for the in Mexico. 1519. mament. Cortes sails ships, and five hundred and fifty Spanish soldiers, from Cuba and landed first at the island of Cozumel.' On vasion of the thirteenth of March he arrived with the whole armament at the river of Tabasco or Grijalva. Disa embarking his troops about half a league from the town of Tabasco, he found the borders of the river filled with canoes of armed Indians. Perceiving them determined on hostilities, he prepared to attack the town, in which above twelve thousand warriors had already assembled. The Indians, ob Cortes sailed from Cuba with eleven Takes the town of Tabasco. 3 3 serving this preparation, assailed his troops in prodigious numbers; but were driven back by the Spaniards, who, having effected a landing, entered the town; and Cortes took formal possession of the country for the king of Spain. The next day he marched out with his troops to a plain, where he was met by an immense body of Indians, who, falling furiously on the Spaniards, wounded above seventy by the first discharge of their weapons. The Spanish artillery did great execution; but when the cavalry came to the charge, the Indians, imagining the horse and rider to be one, were extremely terrified, and fled to the adjacent woods and marsh es, leaving the field to the Spaniards. + 1 B. Diaz [i. 47, 48.] says, at a review of the troops at this island, they amounted to 508, the mariners (of whom there were 109) not included; and subjoins, "We had 16 cavalry, II ships, 13 musketeers, 10 brass field pieces, 4 falconets, and (as well as I recollect) 32 cross bows with plenty of ammunition." 2 Tobacco is said to have been first discovered by the Spaniards near this place, though it is assigned to the next year: "Cette plante [Tabac] âcre et caustique trouvée, en 1520, près de Tabasco dans le golfe du Mexique." Précis Sur L'Amerique, p. 116. 3 Drawing his sword, he gave three cuts with it into a great ceiba tree, which stood in the area of a large enclosed court, and said, that against any, who denied his majesty's claim, he was ready to defend and maintain it with the sword and shield, which he then held. B. Diaz,i. 61. 4 B. Diaz, i. 57-66. De Solis, i. 80-87. P. Martyr [308.] gives a very lively description of this action: "Miraculo perculsi miseri hæsitabant, neque exercendi tela locus dabatur. Idem animal arbitrabantur hominem equo annexum, uti de Centauris exorta est fabella." A town was afterward founded on the spot where this battle was fought, and named Santa Maria de La Vitoria. B. Diaz, i. 67. 66 1519. Arrives at dors from Cortes next sailed to St. Juan de Ulua, where he disembarked his troops, and constructed temporary April 22. barracks. At this place he received ambassadors St. Juan de from Montezuma, king of Mexico, with rich pre- Ulua. sents; and a message, expressing the readiness of Receives that sovereign to render the Spaniards any services, ambassabut his entire disinclination to receive any visits at Mexico. his court. After repeated and mutual messages and gifts, Montezuma caused his ambassadors to declare, that he would not consent, that foreign troops should appear nearer his capital, nor even allow them to continue longer in his dominions.' Truly this is a great monarch and rich," said Cortes; "with the permission of God, we must see him." The bell tolling for Ave Maria at this moment, and all the Spaniards falling on their knees before the cross, the Mexican noblemen were very inquisitive to know what was meant by this ceremony. Father Bartholome de Olmedo,' on the suggestion of Cortes, explained to them the Christian doctrines and they promised to relate all, that they had seen and heard, to their sovereign. He at the same time declared to them, that the principal design of the inission of the Spaniards was, to abolish the practice of human sacrifices, injustice, and idolatrous worship.3 ; While at St. Juan de Ulua, the lord of Zempoalla sent five ambassadors to solicit the friendship of Cortes, who readily agreed to a friendly correspondence. + Cortes now incorporated a town, and named it Villa Rica de Vera Cruz, designing, however, to settle it at another place. In the first council, holden after this incorporation, Cortes renounced the title of captain general, which he had 1 Robertson, ii. book v. 2 He was chaplain to the expedition, and not less respectable for wisdom than virtue. Robertson. 3 B. Diaz, i. 84, 85. De Solis, i. 122. 4 De Solis, i. 129, 130. 5 Ibid. 131, 132. H July 16. Sends dis I 1519. holden from Diego Velasquez, and the town and people elected him to the same office. The council of Vera Cruz now wrote to the king of Spain, giving an account of their new town, and beseeching him, that he would grant Cortes a commission of captain general in confirmation of that, which he now held from the town and troops, without any dependence on Diego Velasquez. Cortes, having written at the Same time to the king, giving him assurance of his hopes of bringing the Mexican empire to the obedience of his majesty, sent dispatches by one of his ships to Spain, with a rich present to king Charles.' This present partly consisted of articles of gold and silver, received from Montezuma; and those were the first specimens of these metals, sent to Spain, from Mexico. 