History of the World/History of the World (Bureau Development, Inc.)(1992).BIN/dp/0196/01964.txt

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$Title{History Of The Conquest Of Mexico
Chapter V. Arrival In Tlascala.}
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$Author{Prescott, William H.}
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Title:       History Of The Conquest Of Mexico
Book:        Book V. Expulsion From Mexico.
Author:      Prescott, William H.

Chapter V. Arrival In Tlascala.

Friendly Reception. - Discontents Of The Army. - Jealousy Of The Tlascalans. -
Embassy From Mexico. (1520.)

     On the following morning the army broke up its encampment at an early
hour.  The enemy does not seem to have made an attempt to rally.  Clouds of
skirmishers, however, were seen during the morning, keeping at a respectful
distance, though occasionally venturing near enough to salute the Spaniards
with a volley of missiles.

     On a rising ground they discovered a fountain, a blessing not too often
met with in these arid regions, and gratefully commemorated by the Christians
for the refreshment it afforded by its cool and abundant waters. ^1  A little
farther on they descried the rude works which served as the bulwark and
boundary of the Tlascalan territory.  At the sight, the allies sent up a
joyous shout of congratulation, in which the Spaniards heartily joined, as
they felt they were soon to be on friendly and hospitable ground.

[Footnote 1: Is it not the same fountain of which Toribio makes honourable
mention in his topographical account of the country?  "Nace en Tlaxcala una
fuente grande a la parte del Norte, cinco leguas de la principal ciudad; nace
en un pueblo que se llama Azumba, que en su lengua quiere decir cabeza, y asi
es, porque esta fuente es cabeza y principio del mayor rio de los que entran
en la mar del Sur, el cual entra en la mar por Zacatula."  Hist. de los
Indios, MS., Parte 3, cap. 16.]

     But these feelings were speedily followed by others of a different
nature; and, as they drew nearer the territory, their minds were disturbed
with the most painful apprehensions as to their reception by the people among
whom they were bringing desolation and mourning, and who might so easily, if
ill disposed, take advantage of their present crippled condition.  "Thoughts
like these," says Cortes, "weighed as heavily on my spirit as any which I
ever experienced in going to battle with the Aztecs." ^2  Still he put, as
usual, a good face on the matter, and encouraged his men to confide in their
allies, whose past conduct had afforded every ground for trusting to their
fidelity in future.  He cautioned them, however, as their own strength was so
much impaired, to be most careful to give no umbrage or ground for jealousy
to their high-spirited allies.  "Be but on your guard," continued the
intrepid general, "and we have still stout hearts and strong hands to carry
us through the midst of them!" ^3  With these anxious surmises, bidding adieu
to the Aztec domain, the Christian army crossed the frontier, and once more
trod the soil of the Republic.

[Footnote 2: "El qual pensamiento, y sospecha nos puso en tanta afliccion,
quanta trahiamos viniendo peleando con los de Culua."  Rel. Seg. de Cortes,
ap. Lorenzana, p. 149.]

[Footnote 3: "Y mas dixo, que tenia esperanca en Dios que los hallariamos
buenos, y leales; e que si otra cosa fuesse, lo que Dios no permita, que nos
han de tornar a andar los punos con coracones fuertes, y bracos vigorosos, y
que para esso fuessemos muy apercibidos."  Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la
Conquista, cap. 128.]

     The first place at which they halted was the town of Huejotlipan, a
place of about twelve or fifteen thousand inhabitants. ^1  They were kindly
greeted by the people, who came out to receive them, inviting the troops to
their habitations, and administering all the relief of their simple
hospitality.  Yet this was not so disinterested, according to some of the
Spaniards, as to prevent their expecting in requital a share of the plunder
taken in the late action. ^2  Here the weary forces remained two or three
days, when, the news of their arrival having reached the capital, not more
than four or five leagues distant, the old chief Maxixca, their efficient
friend on their former visit, and Xicotencatl, the young warrior who, it will
be remembered, had commanded the troops of his nation in their bloody
encounters with the Spaniards, came with a numerous concourse of the citizens
to welcome the fugitives to Tlascala.  Maxixca, cordially embracing the
Spanish commander, testified the deepest sympathy for his misfortunes.  That
the white men could so long have withstood the confederated power of the
Aztecs was proof enough of their marvellous prowess.  "We have made common
cause together," said the lord of Tlascala, "and we have common injuries to
avenge; and, come weal or come woe, be assured we will prove true and loyal
friends and stand by you to the death." ^3

[Footnote 1: Called Gualipan by Cortes.  Rel. Seg., ap. Lorenzana, p. 149).
An Aztec would have found it hard to trace the route of his enemies by their
itineraries.]

