Before First Contact - Background History, Part Six

The Conquest of Mexico, Part Two

Narvaez - from Wikipedia

Pamphilo de Narvaez, ordered by Velasquez to find and return Cortés dead or alive, landed at Veracruz in April of 1520. His motto for this mission was "Viva quien vence!" which was Spanish for "Long live the victorious!" Some of the men Cortés left behind were grateful that somebody had come to their rescue. Narvaez wined and dined these men, who told them everything that had happened since the voyage began. He then lead a group to the village of Cempoala, with the ambition of meeting Cortés in Tenochtitlan.

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Narvaez had been outsmarted however: Believing that Cortés knew nothing of their arrival, and believing to outnumber his party by a factor of three, he believed that he would have no problem catching the fugitive. Narvaez also didn't count on the fact that he himself wasn't a very good captain and as a result had a group of men put on rations for saying they would rather join Cortes. It's possible that Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, the young captain who had gone with Narvaez, was part of this group. Cortés however, did know of Narvaez's arrival and by now had amassed an alliance of over a thousand warriors in response. He took his army, marched toward Vera Cruz and ambushed Narvaez, which happened in Cempoala. From Cortés' second letter:

"On Easter day, a little after midnight, I marched for the quarters of Narvaez... When I reached the city Narvaez had all his men in full armor, and the horses caparisoned, in complete readiness, and two hundred men guarded every square... In one of these towers were Narvaes was quartered, the staircase was defended by ninteen matchlocks; but we mounted it with such rapidity that they had not time to put fire to more than one of the pieces, which, it pleased God, did not go off, nor occasion any injury. So our men ascended the tower until they reached the apartment of Narvaez, where he and about fifty of his men fought with alguazil mayor and the rest that had gone up, and although the latter called upon them many times to surrender to your Highness, they refused until the building was set on fire, when they last gave in."

Narvaez was now wounded and had been taken prisoner. Defeated, most of Narvaez's men switched sides. Cortes told Narvaez's men that he had found an island paradise full of gold and women, and if they would return there with him, he would regale them with riches. He had freed the men who were put on rations and ordered special treatment for them. More men switched, including Cabrillo. Now that that was over with, Cortes decided to stay at Cempoala for a bit of rest before returning to Tenochtitlan. He sent a messenger back to the city to relay the news.

There was one more passenger who came with Narvaez, his name was Francisco Eguía. He was a slave from Africa. Since Columbus' voyages, the native population in the Caribbean had become enslaved to the Spanish. They were forced to grow crops, mine gold, and build towns. Many natives died as a result of being overworked or underfed, and things got so bad that many natives chose to commit suicide. Needless to say, the native population shrank dramatically which led to a shortage of slaves. Meanwhile, Portugal had established settlements throughout the African coast and and saw an opportunity to enslave the native population there. I guess there were so many African slaves that they started to export them... the beginnings of the slave trade.

Back in Cuba and Hispaniola, more and more native slaves began to be replaced by African slaves, including Eguía. It is believed that Eguía however, didn't travel alone. Unbeknownst to himself or anyone else at the time, he carried a virus on him. It was a virus that he was immune to, but the native populations of these continents weren't: Smallpox.

http://africanhistory.about.com

Meanwhile, back in Tenochtitlan, Alvarado and the men left behind were invited to be guests at the Aztec's Tóxcatl festival. This festival had the usual dancing and sacrifices, but Alvarado couldn't take anymore sacrifices, either that or he became frightened and thought they were going to sacrifice him. From the Florentine codex:

"The procession began, and everyone went into the temple patio in order to dance "The Dance of the Snake."... If anyone showed disobedience or was not in his proper order, they struck him in the hips, on the legs, and on the shoulders. Then they violently tossed him out of the patio, beating him and shoving him to the ground, and they dragged him outside with his face in the dirt by the ears... At this time, when everyone was enjoying the fiesta, when everyone was already dancing, when everyone was already singing, when song was linked to song and the songs roared like waves, in that precise moment the Spaniards determined to kill people. They came to the patio, armed for battle."

