[1218] Chimalpain calls him Tlacotzin, afterward baptized as Juan Velasquez. Hist. Conq., ii. 71. ‘Ciguacoacin, y era el Capitan y gobernador de todos ellos, é por su consejo se seguian todas las cosas de la guerra,’ says Cortés, Cartas, 255.
[1219] ‘Porque les queria combatir y acabar de matar.’ Cartas, 256. ‘Pues eran barbaros, que no queria dexar hombre vivo, q̄ se fuessen.’ Herrera, dec. iii. lib. ii. cap. vii.
[1220] The distinguished captive said: ‘Capitan señor, dáte buena maña, que aquellos indios ... son esclavos de Guatimuçin, é podrá ser quél va allí huyendo, porque su bandera ya no paresçe.’ Oviedo, iii. 516. A canoe of twenty rowers and bearing a number of people. Gomara, Hist. Conq., 212. See also Vetancvrt, Teatro Mex., pt. iii. 164; Clavigero, Storia Mess., iii. 230. A small canoe, says Duran.
[1221] Torquemada, i. 570-1, followed by Clavigero, mentions besides Tetlepanquetzaltzin, king of Tlacopan, the fugitive king of Tezcuco; but this is doubtful, as we have seen. He enumerates several dignitaries. Brasseur de Bourbourg names Tlacahuepan, son of Montezuma, while his authority, Ixtlilxochitl, states that his namesake captured him and Tetlepanquetzaltzin in another canoe, and in a third Papantzin Oxomoc, widow of Emperor Cuitlahuatzin. Hor. Crueldades, 50. ‘Quahutimoc se puso en pie en la popa de su canoa para pelear. Mas como vio ballestas ... rindiose.’ Gomara, Hist. Mex., 213. This probably assumed fact has been elaborated by some writers into an heroic act. The incident has been placed by tradition as occurring near the later Puente del Clérigo. But this can hardly be. See [note 27]. According to Bernal Diaz, Sandoval came up shortly after, on learning the news, and demanded the surrender of the captives to him as the commander of the fleet, who had ordered Holguin to pursue the canoes. The latter refused, and a delay occurred, during which another crew hurried to bear the tidings to Cortés and claim the reward granted for first reports. Two captains were now sent to summon the disputants and captives. Hist. Verdad., 155. Cortés, while according in his letter the credit of the capture to Holguin, promised to refer the claim to the king. Holguin figures some years later as regidor and estate owner in the city.
[1222] ‘Esta casa era de un principal tlatilulcano que se llamaba Aztaoatzin.’ Sahagun, Hist. Conq., 55.
[1223] The versions of this remarkable speech vary greatly. ‘Habia hecho todo lo que de su parte era obligado para defenderse á si y á los suyos hasta venir en aquel estado, que ahora ficiese dél lo que yo quisiese.’ Cortés, Cartas, 257. ‘Diçiéndole que le diesse de puñaladas é lo matasse, porque no era raçon que viviesse en el mundo hombre que avia perdido lo que’l avia perdido,’ adds Oviedo, iii. 422. ‘Preguntáronle por los chripstianos, é dixo: No me preguntés esso; é si me quereys matar; matadme ya: que harto estoy de vivir,’ says another version. Id., 517. ‘Iria mui consolado adonde sus dioses estaban, especialmente haviendo muerto à manos de tal Capitan.’ Herrera, dec. iii. lib. ii. cap. vii. ‘Why so stubborn?’ is the way Duran opens the conversation on Cortés’ part. Hist. Ind., MS., ii. 509. ‘Toglietemi con questo pugnale una vita, che non perdei nella difesa del mio Regno.’ Clavigero, Storia Mess., iii. 230. See also Ixtlilxochitl and others. Writers generally go into ecstacy over this utterance. ‘Magnanimo,’ exclaims Peter Martyr, dec. v. cap. viii. ‘Heroic,’ ejaculates Bustamante in support of Chimalpain’s encomium. Hist. Conq., ii. 75. ‘Ce trait est digne du plus beau temps de la Grèce et de Rome.’ Humboldt, Essai Pol., i. 193. ‘A spirit worthy of an ancient Roman,’ echoes Prescott, Mex., iii. 206. Bernal Diaz says the emperor wept, and with him his chiefs. Hist. Verdad., 155.
[1224] Made a few years later by order of the city council. It was not, as many suppose, the original standard, for this was hidden during two centuries among rubbish in the university, as stated in its records. It now exists in the museum, forming a piece about a yard square, which shows on one side the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception with hands joined in prayer, and bearing on her head a crown of gold surrounded by a halo and a circle of stars; on the other are the royal arms. Boturini, Idea, 157. In his Catálogo, 75, this author assumes it to be the standard given to the Tlascaltecs, but Carbajal states that at Tlascala exists another standard of Cortés’, with royal arms, Hist. Mex., ii. 637, with a picture of the above named virgin. See also Beaumont, Crón. Mich., ii. 345-6. By order of July 31, 1528, the city council orders bull-fights and other entertainments in honor of the day, ‘e q todos cabalguen los q tovieren bestias.’ Libro de Cabildo, MS., 127, 234. Mexicans are never seen to share in the procession. ‘Tan profundo está en sus ánimos la herida.’ Cavo, Tres Siglos, i. 3; Humboldt, Essai Pol., i. 192. A minute account of the ceremonies on the occasion is given in Monumentos Hist. Admin. Colon., MS., 365, copied from the Archivo General.
[1225] Counting from May 30th, Cartas, 257, and so it is stated in the grant to Cortés of Escudo de Armas. Duran and Ixtlilxochitl extend it to 80 and Bernal Diaz to 93 days. ‘Despues de muchos combates, y mas de sessenta peleas peligrosisimas.’ Acosta, Hist. Nat. Ind., 525.
[1226] Over 60 soldiers were lost in the great defeat, and small numbers now and then, while the auxiliaries, less skilled in fighting and chiefly unarmored, succumbed in hordes. Gomara says about 50 soldiers, 6 horses, and not many Indians; Herrera modifies to ‘a little over’ 50; Torquemada advances to ‘less than 100,’ and Clavigero to ‘more than 100 Spaniards.’ Hernandez, in his Estadist. Méj., 232, computes such curiously exact figures as 107 Spaniards, 18,915 Tlascaltecs, and 33,240 Aztecs. Ixtlilxochitl, ever eager to enlarge upon the services of his race, claims that 30,000 Tezcucans fell out of 200,000 employed, Hor. Crueldades, 51; but this is evidently exaggerated.
[1227] ‘En que murieron infinitos.’ Gomara, Hist. Mex., 213; Herrera, dec. iii. lib. ii. cap. viii.; Clavigero, Storia Mess., iii. 232-3. Bustamante raises the number killed to ‘150,000 at least.’ Chimalpain, Hist. Conq., ii. 74; Ixtlilxochitl, loc. cit., to 240,000, including most of the nobles; while Torquemada, i. 577, observes ‘que de veinte partes, no quedò vna, aviendo perecido, y muerto las diez y nueve,’ he and several others allowing the estimate of fully 300,000 inhabitants. The survivors are estimated at from 30,000 persons, by Torquemada to 70,000 warriors by Oviedo, iii. 516.