The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo Vol 1 Part 14

On our march from Castilblanco we were, if possible, doubly precautious.

Our sharp-shooters were always in advance, the cavalry kept surrounding our troops, our muskets were loaded, the matches lighted, and, in short, we were ready for action at a moment's notice.

We first arrived in the small township of Xacatcinco, where the inhabitants presented us with a golden chain for the neck, some packages of cotton stuffs, and two Indian females. As above remarked, we despatched two distinguished personages of Sempoalla to Tlascalla, who were to announce our approach, and say we came as friends, and hoped they would receive us as such. We found it the more necessary to send this message, as we learnt in Xacatcinco, that the whole of Tlascalla was up in arms against us. They were already informed of our having left that place, and concluded from the number of warriors we had with us out of Sempoalla and Xocotlan, tributary to Motecusuma, that we came with hostile intentions. They had quite concluded we were going to act like the Mexicans, who always, under some fraudulent pretence or other, marched into their country when intent upon plunder.

When, therefore, the messengers arrived with our letter and the Flanders hat, and were about to deliver our commission, they were even refused a hearing, and immediately thrown into prison. We awaited their return for two days, during which time Cortes explained to the inhabitants as usual, the nature of our holy religion, who our emperor was, the sinfulness of human sacrifices, and the other abominations they practised. He also demanded twenty of their warriors to accompany us.

These they readily furnished us, and after we had commended ourselves to the protection of the Almighty, we broke up our quarters on the third day and marched for Tlascalla. On our route we were met by our two messengers, who had been secretly released by their friends. All Tlascalla was making warlike preparations against us. They appeared quite downcast, and durst scarcely inform us of what they had seen and heard. Having at last taken courage, they related how they had been immediately seized and thrown into prison, and what terrible threats had been thrown out against us and themselves. "Now we will rise up," it had been told them, "and destroy those whom yon term teules. We shall soon see whether they are so courageous as you have mentioned. We will devour both you and them together, for you are come under fraudulent pretences, and at the instigation and in the spirit of the traitor Motecusuma."

The messengers might say what they liked in contradiction to this it was all to no purpose. When Cortes and we others heard this lofty language, and how they awaited us completely equipped for war, we did not think altogether so light of the matter; nevertheless, we one and all cried out, "Well, then, since it cannot be otherwise, forward! for good or ill luck." We commended ourselves to the protection of G.o.d, and unfurled our standard, which was borne by the ensign Corral. The inhabitants of the small township, where we pa.s.sed the night, informed us, that the Tlascallans would march against us to prevent our entering into their country. Of this opinion were also our friends of Sempoalla.

As we were marching along, our only discourse was how we should attack the enemy. Our cavalry was to gallop up three abreast, with lances fixed, and run the Indians full in the face. At the same time they were to be particularly upon their guard that the enemy did not lay hold of the lances with their hands; should such, however, be the case, the rider was to keep the tighter hold of his lance, give his horse the spur, and either by a sudden jerk wrest it out of the enemy's grasp, or drag him along with it.

The reader will perhaps ask, why we took these precautions though we had not yet come in sight of the foe? I can answer this with Cortes' own words, who spoke to us as follows: "You are aware, gentlemen, of the smallness of our numbers, we must, therefore, be the more upon our guard, and fancy the enemy will each moment fall upon us. Nor is this sufficient, we must imagine ourselves already fighting, as if the battle was begun. Every soldier is fond of catching hold of the enemy's lance with his hand, but considering the smallness of our numbers, we must now particularly guard ourselves against it. For the rest, you are not in need of my advice, for I have always found that you do things much better than I am able to instruct you."

Under similar discourses we had already advanced about eight miles, when we came up to an enormous entrenchment, built so strongly of stone, lime, and a kind of hard bitumen, that it would only have been possible to break it down by means of pickaxes, and if defended would have with difficulty been taken. We halted on purpose to inspect this fortification, and Cortes inquired of the Xocotlans, for what purpose it stood there. They told him that it was built by the Tlascallans, on whose territory we were now entering, against the great Motecusuma, with whom they were continually at war, to protect them against his hostile incursions.[22]

After we had examined this structure for some time, and each expressed his opinion upon it, Cortes cried out, "Let us follow our standard, gentlemen! It bears the figure of the holy cross, and in that sign we shall conquer." To which we unanimously added: "Forward! whatever may happen; for G.o.d is our only strength."

