Hernando Cortez Part 13

Here he was informed that some of the inhabitants of the neighboring mountains had manifested a restive spirit, and had caused disturbance in other peaceable districts. Sternly he marched to chastise them. The punishment was prompt and severe; thousands were shot down, and their chiefs were hanged. "They were punished," says Diaz, "with fire and sword; and greater misfortunes befell them when Nuno de Guzman came to be their governor, for he made them all slaves, and sold them in the islands."

The father of Cortez, who was in Spain, and who was a man of much elevation of character, now came forward to aid his son with his influence at court. Implacable enemies were intriguing against the bold Spanish adventurer in the court of Charles V., who had returned from his long absence in Germany, and was now at Madrid. Don Martin Cortez had secured the co-operation of a powerful n.o.bleman, the Duke of Bejar. The young monarch, bewildered by the accusations which were brought against Cortez on the one hand, and by the defense which was urged upon the other, referred the whole matter to a commission specially appointed to investigate the subject. The charges which were brought against him were serious and very strongly sustained by evidence.

1. He had seized rebelliously, and finally destroyed, the fleet intrusted to him by Governor Velasquez, whose authority he was bound to obey.

2. He had usurped powers in contempt of the authority of his lawful sovereign.

3. He had made war upon Narvaez, who had been sent with full authority to supersede him, and had slain many of his companions. He had also refused to receive Tapia, though he was invested with the authority of the crown.

4. He had cruelly, and in dishonor of the Spanish name, put Guatemozin to the torture.

5. He had remitted but a small part of the treasures obtained to the crown, squandering vast sums in schemes to promote his own aggrandizement.

6. His whole system of procedure was one of violence, extortion, and cruelty.

It was urged in defense,

1. Two thirds of the cost of the expedition, nominally fitted out by Velasquez, were defrayed by Cortez.

2. The interests of the crown required that colonies should be established in Mexico. Velasquez was invested with power to traffic only, not to found colonies; consequently, Cortez, in the discharge of his duty, was bound to establish colonies, and to send to the crown for the ratification of the deed, as he had done.

3. It was the wish of Cortez to meet Narvaez amicably; but that commander, a.s.suming a hostile att.i.tude, had compelled Cortez to do the same. The treatment of Tapia was defended as in the dispatch which Cortez had transmitted to the emperor.

4. The torture of Guatemozin was declared to have been, not the act of Cortez, but of one of his officers, who was driven to it by the clamors of the soldiers.

5. It was clearly proved that Cortez had transmitted more than one fifth of the treasure obtained to the crown. It was also pretty conclusively proved that his administration was, in general, characterized by far-reaching sagacity.

The defense was triumphant. Cortez was acquitted, his acts were confirmed, and he was appointed _governor_, _captain-general_, _and chief justice_ of the immense empire which he had subjugated. The power with which he was invested was vast--almost unlimited. He was authorized to appoint to all offices, civil and military. He could also banish from the country any persons whose conduct should be displeasing to him. A large salary was conferred upon him, that he might maintain the splendor becoming his rank. His officers were richly rewarded. The emperor even condescended to write a letter to the little army in Mexico with his own hand, applauding the heroism of the soldiers and the grandeur of their chieftain. This was one of the greatest of the victories of Cortez. The depression of his enemies was equal to his own elation. Velasquez was crushed by the blow. He survived the tidings through a few months of gloom, and then sank into the grave, the only refuge for those weary of the world.

