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V.

1522

Hifpaniola, to fill up the canals and gaps in the BOOK causeway as the main body advanced. That officer, deeming it inglorious to be thus employed, while his companions were in the heat of action and the career of victory, neglected the important charge committed to him, and hurried on, inconfiderately, to mingle with the combatants. The Mexicans, whofe military attention and fkill were daily improving, no fooner observed this, than they carried an account of it to their monarch.

GUATIMOZIN inftantly difcerned the confe- Repulfed quence of the error which the Spaniards had committed, and, with admirable prefence of mind, prepared to take advantage of it. He commanded the troops pofted in the front to flacken their efforts, in order to allure the Spaniards to push forward, while he dispatched a large body of chofen warriors through different ftreets, fome by land, and others by water, towards the great breach in the causeway, which had been left open. On a fignal which he gave, the priests in the principal temple ftruck the great drum confecrated to the god of war. No fooner did the Mexicans hear its doleful folemn found, calculated to infpire them with contempt of death and enthusiastic ardour, than they

rushed

V.

1521.

BOOK rushed upon the enemy with frantic rage. The Spaniards, unable to refift men urged on no lefs by religious fury than hope of fuccefs, began to retire, at first leifurely, and with a good countenance; but as the enemy preffed on, and their own impatience to efcape increased, the terror and confufion became fo general, that when they arrived at the gap in the causeway, Spaniards and Tlafcalans, horsemen and infantry, plunged in promiscuously, while the Mexicans rufhed. upon them fiercely from every fide, their light canoes carrying them through fhoals which the brigantines could not approach. In vain did Cortes attempt to ftop and rally his flying troops; fear rendered them regardless of his entreaties or commands. Finding all his endeavours to renew the combat fruitlefs, his next care was to fave fome of those who had thrown themselves into the water; but while thus employed, with more attention to their fituation than to his own, fix Mexican captains fuddenly laid hold of him, and were hurrying him off in triumph; and though two of his officers rescued him at the expence of their own lives, he received feveral dangerous wounds before he could break loofe. Above fixty Spaniards perished in the rout; and what rendered the difafter more afflicting, forty of thefe fell alive into the

with confiderable

lofs.

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V.

hands of an enemy never known to fhew mercy BOOK to a captive'.

1521.

were taken

the god of

war.

THE approach of night, though it delivered Thofe who the dejected Spaniards from the attacks of the facrificed to enemy, ushered in, what was hardly lefs grievous, the noise of their barbarous triumph, and of the horrid festival with which they celebrated their victory. Every quarter of the city was illumi nated; the great temple fhone with such peculiar fplendour, that the Spaniards could plainly fee. the people in motion, and the priests busy in hastening the preparations for the death of the prisoners. Through the gloom, they fancied that they difcerned their companions by the whitenefs of their fkins, as they were stript naked, and compelled to dance before the image of the god to whom they were to be offered. They heard the fhrieks of those who were facrificed, and thought that they could distinguish each unhappy victim, by the well-known found of his voice. Imagination added to what they really faw or heard, and augmented its horror. The most unfeeling melted into tears of compaffion, and the ftouteft heart trembled at the dreadful spectacle which they beheld".

1 Cortes Relat. p. 273. B. Diaz. c. 152. Gomara Cron. c. 138. Herrera, dec. 3. lib. i. c. 20.

See NOTE V.

VOL. III.

CORTES,

BOOK
V.

1521.

New fchemes

and efforts of the Mexicans.

Cortes deferred by

Indian

allies.

CORTES, who, befides all that he felt in common with his foldiers, was oppreffed with the additional load of anxious reflections natural to a general on fuch an unexpected calamity, could not, like them, relieve his mind by giving vent to its anguifh. He was obliged to affume an air of tranquillity, in order to revive the fpirit and hopes of his followers. The juncture, indeed, required an extraordinary exertion of fortitude. The Mexicans, elated with their victory, fallied out next morning to attack him in his quarters. But they did not rely on

the efforts of their own arms alone.

They fent the heads of the Spaniards whom they had facrificed, to the leading men in the adjacent provinces, and affured them that the god of war, appeafed by the blood of their invaders, which had been fhed fo plentifully on his altars, had declared with an audible voice, that in eight days time thofe hated enemies fhould be finally destroyed, and peace and profperity re-established in the empire.

'A PREDICTION uttered with fuch confidence, many of his and in terms fo void of ambiguity, gained univerfal credit among a people prone to fuperflition. The zeal of the provinces, which had already declared against the Spaniards, augmented; and feveral which had hitherto remained

inactive,

V.

1521.

inactive, took arms, with enthusiastic ardour, to BOOK execute the decree of the gods. The Indian auxiliaries who had joined Cortes, accustomed to venerate the fame deities with the Mexicans, and to receive the responses of their priests with the fame implicit faith, abandoned the Spaniards as a race of men devoted to certain deftruction. Even the fidelity of the Tlafcalans was fhaken, and the Spanish troops were left almost alone in their stations. Cortes, finding that he attempted in vain to dispel the superstitious fears of his confederates by argument, took advantage, from the imprudence of those who had framed the prophecy, in fixing its accomplishment fo near at hand, to give a ftriking demonstration of its falfity. He fufpended all military operations during the period marked out by the oracle. Under cover of the brigantines, which kept the enemy at a distance, his troops lay in fafety, and the fatal term expired without any disaster ".

their friend

hip,

MANY of his allies, afhamed of their own He regains credulity, returned to their station. Other tribes, judging that the gods who had now deceived the Mexicans, had decreed finally to withdraw their protection from them, joined his standard; and fuch was the levity of a fimple people, moved by

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