[881] Solis clears the way with volleys, but only seven muskets remained and no ammunition.
[882] Camargo states that he lived to an age exceeding 130 years. Heroes in all ages have enjoyed the privilege of not being tied down to laws governing ordinary mortals.
[883] An ill-natured brute, which attacked the enemy with teeth and hoofs. He did good service all through the following campaign, till he fell in one of the last battles of the great siege. Camargo, Hist. Tlax., 172.
[884] ‘Duró este terrible conflicto por mas de cuatro horas.... Llegado el medio dia, con el intolerable trabajo de la pelea, los españoles comenzaron á desmayar.’ Sahagun, Hist. Conq. (ed. 1840), 132.
[885] ‘En vnas Andas, vn Caballero mandando, con vna Rodela Dorada, y que la Vandera, y Señal Real, que le salia por las Espaldas, era vna Red de Oro, que los Indios llamaban Tlahuizmatlaxopilli, que le subia diez palmos.’ Torquemada, i. 509. ‘Su vandera tendida, con ricas armas de oro, y grandes penachos de argenteria.’ Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 108. Ixtlilxochitl calls the gold net matlaxopili. Hist. Chich., 303. Camargo more correctly agrees with Torquemada.
[886] The accounts of this incident vary greatly. According to Bernal Diaz ‘Cortes dió vn encuẽtro cõ el cauallo al Capitã Mexicano, hizo abatir su vãdera ... quiẽ siguiò al Capitan q̄ traia la vandera que aun no auia caido del encuentro que Cortes le diò, fue vn Juan de Salamanca, natural de Ontiueros, con vna buena yegua ouera, que le acabò de matar.’ Hist. Verdad., 108. The banner could not have fallen without the general. Gomara intimates that Cortés charged alone against the ‘capitan general, y diole dos lançadas, de que cayo y murio.’ Hist. Mex., 163. This is also substantially the view of Duran and Camargo. Herrera leaves the impression that Salamanca alone follows Cortés in the charge, and cuts off the head and banner of the commander after his chief had wounded and overthrown him. dec. ii. lib. x. cap. xiii. Torquemada, Clavigero, Prescott, and others, also assume that Cortés lances the generalissimo, but they let the cavalry follow. Sahagun, who obtained his information from participants that afterward became friars, merely states that Cortés and one other led the charge, which resulted in the overthrow of the general and his banner. Hist. Conq. (ed. 1840), 132. Cortés is still more reticent in saying: ‘quiso Dios que murió una persona dellos, que debia ser tan principal, que con su muerte cesó toda aquella guerra.’ Cartas, 139. The assumption that Cortés overthrew the commander with his lance rests chiefly on the fact that Cortés as leader of the charge receives credit for everything that happens. Writers also forget that the commander was carried aloft in a litter the better to observe the movements of the army. His burdened carriers would with greater likelihood have been overthrown by the horses or in the disorder created by their advance. This supposition is confirmed by Cortés’ reference to the affair, wherein he gives credit to none for the act, his usual custom when some one else performed a noteworthy deed. He was seldom chary in giving credit to himself for achievements, as may be gathered alone from his account of the stay in Mexico City, which announces that he it was who tore down the idols, who captured the temple after another had failed to do so, who single-handed covered the retreat of his comrades on the Tlacopan causeway on the morning preceding the flight, and who with less than a score that ‘dared stay with him’ protected the retreat of the last remnant from the city. The supposition receives further support from the permission given by the emperor to Salamanca to add to his escutcheon the trophy taken from the commander. This implies that although the victory was due to Cortés he could not have inflicted the mortal wound. Salamanca became alcalde mayor of Goazacoalco. Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 108, 111.
[887] ‘Los principales, lleuarõ cõ grã llanto, el cuerpo de su general,’ says Herrera; but this is doubtful, to judge also from his subsequent observations.
[888] ‘Murieron ... casi todos los amigos de los españoles, y algunos de ellos mismos.’ Sahagun, Hist. Conq. (ed. 1840), 132. Solis acknowledges only wounded, of whom two or three died afterward. Hist. Mex., ii. 203. Cortés did not escape additional wounds, from which he was soon to suffer intensely.
[889] The natives were particularly ready to testify to this supernatural aid, as Camargo relates, Hist. Tlax., 172, perhaps for their own credit, as good converts and brave warriors.
[890] ‘Never,’ writes Gomara, ‘did a man show such prowess as he, and never were men so well led. He by his own personal efforts saved them.’ Hist. Mex., 163. ‘Se tuuo la vitoria despues de Dios, por el valor de Cortés.’ Herrera, dec. ii. lib. x. cap. xiii. While quite prepared to uphold the general as a hero, Bernal Diaz takes exception to this praise as unjust to his many followers, who not only did wonders in sustaining him, but in saving his life. Hist. Verdad., 111.