When the envoys arrived in Mexico with the decision of the court, they were received with universal rejoicing. Every soldier of Cortez felt that his fortune was now made. But their intrepid commander was not the man for repose. New discoveries were to be urged, new tribes subjugated, and far-distant regions explored. Murmurs loud and deep soon ascended from the disaffected, who now wished to repose from toil in the enjoyment of their wealth and honors. Here is a specimen of their complaints:

"I will now relate," says Diaz, "what Cortez did, which I call very unfair. All those who were the dependents of great men, who flattered him and told him pleasing things, he loaded with favors. Not that I blame him for being generous, for there was enough for all; but I say that he ought to have first considered those who served his majesty, and whose valor and blood made him what he was. But it is useless detailing our misfortunes, and how he treated us like va.s.sals, and how we were obliged to take to our old trade of expeditions and battles; for, though he forgot us in his distribution of property, he never failed to call upon us when he wanted our a.s.sistance. When we went to the general with the request that he would give us some part of the property which his majesty had ordered that we should receive, he told us, and swore to it, that he would provide for us all, and not do as he had done, for which he was very sorry. As if we were to be satisfied with promises and smooth words!"

Cortez had a very effectual way of escaping from such remonstrants. He immediately dispatched such men as were troublesome on some important expedition, where all their energies of mind and body would be engrossed in surmounting the difficulties which they would be called to encounter. A man by the name of Rangel, who had some considerable influence, was complaining bitterly. Cortez immediately decided that the distant province of the Zapotecans was in a threatening att.i.tude, and needed looking after. They were a fierce people, dwelling among almost inaccessible cliffs, where no horse could climb and no artillery be dragged. From such an enterprise it was little probable that the troublesome man would ever return. He was consequently honored with the command of the expedition. For apparently the same reason, Bernal Diaz, whose complaints we have just read, was appointed to accompany the detachment.

The forlorn party entered boldly the defiles of the mountains, and wading through marshes, and struggling through ravines, and clambering over rocks, with the utmost difficulty and peril penetrated the savage region. The natives, nimble as the chamois, leaped from crag to crag, whistling an insulting defiance with a peculiarly shrill note, with which every rock seemed vocal. Stones were showered down upon them, and immense rocks, torn from their beds, leaped cras.h.i.+ng over their path. Their peril soon became great, and it was so evidently impossible to accomplish any important result, that they abandoned the expedition, nearly all wounded, and many having been killed.

During the period of four years Cortez devoted himself with untiring zeal to the promotion of the interests of the colony. The new city of Mexico rose rapidly, with widened streets and with many buildings of much architectural beauty. Where the ma.s.sive temple once stood, dedicated to the war-G.o.d of the Aztecs, and whose altars were ever polluted with human sacrifices, a majestic temple was reared for the wors.h.i.+p of the true G.o.d. Cortez erected for himself a gorgeous palace fronting on the great square. It was built of hewn stone. All the houses constructed for the Spaniards were ma.s.sive stone buildings, so built as to answer the double purpose of dwellings and fortresses.

The zeal of Cortez for the conversion of the natives continued unabated. In addition to the s.p.a.cious cathedral, where the imposing rites of the Catholic Church were invested with all conceivable splendor, thirty other churches were provided for the natives, who had now become exceedingly pliant to the wishes of the conqueror. Father Olmedo watched over the interests of religion with great purity of purpose and with unwearied devotion until his death. Twelve Catholic priests were sent from Spain. Benighted as they were in that dark age, the piety of many of these men can hardly be questioned. Cortez received them with great distinction. Immediately upon being informed of their arrival at Vera Cruz, he ordered the road to Mexico to be put in order, to render their journey easy, and houses to be furnished, at proper distances, with refreshments for their accommodation. The inhabitants of all the towns along their route were ordered to meet them with processions and music, and all demonstrations of reverence and joy. As they approached the metropolis, Cortez, at the head of a brilliant cavalcade, which was followed by a vast procession bearing crucifixes and lighted tapers, set out to receive them. The Catholic missionaries appeared with bare feet and in the most humble garb.

Cortez dismounted, and, advancing to the princ.i.p.al father of the fraternity, bent one knee to the ground in token of reverence, and kissed his coa.r.s.e and threadbare robe. The natives gazed with amazement upon this act of humiliation on the part of their haughty conqueror, and ever after regarded the priests with almost religious adoration.

