University of Virginia Library

8. CHAPTER VIII.

To one whose perverted imagination can dwell
with pleasure on `the pomp and circumstance of
glorious war,' no better study can be recommended
than the history of the siege of Mexico, which may
be considered as one single battle, lasting for the
space of ninety-three days, counting from the time
when the different divisions of the besieging army
had taken their positions in form, upon the different
causeways. This does not include the period occupied
in the march of these bodies from Tezcuco,
and which was not devoted to inactivity. On the
contrary, the Captain-General took advantage of the
occasion to discipline his naval force, by sweeping
over the lake from bay to bay, and town to town,
destroying every piragua that made its appearance,
as well as such chinampas, or floating gardens, as
he could approach, and frequently by cannonading
the imperial city itself. Besides this, he assaulted
and took, on each occasion after a most sanguinary
combat, certain fortresses upon two island rocks,
one of which rose near to Iztapalapan: the other,
though no longer insulated, still lies a little to the
east of the republican city, and is called the Peñon,
or Crag, of Montezuma.

The preparations of the Mexicans were extensive
and anticipative of all the peculiar evils which
they thought it in the power of their great enemy
to inflict. They had cut through the causeways
numberless ditches, each of which was furnished

with a light bridge, to be withdrawn, when about
to fall into the power of the Spaniards; and the
earth and stones thus removed, were built up before
and behind the chasms, into strong ramparts,
which were still further strengthened with palisades.
In this manner, while opposing the greatest
obstructions to the passage of the foot-soldiers,
they made it impossible for horses to be brought
against them,—a precaution that, for a long time,
robbed the Spaniards of their greatest advantage.

The beginning of the siege of Mexico, then, lay in
the struggles of the besiegers to obtain possession
of the ditches, which were to be filled up, by levelling
the ramparts. This was a work both of infinite
danger and toil, the besieged fighting from behind
the advanced barriers with unexampled
resolution, and, however overpowered, never retreating
beyond the ditch, until their companions
had left but a single plank for their passage, which
was immediately afterwards withdrawn. After
this, the Spaniards were forced to overturn the
first barrier into the chasm, before they could rush
across the slough of mud and water, to attack the
second; and all this was to be done not only
against violent opposition in front, but with a most
dangerous and audacious species of annoyance
practised on one flank or the other, and sometimes
on both. Wherever the shallows admitted,
the Mexicans drove into the bottom of the lake,
and at but a short distance from the dike, strong
piles, to which they secured their canoes, furnished
with high and thick bulwarks of planks, almost
musket-proof; and from these they drove arrows,
darts, and stones against the soldiers with destructive
effect, Nay, with such wisdom had the young
king of Mexico devised means to embarrass his adversary,
that he had even secured his little flotillas
from the possibility of approach, by sinking rows

of piles in the lake, parallel with the causeways,
through which the brigantines could not pass, to
disperse battered them. It was to but little purpose that
Cortes battered them from a distance with his falconets;
the following morning saw replaced every
loss of men and canoes. The soldiers were excited
to fury by an annoyance so irritating, and some
were found at times frantic enough to leap into the
lake, where the waters happened to be sufficiently
shallow, and endeavour to carry the flotillas, sword
in hand.

The narrowness and obstructed condition of the
dikes making it impossible that all the forces could
act upon them together, the vast multitudes of
native allies were left in reserve, with the cavalry,
on the shore,—where they were not idle, the numbers,
as well as the boldness of the Mexicans being
so great, that they frequently sent armies to the
shore by night, who, at the dawn, fell upon the
reserved troops with all the rancour of opponents
in a civil war.

This was the condition of the war at its commencement.
The grand desiderata,—the removal
of the flotillas, and the profitable employment
of the confederates, were not effected until Cortes
had seized all the piraguas of the shore-towns, and
sent them, manned with Tlascalans, against the
palisaded posts, where, besides doing what execution
they could upon the enemy, the allies tore
away the piles, and thus admitted some of the
lighter brigantines among the canoes.

Aided in this manner, the soldiers were able to
advance along the several dikes, until they got
possession of certain military stations, on each,
which might have been called the gates of Mexico.

It has been already said, that the causeways of
Iztapalapan and Cojohuacan, coming respectively
from the south and southwest, united together at the

distance of less than a league from Mexico. At
the point of junction, the causeway expanded into
a mole or quay, where was a strong and lofty
stone wall, the passage through which was contrived
by the overlapping of the walls, in the manner
described at Tezcuco. This rampart was defended
by very strong towers and by a parapet with
embrasures, from which the defenders could easily
repel any enemy, inferior in strength and determination
to the Spaniards. The point was called
Xoloc, and when wrested from the hands of the
Mexicans, became the head-quarters of Cortes.

