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$Title{Discovery Of America
Part II}
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$Author{Fiske, John}
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$Subject{de
quetzalcoatl
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time
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$Date{1892}
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Title:       Discovery Of America
Book:        Chapter VIII: The Conquest Of Mexico
Author:      Fiske, John
Date:        1892

Part II

     No doubt the drift of the argument would be quite undecipherable for us
were it not for the clue that is furnished by the ancient Mexican beliefs
concerning the sky-god and culture-hero, Quetzalcoatl.  This personage was an
object of reverence and a theme of mythical tales among all the Nahua and Maya
peoples. ^1 Like Zeus and Woden he has been supposed to have been at some time
a terrestrial hero who became deified after his death, but it is not likely
that he ever had a real existence, any more than Zeus or Woden.  In his
attributes Quetzalcoatl resembled both the Greek and the Scandinavian deity.
He was cloud gatherer, wielder of the thunderbolt, and ruler of the winds.  As
lord of the clouds he was represented as a bird; as lord of the lightning he
was represented as a serpent; ^2 and his name Quetzal-Coatl means
"Bird-Serpent." ^1 In this character of elemental deity he was commonly
associated with Tlaloc, the god of rain, of waters, and of spring verdure. ^2
This association is depicted upon the two famous slabs discovered by Mr.
Stephens in 1840 in the course of his researches at Palenque.  The slabs were
formerly inlaid in the pillars that supported the altar in the building known
as the "Temple of the Cross, No. 1." They are about six feet in length by
three in width.  On the left-hand slab Tlaloc appears as a "young man
magnificently arrayed; he wears a richly embroidered cape, a collar and
medallion around his neck, a beautiful girdle to his waist; the ends of the
maxtli ^3 are hanging down front and back, cothurni cover his feet and legs up
to the knee.  On the upper end of his head-dress is the head of a stork,
having a fish in his bill, whilst other fishes are ranged below it." ^1 The
right-hand slab represents Quetzalcoatl as an old man, clad in the skin of an
ocelot, or Mexican "tiger," and blowing puffs of air through a tube.  The
bird's brilliant feathers and sharp beak are seen in his head-dress, and about
his waist is the serpent twisting and curling before and behind.

[Footnote 1: The Mayas called him Cukulcan.]

[Footnote 2: I have fully explained this symbolism in Myths and Mythmakers,
chap. ii., "The Descent of Fire."]

[Footnote 1: Or "Feathered Serpent." Mr. Bandelier (Archoeol. Tour, p. 170)
suggests that the word quetzalli "only applies to feathers in the sense of
indicating their bright hues," and that the name therefore means "Shining
Serpent." But in the Mexican picture-writing the rebus for Quetzalcoatl is
commonly a feather or some other part of a bird in connection with a snake;
and the so-called "tablet of the cross" at Palenque represents the cross, or
symbol of the four winds, "surmounted by a bird and supported by the head of a
serpent" (Brinton, Myths of the New World, p. 118).  Here the symbolism is
complete and unmistakable.  The cross is the symbol of Tlaloc, the rain-god,
who is usually associated with Quetzalcoatl.

     Two very learned and brilliant accounts of Quetzalcoatl are those of
Bandelier (Archoeol. Tour, pp. 168-216), and Brinton (American Hero-Myths, pp.
63-142).  It seems to me that the former suffers somewhat from its Euhemerism,
and that Dr. Brinton, treating the subject from the standpoint of comparative
mythology, gives a truer picture.  Mr. Bandelier's account, however, contains
much that is invaluable.]

[Footnote 2: Sahagun, Hist. de las cosas de la Nueva Espana, lib. ii. cap. 1.]

[Footnote 3: "Maxtlatl, bragas, o cosa semejante," Molina, Vocabolario, s. v.]

[Footnote 1: Charnay, Ancient Cities of the New World, p. 216.]

