The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo Vol 1 Part 29

Cortes appointed an old soldier to keep watch over this altar, and begged, at the same time, of Motecusuma to order his papas not to obstruct the man in his duty, which was to keep the place clean, burn incense before the altar, keep the candles lighted there night and day, and decorate it from time to time with fresh branches and flowers.

I must, however, break off here, and relate something we little expected.

[74] For a further account of what happened after the building of this altar, I must refer the reader to the oft-quoted work of Torquemada (Monarchia, Ind. iv, 53.) (p. 286.)

CHAPTER CVIII.

_How the powerful Motecusuma acquaints Cortes that it is requisite for his safety to quit Mexico, with the whole of his men, as all the caziques and papas were upon the point of rising up in arms to destroy us all, in compliance with the advice given them by their G.o.ds: the steps which Cortes took upon this news._

From the very moment we had erected this altar and cross on the great temple, and had celebrated high ma.s.s there, a storm began to gather over our heads.

About this time Huitzilopochtli and Tetzcatlipuca are said to have addressed the papas, and acquainted them they were desirous of leaving the country, as the teules had treated them with such great contempt, and that it was impossible for them to dwell in the same spot with that image and cross. If they were desirous they should remain in Mexico, they were to kill us all. These were the last words they should utter; they were to be communicated to Motecusuma and his grandees, and the papas were at the same time to put them in mind how we had melted all the gold into bars, with which previously the G.o.ds had been honoured; how we ordered things as if we had been lords of the country, and kept five powerful princes bound in chains.

All this was faithfully reported to Motecusuma, who then sent word to Cortes he should like to see him, as he had things of the utmost importance to disclose to him.

The page Orteguilla, who had been despatched to Cortes for this purpose, informed the latter that Motecusuma appeared quite changed and spiritless; that, the day previous, several papas and distinguished officers had had secret interviews with him, and they uttered words of which he had not understood one syllable.

Upon this, Cortes, accompanied by Oli, four other officers, and our two interpreters, immediately called upon the monarch, and, after the usual courtesies had pa.s.sed between them, the latter broke out as follows: "Alas! Malinche and you other officers, how grieved I am at the commands which our G.o.ds have imparted to our papas, myself, and my chief officers!

"They most earnestly demand of us that we shall commence hostilities with you, and put you to death, or drive you away from this country by some other means. My advice is, that you had better leave of your own accord, than allow hostilities to commence.

"This, Malinche, I could not help disclosing to you, that you might come to some determination or other. For myself, I have no doubt that all your lives are at stake here."

The reader may easily imagine that Cortes and his officers did not treat all this so very lightly, and that they were not a little surprised at this disclosure. No one could have suspected that affairs would have taken such a turn; but the monarch had spoken in such a positive tone as to leave no doubt on our minds that we lived in imminent danger. Cortes, however, hid his fears from the monarch, and thanked him for his information, adding, that he was sorry we had no vessels left in which we could leave the country; and that if we even did leave it, we must take him, the monarch, along with us, that he might be presented to our emperor: he therefore begged of him to amuse his priests and officers until we should have constructed three vessels on the sea-coast. And if they commenced war with us, they would undoubtedly all be killed. And that Motecusuma might convince himself that he would fulfil his promise, he desired he would despatch two of his chief officers with our carpenters to the coast to cut wood for the building of the vessels.

Motecusuma was now more dispirited than ever when he heard Cortes say that he himself must accompany us; that he was to issue the necessary orders to his carpenters, and act and not talk. Our general also desired him to call the papas and officers to acquaint them that it was unnecessary to raise the town into open rebellion; they might, for the present, appease the G.o.ds by offerings, but we forbade any sacrifice of human beings.

After this important disclosure Cortes left the monarch, and we now lived in constant fear of hostilities breaking out. Cortes, however, fulfilled his promise, and sent for Martin Lopez and Andreas Nunez, described to them the size of the three vessels he wished them to build, and to march to Vera Cruz with the Mexican carpenters, where all the necessary materials, consisting in iron, rigging, tar and tow would be found. These orders were promptly obeyed. The necessary quant.i.ty of wood was cut on the coast of Vera Cruz, and the building of the vessels was commenced with all a.s.siduity. Whether Cortes gave Lopez any secret instructions I do not know; but I cannot pa.s.s by this circ.u.mstance in silence, as Gomara mentions it likewise in his history, and maintains that all this building of the vessels was mere artifice to amuse Motecusuma. May those who know more about this matter publish the truth.

There are certainly numbers of our men alive who would be able to give a true account of this. All I know is that Lopez told me in confidence, that the building of the vessels was really commenced, and that the three vessels were actually lying on the staples.