When conversion consists in merely inducing men to conform to some external ceremony, while the heart remains unchanged, it is easily accomplished. The missionaries, with great zeal, embarked in the enterprise of establis.h.i.+ng the Catholic religion in every village of the subjugated empire. They were eminently successful, and in a few years almost every vestige of the ancient idolatry had disappeared from Mexico.

Cortez did every thing in his power to induce the natives to return to the capital. He introduced the mechanic arts of Europe, and all the industrial implements of that higher civilization. The streets were soon again thronged with a busy population, and the Indian and the Spaniard, oblivious of past scenes of deadly strife, mingled together promiscuously in peaceful and picturesque confusion.

Many colonies were established in different parts of the country, and settlers were invited over from Old Spain by liberal grants of land, and by many munic.i.p.al privileges.

In the midst of these important transactions, while Cortez was living quietly with the amiable Marina, who had borne him a son, a s.h.i.+p arrived at Vera Cruz bringing Donna Catalina, the wife of the wayward adventurer. This lady, accompanied by her brother, weary of the solitude of her plantation, where she had now been left for many years, came in search of her unfaithful spouse. Cortez made great pretensions to religion. It was his crowning glory that he was the defender of the faith. It would have been altogether too great a scandal to have repudiated his faithful wife.

"Cortez," says Bernal Diaz, "was very sorry for their coming, but he put the best face upon it, and received them with great pomp and rejoicing." In three months from this time the unhappy Donna Catalina died of an asthma. Her death was so evidently a relief to Cortez, and so manifestly in accordance with his wishes, that many suspicions were excited that she had fallen by the hand of violence. Though Cortez had many enemies to accuse him of the murder of his wife, there is no evidence whatever that he was guilty. Cortez had many and great faults, but a crime of this nature seems to be quite foreign to his character. The verdict of history in reference to this charge has been very cordially _Not proven_.

CHAPTER XI.

THE EXPEDITION TO HONDURAS.

The natives reduced to slavery.--Laws and inst.i.tutions.--Colony at Honduras.--Olid wrecked and taken prisoner.--Cortez starts for Honduras.--Diaz's account.--The two captives.--Difficulties to be encountered.--Marina married to Xamarillo.--Don Martin Cortez.

--Demonstrations of homage.--Complaints of Diaz.--Scarcity of provisions.--Energy and forethought.--Construction of canoes.--The slough.--Foraging parties.--The tangled wilderness.--The Indian path.--The cannibal chiefs.--Their punishment.--Hostile att.i.tude.

--The soldiers ravenous.--Influence of the priests.--Care for the officers.--Plot against two chiefs.--The chiefs executed.--Their heroism.--Opinions of the Spaniards.--Night wanderings.--Plenty and want.--The terrible march.--New embarra.s.sments.--Famine.--They reach Taica.--Humility of Diaz.--Cortez finds there is no insurrection to be quelled.--Exploring tour.--The brigantines.--Submission.--Present to the king.--Disappointment of Cortez.--The dispatches.--Bad news.

--Reports of the death of Cortez.--Troubles in Spain.--The attempted voyage.--Fruitless endeavors to recall his friends.--Commissions.--The usurpers imprisoned.--Poor health of Cortez.--His return to Mexico.

The great object of the Spanish adventurers was to extort gold from the natives. The proud cavaliers would not work, and the natives were not willing to surrender the fruits of their toil to support their haughty conquerors in splendor. Cortez consequently, though reluctantly, doomed them to slavery. They were driven by the lash to unpaid toil. It was an outrage defended only by the despotic a.s.sumptions of avarice. The Tlascalans, however, in acknowledgment of their services as allies of the Spaniards, were exempt from this degradation. In all other parts the wretched natives toiled under their task-masters, in the fields and in the mines, urged by the sole stimulus of the lash. The country thus became impoverished and beggared, and masters and slaves sank together.

Cortez had now reduced, in subjection to the crown of Spain, an extent of country reaching along the Atlantic coast twelve hundred miles, and extending fifteen hundred miles on the Pacific sh.o.r.e. With energetic genius which has rarely been surpa.s.sed, the conqueror established laws and inst.i.tutions, many of them eminently wise, for this vast realm.