We now continued our march onwards in the cautious manner above mentioned, and had not proceeded far when our vanguard observed at no very great distance about thirty Indians, who had been sent out to reconnoitre; this was immediately communicated to us. They had broad swords, which are used with both hands, the edges of which are made of hard flint, and are sharper than our steel swords. They were also armed with shields, lances, and had feathers stuck in their hair. Cortes ordered some of our cavalry to go in among them, and try, if possible, to capture one, but not to inflict any wounds. These were followed at a distance by five others, to a.s.sist them should they fall into an ambush; the rest of our army marched direct for the narrow pa.s.s, but with the utmost circ.u.mspection, as our friends had a.s.sured us that we should undoubtedly meet with a large body of the enemy in some hiding place or other. When the thirty Indians above mentioned found our cavalry approaching them, and saw how they beckoned to them with their hands, they began to retreat slowly, and arranged themselves again in order, whenever our men attempted to take any of them prisoners. They defended themselves right valiantly with their swords and lances, wounding several of our horses. The blood of our men now also began to boil, who, in return, killed five of the Indians. At that moment a swarm of more than 3000 Tlascallans rushed furiously from an ambush, pouring forth a shower of arrows upon our cavalry, who now immediately closed their ranks. At the same time we fired among them with our cannon, and so at last we obliged the enemy to give ground, though they fought bravely and with a good deal of manoeuvring. On our side we had four wounded, of whom one died a few days after, if I still remember rightly. Seventeen of the enemy lay dead, and the number of their wounded was very considerable. As it was growing very late they continued to retreat, and we to follow them.

As soon as we had pa.s.sed over the mountain we came into a plain, and found numerous plantations of maise and maguey,[23] from which the inhabitants make their wine. We took up our night's quarters near a brook, and for want of oil we dressed the wounds of our men with the fat of a corpulent Indian who had been killed. We made our supper off young dogs, which we found here in great numbers; for, although the inhabitants had left all their plantations and taken the dogs with them, these animals during the night time had come back to their old places again; and we were thus able to catch a good many, and so procured ourselves some very delicious joints. The whole of this night we kept a most vigilant look-out. We placed outposts in all quarters; our horses stood ready saddled and bridled, and the rounds were regularly made. I will, however, break off here, and relate our further battles in the next chapter.

[22] Of this fortification Torquemada gives a different account. He says it was a wall of twenty feet in thickness, that it could be defended from the top; had only one entrance, defended by other works within, and was built by a cazique of the country, whom he calls Yztacmixt.i.tlan, to protect the boundaries of his country against the incursions of the Tlascallans. (p. 145.)

[23] Agava Americana. (p. 145.)

CHAPTER LXIII.

_Of the terrible battles we fought with the Tlascallans, and what further happened._

The next morning, after we had commended ourselves to G.o.d in prayer, we broke up our quarters. Each company marched in close order, and our cavalry were to be particularly upon their guard; were either to advance suddenly, or fall back upon us, according as circ.u.mstances might be, and at all events to watch that our ranks were nowhere broken, and that no one strayed from his own company.

After we had marched onwards for some time we came up with two large bodies of the enemy, amounting to about 6000 men. They set up a most terrific noise with their drums and trumpets, and yelled awfully. They then let fly their arrows, threw their lances at us, and upon the whole were most daringly valiant. Cortes now ordered us to halt, and despatched three Indians, whom we had made prisoners the day before, to the enemy, requesting them to stay hostilities, as we were very desirous of looking upon them as brothers and friends. At the same time he ordered one of our warriors, Diego de G.o.doy, who was the royal secretary, to pay particular attention to everything that should take place, in order that if any reproach were made us for having destroyed any of the Indians, he might give evidence, and be able to prove that we on our side had shown every disposition for peace.

