Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican Part 6

In a historical narrative which is designed to treat exclusively of Mexico, it might perhaps be considered inappropriate to relate that portion of the biography of Cortez which is covered by his expedition to Honduras, whither he marched after he learned the defection of his lieutenant Olid whom he had sent to that distant region with a body of Spanish soldiers to found a dependant colony. It was whilst on this disastrous march that the report of a conspiracy to slay the Spaniards, in which Guatemozin was implicated, reached his ears, and that the dethroned monarch, together with several princes and inferior n.o.bles, was hanged, by his orders, on the branches of a tree. There is a difference of opinion among contemporary writers as to the guilt of Guatemozin and the Aztec n.o.bles; but it is probable that the unfortunate prince had become a dangerous and formidable captive and that the grave was a safer prison for such a personage, than the tents and bivouacs of a menaced army.

Another renowned character in this drama--the serviceable and gentle Indian girl Dona Mariana,--was no longer needed and was disposed of during this expedition, by marriage with Don Martin Xamarillo, to whom she brought a n.o.ble dowry of estates, which were a.s.signed her by the conqueror in her native province, where, in all likelihood she ended her romantic career. Her son by Cortez, named after his grand-father Don Martin, became distinguished in the annals of the colony and of Spain, but in 1568, he was cruelly treated in the capital which had been won by the valor and fidelity of his parents.

From this digression in his Mexican career, Cortez was suddenly recalled by the news of disturbances in the capital, which he reached after a tempestuous and dangerous voyage. His journey from the coast to the valley was a continued scene of triumphs; and, from Tezcoco, in June, 1526, he made his stately entrance into the city of Mexico amid brilliant cavalcades, decorated streets, and lakes and ca.n.a.ls covered with the fanciful skiffs of Indians.

A month later, the joy of his rapturous reception was disturbed by the announcement that the Spanish Court had sent a commissioner to supercede him temporarily in the government. The work of sapping his power and influence had long been carried on at home; and false reports, involving Cortez in extreme dishonesty not only to the subjects but to the crown of Spain itself, at length infused suspicions into the sovereign's mind. The Emperor resolved to search the matter fairly to its core, and, accordingly, despatched Don Luis Ponce de Leon, a young, but able n.o.bleman to perform this delicate task, at the same time that he wrote with his own hand to the conqueror, a.s.suring him that his sole design was not to distrust or deprive him of his honors, but to afford him the opportunity of placing his integrity in a clear light before the world.

De Leon, and the delegate chosen on his death bed, died within a few months, and were succeeded by Estrada, the royal treasurer, who was hostile to Cortez, and whose malicious mismanagement of the investigation soon convinced even the Spanish court that it was unjust to leave so delicate and tangled a question in his hands. Accordingly the affair was transferred from Estrada to a commission styled the Audiencia Real de Espana, and Cortez was commanded to hasten across the Atlantic in order to vindicate himself from the aspersions before this august body, which sat in the midst of his countrymen.

Cortez resolved to go at once; and, loyal to the last, rejected all the offers that were made him to rea.s.sume the reins of power, _independently of Spain_. He carried with him a number of natives, together with specimens of all the natural and artificial products of his viceroyalty; nor did he forget a plentiful supply of gold, silver, and jewels, with which he might maintain, in the eyes of his luxurious countrymen, the state that was appropriate for one whose conquests and acquisitions were so extensive. Sandoval and Tapia, too, departed with their beloved companion in arms, the former of whom, only, lived to land once more on his native land.

As he journeyed from the sea-port towards Toledo, the curious crowds poured out on the way side to behold and welcome the hero of the New World; and from the gates of the city a gallant crowd of cavaliers poured forth, with the Duke de Bejar and the Count de Aguilar, to attend him to his dwelling.

The Emperor received him with marked respect on the following day, and from the bountiful gifts and splendid t.i.tles which were showered upon Cortez before the close of 1529, it seems that his sovereign was soon personally satisfied in his frequent and frank interviews with the conqueror, that the tales he had heard from across the sea were mere calumnies unworthy his notice. The t.i.tle of "Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca" was bestowed on him. Lands in the rich province of Oaxaca, and estates in the city of Mexico and other places, were also ceded to him. "The princely domain thus granted him," says Prescott, "comprehended more than twenty towns and villages and twenty-three thousand va.s.sals." The court and sovereign vied with each other in honoring and appreciating his services, and every privilege was no sooner demanded than granted, save that of again a.s.suming the government of New Spain!