     The building at Palenque in which these sculptured slabs once adorned the
altar appears to have been a temple consecrated to Quetzalcoatl and Tlaloc.
The connection between the two deities was so close that their festivals "were
celebrated together on the same day, which was the first of the first month of
the Aztec calendar, in February." ^2 There was nothing like equality between
the two, however.  Tlaloc remained specialized as the god of rains and giver
of harvests; he was attached as a subordinate appendage to the mighty Blower
of Winds and Wielder of Lightning, and his symbolism served to commemorate the
elemental character of the latter.  On the other hand Quetzalcoatl, without
losing his attributes as an elemental deity, acquired many other attributes.
As has frequently happened to sky-gods and solar heroes, he became generalized
until almost all kinds of activities and interests were ascribed to him. As
god of the seasons, he was said to have invented the Aztec calendar. He taught
men how to cut and polish stones; he was patron of traders, and to him in many
a pueblo ingenious thieves prayed for success, as Greek thieves prayed to
Hermes.  It was he that promoted fertility among men, as well as in the
vegetable world; sterile wives addressed to him their vows. Yet at the same
time Quetzalcoatl held celibacy in honour, and in many pueblos houses of nuns
were consecrated to him.  Other features of asceticism occurred in his
service; his priests were accustomed to mutilate their tongues, ears, and
other parts of the body by piercing them with cactus thorns.

[Footnote 2: Brinton, American Hero-Myths, p. 125.]

     As Zeus had his local habitation upon Mount Olympus and was closely
associated with the island of Crete, so Quetzalcoatl had his favourite spots.
Cholula was one of them; another was Tollan, but, as already observed, this
place was something more than the town which commanded the trail from Mexico
into the north country.  Like Cadmus and Apollo, this New World culture-deity
had his home in the far east; there was his Tollan, or "place of the sun." And
here we come to the most interesting part of the story, the conflict between
Light and Darkness, which in all aboriginal American folk-lore appears in such
transparent and unmistakable garb. ^1 One of the most important figures in the
Mexican pantheon was Tezcatlipoca, the dread lord of night and darkness, the
jealous power that visited mankind with famine and pestilence, the ravenous
demon whose food was human hearts.  No deity was more sedulously worshipped
than Tezcatlipoca, doubtless on the theory, common among barbarous people,
that it is by all means desirable to keep on good terms with the evil powers.
Between Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca there was everlasting hostility. The
latter deity had once been the sun, but Quetzalcoatl had knocked him out of
the sky with a big club, and jumping into his place had become the sun instead
of him.  Tezcatlipoca, after tumbling into the sea, rose again in the night
sky as the Great Bear; and so things went on for awhile, until suddenly the
Evil One transformed himself into a tiger, and with a blow of his paw struck
Quetzalcoatl from the sky.  Amid endless droll and uncouth incidents the
struggle continued, and the combatants changed their shapes as often as in the
Norse tale of Farmer Weathersky. ^1 The contest formed the theme of a whole
cycle of Mexican legends, some grave, some humorous, many of them quite
pretty. ^2 In some of these legends the adversaries figured, not as elementary
giants, but as astute and potent men.  The general burden of the tale, the
conclusion most firmly riveted in the Mexican mind, was that Quetzalcoatl had
been at last outwitted by his dark enemy and obliged to forsake the land. ^1
Accompanied by a few youthful worshippers he fared forth from Cholula, and
when he had reached the eastern shore, somewhere in the Coatzacualco country,
between Cuetlachtlan and Tabasco, he bade farewell to his young companions,
saying that he must go farther, but at some future time he should return from
the east with men as fair-skinned as himself and take possession of the
country.  As to whither he had gone, there was a difference of opinion. Some
held that he had floated out to sea on a raft of serpent skins; others
believed that his body had been consumed with fire on the beach, and that his
soul had been taken up into the morning star.  But in whatever way he had
gone, all were agreed that in the fulness of time Quetzalcoatl would return
from the eastern ocean, with white-faced companions, and renew his beneficent
rule over the Mexican people. ^2

[Footnote 1: In this aspect of the power of light contending against the power
of darkness, Quetzalcoatl is the counterpart of the Algonquin Michabo, the
Iroquois Ioskeha, and the Peruvian Viracocha, to whom we shall by and by have
occasion to refer.  See Brinton, Myths of the New World, chap. vi.]

[Footnote 1: See also the delicious story of the Gruagach of Tricks, in
Curtin's Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland, pp. 139-156.]

[Footnote 2: Quite a number were taken down by Father Sahagun (about 1540)
from the lips of the natives, in the original Nahuatl, and are given in his
Hist. de las cosas de Nueva Espana, lib. iii., and in Brinton's American
Hero-Myths, pp. 106-116.]