Cortez had sent one of his captains, Christoval de Olid, to Honduras, to found a Spanish colony there. This intrepid man, giddy with the possession of vast power, and encouraged by the success with which Cortez had thrown off his dependence upon Velasquez, determined to imitate his example, and a.s.sert independence of all authority save that of the Spanish crown. But Cortez was the last man to allow _his_ authority to be thus trifled with. He immediately sent an expedition under Francisco Las Casas, with five s.h.i.+ps and a hundred veteran Spanish soldiers, to arrest the disobedient officer. With pennants flying, Las Casas sailed from Vera Cruz, and was rapidly borne by prosperous gales around the immense promontory of Yucatan, a voyage of nearly two thousand miles, to the bay in Honduras named the Triumph of the Cross, where Olid had established his post. Olid opposed his landing, but, as many of his soldiers chanced to be absent in the interior he could present no effectual resistance.

After a short battle, Olid, hoping for the speedy return of his absent forces, applied for a truce. Las Casas weakly consented; but that same night a tempest arose which wrecked all his s.h.i.+ps, and thirty of the crew perished in the waves. Las Casas and all of the remainder of his party, drenched and exhausted, were taken prisoners. Olid exulted greatly in this unantic.i.p.ated good fortune; and, considering his foe utterly powerless, released the men upon their taking the oath of allegiance to him, and retained Las Casas surrounded with the courtesies of friendly and hospitable captivity. After a time, however, Las Casas succeeded in forming a conspiracy, and Olid was seized and beheaded.

Cortez had heard of the wreck of the s.h.i.+ps. No other tidings reached him. But disaster ever added strength to his energies. Vigorously he fitted out another expedition, and headed it himself. Leaving a strong garrison to guard the city of Mexico, and appointing two confidential officers to act as deputies during his absence, he prepared to march across the country, a perilous journey of five hundred leagues, through a wilderness of mountains, rivers, lakes, and forests. Unknown and doubtless hostile tribes peopled the whole region. It was one of the boldest of the many bold adventures of this extraordinary man. He has given a minute narrative of the march in a dispatch to Charles V.

Bernal Diaz also, who accompanied the expedition, has given an interesting yet gossiping recital of all its wild adventures.

It was on the 12th of October, 1524, that Cortez commenced his march almost due south from the city of Mexico. His force consisted, when he started from Mexico, of about one hundred Spanish hors.e.m.e.n and fifty infantry, together with about three thousand Mexican soldiers.

Apprehending that Guatemozin and the cacique of Tacuba, from their strong influence over the natives, might excite disturbance during his absence, he took them as captives with him. Several Catholic priests were taken to conduct the services of religion, and to convert the heathen tribes. The imperial retinue, for Cortez now moved with the pomp of an emperor, was conducted on the grandest scale the time and the occasion would admit. A large herd of swine followed the army a day's journey in the rear. Most of the food, however, was to be collected by the way.

By the aid of a rude map and Indian guides, Cortez designed to direct his steps across the neck of the broad peninsula of Yucatan to the head of the Bay of Honduras. For many days their path conducted along a low and marshy country intersected by innumerable streams. Some they were able to ford; over others their ingenious architects would speedily throw a bridge. Occasionally they would arrive upon the banks of a stream so wide and deep that many days would be employed in rearing a structure over which they could pa.s.s. Cortez, in his letter to Charles V., enumerating the difficulties encountered, states that in a distance of one hundred miles he found it necessary to construct no less than fifty bridges.

The amiable Marina accompanied Cortez on this expedition, since her services were very essential as interpreter. But Cortez now, having buried his lawful wife, and probably looking forward to some more ill.u.s.trious Spanish alliance which might strengthen his influence at court, regarded Marina as an embarra.s.sment. He therefore secured her marriage with a Castilian knight, Don Juan Xamarillo. A handsome estate was a.s.signed to the newly-married couple in the native province of Marina, through which the expedition pa.s.sed on its way to Honduras.