It was the policy of the Spanish court not to entrust the rule of conquered countries to the men who had subdued them. There was fancied, and perhaps real danger in confiding such dearly acquired jewels to ambitious and daring adventurers who might ripen into disloyal usurpers.

Cortez bowed submissively to the will of the Emperor. He was grateful for what had been graciously conceded to his merits and services; nor was he unwilling to enjoy the luxury of careless repose after so many years of toil. His first wife,--wedded as we have related in the Islands,--died a short time after she joined him in the capital after the conquest. Cortez was yet young, nor was he ill favored or indisposed to slight the charms of the s.e.x. A fair relative of the Aguilars and Bejars, Dona Juana Zuniga, at this moment attracted his attention and was soon won. Her dower of jewels, wrested from the Aztecs, and carved by their most skilful workmen, was indescribably magnificent, and, after her splendid nuptials, she embarked, in 1530, with the conqueror and his aged mother to return to the Indian Islands, and finally to New Spain.

At Hispaniola he met an Audiencia Real, which was still to have jurisdiction of his case, if it ever came to trial, and at whose head was an avowed enemy of the conqueror, Nuno de Guzman. The evidence was taken upon eight scandalous charges against Cortez, and is of so suspicious a character that it not only disgusts the general reader, but also failed in its effect upon the Spanish court by which no action was finally taken in regard to it.

Cortez remained two months in the island before he set sail for Vera Cruz, in July 1530; and, in the meantime, the Bishop of San Domingo was selected to preside over a new Audiencia, inasmuch as the conduct of the late Audiencia, and of Guzman especially, in relation to the Indians, had become so odiously oppressive that fears were entertained of an outbreak. The bishop and his coadjutors were men of a different stamp, who inspired the conqueror with better hopes for the future prosperity of the Indian colonies.

So jealous was the home government of the dangerous influence of Cortez,--a man so capable of establis.h.i.+ng for himself an independent empire in the New World,--that he had been inhibited from approaching the capital nearer than thirty leagues. But this did not prevent the people from approaching him. He returned to the scene of his conquest, with all the personal resentments and annoyances that had been felt by individuals of old, softened by the lapse of time during his prolonged absence in Spain. He came back, too, with all the prestige of his Emperor's favor; and, thus, both by the new honors he had won at court, and the memory of his deeds, the ma.s.ses felt disposed to acknowledge, at the moment of joyous meeting, that it was alone to him they owed their possessions, their wealth, their comfort, and their importance in New Spain.

Accordingly, Mexico was deserted by the courtiers, and Tezcoco, where he established his headquarters was thronged by eager crowds who came not only to visit but to consult the man whose wit and wisdom were as keen as his sword, and who revisited Mexico, ripened into an astute statesman.

Nevertheless, the seeming cordiality between the magistrates of the capital and the partly exiled Captain General, did not long continue.

Occasions arose for difference of opinion and for disputes of even a more bitter character, until, at length, he turned his back on the glorious valley,--the scene of his n.o.blest exploits,--forever, and took up his abode in his town of Cuernavaca, which, it will be recollected, he captured from the Aztecs before the capital fell into his hands. This was a place lying in the lap of a beautiful valley, sheltered from the north winds and fronting the genial sun of the south, and here he once more returned to the cares of agriculture,--introducing the sugar cane from Cuba, encouraging the cultivation of flax and hemp, and teaching the people the value of lands, cattle and husbandry which they had never known or fully appreciated. Gold and silver he drew from Zacatecas and Tehuantepec; but he seems to have wisely thought that the permanent wealth and revenue of himself and his heirs would best be found in tillage.