[Footnote 1: What a pathos there is in these quaint stories!  These poor
Indians dimly saw what we see, that the Evil One is hard to kill and often
seems triumphant.  When things seem to have arrived at such a pass, the
untutored human mind comforts itself with Messianic hopes, often destined to
be rudely shocked, but based no doubt upon a sound and wholesome instinct, and
one that the future career of mankind will justify.  It is interesting to
watch the rudimental glimmerings of such a hope in such a people as the
ancient Mexicans.]

[Footnote 2: Brinton, op. cit. pp. 117, 133.]

     His return, it would seem, must needs involve the dethronement of the
black Tezcatlipoca.  According to one group of legends the fair culture-hero
condemned the sacrifice of human beings, and held that the perfume of flowers
and incense was sufficient without the shedding of blood; in similar wise he
was said to look with disapproval upon wars and violence of whatever sort.  If
the theory which found expression in these legends should prove correct, the
advent of Quetzalcoatl would overturn the worship of Tezcatlipoca, who
demanded human victims, and likewise that of his grewsome ally
Huitzilopochtli, the war-god who presided over the direful contests in which
such victims were obtained.  In short, it would revolutionize the whole system
upon which the political and social life of the Nahua peoples had from time
immemorial been conducted.  One is naturally curious to know how far such a
theory could have expressed a popular wish and not merely a vague speculative
notion, but upon this point our information is lamentably meagre.  It does not
appear that there was any general longing for the reign of Quetzalcoatl, like
that of the Jews for their Messianic Kingdom.  But the notion that such a
kingdom was to come was certainly a common one in ancient Mexico, and even in
that fierce society there may well have been persons to whom the prevalence of
wholesale slaughter did not commend itself, and who were ready to welcome the
hope of a change.

     When the Spanish ships arrived upon the Mexican coast in 1518, the
existence of this general belief was certainly a capital fact, and probably
the supreme fact, in the political and military situation.  It effectually
paralyzed the opposition to their entrance into the country. Surely such a
grouping of fortunate coincidences was never known save in fairy tales.  As
the Spanish ships came sailing past Tabasco, they were just reversing the
route by which Quetzalcoatl had gone out into the ocean; as he had gone, so
they were coming in strict fulfilment of prophecy!  Mictlan-Quauhtla was
evidently a point from which the returning deity was likely to be seen; and
when we read that the Indian who ran with the news to Cuetlachtlan had his
ears, thumbs, and toes mutilated, how can we help remembering that this
particular kind of self-torture was deemed a fit method of ingratiating
oneself into the favour of Quetzalcoatl?  When Pinotl went on board ship he
found the mysterious visitors answering in outward aspect to the requirements
of the legend.  In most mythologies the solar heroes are depicted with
abundant hair.  Quetzalcoatl was sometimes, though not always, represented
with a beard longer and thicker than one would have been likely to see in
ancient America.  The bearded Spaniards were, therefore, at once recognized as
his companions.  There were sure to be some blonde Visigoth complexions among
them, ^1 and their general hue was somewhat fairer than that of the red men.
Nothing more was needed to convince the startled Aztecs that the fulfilment of
the prophecy was at hand.  Montezuma could hardly fail thus to understand the
case, and it filled him with misgivings.  We may be sure that to the anxious
council in the tecpan every shooting-star, every puff from the crater of
Popocatepetl, and whatever omen of good or evil could be gathered from any
quarter, came up for fresh interpretation in the light of this strange
intelligence.  Let us leave them pondering the situation, while we turn our
attention to the Spaniards, and observe by what stages they had approached the
Mexican coast.

[Footnote 1: Indeed, we know of at least one such blonde on this fleet, Pedro
de Alvarado, whom the Mexicans called Tonatiuh, "sunfaced," on account of his
shaggy yellow hair and ruddy complexion.]

     From the island of Hispaniola as a centre, the work of discovery spread
in all directions, and not slowly, when one considers the difficulties
involved in it.  With the arrival of Diego Columbus, as admiral and governor
of the Indies, in 1509, there was increased activity. In 1511 he sent
Velasquez to conquer Cuba, and two years later Juan Ponce de Leon, governor of
Porto Rico, landed upon the coast of Florida.  In the autumn of 1509 the
ill-fated expeditions of Ojeda and Nicuesa began their work upon the coast of
Darien; and in 1513 Balboa crossed that isthmus and discovered the Pacific
ocean.  Rumours of the distant kingdom of the Incas reached his ears, and in
1517 he was about starting on a voyage to the south, when he was arrested on a
charge of premeditating treason and desertion, and was put to death by
Pedrarias, governor of Darien.  This melancholy story will claim our attention
in a future chapter.  It is merely mentioned here, in its chronological order,
as having a kind of suggestiveness in connection with the conduct of Cortes.

