Finally the Aztecs were confined to an eighth part of their capital; there was no bread to be had; nothing but fetid water to drink; and a diminishing supply of defensive weapons. Cortez himself reports that the Aztecs stood on the housetops, covering themselves with their cloaks but without weapons. The streets and the houses were filled with dead bodies. On the 13th of August the signal for the final attack was given. Crowded together, without arrows or even stones and sticks to defend themselves, the Aztecs were mowed down by the Spanish gunfire. It was a disappointment to Cortez to have to use such extreme measures; largely, it appears from his own words, because there would be no spoil to be taken. Most of the houses had been destroyed, and the people threw their wealth into the lake before they perished.

The sufferings of the besieged made an impression even on the hardened feelings of the Spanish commander. The last fights in the city and on the lake took place amid scenes of horror; everywhere were dead bodies; on the lake they were heaped up around the combatants, and could be seen floating about as the canoes kept up the unequal conflict with the Spanish brigantines. Diaz reports that all the houses were filled with dead Indians; there was nothing green to be found; the inhabitants had even eaten the bark off the trees.

The end came when the cannon, at Cortez’ signal, began to fire on the mass of unarmed Mexicans, too weak to move, stretched out one upon the other, dying heroically, still even in their extremity, as Cortez says, “never asking for peace.” As the artillery seemed slow in carrying on the work of destruction, the brigantines with the European soldiers and the allies were brought up and ordered to fall upon the remnant of the Aztec warriors, who were either slain on the spot or cast into the water from their last place of refuge.

Cuauhtemoc fled from the city in a large war-canoe, and the Spaniards gave chase. When overtaken he first prepared to sell his life dearly, but seeing his wife and other women in the boat, rather than expose them to risk he gave himself up and was conducted to Cortez, who spoke in a friendly way and praised his valiant defense of his capital, promising at the same time that he should be allowed to rule his people as he had done before. The capture of the Aztec chieftain took place on the 13th of August, 1521, the day that Mexico fell into the hands of the Spaniards.

The losses of the Aztecs in the final battle are set down as 40,000; many chose to die by throwing themselves and their wives and children into the lake rather than surrender. At the close of the siege there followed scenes of pillage of the usual type, with no pretense at discipline. The actual treasure seized was small, and to increase the disappointment, no trace could be found of the lost gold and silver which had been abandoned during “the mournful night” of the previous year. The supposed explanation was that it had been carefully hidden. Accordingly, Cuauhtemoc and others of high rank with him who, like himself, were captives, were tortured by fire. But no revelations were made, and the amount of gold distributed to the soldiers was small, only five pesos to a horseman and less to a foot-soldier. The native allies were paid off even more cheaply; they departed for home taking with them promises of future land grants.

Cortez’ plans for reconstructing the city were put into operation immediately after the end of the siege. All the temples and great houses that survived during the street fights were removed. In order to make the conversion of the people to Christianity easier, the records of their past were obliterated. In a few years all traces of the complex Aztec society, with its divisions into nobles and priests and warriors, were lost. But at least the native population in Mexico did not meet the fate of those in the isles of the Antilles: the stock was a hardier one and the systematic working of the mines did not begin until twenty-five years after the conquest, when, owing to the propaganda of Las Casas, protective measures were enforced. Cortez introduced European grains and took care to repair the losses in the food supply produced by the devastation of the conquest.

Incapable of reconciling himself to the humdrum life of peaceful rule after his years of adventure, the commander could not endure to see his lieutenants penetrating into the unknown regions of the south, while he stayed behind receiving their reports of immeasurable treasure. In October, 1524, he set out for Honduras with a few Europeans and a large number of Indian allies. Among his companions were Cuauhtemoc, the dethroned Aztec overlord, and many of his nobles and chieftains. The march was through difficult country filled with dense woods, mountains, and morasses. The expedition suffered from the heat, and had to endure lack of water and food as well as perils from enteric fever. Cuauhtemoc and the Aztec lord of Tlacopan were charged with plotting against their new masters and were, therefore, put to death. Nothing was accomplished in this expedition, and after twenty months Cortez returned to Mexico. Soon after he was recalled to Spain to answer various charges due to his maladministration and to his uncontrolled dictatorship. He was treated with great honor and named captain-general of New Spain, but care was taken that he should no longer be intrusted with the duty of civil administration in the new province. He returned to Mexico in 1530 and again tried his fortune as a discoverer, this time undertaking, either personally or by lieutenants, expeditions to the northwest. Two fleets equipped by him were destroyed; a third was led by him into the unpromising region about the Gulf of California. In 1540, he again left Mexico to secure an indemnity from Charles V for his unsuccessful ventures. He followed the Emperor to the siege of Algiers in 1541, but was not able to secure attention to his demands. The rest of his life was passed in preparing petitions to a monarch whose treasury was being drained by other more immediate claims. He did not return to Mexico, and died on December 2, 1547, at the age of sixty-three years.

III
THE INCAS

It is the custom to associate, when the spheres of Spanish conquest are in question, the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru. The parallel is only roughly accurate, for, although the Incas had made a great record in material advancement by the time they came into contact with the Spaniards, the level reached by them was considerably lower than that attained by their neighbors to the north. Their method of reckoning was far more primitive; they used picture painting for ornament; there was no commerce, no division of labor, no standard of value. On the other hand there was no such cannibalism as that found consecrated to the religious usages of the Nahuatlaca.

Among the Incas there was a vast peasant class who had been brought into subjection by the conquering race who entered Peru from the south. Apparently the first home of these invaders was the high land of Bolivia, in a small canton, Cuzco, situated on the natural highway that leads from the Bolivian highlands to the upper tributaries of the Amazon. The origins of Inca history can hardly go back further than three hundred years before the Spanish conquest. When the Spaniards came, consistent traditions were still preserved of the origin of the dominant tribe that told how, when Cuzco was first settled by them, it was already occupied by aboriginal inhabitants whose district was taken possession of by Manco Ccapac, the founder of the Inca rule. From the time of the first occupation eleven sovereign chiefs had borne sway over them for a period which may be justly estimated as three hundred years.