Alvarado ordered his men to block the exits and had most of the people involved in the festival, including many nobles killed. This episode is notably violent in the Florentine codex as it described body parts being cut off.

"Some tried to escape, but the Spaniards murdered them at the gates while they laughed. Others climbed the walls, but they could not save themselves. Others lay down among the victims and pretended to be dead. But if they stood up again they (the Spaniards) would see them and kill them... Then a roar was heard, screams, people wailed, as they beat their palms against their lips. Quickly the captains assembled, as if planned in advance, and carried their spears and shields. Then the battle began. (The Aztecs) attacked them with arrows and even javelins, used for hunting birds. They furiously hurled their javelins (at the Spaniards)."

This event turned the tide of favor against the Spanish and whatever the Aztecs once liked about them were now eclipsed by this massacre. City residents began to indiscriminately attack the Spanish who then retreated back to Moctezuma's palace, becoming trapped inside. Twelve days after Cortés sent his messenger to Tenochtitlan, the messenger had returned to Cempoala with a batch of letters for Cortés. From his letters to the King:

"(t)he Indians had attacked the garrison on all sides, and set fire to it in many places; that they had sunk mines about it, placing our people in imminent danger; all of whom would perish, unless Moctezuma should command the hostile operations to cease... It was added, that a great part of their supplies had been forcibly seized, and that the enemy had burned the four brigantines (ships) I had built there; and finally, that our people were in extreme distress, and begged me to come to their aid with the greatest possible haste."

With that, Cortés and his men packed up and returned to Tenochtitlan.

Moctezume, from the Codex Mendoza - wikipedia

He returned on June 24, 1520 to an eerily quiet city and headed right for the palace. Cortés' men rejoiced in his return and for the next couple of days, all was well and quiet. With everything seemingly fine, Cortés decided to send a message back to Veracruz. Half an hour later however, the messenger returned battered, bruised and freaking out. The natives had raised the draw bridges, blocked streets, beat him to a pulp and were heading in mass towards the palace with arms. Soon, rocks and arrows began to rain over the walls of the fortress to the roars of angry jeers, wounding many Spaniards including Cortés himself. Fires were lit, so the Spanish cut the flaming portion of the fortress wall away and knocked it down, extinguishing some of it, before posting guards to keep the natives from breaching the grounds.

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According to Cortes' letters, they fought into the night, and over eighty Spaniards were wounded that day. That night, they attempted to have the breached walls repaired. The following day, the Aztecs returned and resumed the battle. Even with 13 long guns, called "arquebusses", and skilled crossbow men like Cabrillo, the Spanish were almost overwhelmed by the number of forces that came to attack. About 50-60 Spaniards were wounded that day.

The Spanish forces who weren't fighting it out were ordered to construct three "engines of timber" to block all the arrows and rocks being hurled at them, they also gathered all the iron weapons they could. Moctezuma, still loyal to Cortés, asked to speak to his people to try and calm them down. He went out onto the balcony of the palace, in front of the crowd of angry Aztecs and tried to sue for peace. In response, a rock from the crowd was thrown at Moctezuma and hit him in the head. From Cortes' Letters:

"I caused him (Moctezuma) to be taken up, and when he reached a battlement projecting from the fortress, and sought an opportunity to address the people who were fighting in that quarter, a stone thrown by some one of his own subjects struck him on the head with so much force that he died three days later. I then gave his dead body to two indians who were amongst the prisoners and taking it upon their shoulders, they bore it away to his people; what afterwards became of it I know not."