     After the fall of Balboa the Spaniards for some time made little or no
progress to the southward, but their attention was mainly directed to the
westward.  In 1516 food was scarce in Darien, and to relieve the situation
about a hundred of the colonists were sent over to Cuba; among them was the
soldier of fortune, Bernal Diaz de Castillo, afterward one of the most famous
of chroniclers.  These men had plenty of Indian gold; with which they fitted
up a couple of ships to go slave-catching in the bay of Honduras.  The
governor, Velasquez, added a ship of his own to the expedition, and the chief
command was given to Francisco Hernandez de Cordova, a man "very prudent and
courageous, and strongly disposed to kill and kidnap Indians." ^1 The chief
pilot was Antonio de Alaminos, who had been with Columbus on his fourth
voyage, and there were in all more than a hundred soldiers.  From Santiago
they sailed, in February, 1517, through the Windward Passage around to Puerto
Principe to take in sundry supplies. While they were waiting there the pilot,
recalling to mind some things that Columbus had told him, was seized with the
idea that a rich country might be discovered within a short distance by
sailing to the west. Cordova was persuaded by his arguments, and loyally sent
word to Velasquez, asking if he might be allowed to act as governor's
lieutenant in any new lands he might discover. ^1 Assent having been given,
the little fleet finally sailed from the lately-founded town of Havana, and
presently reached the northeastern corner of the peninsula of Yucatan.  Here
the Spaniards for the first time saw signs of that Oriental civilization for
which they had so long been looking in vain.  Strange-looking towers or
pyramids, ascended by stone steps, greeted their eyes, and the people, who
came out in canoes to watch the ships, were clad in quilted cotton doubtlets,
and wore cloaks and brilliant plumes.  These Mayas were bitterly hostile.
Apparently they had heard of the Spaniards.  It would have been strange indeed
if, in the six years since Velasquez had invaded Cuba, not a whisper of all
the slaughter and enslavement in that island had found its way across the one
hundred miles of salt water between Cape San Antonio and Cape Catoche.  At
several places along the shore the natives are said to have shouted
"Castilians!  Castilians!" At Catoche their demeanour was at first friendly,
but after the Spaniards had come ashore they drew them into an ambush and
attacked them, killing two and wounding several.  The Spaniards then
reembarked, taking with them a couple of young captives whom they trained as
interpreters.  After a fortnight's sail along the coast they arrived at
Campeche.  Here the Maya natives invited them into the town, and showed them
their huge pueblo fortresses and their stone temples, on the walls of which
were sculptured enormous serpents, while the altars dripped fresh blood.  "We
were amazed," says Bernal Diaz, "at the sight of things so strange, as we
watched numbers of natives, men and women, come in to get a sight of us with
smiling and careless countenances." ^1 Presently, however, priests approaching
with fragrant censers requested the visitors to quit the country; and they
deemed it prudent to comply, and retired to their ships. Proceeding as far as
Champoton, the Spaniards were obliged to go ashore for water to drink.  Then
the Indians set upon them in overwhelming numbers and wofully defeated them,
slaying more than half their number, and wounding nearly all the rest.  The
wretched survivors lost no time in getting back to Cuba, where Cordova soon
died of his wounds.  Worse luck they could hardly have had, but they brought
back a little gold and some carved images stolen from a temple, and their
story incited Velasquez to prepare a new expedition.

[Footnote 1: Las Casas, Historia de las Indias, tom. iv. p. 369.  This sort of
expedition was illegal, and so it was publicly announced that the expedition
was fitted out for purposes of discovery.  See Bancroft's Mexico, vol. i. p.
6.]

[Footnote 1: This is graphically told by Las Casas: - "Y estando alle, dijo el
piloto Alaminos al capitan Francisco Hernandez que le parecia que por aquella
mar del Poniente, abajo de la dicha isla de Cuba, le daba el corazon que habia
de haber tierra muy rica, porque cuando andaba con-el Almirante viejo, siendo
el muchacho, via que el Almirante se inclinaba mucho a navegar hacia aquella
parte, con esperanza grande que tenia que habia de hallar tierra muy poblada y
muy mas rica que hasta alli, e que asi lo afirmaba, y porque le faltaron los
navios no prosiguio aquel camino, y torno, desde el cabo que puso nombre de
Gracias a Dios, atras a la provincia de Veragua.  Dicho esto, el Francisco
Hernandez, que era de buena esperanza y buen animo, asentandosele aquestas
palabras, determino de enviar por licencia a Diego Velasquez," etc.  Op. cit.
p. 350. Alaminos had evidently confused in his memory the fourth voyage of
Columbus with the second.  It was in the second that Columbus felt obliged to
turn back, and it is clear that in the fourth he had no intention of going
west of Cape Honduras.]