[Footnote 2: Ibid., ubi supra. - Thoan Cano, however, one of the army, denies
this, and asserts that the natives received them like their children, and
would take no recom ense.  (See Appendix, Part 2, No. 11.)]

[Footnote 3: "Y que tubiesse por cierto, que me serian muy ciertos, y
verdaderos Amigos, hasta la muerte."  Ibid., p. 150.]

     This cordial assurance and sympathy, from one who exercised a control
over the public councils beyond any other ruler, effectually dispelled the
doubts that lingered in the mind of Cortes.  He readily accepted his
invitation to continue his march at once to the capital, where he would find
so much better accommodations for his army than in a small town on the
frontier.  The sick and wounded, placed in hammocks, were borne on the
shoulders of the friendly natives; and, as the troops drew near the city, the
inhabitants came flocking out in crowds to meet them, rending the air with
joyous acclamations and wild bursts of their rude Indian minstrelsy.  Amidst
the general jubilee, however, were heard sounds of wailing and sad lament, as
some unhappy relative or friend, looking earnestly into the diminished files
of their countrymen, sought in vain for some dear and familiar countenance,
and, as they turned disappointed away, gave utterance to their sorrow in
tones that touched the heart of every soldier in the army.  With these
mingled accompaniments of joy and woe, - the motley web of human life, - the
wayworn columns of Cortes at length re-entered the republican capital. ^4

[Footnote 4: Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS. - Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la
Conquista, ubi supra. - "Sobrevinieron las mugeres Tlascaltecas, y todas
puestas de luto, y llorando a donde estaban los Espanoles, las unas
preguntaban por sus maridos, las otras por sus hijos y hermanos, las otras
por sus parientes que habian ido con los Espanoles, y quedaban todos alla
muertos: no es menos, sino que de esto llanto causo gran sentimiento en el
corazon del Capitan, y de todos los Espanoles, y el procuro lo mejor que pudo
consolarles por medio de sus Interpretes."  Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-Espana,
MS., lib. 12, cap. 28.]

     The general and his suite were lodged in the rude but spacious palace of
Maxixca.  The rest of the army took up their quarters in the district over
which the Tlascalan lord presided.  Here they continued several weeks, until,
by the attentions of the hospitable citizens, and such medical treatment as
their humble science could supply, the wounds of the soldiers were healed,
and they recovered from the debility to which they had been reduced by their
long and unparalleled sufferings.  Cortes was one of those who suffered
severely.  He lost the use of two of the fingers of his left hand. ^1  He had
received, besides, two injuries on the head; one of which was so much
exasperated by his subsequent fatigues and excitement of mind that it assumed
an alarming appearance.  A part of the bone was obliged to be removed. ^2  A
fever ensued, and for several days the hero who had braved danger and death
in their most terrible forms lay stretched on his bed, as helpless as an
infant.  His excellent constitution, however, got the better of disease, and
he was at length once more enabled to resume his customary activity.  The
Spaniards, with politic generosity, requited the hospitality of their hosts
by sharing with them the spoils of their recent victory, and Cortes
especially rejoiced the heart of Maxixca by presenting him with the military
trophy which he had won from the Indian commander. ^3

[Footnote 1: "Yo assimismo quede manco de dos dedos de la mano izquierda" - is
Cortes own expression in his letter to the emperor.  (Rel. Seg., ap.
Lorenzana, p. 152.)  Don Thoan Cano, however, whose sympathies - from his
Indian alliance, perhaps - seem to have been quite as much with the Aztecs as
with his own countrymen, assured Oviedo, who was lamenting the general's
loss, that he might spare his regrets, since Cortes had as many fingers on
his hand at that hour as when he came from Castile.  (See Appendix, Part 2,
No. II.)  May not the word manco, in his letter, be rendered by "maimed"?]

[Footnote 2: "Hirieron a Cortes con Honda tan mal, que so le pasmo la Cabeca,
o porque no le curaron bien, sacandole Cascos, o por el demasiado trabajo que
paso."  Gomara, Cronica, cap. 110.]

[Footnote 3: Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 10, cap. 13 - Bernal Diaz,
Hist. de la Conquista, ubi supra.]

