Conspiracy betrayed to Cortes. 43 raise the standard of revolt, and march for Mexico. B. XII. The time was very favourable for their design. Ch. 2. Part of the Spanish troops were with Pedro de Alvarado in Guatemala; another part in Honduras with Christoval de Olid, and the Captains who had gone to subdue him. Other Spaniards, again, had gone into the province of Mechoacan, where some gold mines, according to report, had been discovered. Mexico itself was comparatively Absence of defenceless, and at no period since the conquest troops from would a revolt have been more formidable. Mexico. The Mexican troops who accompanied Cortes amounted to three thousand. Death was imminent from starvation: why should they not die to save their monarch and to recover their country? Spanish betrayed to The conspiracy was betrayed to Cortes by Mexicatzincatl, the same man, as I imagine, whom Conspiracy Cortes had set over the work of constructing and Cortes. governing the Indian quarters of Mexico. This man probably understood better than his countrymen the solid basis upon which the power of Cortes rested, and the speed with which a common danger would compel the Spaniards to resume their accustomed wariness and discipline. The traitor showed to Cortes a paper whereon were painted the faces and names of the Mexican Lords and Princes who were concerned in the conspiracy. The Spanish Commander immediately seized upon Cortes them separately, and examined them one by one, conspiratelling each that the others had confessed the tors. truth. According to BERNAL DIAZ, and also to an seizes the Kings of Mexico and Tlacuba put to death. 45 ancient Tezcucan history,* it appears as if the B. XII. King of Mexico did not confess to more than being aware of the conspiracy, and declared that he had refused to entertain it. This may be dubious; but, at any rate, the cruel practical wisdom of Cortes would make but little difference between a conspiracy suggested by the monarch himself or by others on his behalf. The result would have been the same. And Cortes saw that the sure way of putting an immediate stop to such conspiracies was to make a great example of the principal offenders. Accordingly, the Kings of Mexico and Tlacuba were condemned to death. When led to execution, the King of Mexico exclaimed, "O, Malinché, it is long that I have Speech of known the falseness of your words, and have motzin. foreseen that you would give me that death which, alas! I did not give myself, when I surrendered to you in my city of Mexico. Wherefore do you slay me without justice? May God demand it of you." Quate and The King of Tlacuba said that he looked upon his death as welcome, since he was to die with his Lord, the King of Mexico. After confession and absolution, the two Kings were The Kings hanged upon a ceyba tree in Izzancanac, in the of Mexico province of Acalán, on one of the carnival days Tlacuba before shrove-tide, in the year 1525. Thus ended death. the great Mexican dynasty-itself a thing compacted by so much blood and toil and suffering of countless human beings. The days of deposed * Referred to by TORQUEMADA. put to 1525. 46 Ignorance of the Character of Cortes. B. XII. monarchs-victims alike to the zeal of their Ch. 2. friends and the suspicions of their captors-are mostly very brief; and perhaps it is surprising that the King of Mexico should have survived so long as four years the conquest of his capital, and have been treated during the greater part of that time with favour and honour.* Some writers have supposed that Cortes was weary of his captives, and wished to destroy them, and that the charge of conspiracy was fictitious. Such assertions betray a total ignorance of the character of this great Spaniard. Astute men seldom condescend to lying. Now, Cortes was not only very astute, but, according to his notions, highly honourable. A genuine hidalgo, and a thoroughly * For an account of this conspiracy, see TORQUEMADA, lib. 4, cap. 104. Effects of the discovery of the Conspiracy. 47 Ch. 2. loyal man, he would as soon have thought of B. XII. committing a small theft as of uttering a falsehood in a despatch addressed to his sovereign.' Cortes could well afford to be satisfied with the deaths of the two principal kings, and to spare the other conspirators, as his discovery of this conspiracy deepened the impression which the Mexicans already entertained of his supernatural knowledge. They had seen him at the time of greatest difficulty call for a mysteriouslooking mirror or chart, and after watching with solicitude the trembling movements of a needle suspended over the flat surface, determine at once telz que á la sazon era en esta * His own account of the betrayal of the conspiracy to him is in the following words :-" Aquí en esta provincia de Acalan acae-chas veces y dado parte de ello á ció un caso que es bien que V. M. lo sepa, y es que un ciudadano honrado de esta ciudad de Temixtitan, que se llamaba Mecicalcingo, y despues que se bautizó se llama Cristóval, vino á mí una noche muy secretamente y me trajo cierta figura en un papel de lo de esta tierra, y que riéndome dar á entender lo que significaba me dijo que Guatemacin, señor que fué de esta ciudad de Temixtitan, á quien yo despues que la gané he tenido siempre preso, teniéndole por hombre bullicioso, y le llevé conmigo aquel camino con todos los demas señores que me parecian que eran partes para la seguridad y revuelta de estas partes, é díjome aquel Cristóval que él y Guanacasin, señor que fué de Tescuco, y Tetepanguecal, señor que fué de Tacuba, y un Taca este Messicalcingo, que agora se |