[Footnote 1: Diaz, Historia verdadera, cap. iii.]

     Four caravels were accordingly made ready and manned with 250 stout
soldiers.  The chief command was given to the governor's nephew, Juan de
Grijalva, and the captains of two of the ships were Pedro de Alvarado and
Francisco de Montejo.  Sailing from Santiago early in April, 1518, they landed
first at the island of Cozumel, and then followed the Yucatan coast till they
reached Champoton, where they came to blows with the natives, and being fully
prepared for such an emergency defeated them.  In June they came to a country
which they called Tabasco, after the name of a chief ^1 with whom they had
some friendly interviews and exchanged gifts. It was a few days later, at the
little bay near the shore of which stood the pueblo of Mictlan-Quauhtla, that
they were boarded by the tax-gatherer Pinotl who carried such startling
intelligence of them to Montezuma.  The demeanour of the Nahua people in this
neighbourhood was quite friendly; but the Spaniards were more and more struck
with horror at the ghastly sights they saw of human heads raised aloft on
poles, human bodies disembowelled, and grinning idols dripping blood from
their jaws.  On St. John's day they stopped at an island, the name of which
they understood to be Ulua, ^1 and so they gave it the name now commonly
written San Juan de Ulloa.  Here Alvarado was sent back to Cuba with fifty or
more sick men, to report what had been done and get reinforcements with which
to found a colony.  Grijalva kept on with the other three ships, as far,
perhaps, as the river Panuco, beyond the region of pueblos tributary to the
Aztecs. By this time their ships were getting the worse for wear, and they
began once more to encounter fierce and hostile Indians.  Accordingly they
turned back, and retracing their course arrived in Cuba early in November.

[Footnote 1: The Spaniards often mistook the name of some chief for a
territorial name, as for example Quarequa, Pocorosa, Biru, etc., of which more
anon.]

[Footnote 1: An imperfect hearing of Culhua, a name common in Mexico.]

     The effect of this expedition was very stimulating.  A quarter of a
century had elapsed since Columbus's first voyage, and the Spaniards had been
active enough in many directions, but until lately they had seen no
indications of that Oriental civilization and magnificence which they had
expected to find.  They had been tossed on weather-beaten coasts, and had
wandered mile after mile half-starved through tropical forests, for the most
part without finding anything but rude and squalid villages inhabited by
half-naked barbarians.  Still hope had not deserted them; they were as
confident as ever that, inasmuch as they were in Asia, it could not be so very
far to the dominions of the Great Khan.  Now Grijalva's tidings seemed to
justify their lingering hope.  Pinotl and other Indians had told him that far
up in that country dwelt their mighty king who ruled over many cities and had
no end of gold.  Of course this must be the Great Khan, and the goal which
Columbus had hoped to attain must now be within reach!  The youthful Grijalva
was flushed with anticipations of coming glory.

     No sooner had he arrived in Cuba, however, than he was taught the lesson
that there is many a slip betwixt the cup and the lip.  He had found occasion
to censure Alvarado, and that captain, nursing his spite and getting home some
time before his young commander, had contrived to poison the mind of his uncle
the governor.  So Grijalva was set aside, all his fine hopes turned sick with
chagrin.  The prize was not for him, but for another young man, a native of
Estremadura, who in 1504 had come over to the Indies.  The name of this
knight-errant, now in his thirty-fourth year, bold and devout, fertile in
devices and unscrupulous, yet perhaps no more so than many a soldier whose
name is respected, an Achilles for bravery, an Odysseus for craft and
endurance, was Hernando Cortes.  In 1511 he had served with distinction under
Velasquez in the expedition which conquered Cuba, and he was at this time
alcalde (chief judge) of the newly founded town of Santiago on that island.
He now persuaded Velasquez to appoint him to command the important expedition
fitted out in the autumn of 1518 for operations on the Mexican mainland.