     But while the Spaniards were thus recruiting their health and spirits
under the friendly treatment of their allies, and recovering the confidence
and tranquillity of mind which had sunk under their hard reverses, they
received tidings, from time to time, which showed that their late disaster
had not been confined to the Mexican capital.  On his descent from Mexico to
encounter Narvaez, Cortes had brought with him a quantity of gold, which he
left for safe keeping at Tlascala.  To this was added a considerable sum
collected by the unfortunate Velasquez de Leon in his expedition to the
coast, as well as contributions from other sources.  From the unquiet state
of the capital, the general thought it best, on his return there, still to
leave the treasure under the care of a number of invalid soldiers, who, when
in marching condition, were to rejoin him in Mexico.  A party from Vera Cruz,
consisting of five horsemen and forty foot, had since arrived at Tlascala,
and, taking charge of the invalids and treasure, undertook to escort them to
the capital.  He now learned that they had been intercepted on the route and
all cut off, with the entire loss of the treasure.  Twelve other soldiers,
marching in the same direction, had been massacred in the neighbouring
province of Tepeaca; and accounts continually arrived of some unfortunate
Castilian, who, presuming on the respect hitherto shown to his countrymen,
and ignorant of the disasters in the capital, had fallen a victim to the fury
of the enemy. ^1

[Footnote 1: Rel. Seg. de Cortes, ap. Lorenzana, p. 150. - Oviedo, Hist. de
las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 15. - Herrera gives the following inscription,
cut on the bark of a tree by some of these unfortunate Spaniards: "By this
road passed Juan Juste and his wretched companions, who were so much pinched
by hunger that they were obliged to give a solid bar of gold, weighing eight
hundred ducats, for a few cakes of maize bread."  Hist. general, dec. 2, lib.
10, cap. 13.]

     These dismal tidings filled the mind of Cortes with gloomy apprehensions
for the fate of the settlement at Villa Rica, - the last stay of their hopes.
He despatched a trusty messenger, at once, to that place, and had the
inexpressible satisfaction to receive a letter in return from the commander
of the garrison, acquainting him with the safety of the colony and its
friendly relations with the neighbouring Totonacs.  It was the best guarantee
of the fidelity of the latter, that they had offended the Mexicans too deeply
to be forgiven.

     While the affairs of Cortes wore so gloomy an aspect without, he had to
experience an annoyance scarcely less serious from the discontents of his
followers.  Many of them had fancied that their late appalling reverses would
put an end to the expedition, or, at least, postpone all thoughts of resuming
it for the present.  But they knew little of Cortes who reasoned thus.  Even
while tossing on his bed of sickness, he was ripening in his mind fresh
schemes for retrieving his honour, and for recovering the empire which had
been lost more by another's rashness than his own.  This was apparent, as he
became convalescent, from the new regulations he made respecting the army, as
well as from the orders sent to Vera Cruz for fresh reinforcements.

     The knowledge of all this occasioned much disquietude to the disaffected
soldiers.  They were, for the most part, the ancient followers of Narvaez, on
whom, as we have seen, the brunt of the war had fallen the heaviest.  Many of
them possessed property in the Islands, and had embarked on this expedition
chiefly from the desire of increasing it.  But they had gathered neither gold
nor glory in Mexico.  Their present service filled them only with disgust;
and the few, comparatively, who had been so fortunate as to survive,
languished to return to their rich mines and pleasant farms in Cuba, bitterly
cursing the day when they had left them.

     Finding their complaints little heeded by the general, they prepared a
written remonstrance, in which they made their demand more formally.  They
represented the rashness of persisting in the enterprise in his present
impoverished state, without arms or ammunition, almost without men; and this,
too, against a powerful enemy, who had been more than a match for him with
all the strength of his late resources.  It was madness to think of it.  The
attempt would bring them all to the sacrifice-block.  Their only course was
to continue their march to Vera Cruz.  Every hour of delay might be fatal.
The garrison in that place might be overwhelmed from want of strength to
defend itself; and thus their last hope would be annihilated.  But, once
there, they might wait in comparative security for such reinforcements as
would join them from abroad; while in case of failure they could the more
easily make their escape.  They concluded with insisting on being permitted
to return at once to the port of Villa Rica.  This petition, or rather
remonstrance, was signed by all the disaffected soldiers, and, after being
formally attested by the royal notary, was presented to Cortes. ^1

[Footnote 1: One is reminded of the similar remonstrance made by Alexander's
soldiers to him on reaching the Hystaspis, - but attended with more success;
as, indeed, was reasonable.  For Alexander continued to advance from the
ambition of indefinite conquest, while Cortes was only bent on carrying out
his original enterprise.  What was madness in the one was heroism in the
other.]