Our limits will not permit us to dwell upon the agricultural, mineral and commercial speculations of Cortez, nor upon his various adventures in Mexico. It is sufficient to say that he planned several expeditions, the most important of which, was unsuccessful in consequence of his necessary absence in Spain, whither he had been driven, as we have seen, to defend himself against the attacks of his enemies. Immediately, however, upon his return to Mexico, he not only sent forth various navigators, to make further discoveries, but departed himself for the coast of Jalisco, which he visited in 1534 and 1535. He recovered a s.h.i.+p, which had been seized by Nuno de Guzman; and having a.s.sembled the vessels he had commanded to be built in Tehuantepec, he embarked every thing needful to found a colony. The sufferings he experienced in this expedition were extraordinarily great; his little fleet was a.s.sailed by famine and tempests, and, so long was he unheard of, in Mexico, that, at the earnest instance of his wife, the viceroy Mendoza sent two vessels to search for him. He returned, at length, to Acapulco; but not content with his luckless efforts, he made arrangements for a new examination of the coasts, by Francisco de Ulloa, which resulted in the discovery of California, as far as the Isle de Cedros, and of all that gulf, to which geographers have given the name of the "Sea of Cortez."

His expenses in these expeditions exceeded three hundred thousand castellanos of gold, which were never returned to him by the government of Spain. Subsequently, a Franciscan missionary, Fray Marcos de Niza, reported the discovery, north of Sonoma, of a rich and powerful nation called Quivara, whose capital he represented as enjoying an almost European civilization. Cortez claimed his right to take part in or command an expedition which the viceroy Mendoza was fitting out for its conquest. But he was baulked in his wishes, and was obliged to confine his future efforts for Mexico to works of beneficence in the capital.

That portion of the conqueror's life which impressed its powerful characteristics upon New Spain was now over. The rest of his story belongs rather to biography and the Old World than to a compressed narrative of Mexican history, for although he remained long in the country, and afterwards fought successfully under the Emperor's banner in other lands, it appears that he was unable to win the Spanish crown to grant him authority over the empire he had subdued. He died at Castilleja de la Cuesta, near Seville, on the 2d of December, 1547.

Cortez provided in his will that his body should be interred in the place where he died, if that event occurred in Spain, and that, within ten years, his bones should be removed to New Spain and deposited in a convent of Franciscan nuns, which, under the name of La Concepcion, he ordered to be founded in Cuyoacan. Accordingly, his corpse was first of all laid in the convent of San Isidro, outside the walls of Seville, whence it was carried to Mexico and deposited in the church of San Francisco, at Tezcoco, inasmuch as the convent of Cuyoacan was not yet built. Thence the ashes of the hero were carried, in 1629, to the princ.i.p.al chapel of the church of San Francis, in the capital; and, at last, were translated, on the 8th of November, 1794, to the church of the Hospital of Jesus, which Cortez had founded. When the revolution broke out, a vindictive feeling prevailed not only against the living Spaniards, but against the dead, and men were found, who invoked the people to tear these honored relics from their grave, and after burning them at San Lazaro, to scatter the hated ashes to the winds. But, in the government and among the princ.i.p.al citizens, there were many individuals who eagerly sought an opportunity to save Mexico from this disgraceful act. These persons secretly removed the monument, tablet, and remains of the conqueror from their resting place in the Church of Jesus, and there is reason to believe, that at length they repose in peaceful concealment in the vaults of the family in Italy. Past generations deprived him, whilst living, of the right to rule the country he had won by his valor. Modern Mexico has denied his corpse even the refuge of a grave.[11]

[Footnote 9: Prescott 3d, 261.]

[Footnote 10: Prescott, vol. 3, 274.]

[Footnote 11: See Alaman, Disertaciones sobre la historia de la Republica Mexicana, vol. 2, p. 93 Appendix.]

CHAPTER XIII.

650-1500.

ARCHBISHOP ZUMARRAGA'S DESTRUCTION OF MEXICAN MONUMENTS, WRITINGS, DOc.u.mENTS--MR. GALLATIN'S OPINION OF THEM.--TRADITIONS--TWO SOURCES OF ACCURATE KNOWLEDGE.--SPECULATIONS ON ANTIQUITY.--AZTECS--TOLTECS--NAHUATLACS--ACOLHUANS, ETC.--AZTECS EMIGRATE FROM AZTLAN--SETTLE IN ANAHUAC.--TABLES OF EMIGRATION OF THE ORIGINAL TRIBES--OTHER TRIBES IN THE EMPIRE.

