DEFEAT OF NARVAEZ.

101

the country for the Spanish sovereign, in the name of the governor of Cuba. The fleet consisted of nineteen vessels, carrying upwards of a thousand foot soldiers, twenty cannons, eighty horsemen, a hundred and sixty musketeers and crossbowmen, besides a thousand Indian servants. This fleet anchored off the coast of Mexico, at San Juan de Ulloa, on the 23d of April, 1520. Here Narvaez received the astonishing information that Cortes was in possession of the Mexican capital, that the emperor was his prisoner, that he had received the surrender of the country and its treasure in the name of the Spanish sovereign, who was not so absolute in Europe as Cortes was in Mexico. Narvaez thereupon announced to the Indians Lis intention of setting Montezuma free, declaring that he was come to chastise Cortes who was a rebel against his sovereign.

HE city of Villa Rica was first summoned to surrender, but Gonsalvo de Sandoval, the young officer who had been sent by Cortes to watch over that town and his interests after the death of Juan de Escalante, caused the messengers of

Narvaez to be seized, strapped them to the backs of Indian porters, and sent them across the country to Cortes, in charge of a couple of soldiers who carried a letter informing the general of what had happened. Cortes, after thoroughly gaining these messengers over to his interests by kind words and presents, sent them back again to sow dissensions in the ranks of his rival.

He also commenced a correspondence with Narvaez, which was continued without any definite result until within a day or two of the settlement of the difference by arms. For Cortes, knowing that on the decision and celerity of his actions depended his only hope of safety, left Pedro de Alvarado in command of a garrison of one hundred and forty men, in Mexico, and marched with the remainder, less than two hundred in number, to the Totonac country, where Sandoval joined him with the little garrison of Villa Rica, and thence to the quarters of Narvaez in Cempoalla. Here a battle was fought on the night of the twenty-sixth of May, 1520, between the heroic little band of the conqueror, and the numerous, well appointed, but half asleep army of Narvaez, who was very quickly defeated, being made prisoner himself, with the loss of one eye. All his troops swore allegiance to Cortes, but when daylight disclosed the numbers and ragged condition of their conquerors, they were nearly mad with

shame and vexation. However, they were little disposed to hear the terrible war cry of Cortes ring again in their ears, in opposition to themselves, and he soon attached them to himself by his honeyed words, and by gifts so liberally bestowed that his old soldiers began to grow jealous. He had thus increased his own force sixfold; he had thirteen hundred men under his command out of the city of Mexico, one hundred of whom were cavalry, and with such a force, what might he not achieve?

He was roused from his pleasant anticipations by intelligence from Alvarado that the Mexicans had risen en masse, and were besieging him and his followers with a prospect of success. This had been brought about by the imprudent policy of Alvarado, who had, under the influence of the fear of a revolt, or in a wanton spirit of cruelty, put to the sword five hundred of the elite of the city, as they were celebrating a festival within their great temple. The people had rushed immediately to arms, and were on the point of carrying the palace of the Spaniards by assault, when Montezuma's person was exposed to them, and they abstained from actual battle to besiege the fortress, hoping that famine would soon force a surrender. This

BATTLE WITH THE AZTECS.

103

was the state of things when Cortes arrived at the city, at the head of his new army, all of whom, says an old historian, had sworn to follow him with a readiness they would have been very far from evincing, had they known what they were to encounter. They reached the great lake on the 24th of June, and marched along the great causeway into the city, without opposition, but amid a silence that was ominous. They reached their stronghold, and the reunion was most joyful. But Cortes was mad with vexation when he learned the cause of the difficulty, and though he sharply rebuked Alvarado for his imprudence, he could effect nothing by punishing him, and he vented his ill humour on the unfortunate Montezuma. The faithful prince felt his unkindness to such a degree that he would hold no intercourse with him, yet he complied, as far as in his power, in trying to check the tumult, and procure provisions for the army.

HEIR efforts were unsuccessful. The day after the arrival of Cortes, a soldier whom he had despatched on an errand, returned to his quarters breathless, and covered with blood from wounds inflicted on him by the Mexicans, who, he said, were all in arms, with the drawbridges broken down, and every preparation made for an assault on the Spaniards in their stronghold. He himself had narrowly escaped being dragged away in a canoe for sacrifice. A struggle now commenced which lasted several days. The desperation with which the Aztecs fought convinced Cortes how much he had hitherto undervalued them, as they openly announced their opinion that they must fight on under defeat until the last Spaniard was slain, satisfied if with a thousand lives they paid for the death of but one of their detested enemies. Day after day the fighting was renewed, the Spaniards being always victorious, but daily losing some of their number. Either they would sally out upon the multitude and cut them down in battle, or else drive them back when they advanced to storm and burn their works. The enemy poured along the streets like a flood, while every terrace in the vicinity was crowded with expert archers and slingers, ready to shower arrows and stones upon any one of the garrison that left his defences for an instant. The soldiers of Narvaez were sadly disappointed in their reception in the city, and began to reproach Cortes with bringing them into destruc tion, yet their murmurs were changed to shouts of admiration and love when they saw him spur his horse into the thickest of a crowd of Aztecs, to rescue a dying comrade from their hands.