At present, however, we will leave them quietly there, and acquaint the reader that we grew much alarmed at our situation in this great city, and momentarily expected an attack upon our friends of Tlascalla, as Dona Marina had informed our general to that effect. The page, Orteguilla, shed tears all day long, and we others narrowly watched the monarch's person. I must here for the last time acquaint the reader, that whether night or day, we never took off our gorgets or our armour, while our arms were never for a moment out of our hands. A bundle of straw and a mat formed a couch; our horses stood ready saddled, and in short every soldier was ready for action at a moment's notice.

At night we also took the precaution of posting such numbers of sentinels, that each of us in turn, had at least one watch every night.

I do not mention this in praise of myself; but I grew so accustomed to being armed night and day, as it were living in armour, that after the conquest of New Spain I could not accustom myself for a length of time to undress on going to lie down, or make use of a bed, but slept better in soldier fashion than on the softest down. Even at the present day, in my old age, I never take a bed with me when I visit the townships belonging to my commendary; and if I do take one, it is merely because the cavaliers who accompany me may not think I take no bed with me, because I have no good one. From continued watching at night it has become quite natural to me to sleep for a short time together only, and get up at intervals to gaze upon the heavens and the stars, and take a couple of turns in the open air. Neither do I wear a nightcap or wind a kerchief around my head; and thanks be to G.o.d! this has become so natural to me, that I never feel any inconvenience from it. I have merely mentioned all this to convince the reader how we, the true Conquistadores, were always obliged to be upon our guard, and what hardships we had to undergo.

CHAPTER CIX.

_How the governor of Cuba, Velasquez, in all haste fits out an armament against us, the command of which he gives to Pamfilo de Narvaez, who was accompanied by the licentiate Lucas Vazquez de Aillon, auditor of the royal court of audience at St. Domingo._

In order to explain what I am now about to relate I must refer to prior events.

I have already mentioned, in the proper chapter, that Diego Velasquez got information of our having sent agents to our emperor with all the gold and presents we had received; and also of the bad reception they had met with from the bishop of Burgos; who not only favoured Velasquez in various ways, but even commanded him to fit out an armament against us, for which he himself would be responsible to the emperor.

The governor of Cuba accordingly used the utmost exertions and a.s.sembled a flotilla, consisting of nineteen sail, on board of which were 1400 soldiers, above forty cannon, with a quant.i.ty of powder, b.a.l.l.s, and gun-flints, besides two artillerymen, who, with the artillery stood under the immediate command of the captain Rodrigo Martin. To this was added eighty horse, ninety crossbow-men, and seventy musketeers. Fat and corpulent as he was, Velasquez had, nevertheless, in the height of his pa.s.sion, visited every township in Cuba, to hasten the equipment of the flotilla, and invited every inhabitant who had either Indians, relations, or friends who could manage their estates, to join the standard of Pamfilo Narvaez, and share the honour of taking Cortes and all of us prisoners, or at least to blow out our brains. He had even advanced as far as the promontory of Guaniguanico, in the height of his zeal, though that promontory was above 240 miles from the Havannah.

Before this armament quitted the harbour, the royal court of audience at St. Domingo, and the Hieronymite brothers, who were viceroys there, were determined to look into the matter a little; as the licentiate Suazo, who was their agent in Cuba, had sent them information of the extensiveness of the armament.

As the great and valuable services which we had rendered G.o.d and his majesty were very well known at St. Domingo, as also the fact of our having sent valuable presents to our emperor, it was considered there that Velasquez was not justified in fitting out an armament to revenge himself upon us, but that his only way was to pursue us in a court of law. These impartial men well foresaw how this armament would impede the conquest of New Spain. They therefore despatched the licentiate Lucas Vazquez de Aillon, who was auditor of the court of audience at St.

Domingo, to Cuba, with peremptory commands to Velasquez not to allow the flotilla to leave the harbour.

The auditor punctually fulfilled these commands, and in due form protested against the flotilla leaving the harbour; but Diego Velasquez, who had spent all his property in fitting out this armament, relied upon the good favour of the bishop of Burgos, and took no notice of the protest. Upon this Vazquez de Aillon determined upon embarking himself on board one of the vessels, to try at least if he could not prevent hostilities between Narvaez and Cortes. Many even maintained that he came to Mexico with the secret intention to side with our party, or, if we could not succeed in defeating Narvaez, himself to take possession of the country in the name of our emperor. At all events he embarked with Narvaez and arrived in the harbour of San Juan de Ulua, of which we shall hear more presently.

CHAPTER CX.

_How Narvaez arrives with the whole of his flotilla in the harbour of San Juan de Ulua, and what happened upon this._

When Narvaez had arrived with the flotilla off the mountains of San Martin, a north wind arose, which is always dangerous on these coasts.

One of the vessels commanded by a cavalier, named Christobal de Morante, of Medina del Campo, was wrecked during night-time off the coast, and the greater part of the men perished. The other vessels, however, arrived safely in the harbour of San Juan de Ulua.

