4. VOYAGE TO COZUMEL-CONVERSION OF THE
NATIVES-JERONIMO DE AGUILAR-ARMY ARRIVES AT TABASCO-GREAT BATTLE WITH
THE INDIANS-CHRISTIANITY INTRODUCED
ORDERS were given for the vessels to keep as near together as
possible, and to take the direction of the capitana, or admiral's
ship, which carried a beacon-light in the stern during the night.
But the weather, which had been favourable, changed soon after their
departure, and one of those tempests set in, which at this season
are often found in the latitudes of the West Indies. It fell with
terrible force on the little navy, scattering it far asunder,
dismantling some of the ships, and driving them all considerably south
of their proposed destination.
Cortes, who had lingered behind to convoy a disabled vessel,
reached the island of Cozumel last. On landing, he learned that one of
his captains, Pedro de Alvarado, had availed himself of the short time
he had been there to enter the temples, rifle them of their few
ornaments, and, by his violent conduct, so far to terrify the simple
natives, that they had fled for refuge into the interior of the
island. Cortes, highly incensed at these rash proceedings, so contrary
to the policy he had proposed, could not refrain from severely
reprimanding his officer in the presence of the army. He commanded two
Indian captives, taken by Alvarado, to be brought before him, and
explained to them the pacific purpose of his visit. This he did
through the assistance of his interpreter, Melchorejo, a native of
Yucatan, who had been brought back by Grijalva, and who, during his
residence in Cuba, had picked up some acquaintance with the Castilian.
He then dismissed them loaded with presents, and with an invitation to
their countrymen to return to their homes without fear of further
annoyance. This humane policy succeeded. The fugitives, reassured,
were not slow in coming back; and an amicable intercourse was
established, in which Spanish cutlery and trinkets were exchanged
for the gold ornaments of the natives; a traffic in which each party
congratulated itself-a philosopher might think with equal reason-on outwitting the other.
The first object of Cortes was, to gather tidings of the
unfortunate Christians who were reported to be still lingering in
captivity on the neighbouring continent. From some traders in the
islands he obtained such a confirmation of the report, that he sent
Diego de Ordaz with two brigantines to the opposite coast of
Yucatan, with instructions to remain there eight days. Some Indians
went as messengers in the vessels, who consented to bear a letter to
the captives, informing them of the arrival of their countrymen in
Cozumel, with a liberal ransom for their release. Meanwhile the
general proposed to make an excursion to the different parts of the
island, that he might give employment to the restless spirits of the
soldiers, and ascertain the resources of the country.
It was poor and thinly peopled. But everywhere he recognised the
vestiges of a higher civilisation than what he had before witnessed in
the Indian islands. The houses were some of them large, and often
built of stone and lime. He was particularly struck with the
temples, in which were towers constructed of the same solid materials,
and rising several stories in height.
In the court of one of these he was amazed by the sight of a
cross, of stone and lime, about ten palms high. It was the emblem of
the God of rain. Its appearance suggested the wildest conjectures, not
merely to the unlettered soldiers, but subsequently to the European
scholar, who speculated on the character of the races that had
introduced there the sacred symbol of Christianity. But no such
inference, as we shall see hereafter, could be warranted. Yet it
must be regarded as a curious fact, that the Cross should have been
venerated as the object of religious worship both in the New World,
and in regions of the Old, where the light of Christianity had never
risen.
The next object of Cortes was to reclaim the natives from their
gross idolatry, and to substitute a purer form of worship. In
accomplishing this he was prepared to use force, if milder measures
should be ineffectual. There was nothing which the Spanish
government had more earnestly at heart, than the conversion of the
Indians. It forms the constant burden of their instructions, and
gave to the military expeditions in this Western Hemisphere somewhat
of the air of a crusade. The cavalier who embarked in them entered
fully into these chivalrous and devotional feelings. No doubt was
entertained of the efficacy of conversion, however sudden might be the
change, or however violent the means. The sword was a good argument
when the tongue failed; and the spread of Mahometanism had shown
that seeds sown by the hand of violence, far from perishing in the
ground, would spring up and bear fruit to after time. If this were
so in a bad cause, how much more would it be true in a good one! The
Spanish cavalier felt he had a high mission to accomplish as a soldier
of the Cross. However unauthorised or unrighteous the war into which
he had entered may seem to us, to him it was a holy war. He was in
arms against the infidel. Not to care for the soul of his benighted
enemy was to put his own in jeopardy. The conversion of a single
soul might cover a multitude of sins. It was not for morals that he
was concerned, but for the faith. This, though understood in its
most literal and limited sense, comprehended the whole scheme of
Christian morality. Whoever died in the faith, however immoral had
been his life, might be said to die in the Lord. Such was the creed of
the Castilian knight of that day, as imbibed from the preachings of
the pulpit, from cloisters and colleges at home, from monks and
missionaries abroad,-from all save one, Las Casas, whose devotion,
kindled at a purer source, was not, alas! permitted to send forth
its radiance far into the thick gloom by which he was encompassed.
No one partook more fully of the feelings above described than
Hernan Cortes. He was, in truth, the very mirror of the times in which
he lived, reflecting its motley characteristics, its speculative
devotion, and practical licence,-but with an intensity all his own.
