to feed on berries, roots, and the stalks of green maize; and at the very time that famine was depreffing their fpirits and wafting their strength, their fituation required the most vigorous and unremitting exertions of courage and activity. Amidst thofe complicated diftreffes, one circumftance fupported and animated the Spaniards. Their commander fuftained this fad reverse of fortune with unfhaken magnanimity. His prefence of mind never forfook him; his fagacity forefaw every event, and his vigilance provided for it. He was foremost in every danger, and endured every hardship with cheerfulness. The difficulties with which he was furrounded feemed to call forth new talents; and his fol diers, though defpairing themselves, continued to follow him with encreafing confidence in his abilities. BOOK V. 1520. Otumba. On the fixth day they arrived near to Otumba, Battle of not far from the road between Mexico and Tlafcala. Early next morning they began to advance towards it, flying parties of the enemy still hanging on their rear; and, amidst the infults with which they accompanied their hofti lities, Marina remarked that they often exclaimed with exultation, "Go on, robbers; go to the place where you fhall quickly meet the vengeance due to your crimes." The meaning of this threat VOL. III. V. 1520. BOOK. threat the Spaniards did not comprehend, until they reached the fummit of an eminence before them. There a spacious valley opened to their view, covered with a vast army, extending as far as the eye could reach. The Mexicans, while with one body of their troops they haraffed the Spaniards in their retreat, had affembled their principal force on the other fide of the lake; and marching along the road which led directly to Tlafcala, pofted it in the plain of Otumba, through which they knew Cortes must pass. At the fight of this incredible multitude, which they could furvey at once from the rifing ground, the Spaniards were astonished, and even the boldest began to defpair. But Cortes, without allowing leifure for their fears to acquire. ftrength by reflection, after warning them briefly that no alternative now remained but to conquer or to die, led them inftantly to the charge. The Mexicans waited their approach with unusual fortitude. Such, however, was the fuperiority of the Spanish difcipline and arms, that the impreffion of this fmall body was irresistible; and whichever way its force was directed, it penetrated and difperfed the most numerous battalions. But while these gave way in one quarter, new combatants advanced from another, and the Spaniards, though fuccessful in every attack, were ready to fink under thofe re peated V. 1520. peated efforts, without feeing any end of their BOOK toil, or any hope of victory. At that time Cortes obferved the great ftandard of the empire, which was carried before the Mexican general, advancing; and fortunately recollecting to have heard, that on the fate of it depended the event of every battle, he affembled a few of his bravest officers, whofe horfes were ftill capable of fervice, and placing himself at their head, pushed forward towards the standard with an impetuofity which bore down every thing before it. A chosen body of nobles, who guarded the ftandard, made fome resistance, but were foon broken. Cortes, with a ftroke of his lance, wounded the Mexican general, and threw him to the ground. One of the Spanish officers alighting, put an end to his life, and laid hold of the imperial standard. The moment that their leader fell, and the ftandard, towards which all directed their eyes, difappeared, an univerfal panic ftruck the Mexicans, and, as if the bond which held them together had been diffolved, every enfign was lowered, each foldier threw away his weapons, and all fled with precipitation. to the mountains. The Spaniards, unable to pursue them far, returned to collect the spoils of the field, which were fo valuable, as to be fome compenfation for the wealth which they had loft in Mexico; for in the enemy's army were most V. BOOK of their principal warriors, dreffed out in their richest ornaments, as if they had been marching to affured victory. Next day, to their great joy, they entered the Tlafcalan territories'. 1520. July 8. Reception of the Spaniards in Tlafcala, New deliberations of Cortes. . BUT amidst their fatisfaction in having got beyond the precincts of an hoftile country, they could not look forward without folicitude, as they were ftill uncertain what reception they might meet with from allies, to whom they returned in a condition very different from that in which they had lately set out from their dominions. Happily for them, the enmity of the Tlafcalans to the Mexican name was fo inveterate, their defire to avenge the death of their countrymen fo vehement, and the afcendant which Cortes had acquired over the chiefs of the republic fo complete, that, far from entertaining a thought of taking any advantage of the diftreffed fituation in which they beheld the Spaniards, they received them with a tenderness and cordiality which quickly diffipated all their fufpicions. SOME interval of tranquillity and indulgence was now abfolutely neceffary; not only that the Spaniards might give attention to the cure of their wounds, which had been too long ne Cortes Relat. p. 219. Cron, c. 110. glected, but in order to recruit their strength, exhausted by such a long fucceffion of fatigue and hardships. During this, Cortes learned that he and his companions were not the only Spaniards who had felt the effects of the Mexican enmity. A confiderable detachment, which was marching from Zempoalla towards the capital, had been cut off by the people of Tepeaca. A smaller party, returning from Tlascala to Vera Cruz, with the fhare of the Mexican gold allotted to the garrifon, had been furprised and destroyed in the mountains. At a juncture when the life of every Spaniard was of importance, fuch loffes were deeply felt. The schemes which Cortes was meditating rendered them peculiarly afflictive to him. While his enemies, and even many of his own followers, confidered the difafters which had befallen him as fatal to the progrefs of his arms, and imagined that nothing now remained but speedily to aban don a country which he had invaded with unequal force, his mind, as eminent for perfeverance as for enterprise, was ftill bent on accomplishing his original purpose, of fubjecting the Mexican empire to the crown of Caftile. Severe and unexpected as the check was which he had received, it did not appear to him a fufficient reafon for relinquishing the conquefts which, he had already made, or against resuming his operations D 3 BOOK V. 1520. |