Tlaxcalans

“ The faithful Tlaxcalans offered to reinforce him with their entire war power, but he contented himself by taking only two thousand men and giving them hearty thanks for their steadfast loyalty. His march was made in a cautious manner but his good fortune and the simplicity of the Mexicans made caution superfluous. It would have been easy to cut off his return to the capital by destroying the causeways, but the Mexicans were either too stupid or too timorous to do it. Cortes found them just as he had left them, and nothing stood in the way of his entrance into the city. ”

“ We halted to inspect the work and Cortes asked the villagers for what purpose it stood there. They answered that because the great Montezuma was continually warring against the Tlaxcalans, they had built the fort to protect their territory. We rested here, at this entrance to a hostile country, till Cortes cried, "Let us follow our standard bearing the sign of the cross, gentlemen. Through that we shall conquer." To which we one and all returned, "Forward! whatever may happen. In God is our strength! ”

“ Not one among us who had not one, two or three wounds, and all were weakened by fatigue and hardship. Fifty-five of us had died in battle or from disease and the great cold, and Cortes and the Padre de Olmedo were suffering from fever. Naturally we began to think what would be the final outcome of our undertaking. If the Tlaxcalans, whom we thought peacefully minded toward us, could reduce us to such straits, what would become of us when we met the great armies of against Montezuma? ”

“ Benito Juarez, who laid the foundations on which Diaz has so magnificently built, was a pure-blood Zapotec. From the Aztecs, the Tlaxcalans, Mixtecs, Zapotecs and Mayas, we may hope much in the future. They were races of achievement in the past, and the monuments of their achievement still remain. But that the Otomi, the Triqui, or the Mixe, should be made over by the schools is doubtful. Personally, I feel that the prosperity of Mexico rests more upon the indian blood than on any other element of national power. ”

“ Many of our soldiers felt very anxious about the state of affairs. It was therefore after much impatience and ardent longing to begin our siege of the great city that Cortes ordered Sandoval to take two hundred soldiers, twenty musketeers and crossbowmen, fifteen horsemen, a strong body of Tlaxcalans, and to these to add twenty chieftains of Texcoco, and to fetch the woodwork. ”

“ Cortes’ March to Tlaxcala—Battle and Defeat of the Tlaxcalans—Montezuma’s Messengers
The little army set out from Zempoala August 16, 1519. Nothing of consequence marked the first day’s march. Their way led through the territory of their ally, the cacique. They met with a friendly reception and hospitable treatment. At last they came to the borders of the mountainous country of Tlaxcala. [6] The natives of this region surpassed all the other Americans in extraordinary courage and especially in their love of freedom. ”

“ Cortes and all of us answered that we thanked him for this evidence of his very friendly feeling, whereupon Montezuma said, laughing, for he was always of a bright, merry manner, "I know very well, Malinche, what those close allies of yours, the Tlaxcalans, have told you about me, how I am a sort of god or teul and my houses are filled with gold, silver and precious stones. Reasonable men such as you of course put no faith in their talk and took it for nonsense, but now, Malinche, you see for yourself that my body is of flesh and bone like yours. ”

“ At the time of the conquest their principal centres were Papantla and Zacapoaxtla. East of them, in Coatzacoalcos and Tabasco, were the peoples known to the Mexicans as Olmec, Xicalanca and Nonoualca, who, according to legend, were once settled in the neighbourhood of Tlaxcala, but were driven thence by the historical Tlaxcalans when they immigrated into the country.
The early history of these tribes is very difficult to elucidate from the tangled mass of migration myths, often contradictory, which have survived. ”

“ This call for aid appealed to Cortes and he determined to send out Cristobal de Olid in command of nearly all the horsemen and soldiers and a large force of Tlaxcalans—for the booty the Tlaxcalans had carried off from Tepeaca had induced many more to join us. Now among Olid's three hundred soldiers were several followers of Narvaez, and as they went on their way some Indians told these Narvaez men that all the fields and houses in the country to which they were marching were filled with Mexican warriors—this and other hugger-mugger stories. ”