One of the most disgraceful destructions of property, recorded in history, is that which was accomplished in Mexico by the first Archbishop of New Spain, Juan de Zumarraga. He collected from all quarters, but especially from Tezcoco, where the national archives were deposited, all the Indian ma.n.u.scripts he could discover, and causing them to be piled in a great heap in the market place of Tlatelolco, he burned all these precious records, which under the skilful interpretation of competent natives, _might_ have relieved the early history of the Aztecs from the obscurity with which it is now clouded.

The superst.i.tious soldiery eagerly imitated the pious example of this prelate, and emulated each other in destroying all the books, charts, and papers, which bore hieroglyphic signs, whose import, they had been taught to believe was as sacrilegiously symbolic and pernicious as that of the idols they had already hurled from the Indian temples.

And yet, it may be questioned, whether these doc.u.ments, had they been spared even as the curious relics of the literature or art of a semi-civilized people, would have enlightened the path of the historical student. "It has been shown," says Mr. Gallatin, "that those which have been preserved contain but a meagre account of the Mexican history for the one hundred years preceding the conquest, and hardly anything that relates to prior events. The question naturally arises--from what source those writers derived their information, who have attempted to write not only the modern history of Mexico, but that of ancient times? It may, without hesitation, be answered, that their information was traditional. The memory of important events is generally preserved and transmitted by songs and ballads, in those nations which have attained a certain degree of civilization, and had not the use of letters. Unfortunately, if we except the hymns of the great monarch of Tezcoco, which are of recent date, and allude to no historical fact of an earlier epoch than his own times, no such Mexican remnants have been transmitted to us, or published. On the other hand the recollection and oral transmission of events may have been aided by the hieroglyphics imperfect as they were; thus, those of the significant names of a king and of a city, together with the symbol of the year, would remind the Mexicans of the history of the war of that king against that city which had been early taught him whilst a student in the temple."[12]

It is thus, perhaps, that the virtuoso rather than the historical student has been the sufferer by the superst.i.tious conflagrations of Zumarraga and the Spanish soldiers. We have unquestionably lost most of the minute events of early Aztec history. We have remained ignorant of much of the internal policy of the realm, and have been obliged to play the antiquarian in the discussion of dates and epochs, whose perfect solution, even, would not cast a solitary ray of light upon the grand problem of this continent's development or population. But amid all this obscurity, ignorance, and diffuseness, we have the satisfaction to know that some valuable facts escaped the grasp of these destroyers, and that the grand historical traditions of the empire were eagerly listened to and recorded by some of the most enlightened Europeans who hastened after the conquest to New Spain.

The song, the story, and the anecdote, handed down from sire to son in a nation which possessed no books, no system of writing, no letters, no alphabet,--formed in reality the great chain connecting age with age, king with king, family with family;--and, as the gigantic bond lengthened with time, some of its links were adorned with the embellishments of fancy, whilst others, in the dim and distant past, became almost imperceptible. Nor were the conquerors and their successors men devoted to the antiquities of the Mexicans with the generous love of enthusiasts who delight in disclosing the means by which a people emerged from the obscurity of a tribe into the grandeur of a civilized nation. In most cases the only object they had in magnifying, or even in manifesting the real character, genius and works of the Mexicans, is to be found in their desire to satisfy their country and the world that they had indeed conquered an empire, and not waged exterminating war against naked but wealthy savages. It was, in fact, a species of self laudation; and it has, therefore, not been without at least a slight degree of incredulity that we read the glowing early accounts of the palaces, the state and the power of the Mexican emperors. The graphic works of Mr. Stephens on Yucatan and Central America, seem, however, to open new authorities upon this vast problem of civilization. Architecture never lies. It is one of those ma.s.sive records which require too much labor in order to record a falsehood. The men who could build the edifices of Uxmal, Palenque, Copan and Chichen-Itza, were far removed from the aboriginal condition of Nomadic tribes. Taste and luxury had been long grafted on the mere _wants_ of the natives. They had learned not only to build for protection against weather, but for permanent homes whose internal arrangements should afford them comfort, and whose external appearance should gratify the public taste. Order, symmetry, elegance, beauty of ornament, gracefulness of symbolic imagery, had all combined to exhibit the external manifestations which are always seen among people who are not only anxious to gratify others as well as themselves, but to vie with each other in the exhibition of individual tastes. Here, however, as in Egypt, the architectural remains are chiefly of temples, tombs and palaces. The wors.h.i.+p of G.o.d,--the safety of the body after death,--and the permanent idea of loyal obedience to authority,--are symbolized by the temple,--tomb,--and the rock-built palace. The ma.s.ses, who felt they had no constant abiding place on earth, did not in all probability, build for themselves those substantial and beautifully embellished _homes_, under whose influence modern civilization has so far exceeded the barren _humanism_ of the valley of the Nile. It was useless, they deemed, to enshrine in marble whilst living, the miserable spirit that, after death, might crawl in a crocodile or burrow in a hog. Christianity, alone, has made the _Dwelling_ paramount to the Tomb and the Palace.

