It was a strange sight in those parts, this serpentine procession as it wound its way across the Tezcucan border, along the narrow defiles of the mountains,[1060] extending two miles from front to rear, it is said. A fleet impelled by human agencies over mountain and plain, through forest and dale, it was indeed a “cosa maravillosa,” as Cortés expresses it. The feat of Vasco Nuñez stood repeated, but magnified in some respects, in the number of the vessels, in the distance of the journey, the lurking foe being ever present, and in the audacity of purpose, the subjugation of the proudest metropolis on all this vast continent. And great was the rejoicing at Tezcuco as the caravan came in sight on the fourth day, arrayed in gala attire, with brightly gleaming devices and ornaments, and waving plumage, advancing in one long line to inspiring music. With a large retinue, also in gala dress, Cortés went forth to meet them, and as the procession passed into the city the Tlascaltecs rolled forth their newly acquired Spanish vivas: “Viva el Emperador!” “Viva Malinche!” “Castilla!” “Tlascala, Tlascala, Castilla!” The march past occupied six hours, says Cortés. Ship-yards were prepared for the vessels on the border of a creek or irrigation canal, which had been deepened and widened for nearly half a league, fortified in places with timber and masonry, and provided with dams and locks. This labor had occupied eight thousand Tezcucans fifty days.[1061]
FOOTNOTES
[1013] Many favored Ayotzinco, near Chalco, which offered also a good launching place for the vessels. Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 118.
[1014] Where now is the chapel of San Buenaventura. Camargo, Hist. Tlax., 176. Yet Lorenzana says: ‘Por constante tradicion se trabajó en un Barrio de Hueyothlipan, que llaman Quausimalán, que quiere decir, donde labran los Palos.’ Cortés, Hist. N. Esp., 167. But it is more likely to have been on the river passing through Tlascala city, and near Matlalcueye Mount.
[1015] The timber came probably from the Matlalcueye slopes; the masts from Hueyotlipan; the pitch from the pine woods near Huexotzinco, says Bernal Diaz, where it was prepared by four sailors, for the natives did not understand its manufacture. ‘Es la Sierra Matlalcuie,’ states Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., i. 524. ‘La brea se saca de ... la sierra de la Agua de Xalapa,’ near San Juan de los Llanos. Bustamante, in Chimalpain, Hist. Conq., ii. 13. This applies rather to colonial times. Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 118, 124, names a number of those who aided in building. See also Mora, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, x. 302-3.
[1016] Bernal Diaz names several of the thirteen soldiers. The captain was Francisco Medel. One of the men, Monjaraz, was said to have murdered his wife. He kept aloof from all combat, but once he ascended a tower to look on, and was that same day killed by Indians. Hist. Verdad., 118-19.
[1017] Such are in substance the famous regulations of Cortés. The document was witnessed on the 22d of December by the leading officers, before Juan de Ribera, ‘notary public in all the kingdoms of Spain,’ and was publicly read at the review of the troops, the 26th, by Anton García, crier. The full text has been reproduced in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 445-51, and Cortés, Escritos Sueltos, 13-23, owing to the defects of the copy by Prescott, and the briefness and blunders of earlier references to it.
[1018] ‘Quedò tal, que no boluio en si, ni pudo tragar en vn mes.’ Herrera, dec. ii. lib. x. cap. xx. One soldier was lashed for imposing on an Indian, and another degraded.
[1019] This is Cortés’ own account, with the exception that he gives the field-pieces as eight or nine. Cartas, 165. Gomara says 540 infantry and nine guns. Hist. Mex., 174. Vetancurt writes six guns, which may be a misprint. Teatro Mex., pt. iii. 150.
[1020] ‘Anqueras,’ as Spaniards call the covering, are still in use by rich horsemen in Mexico, highly ornamented.