A similar expansion of the dike of Tacuba, fortified
in the same way, and at the distance of two
miles from the city, and one from the shore, afforded
a resting-place and garrison for the forces under
Alvarado, whose first act, after reaching Tacuba,
was to destroy the aqueduct of Chapoltepec, which
consisted of a double line of baked earthenware
pipes, carried across the lake on a dike constructed
only for that purpose, and therefore so narrow and
inconsiderable, that it does not appear that the
Spaniards derived any advantage from the possession
of it.

The division of De Olid united with that of
Sandoval at the point Xoloc; the latter of whom
was afterwards directed to take possession of the
northern dike of Tepejacac, the remains of which
may yet be traced between the city and the hill of
Our Lady of Guadalupe, on which was a fortification
resembling the others.

These positions being thus assumed, the Captain-General
divided the fleet of brigantines among
the three captains, to whom they were of vast
service, by protecting the flanks of their divisions.

From this period, the siege may be considered
to have been begun in form; and it was continued

with a fury of attack and resistance almost without
parallel in the history of conquest. Foot by foot,
and inch by inch, the invaders advanced, staining
the causeways with their blood, and choking the
lake with the bodies of their foes. Ditch after
ditch was won and filled, and almost as often
lost and re-opened. The day was devoted to battle,
the night to alarms. The only periods of rest
were when the daily tempests, for it was now the
heart of the rainy season, burst over the heads of
the combatants, as if heaven had sent its floods to
efface the horrible dyes of carnage, and its thunders
to drown the roar of man's more destructive artillery.
Then, the exhausted soldier and the fainting
barbarian flung themselves to rest upon the trodden
mud of their ramparts, within sight of each other,
regardless of the wrath of the elements, so much
less enduring than their own.

At first, the Spaniards after winning a ditch and
filling it, were content to return for the night to the
fortified stations, to shelter themselves in the towers,
and in miserable huts of reeds which they had constructed,
from the rains, that, usually, continued
until midnight. But finding that the infidels, more
manly or more desperate, devoted the night to
repair the losses of the day, by again opening the
chasms, they denied themselves even this poor
solace, and threw themselves to sleep on the spots
where they fought, ready to resume the conflict at
the first glimmer of dawn.

Thus, day by day, the approaches were effected,
and by the end of the second month, the besiegers
had advanced almost to the suburbs, which jutted
out into the lake along the three causeways, supported
upon foundations of piles, and sometimes
piers of stone. The houses stood apart from each
other, but were connected, in seasons of peace, by
light wooden drawbridges, running from terrace to

terrace; so that the streets of these quarters may
be said to have been on the tops of the houses,—
and the same thing was true of the gardens.
The communication below was effected always
by means of canoes. Among these edifices, the
water was often of sufficient depth to float the
brigantines of lighter draught, which sometimes
entered them, to fire the buildings, that were so
many fortresses, from which the soldiers on the
causeways could be annoyed.

The labours and sufferings of the besiegers were
constant, and almost intolerable; yet they endured
them with a patience derived from the assurance of
a certain though tardy success. The toils and distresses
of the Mexicans were greater, and endured
with heroism still more noble, because almost
without hope; and it may be said with justice of
these poor barbarians, whose memory has almost
vanished from the earth, that never yet did a people
fight for their altars and firesides with greater
courage and devotion. They saw themselves each
day confined to narrow limits,—they fought the
more resolutely; they beheld all the marine forces
of the neighbouring towns, late their feudatories,
led against them,—they sent navies of their own to
chastise the insurgents, and still kept their ground
against the Spaniards.

It was certain that Cortes had found in the young
king an antagonist far more formidable than he
had expected. The resistance at the ramparts,
the sallies by night that were often made with
fatal effect, the secret expeditions against the
shores, and the stratagems put in execution to
cripple the brigantines, all indicated, in the infidel
prince, a capacity of mind worthy of his unconquerable
courage. A single exploit will prove his
daring and his craft. He decoyed two of the
largest brigantines into a certain bay, where many

of his strongest piraguas lay in ambush among the
reeds. With these, he attacked, boarded, and carried
the two vessels, and had he possessed any
knowledge of the management of sails, would have
conducted them in safety to his palace walls. As
it was, they were maintained against an overpowering
force, sent to retake them, and not yielded until
the captors had destroyed every Christian on board,
fifty in number, as well as the sails and cordage,
and cast the falconets into the lake.

Another stratagem of a still more daring character,
and infinitely more fatal to the Spaniards,
was conceived and executed, almost at the moment
when they thought the young monarch reduced to
despair. But of that we shall have occasion to
speak more at length hereafter. The thousand
conflicts on land and water, that marked the progress
of a siege so extraordinary, have but little
connexion with the adventures of the two outcasts;
and we are glad of the privilege to pass them by.