Moctezuma being injured - http://etc.usf.edu

Some say that Cortés forced him to speak to his people and when he learned that the King was no longer favored, he killed him, though we may never know. The Florentine Codex tells what happened to Moctezuma's body:

"The Spaniards tossed the bodies of Moctezuma and Itzquauhtzin, who had died, on a place near the waters edge called Teoayoc... they hurried to take Moctezuma up in their arms and brought him to a place called Copulco. There they placed him on a wooden pyre and set fire to it... and while the body of Moctezuma burned, some people, angry and without good will, chided him... And many others cursed him, screamed, lamented, and shook their heads."

So with the mighty King Moctezuma gone, a new man was chosen to lead the Aztecs, his name was Cuitlahuac. Besides the "engines of timber" which blocked projectiles, Cortés also had his men build a portable bridge made of timber to lay across the gaps of the causeways. Well... if by "portable", you buy the fact that it had to be carried by 40 men. At this point, many of Cortés men had been wounded from previous fighting. He realized that he and his men had to escape in order to survive. They made their attempt on June 30, 1520. Before they left, Cortés allowed his men to raid Moctezuma's treasures. The greedy men they were, they grabbed as much as they could carry and snuck out of the palace that drizzling night:

"I took all the gold and jewels belonging to your majesty... and placed them in one apartment... and I begged and desired the alcaldes, regidores, and all the people to aid me in removing and perserving this treasure; I gave up my mare to carry as much as she could bear; and I selected certain Spaniards, as well as my own servants as others, to accompany the gold and the mare..."

Cuitlahuac. Despite the drawing of him throwing a rock, he didn't throw the one that might have killed Moctezuma - From WIkipedia

Besides treasure, Cortés took Moctezuma's son and two of his daughters with him. Cortes led an advance guard that was commanded by Alverado. Alverado was in charge of the 150 Spanish and 400 Tlaxcalins as well as the "portable" bridge. They reached the causeway with the least amount of guards, were able to fight them off, carried the bridge over the first gap and walked across. However, either the guards, or a women fetching water and witnessed the event made such a racket, that it wasn't long before numerous Aztec warriors assembled. They came from the street and from the water in numerous canoes, fully armed. Before the Spaniards could get the bridge over to the second gap, they had become fully engaged in fighting and had to abandon it. Cortés, some horsemen and a hundred others including Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, were able to swim across the other gaps to relative safety, but many of his men weren't so lucky.

La Noche Triste - from wikipedia

The warriors and Spaniards still on the causeways were being pelted with arrows and pushed off of the causeways. Many who tried to swim across were weighed down by the amount of treasure they tried to carry and drowned. They shot back with guns, but were overwhelmed by the number of forces. The bodies soon piled so high in the shallow waters that Pedro de Alvarado, who had ordered the massacre that started this whole mess, was able to barely escape by running across the causeway gap over piles of bodies. From the Florentine codex:

"And when the Spaniards arrived... it was as thought they had fallen off a precipice. They all fell... Soon the canal was completely full of them, full to the banks. But those who came at the rear just passed and crossed over on people, on bodies."

La Noche Triste - web.calstatela.ed

From Cortés letters:

"Leaving the people who formed this advanced party, I returned to the rear, where I found troops hotly engaged; it is incalculable how much our people suffered... besides the loss of all the gold, jewels, cotton cloth, and many other things we had brought away including the artillery."

La Noche Triste - http://www.abc.es

They had lost much of their men, gold, supplies, and weapons. Even worse, they had lost the city they were once welcomed to. Realizing how much Cortés had lost in his retreat, he leaned against a tree and wept. This night is known to the Spanish as "La Noche Triste" or "The Sad Night".

Their retreat didn't end there however. For the next two weeks, the Spaniards continued to fall back, with the Aztecs constantly on their trail, even after leaving Aztec lands. They soon arrived at the Tlaxcalan city of Gualipan, where they were able to rest for a few days. Unfortunately, they had to pay for all of their provisions with what little gold they had left. They left after three days for another city but three days later, fought another battle with the Aztecs on July 14th, with more heavy losses including Montezuma's son and daughters. They had originally come to Tenochtitlan with 400 men from Cortés' voyage. Out of an incredible amount of charm and charisma, he was able to add about another 1500-2000 more men in the form of Spaniards from Narvaez's voyage and native allies Cortés picked up along the way. By the time they finally made it back to Tlaxcala territory however, they had only 440 people left, all of which were wounded. The Tlaxcalans gave the survivors sanctuary in their land.