The prisoners went off with this message to the enemy, but not the slightest notice was taken of it; on the contrary, they attacked us so furiously that we could no longer look idly on. "Forward! St. Jacob is with us! On to the enemy!" cried Cortes; and in an instant we greeted the Indians so sharply with our firearms, that numbers were immediately killed and wounded; among the former three chiefs. After this first volley they fell back to about the distance of a musket-shot, where they took up their position. Here an army of above 40,000 warriors, commanded by their general-in-chief Xicotencatl, lay in ambush. Their standards bore his colours, white and variegated. As the ground here was full of deep cavities our cavalry were completely useless, until by using the greatest precaution they managed to pa.s.s over these. This was not done without considerable risk, for the enemy plied their bows and lances with great dexterity, having, moreover, the advantage of the higher ground. The stones from their slings were no less annoying; but all this only lasted until we had gained the level ground. For now we richly rewarded them for their pains, and killed great numbers. Yet we durst not venture to open our ranks; for the instant any one stepped out to a.s.sist any other soldier or officer he was that moment dangerously wounded. We were, therefore, obliged to keep our ranks firmly closed, and by degrees had to contend with more than twenty different divisions, which was, indeed, pretty hot work. Besides all this the Indians kept continually throwing sand in our faces to blind us. Here, indeed, the great mercy of G.o.d alone could save us. The chief object of the enemy was to capture one of our horses, in which they did not altogether fail; for, as Pedro de Moron on his well-trained mare, attended by three others of our cavalry, was attempting to break through the enemy's ranks, the Indians wrenched the lance out of his hand, and fell furiously upon him with their broad swords, wounding him severely. They gave his mare such a terrific cut with the same weapon in the neck, that the animal instantly fell down dead. If Moron's three companions had not immediately hastened to his a.s.sistance, he would have shared his horse's fate; for this gave our whole company time to come up.

I must again repeat, that the worst was, we had to keep ourselves so close together in order not to run the danger of being cut off, which of course greatly enc.u.mbered our movements. Nevertheless, we were obliged to open our ranks to rescue the mare and Moron whom they were already dragging off half dead. The mare we were obliged to relinquish, though we managed to cut the girth asunder in order at least to save the saddle. In this battle we had nine wounded. As for the enemy I believe on this occasion we killed four of their chiefs. We pushed forward shoulder to shoulder, and made considerable havoc with our swords. The enemy retreated, carrying off the dead mare, which was subsequently cut into pieces to be sent into every township of Tlascalla. As we afterwards learnt, the horse's shoes, the Flanders hat, and the letter we sent them, were brought as an offering to their idols. The mare belonged to Juan Sedeno, who, on the previous day, was wounded in three several places, and had, therefore, lent her to Moron. This Moron was a capital horse soldier, and died a few days after; at least, I do not remember to have seen him again after this battle.

We had fought for a good hour, and our firearms must have done considerable destruction among the enemy who stood so crowded together.

Every man among us did his duty, and we fought away like brave warriors, for in all truth we were placed in greater jeopardy this time than we had ever been before. Numbers of the Indians lay dead on the field of battle; among whom were eight of the princ.i.p.al chiefs, all sons of old caziques, who dwelt together in the chief town of the country. At last our enemies retreated in good order, which we were glad enough to see, for we could scarcely stand any longer from over-fatigue, nor durst we think of following the enemy. Add to which, the ground was greatly to our disadvantage, partly on account of the number of straggling houses, partly on account of a species of pits in which many of the inhabitants dwelt. This battle was fought on the first two days of September, 1519, near the village of Tehuacacinco, and we returned fervent thanks to G.o.d for having rescued us from such great peril and for the victory we had gained.

After the battle, we fell back to some temples, which were very high, and large enough to serve us for castles. We dressed the wounds of our men with the fat of Indians, as we had done on previous occasions. Five of our horses were wounded, and fifteen men, of whom one subsequently died. Upon this we took our suppers, and made a good meal off the number of dogs and fowls which we found in the dwellings. Before, however, we lay down to rest, we posted our sentinels, and continually patrolled during the night: not before all these things were properly ordered did we lie down, and slept till morning.

For the rest, we made fifteen prisoners, among whom were two of the most distinguished personages; but we could never discover how many we killed or wounded, as it was customary with the Tlascallans immediately to carry off the wounded and dead from the field of battle.[24]

[24] (This note refers to the last sentence of the chapter.) To this custom of the Tlascallans of carrying off their killed and wounded from the field of battle, the historian de Solis partially attributes Cortes'

great success in these battles; for as a great number of the enemy were constantly occupied in this work, they naturally offered a less formidable front, and considerable openings were made in their ranks.

(p. 147.)

CHAPTER LXIV.