“ This offer proved an attractive one not only to the Tlaxcalans but to other natives who saw a further chance of securing their freedom from their Mexican overlords. Over 100,000 men were collected, either by promises or by methods of terrorism; any pueblo that resisted was sacked and the inhabitants massacred. Tepeacac, the center of resistance, was taken; its men were put to death, and the women and children set apart as slaves. As time went on, various individual adventurers appeared off the coast, and by degrees the losses in Europeans, in artillery, and in horses were made up. ”

“ Abroad he quelled a rebellion among the Zapotec and Mixtec, and carried on operations in Soconusco and Vera Cruz. Nearer home he seized the opportunity of a quarrel between the Tlaxcalans and Uexotzinca to espouse the cause of the latter and to carry on a vigorous campaign against the former. For many years the Aztec had been able seriously to obstruct Tlaxcalan trade with the coast, so much so in fact that salt was a rarity in that province, but Montecuzoma made an energetic attack upon their territory. ”

“ They were called into Council and offered the following advice: The Spaniards are the Children of the Sun. By day their mother strengthens them with her rays and they are invincible. But at night, when the sun loses her maternal influence, their superhuman power disappears and they are no stronger than ordinary beings.
The superstitious Tlaxcalans did not doubt the truth of this for an instant and hastened to avail themselves of the discovery by making a night attack. But Cortes was too watchful and far-sighted to be surprised by such an enemy. ”

“ They are moving their wives and children out of town and all their belongings."
When Cortes heard this he sent the Tlaxcalans back to their caciques with orders to be ready if we should summon them, and turning to the caciques and papas told them to have no fear and to remain true to the obedience they had pledged him, otherwise he should feel obliged to punish them; and now, as he had already said, he purposed to take his departure to-morrow for Mexico, and he should require warriors and porters of theirs to join his army. ”

“ Martin Lopez, who had charge, as I said, advised that we now change the order of our march, for the Tlaxcalans had told him that the Mexicans might attack and defeat those heavily laden with materials and food supplies. Therefore Sandoval divided the horsemen and crossbowmen so that some should always be in advance, and others on the flanks, and others form the rear guard with Sandoval himself. ”

“ They determined to abandon all association with people whom the Heavens had doomed to destruction. Some of the Tlaxcalans themselves were recreant and began to desert. But Cortes discovered a plan for preventing this withdrawal, which met with success. He suspended hostilities for eight days, meanwhile covering his well intrenched army with his vessels, and quietly awaited the expiration of the time set for his destruction. When it passed and the Spaniards had not suffered the least injury, the allies began to open their eyes. ”

“ In an instant the Spaniards, to their astonishment, found themselves attacked on all sides so furiously that with all their courage and skill they were unable to withstand it. They began falling back slowly in close ranks and maintaining the defensive, but as the numbers of the enemy increased every moment and their attack grew more furious, they gradually began to seek safety in flight. At last their ranks broke. All, Spaniards and Tlaxcalans, foot-soldiers and horsemen, fled in disorder to the nearest causeway where their terror was still further increased by finding the enemy in possession. ”

“ This troubled the Tlaxcalans, who regarded it as a sign of distrust, but when they were informed that this was the custom of European soldiers, even in times of peace, they were no longer alarmed, and Xikotenkatl himself introduced the practice in his own army. Cortes recognized more and more the great advantage the friendship of this martial nation would be to him. He therefore ordered his men to treat them in a just and friendly manner, and he himself adopted every means in his power to strengthen the confidence and respect he had already gained. ”