We hear of Marina no more. Her son, Don Martin Cortez, aided by the patronage of his powerful father, became one of the most prominent of the grandees of his native land. He filled many posts of opulence and honor. At last he was suspected of treason against the home government, and was shamefully put to the torture in the Mexican capital.

As Cortez and his army advanced day after day through provinces where his renown was known, and where Spanish adventurers were established, he was received with every possible demonstration of homage. Triumphal arches crossed his path. Processions advanced to greet him. Provisions were brought to him in abundance. Bonfires, with their brilliant blaze, cheered the night, and festivities, arranged with all the possible accompaniments of barbaric pomp, amused him by day. He arrived at the banks of a wide, deep, and rapid river. To his great gratification, he found that the natives had collected three hundred canoes, fastened two and two, to ferry his army across. At this place Bernal Diaz joined the expedition. Weary of the hards.h.i.+ps of war, he complains bitterly that he was compelled again to undergo the fatigues of an arduous campaign.

"The general ordered," he says, "all the settlers of Guacacualco who were fit for service to join his expedition.

I have already mentioned how this colony was formed out of the most respectable hidalgos and ancient conquerors of the country, and now that we had reason to expect to be left in quiet possession of our hard-earned properties, our houses and farms, we were obliged to undertake a hostile expedition to the distance of fifteen hundred miles, and which took up the time of two and a half years; but we dared not say no, neither would it avail us. We therefore armed ourselves, and, mounting our horses, joined the expedition, making, in the whole, above two hundred and fifty veterans, of whom one hundred and thirty were cavalry, besides many Spaniards newly arrived from Europe."

But as they marched resolutely along, week after week, over mountains, through mora.s.ses, and across rivers, the country became more wild and savage, the natives more shy, and provisions less abundant. Several days were often occupied in constructing a bridge to cross a river.

Scouts were sent out upon either wing of the army foraging for food.

The natives fled often from their villages, carrying their food with them. Famine began to stare them in the face. Sickness diminished the ranks, and emaciate men, haggard and way-worn, tottered painfully along the rugged ways.

But the indefatigable energy and wonderful foresight of Cortez saved the army. He seemed to have provided for every emergency which mortal sagacity could antic.i.p.ate. One day the starving army, almost in despair, came to the banks of a large river. The broad current rolled many leagues through a pathless wilderness, and emptied into the Gulf of Mexico. The army, to its great surprise, found fifty large canoes in a little sheltered bay, laden with provisions, and awaiting its arrival. The river was the Tabasco. At its mouth there was an important Spanish colony. Cortez had foreseen the want at that point, and provided the timely supply.

After resting here for a few days to recruit, the army continued its march, and soon came to a river so wide and deep that they could not bridge it. Here they remained four days, while every skillful hand was employed constructing canoes. It then required four days more for the immense host to be paddled across in these frail barks. The horses swam after the boats, led by halters. Upon the other side of the river they entered upon a vast swamp, extending for many leagues, and tangled by the dense growth of the tropics. They were three days floundering through this dismal slough, the horses being most of the time up to their girths in the mora.s.s.

From this gloomy region of reptiles, tormenting insects, and mire, they emerged upon a fertile country, where they found an abundance of Indian corn or maize. But the terrified inhabitants fled at their approach. Foraging parties were, however, sent out to plunder the villages of their stores. They did this efficiently, and the encampment was again filled with plenty. After a halt of three days, the soldiers, having replenished their knapsacks with parched corn, again took up their line of march. Each man carried food for three days. Some of the native chiefs, who had been enticed into the camp, deceived them with the a.s.surance that in three days they would arrive at a large city, where they would find every needful supply. They soon reached the banks of a broad river, deep and rapid. It required three days to construct a bridge to cross it. The knapsacks were now empty.

They were hungry and faint, and there was no food to be obtained.