     It was a trying circumstance for him.  What touched him most nearly was
to find the name of his friend the secretary Duero, to whose good offices he
had chiefly owed his command, at the head of the paper.  He was not, however,
to be shaken from his purpose for a moment; and, while all outward resources
seemed to be fading away, and his own friends faltered, or failed him, he was
still true to himself.  He knew that to retreat to Vera Cruz would be to
abandon the enterprise.  Once there, his army would soon find a pretext and a
way for breaking up and returning to the Islands.  All his ambitious schemes
would be blasted.  The great prize, already once in his grasp, would then be
lost for ever.  He would be a ruined man.

     In his celebrated letter to Charles the Fifth, he says that, in
reflecting on his position, he felt the truth of the old adage, "that fortune
favours the brave.  The Spaniards were the followers of the Cross; and,
trusting in the infinite goodness and mercy of God, he could not believe that
He would suffer them and his own good cause thus to perish among the
heathen. ^2  He was resolved, therefore, not to descend to the coast, but at
all hazards to retrace his steps and beard the enemy again in his capital."

[Footnote 2: "Acordandome, que siempre a los osados ayuda a fortuna, y que
eramos Christianos y confiando en la grandissima Bondad, y Misericordia de
Dios, que no permitiria, que del todo pereciessemos, y se perdiesse tanta, y
tan noble Tierra."  Rel. Seg., ap. Lorenzana, p. 152.]

     It was in the same resolute tone that he answered his discontented
followers. ^3  He urged every argument which could touch their pride or honour
as cavaliers.  He appealed to that ancient Castilian valour which had never
been known to falter before an enemy; besought them not to discredit the
great deeds which had made their name ring throughout Europe; not to leave
the emprise half achieved, for others more daring and adventurous to finish.
How could they with any honour, he asked, desert their allies whom they had
involved in the war, and leave them unprotected to the vengeance of the
Aztecs?  To retreat but a single step towards Villa Rica would be to proclaim
their own weakness.  It would dishearten their friends and give confidence to
their foes.  He implored them to resume the confidence in him which they had
ever showed, and to reflect that, if they had recently met with reverses, he
had up to that point accomplished all, and more than all, that he had
promised.  It would be easy now to retrieve their losses, if they would have
patience and abide in this friendly land until the reinforcements, which
would be ready to come in at his call, should enable them to act on the
offensive.  If, however, there were any so insensible to the motives which
touch a brave man's heart, as to prefer ease at home to the glory of this
great achievement, he would not stand in their way.  Let them go, in God's
name.  Let them leave their general in his extremity.  He should feel
stronger in the service of a few brave spirits than if surrounded by a host
of the false or the faint-hearted. ^1

[Footnote 3: This reply, exclaims Oviedo, showed a man of unconquerable
spirit and high destinies: "Pareceme que la respuesta que a esto les dio
Hernando Cortes, e lo que hizo en ello, fue vna cosa de animo invencible, e
de varon de mucha suerte e valor."  Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap.
15.]

[Footnote 1: "E no me hable ninguno en otra cosa; y el que desta opinion no
estubiere vayase en buen hora, que mas holgare de quedar con los pocos y
osados, que en compania de muchos, ni de ninguno cobarde, ni desacordado de
su propia honra."  Hist. de las Ind., MS., loc. cit.]

     The disaffected party, as already noticed, was chiefly drawn from the
troops of Narvaez.  When the general's own veterans heard this appeal, ^2
their blood warmed with indignation at the thoughts of abandoning him or the
cause at such a crisis.  They pledged themselves to stand by him to the last;
and the malcontents, silenced, if not convinced, by this generous expression
of sentiment from their comrades, consented to postpone their departure for
the present, under the assurance that no obstacle would be thrown in their
way when a more favourable season should present itself. ^3

[Footnote 2: Oviedo has expanded the harangue of Cortes into several pages,
in the course of which the orator quotes Xenophon, and borrows largely from
the old Jewish history, a style of eloquence savouring much more of the
closet than the camp.  Cortes was no pedant, and his soldiers were no
scholars.]

[Footnote 3: For the account of this turbulent transaction, see Bernal Diaz,
Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 129, - Rel. Seg. de Cortes, ap. Lorenzana, p.
152, - Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 15, - Gomara, Cronica,
cap. 112, 113, - Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 10, cap. 14. - Diaz is
exceedingly wroth with the chaplain Gomara for not discriminating between the
old soldiers and the levies of Narvaez, whom he involves equally in the sin
of rebellion.  The captain's own version seems a fair one, and I have
followed it, therefore, in the text.]

