[828] This native rumor, as recorded in the manuscripts used by Duran, Hist. Ind., MS., ii. 476-7, is probably the foundation for Cano’s statement, that Cortés abandoned 270 men in the fort. Herrera reduces them to 100. ‘Que se boluieron a la torre del templo, adonde se hizieron fuertes tres dias.’ dec. ii. lib. x. cap. xii.
[829] Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 106, assumes that the enemy bore it down before the baggage train had crossed, and that the channel was filled in consequence with artillery, baggage, and dead bodies. Gomara gets the bridge across the second breach. Both must be mistaken, however.
[830] Camargo relates the incidents of the passage in detail, and says that Cortés fell into a hole as the enemy pounced upon him. The two deliverers disputed the honor of having rescued the general. Hist. Tlax., 169.
[831] ‘El foso se hinchó hasta arriba; ... y los de la retroguardia pasaron sobre los muertos. Los españoles que aquí quedaron muertos fueron trescientos, y de los tlaxcaltecas y otros indios amigos fueron mas de dos mil.’ Sahagun, Hist. Conq. (ed. 1840), 122.
[832] Ramirez, Proceso contra Alvarado, 4, 53, 68.
[833] ‘Casò esta Señora, con Pedro Sanchez Farfan [who seized Narvaez], y dieronle en Encomienda el Pueblo de Tetela.’ She married a second time, and died in Puebla. Torquemada, i. 504.
[834] Bernal Diaz formed one of a band of 50, who were repeatedly attacked with arms and midst insults. He quotes some of the low expressions used. Hist. Verdad., 106.
[835] One authority states that Cortés was nearing Tlacopan, when Olid and others called out to him that the fugitives were accusing the captains of abandoning them, and urged that they should turn back. ‘It is a miracle to have escaped,’ was his reply, ‘and fewer will be left if we return.’ Saying this he headed a dozen horsemen and a few foot-soldiers and galloped back. Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 106. But Cortés was not the man to wait in such a case till entreaty came. ‘Yo con tres ó cuatro de caballo,’ he says, ‘y hasta veinte peones, que osaron quedar conmigo, me fuí en la rezaga.’ Cartas, 135. He takes the palm from all American conquerors, exclaims Oviedo, iii. 326.
[836] Zamacois makes atonement for a lack of research by inventing doughty deeds for this hero. Hist. Méj., iii. 417-18.
[837] Among the soldiers contributed in later times by Garay’s expedition was one Ocampo, who, fond of scandal and pasquinades, libelled many of the captains, among them Alvarado, declaring that he had left Velazquez with over 200 men to die. Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 106-7. The charge came forward in the residencia, but Alvarado brought witnesses to prove that he had lost all control over the men, and could do nothing else than to save himself, wounded and unhorsed as he was. There were other witnesses who did all they could to blacken his fame, and to attribute to his neglect of duty a great portion of the loss sustained during that sad night. Ramirez, Proceso, 4, 38, 53, 68, and 288. Ramirez decides against the accused. But Alvarado was admittedly brave, recklessly so, and it must be regarded rather as his misfortune that a panic seized the men. Perhaps, as commander intrusted with this section, he should have remained longer at his post. This signified death, and such men as then comprised his command he regarded as hardly worth dying for. He chose to save life at the expense of a blemish on his honor. More it never amounted to, for the court absolved him. He redeemed the fault afterward by brave achievements.