[418] Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 62; Gomara, Hist. Mex., 97; Torquemada, i. 442.
[419] The estimate varies from fourteen days, Herrera, to over twenty days, Gomara. By assuming that nineteen days were spent at Cholula, the army has a week in which to reach Mexico, and this is about the time consumed.
[420] Gomara, Hist. Mex., 97. ‘Saliẽdo acompañarle los señores de Chulula, y con gran marauilla de los Embaxadores Mexicanos.’ Herrera, dec. ii. lib. vii. cap. iii. ‘Andauamos la barba sobre el ombro,’ says Bernal Diaz, in allusion to the precautions observed. Hist. Verdad., 63.
[421] Bernal Diaz relates in a confused manner that at Izcalpan the Spaniards were told of two wide roads beginning beyond the first pass. One, easy and open, led to Chalco; the other, to Tlalmanalco, had been obstructed with trees to impede the horses, and so induce the army to take the Chalco route, upon which the Aztecs lay in ambush, ready to fall upon them. Hist. Verdad., 63. This finds some support in Sahagun, whose mythic account relates that Montezuma, in his fear of the advancing forces, had blocked the direct road to Mexico and planted maguey upon it, so as to direct them to Tezcuco. Hist. Conq., 21. Cortés indicates clearly enough that the Mexican envoys had at Cholula recommended a route leading from that city south of Huexotzinco to the usual mountain pass, and used by their people in order to avoid this inimical territory. Upon it every accommodation had been prepared for the Spaniards. This road was not only circuitous, but had been declared by Tlascaltecs and others as hard and perilous, with deep ravines, spanned by narrow and insecure bridges, and with Aztec armies lying in ambush. Cortés, Cartas, 76-8; Tapia, Rel., in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., ii. 574. Peter Martyr, dec. v. cap. ii., calls this route shorter and easier, though more dangerous. Certain remarks by Bernal Diaz indicate that the ambush had been arranged in connection with the plot at Cholula, and abandoned upon its failure, loc. cit. There could hardly have been more than one route across the range, through the pass wherein the Aztecs had erected their station for travellers, and this the Spaniards did follow. Here also accommodation was prepared for them, and here the embassy from Montezuma appeared. Hence the obstructions spoken of must have been at the junction of the Huexotzinca road with the main road from Cholula to the pass, and intended as an intimation to the Huexotzincas or to the Mexicans not to trespass. They could have been of no avail against the Spaniards, who were beside invited to enter on the main road then at hand. These are facts overlooked by Prescott, Clavigero, and writers generally who have lost themselves in the vague and confused utterances of the chroniclers, and in seeking to elaborate a most simple affair. Modern travellers follow the easier and less picturesque route north of Iztaccihuatl, which skirts Mount Telapon. This was the road recommended by Ixtlilxochitl, leading through Calpulalpan, where he promised to join him with his army; but Cortés preferred to trust to his own arms and to his Tlascaltec followers. Torquemada, i. 442.
[422] ‘Dezian algunos Castellanos, que aquella era la tierra para su buena dicha prometida, y que mientras mas Moros, mas ganancia.’ Herrera, dec. ii. lib. vii. cap. iii.
[423] Gomara, Hist. Mex., 97; Oviedo, iii. 500.
[424] Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., 295. Torquemada, followed by Brasseur de Bourbourg and others, calls it Ithualco, which appears rather to have been a general term for these stations, since ithualli, according to Molina, signifies a court. Peter Martyr and Gomara refer to it as a summer palace.
[425] Cortés, Cartas, 79. ‘Aun que para los Tamemes hizieron los de Motecçuma choças de paja ... y aun les tenian mugeres.’ Gomara, Hist. Mex., 97. ‘Los Indios hizieron de presto muchas barracas,’ says Herrera, who places this ‘casa de plazer’ in the plain below. dec. ii. lib. vii. cap. iii. Tapia calls the buildings ‘casas de paja.’ Relacion, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., ii. 578.
[426] Martin Lopez was the watchful sentinel. Torquemada, i. 443.
[427] Tapia, Rel., in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., ii. 577; Cortés, Cartas, 80. Herrera intimates that an attack on the summit, where the Spaniards were benumbed with cold, might have succeeded in creating confusion. dec. ii. lib. vii. cap. iii. Unless the naked Indians had been equally benumbed!