_How we quartered ourselves in the township of Tehuacacinco, and what we did there._

As the battles we fought had greatly fatigued us, besides that several of our men and horses were wounded, we made a day of rest, repaired our crossbows, and supplied ourselves with arrows. The next morning Cortes said to us, "It would be no harm if our horse were to gallop up and down the country a little; the Tlascallans might otherwise think we had had enough of it in the last battle: we must show them that we are constantly at their heels." And indeed it was better that we began ourselves than wait until we should be attacked, that the enemy might not suppose we had been too greatly weakened, and had lost our courage.

Besides this, the country round about was quite level, and thickly populated. We therefore ordered out seven horse, some crossbow-men, and several musketeers, in all 200 men, without including our confederates.

Every possible precaution had been previously made to secure our camp.

On our march through the townships we captured twenty Indians of both s.e.xes, but in no way molested them. Our allies, however, who were barbarous characters, could not refrain from setting fire to many houses where they had found quant.i.ties of fowls and young dogs. After we had again returned to our quarters, Cortes ordered the fetters to be taken off the prisoners, and food to be given them. Dona Marina and Aguilar then addressed them very affectionately, and gave to each some gla.s.s beads, adding, at the same time, that in future they should not be so foolish, but make peace with us, as we were very desirous of looking upon them as brothers, and would protect them as such.

We also set the first two Indians at liberty whom we had captured, and gave them a letter with the commission to tell the chief of the provinces that we were not come in any way to injure the Tlascallans, but merely wished to take the road through their country to Mexico, there to have an interview with Motecusuma.

Both these delegates punctually followed our orders, and arrived at the head-quarters of Xicotencatl, which lay, if I remember rightly, about six miles from our camp, in the township of Tehuacinpacingo. Having, in the absence of the father, fulfilled our commission to the younger Xicotencatl, he told them, we had only to come to his father's township, there they would make peace, after they had satiated themselves with the flesh of our bodies, and had honoured their G.o.ds with the sacrifice of our blood and hearts. The next morning we should behold his answer with our own eyes.

As the last battles were still fresh in our memories, we did not exactly relish the haughty answer with which our delegates returned. Cortes, nevertheless, received them most kindly, perceiving, from their return, that they no longer stood in awe of us; and with the view that they should once more be despatched as messengers of peace, he gave them some additional strings of beads. For the rest he made the most minute inquiries respecting the commander Xicotencatl, and the number of his troops, and found that the latter were much more numerous than in the last battle: he had now five chiefs under him, each of whom commanded 10,000 men. These troops were enumerated in the following manner: First of all came the 10,000 men of Xicotencatl's division; next a similar number under another powerful cazique called Maxixcatzin; then a like number under the distinguished cazique Chichimeclatecl; 10,000 under the cazique of Topoyanco, named Tecapaneca; and an equal number under the cazique Quaxobcin;--altogether thus 50,000 men. Each troop had its standard and arms, the latter being a large white bird, with outspread wings, as if preparing to fly, and resembled an ostrich.[25] Besides this, every chief had his particular insignia of war and colours, in the same way as our Spanish dukes and earls. At first we did not believe anything of all this, but found afterwards that it was perfectly true; and since we were human beings, and feared death, we all confessed to father Olmedo and the priest Juan Diaz, which occupied them the whole of the night: neither did we fail to offer up fervent prayers to the Almighty to grant us victory. Under such like occupations the following day broke forth on which we were to fight the battle, of which I shall speak in the next chapter.

[25] This is a very remarkable observation of Bernal Diaz, for the ostrich with outspread wings is also found on the ancient Persian monuments; and this bird, it is well known, is not common to the New World. If we add to this circ.u.mstance the repeated questions which were put to the Spaniards by the inhabitants of New Spain, as to whether they came from the region where the sun rises, there is reason for supposing that the tradition which came down to them from their forefathers was not altogether vague; namely, that a people would come from the east and take possession of their country. (p. 150.)

CHAPTER LXV.

_Of the great battle we fought with the Tlascallans, and what further took place._

It was the following morning, on the 5th of September, 1519, that we equipped ourselves for battle. Our horse were first arranged in order, then the foot soldiers, and even our wounded were forced to go along with us, if only to swell out our numbers, and do what lay in their power. The crossbow-men received orders that some were merely to load, while others fired, and this always in platoons. The musketeers received similar orders, and the remaining portion of our men, who were armed with swords and shields, were princ.i.p.ally to strike at the enemy in the region of the belly, in order to stop them from venturing so near to us as they had the time before. Every one was also particularly cautioned not to leave the ranks. It was also the particular duty of our cavalry not to leave each other in the lurch, always to attack in full gallop, and only aim at the face and eyes. The ensign Corral received a guard of four men, and in this way we sallied forth from our camp, with our standard flying.

