the cavaliers of the
period, and which had its influence in enlarging his own conceptions.
His celebrated Letters are written with a simple elegance, that, as I
have already had occasion to remark, have caused them to be compared to
the military narrative of Caesar. It will not be easy to find in the
chronicles of the period a more concise, yet comprehensive, statement,
not only of the events of his campaigns, but of the circumstances most
worthy of notice in the character of the conquered countries. In private
life he seems to have had the power of attaching to himself, warmly,
those who were near his person. The influence of this attachment is
shown in every page of Bernal Diaz, though his work was written to
vindicate the claims of the soldiers, in opposition to those of the
general. He seems to have led a happy life with his first wife, in their
humble retirement in Cuba; and regarded the second, to judge from the
expressions in his testament, with confidence and love. Yet he cannot be
acquitted of the charge of those licentious gallantries which entered
too generally into the character of the military adventurer of that day.
He would seem, also, by the frequent suits in which he was involved, to
have been of an irritable and contentious spirit. But much allowance
must be made for the irritability of a man who had been too long
accustomed to independent sway, patiently to endure the checks and
control of the petty spirits who were incapable of comprehending the
noble character of his enterprises. "He thought," says an eminent
writer, "to silence his enemies by the brilliancy of the new career on
which he had entered. He did not reflect, that these enemies had been
raised by the very grandeur and rapidity of his success." He was
rewarded for his efforts by the misinterpretation of his motives; by the
calumnious charges of squandering the public revenues, and of aspiring
to independent sovereignty. But, although we may admit the foundation of
many of the grievances alleged by Cortes, yet, when we consider the
querulous tone of his correspondence and the frequency of his
litigation, we may feel a natural suspicion that his proud spirit was
too sensitive to petty slights, and too jealous of imaginary wrongs. In
the earlier part of the History, I have given a description of the
person of Cortes. It may be well to close this review of his character
by the account of his manners and personal habits left us by Bernal
Diaz, the old chronicler, who has accompanied us through the whole
course of our narrative, and who may now fitly furnish the conclusion of
it. No man knew his commander better; and, if the avowed object of his
work might naturally lead to a disparagement of Cortes, this is more
than counterbalanced by the warmth of his personal attachment, and by
that esprit de corps which leads him to take a pride in the renown of
his general. "In his whole appearance and presence," says Diaz, "in his
discourse, his table, his dress, in everything, in short, he had the air
of a great lord. His clothes were in the fashion of the time; he set
little value on silk, damask, or velvet, but dressed plainly and
exceedingly neat; nor did he wear massy chains of gold, but simply a
fine one of exquisite workmanship, from which was suspended a jewel
having the figure of our Lady the Virgin and her precious Son, with a
Latin motto cut upon it. On his finger he wore a splendid diamond ring;
and from his cap, which, according to the fashion of that day, was of
velvet, hung a medal, the device of which I do not remember. He was
magnificently attended, as became a man of his rank, with chamberlains
and major-domos and many pages; and the service of his table was
splendid, with a quantity of both gold and silver plate. At noon he
dined heartily, drinking about a pint of wine mixed with water. He
supped well, though he was not dainty in regard to his food, caring
little for the delicacies of the table, unless, indeed, on such
occasions as made attention to these matters of some consequence. "He
was acquainted with Latin, and, as I have understood, was made Bachelor
of Laws; and, when he conversed with learned men who addressed him in
Latin, he answered them in the same language. He was also something of a
poet; his conversation was agreeable, and he had a pleasant elocution.
In his attendance on the services of the Church he was most punctual,
devout in his manner, and charitable to the poor. "When he swore, he
used to say, 'On my conscience'; and when he was vexed with any one,
'Evil betide you.' With his men he was very patient; and they were
sometimes impertinent, and even insolent. When very angry, the veins in
his throat and forehead would swell, but he uttered no reproaches
against either officer or soldier. "He was fond of cards and dice, and,
when he played, was always in good humour, indulging freely in jests and
repartees. He was affable with his followers, especially with those who
came over with him from Cuba. In his campaigns he paid strict attention
to discipline, frequently going the rounds himself during the night,
and seeing that the sentinels did their duty. He entered the quarters of
his soldiers without ceremony, and chided those whom he found without
their arms and accoutrements, saying, 'it was a bad sheep that could not
carry its own wool.' On the expedition to Honduras, he acquired the
habit of sleeping after his meals, feeling unwell if he omitted it; and,
however sultry or stormy the weather, he caused a carpet or his cloak
to be thrown under a tree, and slept soundly for some time. He was frank
and exceedingly liberal in his disposition, until the last few years of
his life, when he was accused of parsimony. But we should consider,
that his funds were employed on great and costly enterprises; and that
none of these, after the Conquest, neither his expedition to Honduras,
nor his voyages to California, were crowned with success. It was perhaps
intended that he should receive his recompense in a better world; and I
fully believe it; for he was a good cavalier, most true in his
devotions to the Virgin, to the Apostle St. Peter, and to all the other
Saints." Such is the portrait, which has been left to us by the faithful
hand most competent to trace it, of Hernando Cortes, the Conqueror of
Mexico.
THE END.
Back
to the Home Page.