We cannot leave the early history of Spanish occupation without naturally casting our eyes over the empire which it was the destiny of Cortez to conquer. Of its geographical boundaries we know but little.

The dominions of the original Aztecs covered but a small part of the territory comprehended in modern Mexico; and although they were enlarged during the empire, they did not even then extend beyond the eighteenth degree and the twenty-first on the Atlantic or Gulf, and beyond the fourteenth and nineteenth degree including a narrow slip on the Pacific.

The seat and centre of the Mexican empire was in the valley of Mexico, in a temperate climate, whose genial mildness is gained by its elevation of over seven thousand feet above the level of the sea. The features of this region,--the same now as at the conquest,--will be more fully described hereafter in those chapters which treat of the geography and statistics of modern Mexico.

On the eastern or western borders of the lake of Tezcoco, facing each other, stood the ancient cities of Tenocht.i.tlan or Mexico, and of Tezcoco. These were the capitals of the two most famous, flouris.h.i.+ng and civilized states of Anahuac, the sources of whose population and progress are veiled in the general mystery that overhangs the early history of our continent.

The general, and best received tradition that we possess upon the subject, declares that the original inhabitants of this beautiful valley came from the north; and that perhaps the earliest as well as the most conspicuous in the legends, were the Toltecs, who moved to the south before the end of the seventh century, and settled at Tollan or Tula, north of the Mexican valley, where extensive architectural remains were yet to be found at the period of the conquest. This spot seems to have gradually become the parent hive of civilization and advancement; but, after four centuries, during which they extended their sway over the whole of Anahuac, the Toltecs are alleged to have wasted away by famine, disease, and the slow desolation of unsuccessful wars. This occurred about the year 1051, as the Indian tradition relates,--and the few who escaped the ravages of death, departed for those more southern regions now known as Yucatan and Guatemala, in which we perhaps find the present remains of their civilization displayed in the temples, edifices and tombs of Palenque and Uxmal. During the next century these valleys and mountains were nearly desolate and bare of population, until a rude and altogether uncivilized tribe, known as the Chichimecas, came from Amaquemecan, in the north, and settled in villages among the ruins of their Toltec predecessors. After eight years, six other Indian tribes called Nahuatlacs arrived, and announced the approach of another band from the north, known as the Aztecs, who, soon afterwards, entered Anahuac.

About this period the Acolhuans, who are said to have emigrated from Teoacolhucan, near the original territories of the Chichimecas, advanced into the valley and speedily allied themselves with their ancient neighbors. These tribes appear to have been the founders of the Tezcocan government and nation which was once a.s.sailed successfully by the Tepanecs, but was finally delivered from thraldom by the signal bravery and talents of the prince Nezahualcoyotl, who was heir of the crown, supported by his Mexican allies.