     Scarcely was this difficulty adjusted, when Cortes was menaced with one
more serious, in the jealousy springing up between his soldiers and
their Indian allies.  Notwithstanding the demonstrations of regard by Maxixca
and his immediate followers, there were others of the nation who looked with
an evil eye on their guests, for the calamities in which they had involved
them; and they tauntingly asked if, in addition to this, they were now to be
burdened by the presence and maintenance of the strangers.  These sallies of
discontent were not so secret as altogether to escape the ears of the
Spaniards, in whom they occasioned no little disquietude.  They proceeded for
the most part, it is true, from persons of little consideration, since the
four great chiefs of the republic appear to have been steadily secured to the
interests of Cortes.  But they derived some importance from the countenance
of the warlike Xicotencatl, in whose bosom still lingered the embers of that
implacable hostility which he had displayed so courageously on the field of
battle; and sparkles of this fiery temper occasionally gleamed forth in the
intimate intercourse into which he was now reluctantly brought with his
ancient opponents.

     Cortes, who saw with alarm the growing feeling of estrangement which
must sap the very foundations on which he was to rest the lever for future
operations, employed every argument which suggested itself, to restore the
confidence of his own men.  He reminded them of the good services they had
uniformly received from the great body of the nation.  They had a sufficient
pledge of the future constancy of the Tlascalans in their long-cherished
hatred of the Aztecs, which the recent disasters they had suffered from the
same quarter could serve only to sharpen.  And he urged, with much force,
that if any evil designs had been meditated by them against the Spaniards the
Tlascalans would, doubtless, have taken advantage of their late disabled
condition, and not waited till they had recovered their strength and means of
resistance. ^1

[Footnote 1: Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 15.
Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 10, cap. 14. - Sahagun, Hist. de
Nueva-Espana, MS., lib. 12, cap. 29.]

     While Cortes was thus endeavouring, with somewhat doubtful success, to
stifle his own apprehensions, as well as those in the bosoms of his
followers, an event occurred which happily brought the affair to an issue,
and permanently settled the relations in which the two parties were to stand
to each other.  This will make it necessary to notice some events which had
occurred in Mexico since the expulsion of the Spaniards.

     On Montezuma's death, his brother, Cuitlahua, lord of Iztapalapan,
conformably to the usage regulating the descent of the Aztec crown, was
chosen to succeed him.  He was an active prince, of large experience in
military affairs, and, by the strength of his character, was well fitted to
sustain the tottering fortunes of the monarchy.  He appears, moreover, to
have been a man of liberal, and what may be called enlightened, taste, to
judge from the beautiful gardens which he had filled with rare exotics and
which so much attracted the admiration of the Spaniards in his city of
Iztapalapan.  Unlike his predecessor, he held the white men in detestation,
and had, probably, the satisfaction of celebrating his own coronation by the
sacrifice of many of them.  From the moment of his release from the Spanish
quarters, where he had been detained by Cortes, he entered into the patriotic
movements of his people.  It was he who conducted the assaults both in the
streets of the city and on the "Melancholy Night;" and it was at his
instigation that the powerful force had been assembled to dispute the passage
of the Spaniards in the Vale of Otumba. ^2

[Footnote 2: Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 47. - Rel. Seg.
de Cortes, ap. Lorenzana, p. 166. - Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-Espana, MS., lib
12 cap. 27, 29. - Or, rather, it was "at the instigation of the great Devil,
the captain of all the devils, called Satan, who regulated everything in New
Spain by his freewill and pleasure, before the coming of the Spaniards,"
according to Father Sahagun, who begins his chapter with this eloquent
exordium.]

     Since the evacuation of the capital, he had been busily occupied in
repairing the mischief it had received, - restoring the buildings and the
bridges and putting it in the best posture of defence.  He had endeavoured to
improve the discipline and arms of his troops.  He introduced the long spear
among them, and, by attaching the sword-blades taken from the Christians to
long poles, contrived a weapon that should be formidable against the cavalry.
He summoned his vassals, far and near, to hold themselves in readiness to
march to the relief of the capital, if necessary, and, the better to secure
their goodwill, relieved them from some of the burdens usually laid on them.
But he was now to experience the instability of a government which rested not
on love, but on fear.  The vassals in the neighbourhood of the Valley
remained true to their allegiance; but others held themselves aloof,
uncertain what course to adopt; while others, again, in the more distant
provinces, refused obedience altogether, considering this a favourable moment
for throwing off the yoke which had so long galled them. ^1

[Footnote 1: Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 88. - Sahagun, Hist.
de Nueva-Espana, MS., lib. 12, cap. 29. - Herrera Hist. general, dec. 2,
lib. 10, cap. 19.]