We had scarcely proceeded a quarter of a mile when we found the fields covered with warriors; they had large feather-knots on their heads, waved their colours, and made a terrific noise with their horns and trumpets: indeed, the pen that would wish to describe everything we saw here, would not find it such an easy task! this was indeed a battle of as fearful and dubious an issue as well could be. In an instant we were surrounded on all sides by such vast numbers of Indians, that the plain, here six miles in breadth, seemed as if it contained but one vast body of the enemy, in the midst of which stood our small army of 400 men, the greater part wounded and knocked up with fatigue. We were also aware that the enemy had marched out to battle with the determination to spare none of us, excepting those who were to be sacrificed to their idols.

When, therefore, the attack commenced, a real shower of arrows and stones was poured upon us; the whole ground was immediately covered with heaps of lances, whose points were provided with two edges, so very sharp that they pierced through every species of cuira.s.s, and were particularly dangerous to the lower part of the body, which was in no way protected. They fell upon us like the very furies themselves, with the most horrible yells; we employed, however, our heavy guns, muskets, and crossbows, with so much effect, and received those who pressed eagerly upon us with such well-directed blows and thrusts, that considerable destruction was made among their ranks, nor did they allow us to approach so near to them as in the previous battle: our cavalry, in particular, showed great skill and bravery, so that they, next to the Almighty, were the princ.i.p.al means of saving us.

Indeed our line was already half broken; all the commands of Cortes and our other officers to restore order and form again were fruitless, the Indians continually rushing upon us in such vast crowds that we could only make place with sword in hand to save our line from being broken.

Our only safety was owing to the great number of the enemy itself; for they stood so closely crowded that each shot we fired must have done great execution among them. They left themselves altogether no room to manoeuvre in, while many of the chiefs, with their men, were not even able to mix at all in the engagement. Besides this, disagreements and inimical feelings had arisen out of the previous battle between the commander-in-chief Xicotencatl and another chief, the son of Chichimeclatecl. Xicotencatl had accused the latter of not having done his duty, who, in reply, said, he had discharged it better than he; so that in this battle neither lent the other any a.s.sistance, and Chichimeclatecl had even commanded Huexotzinco not to take any part in the combat. To all this must be added, that the enemy had been taught in the former battle to fear our horse, cannon, swords, and crossbows, not to forget the courage we displayed. It must likewise be borne in mind that a merciful G.o.d had lent us extraordinary powers during the engagement. As Xicotencatl met with no obedience from two of his princ.i.p.al officers,--we, on the contrary, fighting on the more bravely, and killing great numbers of their men, who, as well as the wounded, were immediately hurried from the field of battle, so that we never came to see any of their killed,--the Indians at length grew exasperated against those two chiefs who had thus left them in the lurch, and now fought with less vigour. It is, however, probable that one of their chief commanders had fallen, for they retreated in good order: our cavalry, indeed, pursued them a short distance in full gallop, but were soon compelled to return, from fatigue.

As soon as we had got rid of this vast crowd, we returned most fervent thanks to the Almighty. We had, however, only lost one man, but, on the other hand, sixty of us were wounded, with all our horses. I myself carried off two wounds, one of which was on my head from the stone of a sling, and the other by an arrow piercing my ankle; but neither of them were so bad as to compel me to leave the battle, or disable me from doing duty. This, however, was the same case with the majority of my comrades; for, if a wound was not dangerous, they still continued to perform duty, as the number of those who came off whole would have been too small to make head against the enemy. We now returned to our quarters, overjoyed at our victory, and offered up fervent thanks to G.o.d. We buried our dead in one of the subterranean dwellings, that the Indians might not discover us to be mortal as well as themselves, but still continue to fancy us G.o.ds: we, therefore, heaped up a quant.i.ty of earth over the spot, that even the stench of the decomposing body might not betray the dead. The fat of the Indians, as before, served us to dress our wounds. Oh, the distress we suffered here! We had neither oil for our wounds nor salt to our food. To all this was added the misfortune of having nothing to shelter us from the keen wind, which blew across the Sierra Nevada, and made us shake again with cold. We, nevertheless, kept up our spirits, and this night we slept more soundly than on the previous one, as we had better regulated our outposts and the patrols.

CHAPTER LXVI.