3 Four Indian chiefs, with two female attendants, now went voluntarily to Spain. patches to Spain. Cortes had some time since received the ultimate order of Montezuma to depart instantly out of his dominions; but that mandate, like the former messages, being preposterously accompanied with a present, served merely to inflame desires, already kindled, and to renew the request of an audience. Intent on his design, he first marched through Zempoalla to Chiahuitzla, about forty miles to the northward of St. Juan de Ulua, and there settled Settles Vera the town of Villa Rica de Vera Cruz, and put it in a posture of defence." Determined to conquer, or Cruz. to die, he now completely destroyed his fleet, and commenced his march toward Mexico. 1 B. Diaz, i. 91. De Solis, i. chap. vii. 2 De Solis, i. 168, 169. 3 Clavigero, i. 425, 426. 4 P. Martyr, 311. 5 Robertson, ii. book v. 6" Till then Having moved with the army, though observing its proper distinctions as a republic." De Solis, i. 152. It was now settled on the plain between the sea and Chiahuitzla, half a league from that town [ibid.], and 200 miles south east of the city of Mexico. It has since become a city, remarkable for the great traffic carried on between the opulent countries of Spanish America and Old Spain. Europ. Settlements, i. 75. 7 De Solis, 172, 177. He took with him 500 men, 15 horse, and 6. ces his ico. passed, unmolested, through several Indian towns, 1519. which, through the influence of Zempoalla and Commen Chiahuitzla, were previously in the friendly con- march tofederacy, he, with extreme difficulty, passed an ward Mexabrupt and craggy mountain, and entered the province of Zocothlan. Here he received information of Tlascala, and resolved to pass through that province on his way to Mexico. Approaching nigh to its confines, he sent four Zempoallans, of great eminence, as envoys, to obtain a passage through the country. The messengers being detained, Cortes proceeded in his march, and first successfully engaged five thousand Tlascalan Indians, who were in ambush; and afterward the whole power of their republic. The Tlascalans, after suffering great slaughter in repeated assaults on the Spaniards, concluded a treaty, in which they yielded themselves as vassals to the crown of Castile, and engaged to assist Cortes in all his future operarations. He took the republic under his protection, and promised to defend the persons and pos- Sept. 23. sessions of its inhabitants from injury or violence; Fnters the and now entered its capital without molestation.' Taking with him several thousand of his new allies, he renewed his march; and, after having forced his way through the most formidable oppoşition, and eluded various stratagems, formed by 3 field pieces; and left the rest of his troops, as a garrison, in Villa Rica, The lord of Zempoalla supplied him with provisions, and 200 of those Indians, called Tamemes, whose office was, to carry burdens, and perform all servile labour. Robertson, ii. book v. 1 Robertson, ii. book v. De Solis, i. 178-230. B. Diaz, i. chap. vi. "We entered the territory of Tlascala," says B. Diaz, “ 24 days before our arrival at the chief city, which was on the 23d of September, 1519." 2 He had remained about 20 days in Tlascala, to receive the homage of the principal towns of the republic, and of their confederates. De Solis. Authors differ in respect to the number of Tlascalans, that Cortes took with him. B. Diaz says 2000; Herrera, 3000; Cortes himself says 6000. De Solis, i. 264. 3 At Cholula in particular, a large city, 5 leagues distant from Tlascala, and 20 from Mexico, a plot for the destruction of the Spaniards being discovered, Cortes directed his troops and allies to fall on the inhabitants, city of Tlascala. 1519. Montezuma to obstruct his progress, he arrived at Arrives at Iztapalapan,' six miles distant from Mexico, and Iztapala pan. made a disposition for an entrance into that great 6000 of whom were killed without the loss of a single Spaniard. Robert- 1 A large and beautiful city, which contained at that time more than 12,000 houses, and was situated towards the point of a peninsula, from which a paved causeway, & yards wide, extended, without varying the least from a right line, to the southern gate of the great temple in Mexico. Clavigero. ii. 62, 65. B. Diaz, i. 188. Clavigero says, this causeway extended more than 7 miles; but the temple, to which it led, was about a mile and a half within the city of Mexico. Ibid. 2 De Solis. i. 296. 3 Robertson, ii. book v. 4 B. Diaz, i. 188, 189. 5 De Solis, i. 299. |