[838] Camargo intimates that several Tlascalan chiefs of the expedition testified to the feat. Hist. Tlax., 168; and Gomara adds that several followers tried to imitate it, but failed, and were drowned. Hist. Mex., 160. Contradictory as Bernal Diaz is about the incidents of the night, he strenuously insists that the channel was examined during the following siege and found to be too wide and too deep to allow of such a leap. Hist. Verdad., 107. This solitary denial of a story which has been adopted by almost every writer, from Oviedo to Prescott, finds support in testimony during the hero’s residencia, wherein it is distinctly stated that he crossed the channel on a fixed beam. His own testimony gives assent to the charge so formulated, although hitherto he had no doubt allowed the other version to be believed. Ramirez, Proceso, 4, 53, 68 et seq.
[839] Seven Spaniards and eight Tlascaltecs, all badly wounded. Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 106.
[840] ‘Durò poco este nombre, pues tampoco les convenia à los muertos, que iban cargados de Oro.’ Monarq. Ind., i. 504. Zamacois describes the site as he found it not long ago. Hist. Méj., iii. 421-3. Bernal Diaz implies that the ‘martyr’ name was given in honor of those captured and sacrificed during the siege, a year later. Hist. Verdad., 153.
[841] Alvarado was taken on Gamboa’s horse, Laso on Sandoval’s. Ramirez, Proceso contra Alvarado, 69, 119.
[842] Alvarado said that only the dead remained behind, but Olid insisted that a number were still fighting the enemy. Cortés accordingly went back again and rescued several more. Castañeda, in Id., 44. Bernal Diaz also states that Cortés returned as far as the bridges. Hist. Verdad., 106.
[843] The same who sprang into the sea, off Yucatan, to replace the rudder of his vessel, unshipped during the storm.
[844] La Noche Triste, as it has ever since been called. Amid so much that is romantic the tendency to further romance is often uncontrollable. The truth of this statement is open to grave doubts. ‘Llegó [Alvarado] á Cortés, que estaba ençima de unas gradas de un qü, sentado diçiendo muchas lástimas.’ Oviedo, iii. 514. Zamacois describes the enormous tree, yet standing, which shaded the stone and bears the name of ‘Arbol de la Noche Triste.’ Hist. Méj., iii. 424. Prescott improves the occasion by allowing the army to file past in sad dilapidation, regardless of the fact that the army was already gathered in Tlacopan. Mex., ii. 371-2. Testimony confirms the statement of Cortés that ‘fuí en la rezaga, peleando con los indios hasta llegar á una ciudad que se dice Tacuba’ [Tlacopan]. Cartas, 135-6.
CHAPTER XXVII.
RETREAT TO TLASCALA.
July, 1520.
Fatal Mistake of the Mexicans—A Brief Respite Allowed the Spaniards—The Remnant of the Army at Tlacopan—They Set out for Tlascala—An ever increasing Force at their Heels—Rest at the Tepzolac Temple—Cortés Reviews his Disasters—The March Continued amidst Great Tribulation—Encounter of the Grand Army—Important Battle and Remarkable Victory—Arrival at Tlascala—The Friendly Reception Accorded them There.
What would Emperor Charles have said to Hernan Cortés had they met on the morning after the Sorrowful Night! It is related of Xerxes that with a golden crown he rewarded a pilot who had saved his life, and thereupon ordered him beheaded for having sacrificed in the operation the lives of so many of his Persian subjects. Now Cortés had not saved the emperor’s life, nor yet the emperor’s gold; he had sacrificed many lives, and had little to show for them. Had Charles been there, and had he valued Spaniards as did Xerxes Persians, he might have cut off the Estremaduran’s head; but Cortés was yet worth to Charles more than all that had been thus far lost in New Spain.