come succor. Cortez received the conquered troops in the most winning manner, and created an enthusiasm in his favor. One of the soldiers of Narvaez, a negro and a comical fellow, danced and shouted for joy, crying, "Where are the Romans who with such small numbers have ever achieved so great a victory?" The first thought of Cortez was to divide his troops; for, as the vanquished far outnumbered the victors, some disturbance might easily occur, and the men of Narvaez could not yet be relied upon as firm adherents. Cortez accordingly employed two hundred Spaniards in founding a town at Coatzacualco, the same spot to which he had before sent an expedition. He also dispatched two hundred men to Vera Cruz, where he had given orders that the vessels should be transported; and two hundred he sent to another place. His next care was to dispatch a messenger to Mexico, to give an account of his victory, of which, at his suggestion, a painted representation* was sent to Montezuma by the Indians of Cempoala. * "Aviendo pintado en un Lienço lo que pasaba, á Narvaez herido, y aprisionado, la Gente rendida; á Cortes Victorioso, y apoderado de la Artillería."-TORQUEMADA, Monarquía Indiana, lib. iv., cap. 66. CHAPTER VII. DURING THE ABSENCE OF CORTEZ THE MEXICANS REBEL. SIEGE OF THE SPANISH GARRISON.-CORTEZ RETURNS TO MEXICO. Ν IN fourteen days after the defeat of Narvaez the messenger of Cortez returned to him, bringing from Alvarado the unexpected and unwelcome intelligence that the Spanish garrison in Mexico were besieged by the citizens, and were in the utmost peril, and that the Indians had set fire to the Spanish quarters in many places, and undermined them. Much of the provisions, he added, had been taken by the enemy; the four brigantines had been burned; and, although the combat had ceased, the Spaniards were rigorously invested. Finally, Alvarado implored Cortez, for the love of God, to lose no time in succoring them. The causes of this outbreak will furnish a curious illustration of Mexican habits and practices, and require to be told at some length. It is seldom that the religion of a people is so intimately connected with its warfare as to form part of the same story, but in the case both of the Mexicans and Peruvians, transactions of the highest military importance grew out of the proceedings at religious festivals. This is a felicity for the narrative, as it takes these religious ceremonies, which were so large a part of the life of the people, out of the list of mere description of manners and political customs, and brings them naturally into the course of events. The month Toxcatl, in which Cortez was absent from Mexico, was the especial month devoted to religous services. It corresponded nearly with the period of Easter; "as if," says the pious monk* from whom we learn these particulars, "the Devil wished to imitate the Christian festival of Easter in order to forget or dissemble the grief which the Christian commemoration caused him." The Mexican divinity who was chiefly honored in this month was Tezcatlipuk, and the mode of honoring him was as follows. Ten days before the chief day of the festival, a priest sallied forth from the temple, clad after the fashion of the idol, with flowers in his hand, and with a little flute made of clay, of a very shrill pitch. This priest, having turned first to the east, sounded his flute; then he turned to the west, and did the same thing; then to the north, and then to the south. Having thus signified that he called upon the attention of all mankind, and required them to celebrate worthily this festival, he remained in silence for a time. Then he placed his hand on the ground, and taking some earth in it, put it in his mouth and ate it, as a token of humility and adoration. All who heard him did the same thing, and, with the most energetic demonstrations of grief and entreaty, implored the obscurity of night and the wind not to desert them nor forget them, but to deliver them immediately from the troubles of life, and carry them to the place of rest,† "as if,” adds the indignant monk, * TORQUEMADA, Monarquía Indiana. "Invocando á la obscuridad de la noche, y al viento (ceremonia propria de Gentiles, como leemos averlo hecho aquella Reina de Cartago, en la celebracion de su muerte, y Sacrificio) y rogábanles con ahinco, que no los desamparasen, ni olvidasen, ó que los librasen presto "the accursed one could give that which in truth he does not possess for himself." At the sound of this little flute, which seems as if it represented for them the "still small voice" of conscience, all sinners became very sorrowful and much afraid; and during the ten days that this lasted, their constant prayer to Tezcatlipuk was, that their faults should be hidden from the eyes and the knowledge of men, and pardoned by his gracious clemency.* There is a strange wisdom sometimes in these barbarous rites; and here we have an instance of that just fear of the intolerance of his fellow-man (who, moreover, is obliged to pretend to be worse in this respect than he is) which leads the sinner to confide in God, and to fear his fellow-creatures. Every day this ceremony of the flute was continued, and every day sighs, sobs, and agony of soul were offered up, "although," as the monk remarks, with but a shallow reading of the heart of man, "this grief of theirs was only for corporal punishment, which their gods gave them, and not for eternal punishment, for they did not believe that in another life there was a punishment so strict as the faith teaches us; which, if they had believed, so many of them would not have offered themselves so willingly to death as they did offer themselves, but would have been afraid of the torments which they have to endure forever." This de los trabajos de la Vida, y les llevasen al lugar del descanso."—TORQUEMADA, Monarquía Indiana, lib. x., cap. 14. * "No pedian otra cosa á este Dios, sino que fuesen sus delitos ocultos de los ojos, y sabiduría de los Hombres, y perdonados de su misericordia, y clemencia.”—TORQUEMADA, Monarquía Indiana, lib. x., cap. 14. "Aunque este dolor de ellos, no era sino por la pena corporal, que les daban, y no por la eterna, por no tener creído que en la otra vida huviese pena tan estrecha, como nos la enseña la Fé: que á creerlo, remark (of the readiness of the Mexicans to encounter death) is well worthy of notice, as it tends a little to exculpate their practice of human sacrifice; and one is glad, for the sake of human nature, to find any thing which tends to explain that form of atrocity. The ten days having thus passed, the eve before the festival arrived, when the Mexican lords brought new vestments for the idol, and adorned him with feathers, bracelets, and other ornaments, the old ones being put away in a chest, and much honored. Then the priests drew aside the curtain which was at the entrance of the chapel where the idol stood, and showed it to the assembled people. After this, a priest of great authority came forth with roses in his hand, and sounded the little flute with the same ceremony as on the preceding days. On the ensuing morning, the great day of the festival having now come, the priests brought out a splendid litter, put the idol upon it, and, taking the burden upon their shoulders, brought it down to the foot of the steps of the great temple. Then came all the youths and maidens who were devoted to the service of the temple, and, bearing a thick rope made of strings of roasted maize, performed a circuit round the litter. This rope was called after the month Toxcatl, and was a symbol of sterility (Toxcatl meaning a "dry thing"); and the whole drift of the ceremony was to implore Tezcatlipuk, their Jupiter, to give them gracious rain from heaven. no se ofrecieran tantos de su voluntad á la muerte, como se ofrecian, con temor de los tormentos, que avian de pasar perdurablemente.”TORQUEMADA, Monarquía Indiana, lib. x., cap. 14. |