This armament, which may indeed be considered extensive, considering it was fitted out at Cuba, was first of all seen by some soldiers whom Cortes had sent out in search of gold mines. Three of these, Cervantes, Escalona, and Alonso Carretero, did not hesitate a moment to go on board the commander's ship, and are said, as soon as they stepped on board to have praised the Almighty for having rescued them out of the hands of Cortes and the great city of Mexico, where death stood daily before their eyes.

Narvaez ordered meat and drink to be set before them, and as their gla.s.ses were abundantly filled, they said to one another in his presence: "This is indeed leading a different sort of life with a gla.s.s of good wine in one's hand, when compared to the slavery under Cortes, who allows a person no rest either night or day; where a person dares scarcely say a word, and death is always staring him in the face."

Cervantes, however, who was a low buffoon, even addressed Narvaez himself, and exclaimed: "O Narvaez! Narvaez, what a fortunate man you are, that you just arrive at the moment when the traitor Cortes has heaped together above 700,000 pesos, and the whole of his men are so enraged with him for his having cheated them out of the greater part of the gold, that many even disdain to accept of their shares."

Such was the language which these low-minded and worthless fellows uttered, and they told Narvaez more than he was desirous of knowing.

They likewise informed him that thirty-two miles further on he would come to a town we had built, called Vera Cruz, which had a garrison of sixty men, all invalids, under an officer named Sandoval, and he had merely to show himself with a few men there and they would immediately deliver up the town to him.

Motecusuma was immediately apprized of the arrival of this flotilla, and without saying a single word to Cortes despatched several of his chief officers to Narvaez, with a present in gold and other things; and commanded the inhabitants to furnish him with provisions.

Narvaez, in his message to Motecusuma, calumniated Cortes and all of us, telling him we were nothing but a parcel of thieves and vagabonds, who had fled from Spain without the knowledge of our emperor, but his imperial majesty having been informed that we were in this country committing all manner of depredations, and that we had even imprisoned its monarch, had ordered him to repair hither with his flotilla and troops, to put an end to these disorders and liberate the monarch. He had likewise received orders to put Cortes and all his men to the sword, or take them alive and send them prisoners to Spain, where death awaited them. This sober language the three soldiers, who understood the Mexican language were to translate to Motecusuma's messengers, to whom Narvaez at the same time sent a present of some Spanish goods.

Motecusuma was not a little delighted with this message, particularly when he learnt the number of Narvaez's vessels, of his cannon, and his 1300 soldiers. He, of course, thought it would be an easy matter for Narvaez to overcome us, and as his messengers had seen the three treacherous rascals who had deserted to Narvaez, he found the more reason to believe all the scandal the latter had said concerning Cortes.

Besides which he received an accurate description of the whole armament from his artists, who had immediately depicted on cotton cloth everything they saw. He therefore sent a second message, accompanied by more valuable presents in gold and cotton stuffs to Narvaez, with strict commands to the inhabitants of the coast to supply him with plenty of provisions.

Motecusuma had received intelligence of the arrival of the flotilla off the coast three days before Cortes. When the latter, as usual, one day paid a visit to the monarch he found him in particular good spirits, and asked him what had occasioned it? Motecusuma replied, that he found himself in better health than he had done for some time past.

Cortes, who was very much surprised at this sudden change in the monarch, called upon him a second time that day, and now the latter began to fear our general was cognizant of the arrival of the flotilla.

To remove all suspicion from his mind, therefore, he thought it better to break the news to him himself. "I have just this moment, Malinche,"

said he, "received the information that an armament of eighteen vessels, with a great number of soldiers and horses, has arrived in the harbour where you landed. Pictures of the whole armament have been transmitted to me. This, no doubt, is no news to you, and I thought from your second visit to me this day, you came to bring me the intelligence yourself, and that now there was no need for you to build new vessels. Though I may have felt hurt that you wished to keep all this a secret from me, yet, on the other hand, I am delighted at the arrival of your brothers, with whom you can now return to Spain; which thus removes all difficulties at once."

When Cortes heard this and saw the painting which the Mexicans had made of all the vessels, he exclaimed in the excess of his delight: "Praise be to G.o.d, whose a.s.sistance always comes at the right time!" Indeed the whole of us greatly rejoiced at this news, we galloped about on our horses, and fired salute after salute.

Cortes, however, began to consider it in a more serious light than he had done in the first moments, as he now plainly saw that this armament was sent out against us by Velasquez; and he communicated his suspicions to us all, and by great presents and promises he made us pledge ourselves not to act any way against his interests; which we did the more readily, as the commander of this new armament was totally unknown to us. Our joy was now excessive, not only on account of the gold which Cortes gave us from his private purse, but at the arrival of this flotilla, which we saw the Almighty had sent to us in our distress.