Rambles in Yucatan; or, Notes of Travel Through the Peninsula / Including a Visit to the Remarkable Ruins of Chi-Chen, Kabah, Zayi, and Uxmal. 2nd ed

by Benjamin Moore Norman

The Mexican general, Qualpopoca, who had committed some hostilities upon the colony left by the Spaniards at Vera Cruz, was, on the demand of Cortez, delivered up to him, bound hand and foot, and by his order was burnt alive. Soon after this barbarous act, he contrived to get possession of the person of Montezuma, and detained him prisoner. But what, perhaps, irritated the people more even than this violation of the person of the emperor, was the contempt with which their religious rites and idols were treated by the Spaniards.

The arrival of Narvaez on the coast, with a large force, despatched by Velasco to deprive Cortez of the command, compelled the latter to leave Alvarado in command of the force at Tenochtitlan, and to march against this unexpected enemy. His departure from the capital was the signal for the people to manifest the hostile feeling they had long indulged toward the Spaniards. They took up arms against them, burnt the vessels which Cortez had constructed to command the lake, and laid siege to the building in which the Spaniards were lodged.

At this period Cortez returned, after having surprised and vanquished Narvaez. By this action he acquired a great accession of force; and he is said to have had, after his arrival at the capital, one thousand infantry and one hundred horse. The siege was prosecuted with vigor and determination on the part of the natives, and the place defended with equal obstinacy and valor on the part of the Spaniards. Montezuma, who had ascended the terrace to address his subjects and to quell the insurrection, was killed by a stone or arrow, and his brother Quetlavaca proclaimed his successor. This gave renewed vigor to the Mexicans, and Cortez was compelled to retreat. His own account of his flight, in one of his letters, is well worth reading. The night of this disastrous retreat was called La Noche triste, the melancholy night.

Cortez continued to retreat upon Tlascala, the Mexicans pursuing and harassing his rear. At Otumba, he was obliged to turn and give them battle. He describes his own troops as worn out with fatigue, but says that the enemy were so numerous that they could neither fight nor fly; and that the slaughter continued the whole day, until one of their principal chiefs was killed, which put an end to the battle and to the war. He reached Tlascala without further trouble, with the remnant of his forces, and was well received by his old allies.

He was urged by his officers, and by the garrison of Vera Cruz, to retire to the coast, but refused to abandon the conquest of Mexico; and, in order to maintain the ascendency he had acquired over the people of Tlascala, he made incursions into the territories of the neighboring nations, whence he always returned victorious, and loaded with spoil.

In December, 1521, he again marched upon Tenochtitlan, and took up his quarters in Tezcuco. From this place he carried on the war against the Mexicans and their allies, until the arrival of the frames of thirteen small vessels, which he had ordered to be constructed in Tlascala. They were brought by such a multitude of Indians, Cortez says, that “from the time the first began to enter the city until the last finished, more than six hours elapsed.” In order to launch these brigantines, as he calls them, a canal of half a mile in length was cut from the lake, of such ample dimensions, that eight thousand Indians worked every day at it, for fifty days, before it was completed.

On reviewing his troops, after the vessels were on the lake, he found that he had eighty-six horsemen, one hundred and eighteen fusiliers, and upward of seven hundred infantry, armed with swords and bucklers, three large iron field-pieces, and fifteen small ones of bronze, with ten quintals of powder. He does not give the number of Indians then with him, but on the following day he despatched messengers to Tlascala and other provinces, to inform these people that he was ready to proceed against Tenochtitlan. In consequence of this advice, the captains of Tlascala arrived with their forces, well appointed and well armed; and, according to their report, they amounted to upward of fifty thousand.

He divided his forces into three corps: one, consisting of thirty horsemen, eighteen fusiliers, and one hundred and fifty infantry, armed with sword and buckler, and twenty-five thousand Tlascalans, was commanded by Pedro de Alvarado, and was to occupy Tacuba. Another, commanded by Christoval Olid, consisted of thirty-three horsemen, eighteen fusiliers, and one hundred and seventy infantry, armed with sword and buckler, together with upward of twenty thousand Indians, was to take possession of Cuyoacan. The third division was intrusted to Gonzalo de Sandoval; it amounted to twenty-four horsemen, fifteen fusiliers, and one hundred and fifty infantry, armed with sword and buckler, with thirty thousand Indians. This division was to march upon Iztapalapan, destroy that town, and then, under cover of the vessels, form a junction with that of Olid. Cortez himself commanded the fleet. As soon as they reached their several destinations, Alvarado and Olid destroyed the aqueducts, and cut off the supply of water from the city.

After a siege of seventy-five days, during which both parties displayed the most obstinate courage, the besieged, reduced to the last extremity by disease and famine, made an attempt to evacuate the city by water. They were pursued by the light squadron of the Spaniards; and the canoe which carried the person of the emperor was captured by Garcia Holguin. This capture put an end to the war. When Gautimotzin, who had succeeded to the throne on the death of his uncle, was brought before Cortez, on the terrace where he was standing, and which overlooked the lake—he advanced, says Cortez, toward me, and said that he had done everything which his duty required, to defend himself and his subjects, until he was reduced to this state, and that I might now do with him what I thought proper; and put his hand on a dagger that I wore, telling me to stab him.

The siege was commenced on the 30th of May, 1521, and terminated on the 13th of August; and Cortez says, that during these seventy-five days, not one passed without some combat between the besieged and the Spaniards.