This stump is what is left of the tree that Cortes wept upon. - http://ilovemexico2013.blogspot.com

Back in Tenochtitlan, probably believing that they had rid themselves of the Spanish for good, the Aztecs began to rebuild their city, but soon, awful things began to happen to their bodies. First they became sick with flu like symptoms, then their bodies began developing red spots that would completely envelop them. Many died in terrible agony. The outbreak wasn't just isolated to Tenochtitlan however, the same disease was also affecting the Tlaxcalans.

Since Narvaez's landing, smallpox had begun to spread from village to village. First to Tepeaca, then to Tlaxcala. Noticing that the Spaniards did not pick up the virus, many Tlaxcalans asked to be baptized, believing that their Christian god prevented them from being infected. The outbreak passed in Tlaxcala and with Cortés somewhat recovered from his wounds, he decided to return to Tenochtitlan in force.

Looking back at his escape, Cortes realized that, had the Aztecs destroyed the the causeways leading out of the city, he and his men would have been trapped there. With this in mind, his new plan was to take control Lake Texcoco, which held the city, and to starve out the residents. He needed to build ships.

Over a period of months, he prepared. Some friendly ships from Cuba and Spain were now docking in port, so Cortes sent what was left of Narvaez' expedition back to Spain... except for Cabrillo. He stayed behind and led a group of Tlaxcalans in building Cortes' new fleet of brigantines. Thirteen ships were built in pieces that would be transported to the lake and put together. Next, Cabrillo and his team went into the forest to find materials needed to caulk the ships once they were built. Caulking is basically a way to waterproof ships by making a special tar and applying it to the hull. They couldn't find the beef tallow needed to make the tar though, so Cabrillo decided to use the gruesome alternative of human tallow from the dead.

Being tactical now, Cortes also sent advanced parties to Tenochtitlan to survey the lake in anticipation for the siege.

The Tlaxcalans then carried the ship pieces to another place called Tezuco and began assembling and caulking them. From there, a canal was dug to Lake Texcoco which took fifty days about eight-thousand people to accomplish. Once they were built, the ships were blessed and boarded. By April 28, 1521, Cortes was given over ten thousand Tlaxcalan warriors by their leader, who was now baptized as a Christian.

Back in the ancient city, the deaths were getting worse:

"(People) with the illness could not walk, they could only lay in their dwellings and sleeping places. They could not move; they could not stir; they could not change position, nor lie on one side, nor face down, nor on their backs. And when they sturred, they screamed. The pustules that covered people caused great desolation; a great many people died of them, and many just died of hunger; no one took care of others any longer."

Disease according to the Florentine Codex - osf1.gmu.ed

That same December, Cuitlahuac, the man chosen to lead the Aztecs after Moctezuma, had died of Smallpox. The man chosen next to lead was named Cuahtémoc.

Come back for Background History, Part Seven, coming December 15, 2015

Sources:

Wikipedia Article - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_conquest_of_the_Aztec_Empire

Florentine Codex - https://www.historians.org/teaching-and-learning/classroom-content/teaching-and-learning-in-the-digital-age/the-conquest-of-mexico/florentine-codex

Letters from Cortes - https://www.historians.org/teaching-and-learning/classroom-content/teaching-and-learning-in-the-digital-age/the-conquest-of-mexico/letters-from-hernan-cortes

Book: Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo by Harry Kelsey - http://www.amazon.com/Rodriguez-Cabrillo-Huntington-Library-Classics/dp/0873281764

TTC Course: Maya to Aztec Ancient Mesoamerica revealed - http://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/maya-to-aztec-ancient-mesoamerica-revealed.html