Our chief concern, however, in groping our way through the tangled labyrinth of tradition, is to ascertain the story of the AZTECS, whose advent has been already announced. It was about the year 1160, that they departed from Aztlan, the original seat of their tribe, on their journey of southern emigration. Their pilgrimage seems to have been interrupted by numerous halts and delays, both on their route through the northern regions now comprehended in the modern Republic of Mexico, as well as in different parts of the Mexican valley which was subsequently to become their home and capital. At length, in 1325, they descried an eagle resting on a cactus which sprang from the crevice of a rock in the lake of Tezcoco, and grasping in his talons a writhing serpent. This had been designated by the Aztec oracles as the site of the home in which the tribe should rest after its long and weary migration; and, accordingly, the city of Tenocht.i.tlan, was founded upon the sacred spot, and like another Venice rose from the bosom of the placid waters.

It was near a hundred years after the founding of the city, and in the beginning of the fifteenth century, that the Tepanecs attacked the Tezcocan monarchy, as has been related in the previous part of this chapter. The Tezcocans and the Aztecs or Mexicans united to put down the power of the spoiler, and as a recompense for the important services of the allies, the supreme dominion of the territory of the royal house of Tezcoco was transferred to the Aztecs. The Tezcocan sovereigns thus became, in a measure, mediatized princes of the Mexican throne; and the two states, together with the neighboring small kingdom of Tlacopan, south of the lake of Chalco, formed an offensive and defensive league which was sustained with unwavering fidelity through all the wars and a.s.saults which ensued during the succeeding century. The bold leaguers united in that spirit of plunder and conquest which characterizes a martial people, as soon as they are surrounded by the necessaries, comforts, and elegances of life in their own country, and whenever the increase of population begins to require a vent through which it may expand those energies that would destroy the state by rebellions or civil war, if pent up within the narrow limits of so small a realm as the valley of Mexico. Accordingly we find that the sway of this small tribe, which had but just nestled among the reeds, rocks and marshes of the lake, was quickly spread beyond the mountain barrier that hemmed in the valley. Like the Hollanders, they became great by the very wretchedness of their site, and the vigilant industry it enforced. The Aztec arms were triumphant throughout all the plains that swept downward towards the Atlantic, and, as we have seen, even maintained dominion on the sh.o.r.es of the Pacific, or penetrated, under the b.l.o.o.d.y Ahuitzotl, the remotest corners of Guatemala and Nicaragua.

Such was the extent of Aztec power at the beginning of the 16th century, at the period of the Spanish incursion.

NOTE.--The discrepancies in the dates a.s.signed by several writers as to the periods of the emigration of various tribes and the reigns of their sovereigns, are carefully presented in the following table, given by Albert Gallatin, in his essay on the Mexican nations--1 vol. Ethnol. Soc. Transac. 162.

Column Headings: A: _Alva._ B: _Sahagun._ C: _Veytia._ D: _Clavigero._

TOLTECS.

A B C D

Arrived at Huehuetlalpallan 387 Departed from do 596 544 They found Tula 498 713 720 Monarchy begins 510 667 Monarchy ends 959 1116 1051

CHICHIMECAS AND ACOLHUANS OR TEZCOCANS. {about Xolotl, 1st King occupies the valley of Mexico 963 1120 {1170 Napoltzin, 2d King ascends the throne 1075 1232 13 cen Huetzin} Tlotzin} 3rd King, so called erroneously, ascends the throne 1107 1263 14 cen Quinantzin, 4th King ascends the throne 1141 1298 14 cen Tlaltecatzin 1st King according to Sahagun ascends the throne 1246 Techotlalatzin 5th (2d, Sahagun) ascends the throne 1253 1271 1357 14 cen Ixtlilxochitl 6th (3d, Sahagun) " " " 1357 1331 1409 1406 Netzahual-Coyotzin 7th (4th, Sahagun) ascends the throne 1418 1392 1418 1426 Netzahual-Pilzintli 8th (5th, Sahagun) ascends the throne 1462 1463 1470 Netzahual-Pilzintli dies 1515 1516 1516

TEPANECS, OR TECPANECS OF ACAPULCO.

Acolhua arrives 1011 1158 Acolhua 2d son of Acolhua 1st arrives 1239 Tezozomac son according to D'Alva, grandson according to Veytia of the 1st Acolhua arrives 1299 1348 1343 Maxtlan, son of Tezozomac arrives 1427 1427 1422