“ A large number of Tlaxcalans were assigned to his carpenters for manual service. While the necessary material was being prepared, Cortes began to make himself master of the whole region surrounding Mexico in order to cut off the unfortunate capital from subsistence. He overpowered some of the towns by force and induced others by mild means to enter into an alliance with him. Guatemozin regarded the defection and loss of his faithful vassals with sorrow and indignation and sought—but in vain—to prevent it. ”

“ The broken line shows the direction the Spaniards took when they marched from the sea-board to the city of Mexico.
for the Tlaxcalans were their allies and deadly enemies of the Mexicans. Forty Cempoalan warriors had made ready to accompany us—and indeed proved of the greatest service to us on the journey—and the chiefs sent with us as well two hundred porters to convey our cannon. We poor soldiers had no need of help for our baggage, for at that time we had none other than our weapons, with which we marched and slept. ”

“ When the Tepeacans became convinced that the Mexicans were no protection, they sent messengers suing for peace and they then took the oath of allegiance to our king.
Because it was on the road to Vera Cruz, and because the town was one among many and the land about it produced plenty of maize, and we had allies, the Tlaxcalans, to guard the frontier, we founded a town at Tepeaca and set up a regular government. We scoured the neighboring territory, and at one town where fifteen Spaniards had been killed, we turned many into slaves. ”

“ There is nothing but its historical memories of special interest in Tlaxcala. It is a town of some 3000 inhabitants, a few hundred feet higher than Mexico City, with many ancient buildings, mostly of stone, often mere ruins, from the seams of surely half of which sprout grass and flowers, as they do between the cobbles of its streets and its large rambling plaza. I visited the old church on the site of which Christianity—of the Spanish brand—was first preached on the American continent. Here was the same Indian realism as elsewhere in the republic. ”

“ This accomplished, the ancient enemy would not fail to remember that Tlascala, in addition to the old-standing enmity, had been one of the chief instruments in their late suffering and humiliation, and had figured as conqueror and master over them. They would lose no time in avenging themselves, and by the destruction of the republic remove forever so dangerous an enemy. Far better, then, to maintain the friendship of the Spaniards, whose good faith had been tried, and whose prowess was not broken by one defeat. ”

“ The city was likewise divided into four districts, in which people of the separate tribes lived, each under its own chief. As the country was hemmed in on all sides by the Aztec Empire, there was no commerce, and the chief pursuit was agriculture. The Tlascalans were a brave, hardy, and war-like people, well advanced in military science, and having something very like a feudal system of chivalry, in that the different chiefs or lords had each his own standard and crest, and the soldiers were uniformed in their leaders' colours and owed him allegiance; Xicotencatl's. ”

“ As the army passed through the towns and villages, the inhabitants poured out to greet them, and, as they drew near to Tlascala, the whole population, men, women, and children, came forth celebrating their return with songs, dancing, and music. Arches decorated with flowers were thrown across the streets through which they passed, and a Tlascalan orator addressed the general, on his entrance into the city, in a lofty panegyric on his late achievements, proclaiming him the "avenger of the nation." ”

“ BEFORE advancing further with the Spaniards into the territory of Tlascala, it will be well to notice some traits in the character and institutions of the nation, in many respects the most remarkable in Anahuac. The Tlascalans belonged to the same great family with the Aztecs. [103] {*} They came on the grand plateau about the same time with the kindred races, at the close of the twelfth century, and planted themselves on the western borders of the lake of Tezcuco. Here they remained many years, engaged in the usual pursuits of a bold and partially civilized people. ”

“ It is not gloomy; there are no forests; the country is open and rolling; and the name "Tlaxcala," it now appears, is fertility, the "Land of Bread." I left at 11 A.M., and arrived at the village of Santa Ana, on the railroad to Apizaco, in a couple of hours. After a time a conveyance was to be had, in the shape of a dilapidated hack drawn by three horses, in the lead, and two mules. This was run as a stage-line to Tlaxcala; and in an hour more, largely of floundering over ruts and following the beds of swollen brooks—for nobody ever thinks of mending a road in Mexico—we were there. ”