The resolute officer, having ordered his ships to be destroyed, began about the middle of August his march toward the city of Mexico,[323] with his small band of about five hundred followers, fifteen horsemen, and seven pieces of artillery. He took with him thirteen hundred native warriors from Cempoalla, besides a thousand porters to transport the camp-baggage, provisions, and munition.
In the province of Xocotlan the invaders came to an Indian town called by the Spaniards Castilblanco, governed by a cacique who was subject to Montezuma. The hospitable ruler described to Cortes the situation of the city of Mexico, which was built on an island surrounded by water, and approachable on foot by three bridged causeways.
“A certain place in this province,” says Diaz, “I shall never forget. Here a vast number of human skulls were piled in the best manner imaginable. There must have been more than one hundred thousand; I repeat, more than one hundred thousand. In the same orderly way the remaining human bones were piled in another corner of the square. The latter it would have been impossible to count. Besides these bones there were human heads hanging from beams on both sides of the square.” On the first, second, and fifth days of September, near the village of Tehuacacinco, Cortes had victorious engagements with the Tlascallans.
“It also happened,” Diaz further remarks, “that the powerful king of Mexico, Montezuma, either in the great goodness of his heart, or because he began to fear our approach to his metropolis, dispatched five men of distinction to our camp in the province of Tlascalla to congratulate us on our advance, and to assure us of the great delight he felt when he heard of the splendid victories we had gained over such large armies. This message was sent with a valuable present of gold trinkets, differently elaborated, worth about one thousand pesos, and also packages of cotton stuffs, as much as twenty men could carry. He also wished us to know, that it was his desire to become a subject of our emperor, that he was greatly pleased to learn that we were so near his metropolis, and that he was every way well-disposed toward Cortes and all the teules, his brothers. He likewise wished to be told by us what annual tribute in gold, silver, jewels, and cotton stuffs he was to forward to our great emperor, which tribute would save us the trouble of coming to Mexico, adding that he should indeed be pleased to see us, but that our march would be a hazardous undertaking through a sterile and rocky country, and that the fatigues which we should have to undergo grieved him the more when he considered how impossible it was for him to remove the hindrances from the way.”
Cortes shortly afterward marched into the city of Tlascalla, where, when they entered it, “the streets and balconies could scarcely contain the number of men and women” who welcomed them. “Delight was depicted on every countenance,” and “twenty baskets full of roses” were “presented to Cortes and the soldiers, whom the citizens thought were officers, and particularly to those who were on horseback.” Here Cortes was told by one of the principal men of the place “that Montezuma had strong garrisons in every town, besides the warriors who marched out from the metropolis to the field of battle. Every province was compelled to pay him tribute in gold, silver, feathers, precious stones, cotton stuffs, as well as Indians of both sexes, some of whom he took into his service, and some he sacrificed. He was a monarch so powerful and wealthy that he accomplished and obtained all he desired. His palaces were filled with riches and chalchihuis stones,[324] which he seized wherever he went. In short, all the wealth of the country was in his possession.”
Cortes was further told that the city of Mexico “was abundantly supplied with fresh water from the spring of Chapultepec, which was about two miles from the city, whence the water was partly conveyed to the houses by means of pipes, and partly in boats through the canals, when it was sold in small quantities to the inhabitants. Respecting the weapons of this nation, they included two-edged lances that were projected by means of a thong and penetrated any cuirass. The warriors were excellent marksmen with the bow and arrow, and carried pikes with blades of flint, which were very ingeniously made, and were as sharp as razors. Besides these weapons, they carried shields, and wore cotton cuirasses. There was also a great number of slingers, who were provided with round stones, long pikes, and sharp swords which were wielded with both hands.
“To explain all these things, the caciques exhibited large pieces of nequen,[325] on which were pictured their battles and their art of warfare. When Cortes and we considered that we had gained sufficient information concerning these things, the conversation turned to subjects of greater importance. Our friends told us how and whence they came into this country, and how they settled there; how it had happened, notwithstanding their nearness to the Mexicans, that they resembled them so little, and lived in perpetual warfare with each other. A tradition was also handed down from their forefathers that in ancient times a race of men and women lived here who were immense in stature with large bones, and who were a very bad and evil-disposed people, whom they had mostly exterminated by continual war, and the few that had been spared, had in the course of time died.
“In order to give us a conception of the huge frames of these people, they dragged forth a bone, or rather a thigh-bone, of one of the giants, which was very strong, and measured the length of a man of good stature. This bone was still entire from the knee to the hip-joint. I measured it with my own person, and found it to be of my own length, although I am a man of considerable height. They showed us many similar pieces of bones, but they were all worm-eaten and decayed. We, however, did not doubt for a moment, that the country was once inhabited by giants. Cortes remarked that we ought to forward these bones to his majesty in Spain at the very earliest opportunity.”