     In this emergency, the government sent a deputation to its ancient
enemies the Tlascalans.  It consisted of six Aztec nobles, bearing a present
of cotton cloth, salt, and other articles rarely seen, of late years, in the
republic.  The lords of the state, astonished at this unprecedented act of
condescension in their ancient foe, called the council or senate of the great
chiefs together, to give the envoys audience.

     Before this body the Aztecs stated the purpose of their mission.  They
invited the Tlascalans to bury all past grievances in oblivion, and to enter
into a treaty with them.  All the nations of Anahuac should make common cause
in defence of their country against the white men.  The Tlascalans would
bring down on their own heads the wrath of the gods, if they longer harboured
the strangers who had violated and destroyed their temples.  If they counted
on the support and friendship of their guests, let them take warning from the
fate of Mexico, which had received them kindly within its walls, and which,
in return, they had filled with blood and ashes.  They conjured them, by
their reverence for their common religion, not to suffer the white men,
disabled as they now were, to escape from their hands, but to sacrifice them
at once to the gods, whose temples they had profaned.  In that event, they
proffered them their alliance, and the renewal of that friendly traffic which
would restore to the republic the possession of the comforts and luxuries of
which it had been so long deprived.

     The proposals of the ambassadors produced different effects on their
audience.  Xicotencatl was for embracing them at once.  Far better was it, he
said, to unite with their kindred, with those who held their own language,
their faith and usages, than to throw themselves into the arms of the fierce
strangers, who, however they might talk of religion, worshipped no god but
gold.  This opinion was followed by that of the younger warriors, who readily
caught the fire of his enthusiasm.  But the elder chiefs, especially his
blind old father, one of the four rulers of the state, who seem to have been
all heartily in the interests of the Spaniards, and one of them, Maxixca,
their stanch friend, strongly expressed their aversion to the proposed
alliance with the Aztecs.  They were always the same, said the latter, - fair
in speech, and false in heart.  They now proffered friendship to the
Tlascalans.  But it was fear which drove them to it, and, when that fear was
removed, they would return to their old hostility.  Who was it, but these
insidious foes, that had so long deprived the country of the very necessaries
of life, of which they were now so lavish in their offers?  Was it not owing
to the white men that the nation at length possessed them?  Yet they were
called on to sacrifice the white men to the gods! - the warriors who, after
fighting the battles of the Tlascalans, now threw themselves on their
hospitality.  But the gods abhorred perfidy.  And were not their guests the
very beings whose coming had been so long predicted by the oracles?  "Let us
avail ourselves of it," he concluded, "and unite and make common cause with
them, until we have humbled our haughty enemy."

     This discourse provoked a sharp rejoinder from Xicotencatl, till the
passion of the elder chieftain got the better of his patience, and
substituting force for argument, he thrust his younger antagonist, with some
violence, from the council-chamber.  A proceeding so contrary to the usual
decorum of Indian debate astonished the assembly.  But, far from bringing
censure on its author, it effectually silenced opposition.  Even the
hot-headed followers of Xicotencatl shrunk from supporting a leader who had
incurred such a mark of contemptuous displeasure from the ruler whom they
most venerated.  His own father openly condemned him; and the patriotic young
warrior, gifted with a truer foresight into futurity than his countrymen, was
left without support in the council, as he had formerly been on the field of
battle.  The proffered alliance of the Mexicans was unanimously rejected; and
the envoys, fearing that even the sacred character with which they were
invested might not protect them from violence, made their escape secretly
from the capital. ^1

[Footnote 1: The proceedings in the Tlascalan senate are reported in more or
less detail, but substantially alike, by Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS., -
Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-Espana, MS., lib. 12, cap. 29, - Herrera, Hist.
general, dec. 2, lib. 12, cap. 14. - See, also, Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la
Conquista, cap. 129, - Gomara, Cronica, cap. 111.]

     The result of the conference was of the last importance to the
Spaniards, who, in their present crippled condition, especially if taken
unawares, would have been, probably, at the mercy of the Tlascalans.  At all
events, the union of these latter with the Aztecs would have settled the fate
of the expedition; since, in the poverty of his own resources, it was only by
adroitly playing off one part of the Indian population against the other that
Cortes could ultimately hope for success.