MONTEZUMA'S brother, Cuitlahua, had been arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the rebellion of Cacama. He was released by Cortes soon after his arrival in Mexico, in the hope that he could allay the present tumult, and bring the people to a more friendly state of feeling. But he had never forgiven the injuries he had received from the Spaniards, and he made use of his liberty to take the place of Montezuma during his captivity, and the well-directed movements of the besiegers were owing to his superior ability in organizing the forces. Foiled in this hope, Cortes now turned his thoughts to the emperor himself, and resolved to play off his authority against that of Cuitlahua. He sent to request his interposition with his subjects in behalf of the garrison, but the emperor, whose feelings had been alienated by the treatment he had lately experienced from Cortes, and who felt bitterly the shame of his situation as the ally of his people's enemies, refused compliance. At the further solicitation of Olid and Father Olmedo, and the promise that, if a way were opened for them, the Spaniards would depart, he consented to expostulate with his subjects, more in the hope of sparing their lives than from regard to the Spaniards.

Cuitlahua.

Attired in his royal robes, and attended in state by several of the Aztec nobility, and the Spaniards, he ascended the central turret of the palace, and the tumult and strife hushed at his presence as if by magic. He felt his advantage, and addressed them in a calm voice, announcing himself as the friend of the Spaniards, who, he said, would leave the city if a way were opened for them. He therefore requested them to lay down their arms. A murmur of disgust ran through the multitude at this address; and in the tumult of their passion they entirely forgot their accustomed feelings of respect and veneration; bitter taunts were followed by a hostile demonstration on the part of a chief, and a cloud of stones and arrows descended upon the spot where he stood with his train. The Spaniards attempted to shield his person, but too late; he was wounded by three of the inissiles, and fell senseless to the ground. A revulsion of feeling on the part of the mass immediately ensued, and the great square before the palace was entirely deserted.

DEATH OF MONTEZUMA.

105

Montezuma, carried below by his attendants, soon revived from the stunning effects of the blow, which had been inflicted on his head with a stone; but the wretchedness of his condition now overcame him. "He had tasted," says Mr. Prescott, "the last bitterness of degradation. He had been reviled, rejected, by his people. The meanest of the rabble had raised their hands against him. He had nothing more to live for. It was in vain that Cortes and his officers. endeavoured to soothe the anguish of his spirit, and fill him with better thoughts. He spoke not a word in answer. His wound, though dangerous, might still, with skilful treatment, not prove mortal. But Montezuma refused all the remedies prescribed for it. He tore off the bandages as often as they were applied, maintaining all the while the most determined silence. He sat with eyes dejected, brooding over his fallen fortunes, over the image of ancient majesty and present humiliation. He had survived his honour. But a spark of his ancient spirit seemed to kindle in his bosom, as it was clear that he did not mean to survive his disgrace."* He expired on the 30th of June, 1520, in the arms of some of his own faithful nobles. "Cortes, his officers, and all of us," says Bernal Diaz, "shed tears for this unfortunate monarch; indeed many of our men who had been in constant attendance upon him, mourned for him as if they had lost a parent. Even Father Olmedo himself, who never for a moment

left his side, and who, notwithstanding all his efforts, had not been able to convert him to Christianity, could not refrain from shedding tears. And no one will feel surprised at this who knew what a very kind-hearted person Montezuma was. Mexico never had a better monarch."+

Finding that they suffered severely from the missiles thrown into their fortress from the great teocalli opposite, the Spaniards endeavoured to carry it by storm; but their first efforts, made under the valiant chamberlain of Cortes, Escobar, were unsuccessful. The general himself then fastened a buckler to his disabled left arm, and led on his troops to the attack in person. Terrace after terrace was carried, until finally the opponents met in a hand to hand conflict on the broad level at the top. The natives were doubly numerous, but the victory was on the side of the

Escobar.

Conquest of Mexico, vol. ii. p. 320.

† Chapter 126.