[201] Gomara, who ignores the previous night’s camp, states that the detour up the river was made to avoid marshes. They saw only isolated huts, and fields, and also about twenty natives, who were chased and caught. By them they were guided to the hamlet. Hist. Mex., 49. They met one hundred men bringing them food. Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., 289. Prescott allows the Spaniards to cross only a tributary of la Antigua, and yet gain Cempoala. Mex., i. 339-40.
[202] Las Casas says 20,000 to 30,000. Hist. Ind., iv. 492. Torquemada varies in different places from 25,000 to 150,000. The inhabitants were moved by Conde de Monterey to a village in Jalapa district, and in Torquemada’s time less than half a dozen remained. i. 397. ‘Dista de Vera-Cruz quatro leguas, y las ruínas dan á entender la grandeza de la Ciudad; pero es distinto de otro Zempoal ... que dista de este doze leguas.’ Lorenzana, in Cortés, Hist. N. España, 39. ‘Assentada en vn llano entre dos rios.’ A league and a half from the sea. Herrera, dec. ii. lib. v. cap. viii.
[203] ‘Cempoal, que yo intitulé Sevilla.’ Cortés, Cartas, 52. See Native Races, ii. 553-90; iv. 425-63, on Nahua architecture.
[204] Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., 294. Brasseur de Bourbourg, by a misconstruction of his authorities, calls him Tlacochcalcatl. Codex Chimalpopoca, in Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., iv. 93. See Sahagun, Hist. Conq., 16.
[205] ‘Una gordura monstruosa.... Fue necesario que Cortés detuviesse la risa de los soldados.’ Solis, Hist. Mex., i. 175.
[206] ‘Se hizo el alojamento en el patio del Templo mayor.’ Herrera, dec. ii. lib. v. cap. viii.
[207] For the reigns of their kings, see Torquemada, i. 278-80. Robertson, Hist. Am., ii. 31, wrongly assumes the Totonacs to be a fierce people, different from Cempoalans.
[208] ‘Toda aquella provincia de Cempoal y toda la sierra comarcana á la dicha villa, que serán hasta cinquenta mil hombres de guerra y cincuenta villas y fortalezas.’ Cortés, Cartas, 53. ‘Cien mil hõbres entre toda la liga.’ Gomara, Hist. Mex., 57. ‘En aquellas tierras de la lengua de Totonaque, que eran mas de trienta pueblos.’ Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 31. The province appears to have extended from Rio de la Antigua to Huaxtecapan, in the north of Vera Cruz, and from the sea to Zacatlan, in Puebla. Patiño assumes Mixquhuacan to have been the capital, but this must be a mistake.
[209] Gomara relates that the army remained at Cempoala fifteen days, during which frequent visits were made by the lord, Cortés paying the first return visit on the third day, attended by fifty soldiers. He describes briefly the palace, and how Cortés, seated by the side of the lord, on icpalli stools, now won his confidence and adhesion. Hist. Mex., 51-3; Tapia, Rel., in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., ii. 561; Herrera, dec. ii. lib. v. cap. x. Bernal Diaz declares Gomara wrong, and insists that they proceeded on their way the following day. Hist. Verdad., 31; Clavigero, Storia Mess., iii. 26-7.
[210] For illustrated description of barranca ruins, see Native Races, iv. 439 et seq.