[131] Gomara says the force mustered 500 men, 13 horses and 6 guns; Herrera, 400 men and 12 horses. The alférez was Antonio de Villaroel.
[132] This was a favorite movement of Cortés, and as such Tapia and the Carta del Ayunt. de V. Cruz accept it, while Bernal Diaz and most writers state that the swampy ground required a circuit.
[133] An estimate based probably upon the strength of the regular Aztec Xiquipilli, with which the conquerors were soon to become acquainted. See Native Races, ii. 425. Tapia even raises the number to six squadrons. Relacion, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., ii. 560.
[134] Cortés, on coming up and being told of this, shouted, ‘Onward, companions! God is with us!’ Relacion, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., ii. 559-60. Gomara, who fervently adopts the story, states that the rider was one of the apostles, in the person of Morla. ‘Todos dixeron, que vieron por tres vezes al del cauallo rucio picado ... y que era Santiago nuestro patron. Fernando Cortés mas queria que fuesse san Pedro, su especial auogado ... aun tambien los Indios lo notaron.... De los prisioneros que se tomarõ se supo esto.’ Hist. Mex., 32-3. Pizarro y Orellana, Varones Ilvstres, 72-3, gives arguments to show that it could have been none other than Santiago, as the patron of Spaniards. After a struggle with his pious fears, Bernal Diaz ventures to observe that Gomara may be right, but ‘I, unworthy sinner, was not graced to see either of those glorious apostles.’ Testimony was taken about the battle, and had this occurred it would have been spoken of. ‘I say that our victory was by the hand of our Lord Jesus Christ, for in that battle the Indians were so numerous that they could have buried us with handfuls of earth.’ Hist. Verdad., 22-3. Las Casas scouts the story as a fabrication of Cortés, written down by ‘his servant Gomara,’ in ‘his false history.’ Hist. Ind., iv. 477.
[135] The bishop forgets the sermon before the idols cast down at Cozumel.
[136] Two Spaniards fell, and over 800 Indians lay dead, so said their countrymen. Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 22-3. Over 70 Spaniards were wounded, and more than 300 Indians were slain in the pursuit alone. Over 100 men fell sick from heat and bad water, but all recovered. Gomara, Hist. Mex., 33. Herrera, dec. ii. lib. iv. cap. xi., allows no killed among the Spaniards, while over 1000 Indians are laid low. Torquemada, i, 375. Three Spaniards are killed and 60 wounded. Vetancvrt, Teatro Mex., pt. iii. 113. The Ayuntamiento of Vera Cruz, in its letter to the Emperor, 10 July, 1519, for obvious reasons lowers the figures to twenty wounded Spaniards, of whom none died, and to 220 dead Indians, out of 40,000 engaged. Cortés, Cartas, 17. Finally comes Las Casas with the other extreme of 30,000 souls, said to have been cruelly slaughtered in this first great battle of Cortés. Hist. Ind., iv. 477. Quite a list of misdeeds are here raked up, or invented rather, against the Spaniards in the West-Indische Spieghel, Amsterdam, 1624, a curious little quarto, designed for Dutch traders in America, and dedicated to their West India Company. The author is called Athanasium Inga. ‘Peruaen, uyt Cusco gheboren, die dit alles, soo door onder vindinghe als door transpositie en overset tinghe sijnder Voor-Ouderen, hier te Lande ons overghedraghen heeft,’ says Wachter, in the preface. The volume opens with a lengthy description of the Antilles, but the remaining text is wholly devoted to the Spanish colonies on the main, mingled without order, and interspersed with special chapters on navigation and coast routes for the benefit of traders. Beside the usual description of physical and political geography, with particular reference to natural resources and aboriginal customs, several voyages are described, mainly to point out sailing directions and the progress of discovery, while the conquest period is told with some minuteness, but garbled with the idea of exposing the avarice and cruelty of the hated Spaniards. This is also the object of nearly all the neatly engraved copper-plates. The map extends Hudson Bay very close to the Pacific coast, where a faintly outlined strait is visible some distance above California Island. The part relating to Mexico, including some brief references to Central America, occupies about one third of the volume, and treats chiefly of the Conquest. The book is remarkable for its black-letter text, with marginals in the same type, and for its title-page, with the figures of ‘Montenchuma’ and ‘Atabaliba’ surrounded by battle-scenes and Indian industrial operations.
[137] ‘Y pusose nombre a aquel pueblo, Santa Maria de la Vitoria, è assi se llama agora la villa de Tabasco.’ Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 24. ‘Potanchanum dicitur ab accolis oppidum.... Victoriam nostri appellarunt.’ Peter Martyr, De Insvlis, 14; copied in Gomara, Hist. Mex., 36. Referring to the battle of Centla, Clavigero writes: ‘e per memoria vi fondarono poi una piccola città, col nome della Madonna della Vittoria, la quale fu per lungo tempo la capitale di quella Provincia.... Si spopolò del tutto verso la metà del secolo passato.’ A later foundation received the name of Villahermosa. Storia Mess., iii. 11. This is based on a statement by Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 22, and to reconcile this with the note above, it must be supposed that the Nonohualca capital was removed to the site of the battle-field when the Spaniards settled. Other authors either confound the points or avoid them by a vague reference. Victoria was founded by Cortés in 1519. Alcedo, Dic., v. 305. It is strange that the chief town is not referred to under its native name, for Potonchan is evidently a mistake by Peter Martyr.
CHAPTER VII.
WHAT MONTEZUMA THOUGHT OF IT.
Home of Mexican Civilization—The Border Land of Savagism—Configuration of the Country—The Nahuas and the Mayas—Toltecs, Chichimecs, and Aztecs—The Valley of Mexico—Civil Polity of the Aztecs—King Ahuitzotl—Montezuma Made Emperor—Character of the Man—His Career—The First Appearing of the Spaniards not Unknown to Montezuma—The Quetzalcoatl Myth—Departure of the Fair God—Signs and Omens concerning his Return—The Coming of the Spaniards Mistaken for the Fulfilment of the Prophecy—The Door Opened to the Invader.
Before entering upon the crusade which was so painfully to affect the destinies of this vast interior, let us cast a brief glance upon the country and its inhabitants, and particularly on that idiosyncrasy of the aboriginal mind which opened the door to the invaders. The first two subjects are fully treated in the first, second, and fifth volumes of my Native Races of the Pacific States to which I would refer the reader, being able here to give only an outline of what in detail is an exceedingly interesting phase of indigenous development.