He was greatly scandalised at the exhibition of the idolatrous
practices of the people of Cozumel, though untainted, as it would
seem, with human sacrifices. He endeavoured to persuade them to
embrace a better faith, through the agency of two ecclesiastics who
attended the expedition,-the licentiate Juan Diaz and Father
Bartolome de Olmedo. The latter of these godly men afforded the rare
example-rare in any age-of the union of fervent zeal with charity,
while he beautifully illustrated in his own conduct the precepts which
he taught. He remained with the army through the whole expedition, and
by his wise and benevolent counsels was often enabled to mitigate
the cruelties of the Conquerors, and to turn aside the edge of the
sword from the unfortunate natives.
These two missionaries vainly laboured to persuade the people of
Cozumel to renounce their abominations, and to allow the Indian idols,
in which the Christians recognised the true lineaments of Satan, to be
thrown down and demolished. The simple natives, filled with horror
at the proposed profanation, exclaimed that these were the gods who
sent them the sunshine and the storm, and, should any violence be
offered, they would be sure to avenge it by sending their lightnings
on the heads of its perpetrators.
Cortes was probably not much of a polemic. At all events, he
preferred on the present occasion action to argument; and thought that
the best way to convince the Indians of their error was to prove the
falsehood of the prediction. He accordingly, without further ceremony,
caused the venerated images to be rolled down the stairs of the
great temple, amidst the groans and lamentations of the natives. An
altar was hastily constructed, an image of the Virgin and Child placed
over it, and mass was performed by Father Olmedo and his reverend
companion for the first time within the walls of a temple in New
Spain. The patient ministers tried once more to pour the light of
the gospel into the benighted understandings of the islanders, and
to expound the mysteries of the Catholic faith. The Indian interpreter
must have afforded rather a dubious channel for the transmission of
such abstruse doctrines. But they at length found favour with their
auditors, who, whether overawed by the bold bearing of the invaders,
or convinced of the impotence of deities that could not shield their
own shrines from violation, now consented to embrace Christianity.
While Cortes was thus occupied with the triumphs of the Cross,
he received intelligence that Ordaz had returned from Yucatan
without tidings of the Spanish captives. Though much chagrined, the
general did not choose to postpone longer his departure from
Cozumel. The fleet had been well stored with provisions by the
friendly inhabitants, and, embarking his troops, Cortes, in the
beginning of March, took leave of its hospitable shores. The
squadron had not proceeded far, however, before a leak in one of the
vessels compelled them to return to the same port. The detention was
attended with important consequences; so much so, indeed, that a
writer of the time discerns in it "a great mystery and a miracle."
Soon after landing, a canoe with several Indians was seen making
its way from the neighbouring shores of Yucatan. On reaching the
island, one of the men inquired, in broken Castilian, "if he were
among Christians"; and being answered in the affirmative, threw
himself on his knees and returned thanks to Heaven for his delivery.
He was one of the unfortunate captives for whose fate so much interest
had been felt. His name was Jeronimo de Aguilar, a native of Ecija, in
Old Spain, where he had been regularly educated for the church. He had
been established with the colony at Darien, and on a voyage from
that place to Hispaniola, eight years previous, was wrecked near the
coast of Yucatan. He escaped with several of his companions in the
ship's boat, where some perished from hunger and exposure, while
others were sacrificed, on their reaching land, by the cannibal
natives of the peninsula. Aguilar was preserved from the same dismal
fate by escaping into the interior, where he fell into the hands of
a powerful cacique, who, though he spared his life, treated him at
first with great rigour. The patience of the captive, however, and his
singular humility, touched the better feelings of the chieftain, who
would have persuaded Aguilar to take a wife among his people, but
the ecclesiastic steadily refused, in obedience to his vows. This
admirable constancy excited the distrust of the cacique, who put his
virtue to a severe test by various temptations, and much of the same
sort as those with which the devil is said to have assailed St.
Anthony. From all these fiery trials, however, like his ghostly
predecessor, he came out unscorched. Continence is too rare and
difficult a virtue with barbarians not to challenge their
veneration, and the practice of it has made the reputation of more
than one saint in the Old as well as the New World. Aguilar was now
intrusted with the care of his master's household and his numerous
wives. He was a man of discretion, as well as virtue; and his counsels
were found so salutary that he was consulted on all important matters.
In short, Aguilar became a great man among the Indians.
It was with much regret, therefore, that his master received the
proposals for his return to his countrymen, to which nothing but the
rich treasure of glass beads, hawk bells, and other jewels of like
value, sent for his ransom, would have induced him to consent. When
Aguilar reached the coast, there had been so much delay that the
brigantines had sailed, and it was owing to the fortunate return of
the fleet to Cozumel that he was enabled to join it.
On appearing before Cortes, the poor man saluted him in the Indian
style, by touching the earth with his hand, and carrying it to his
head. The commander, raising him up, affectionately embraced him,
covering him at the same time with his own cloak, as Aguilar was
simply clad in the habiliments of the country, somewhat too scanty for
a European eye. It was long, indeed, before the tastes which he had
acquired in the freedom of the forest could be reconciled to the
constraints either of dress or manners imposed by the artificial forms
of civilisation. Aguilar's long residence in the country had
familiarised him with the Mayan dialects of Yucatan, and, as he
gradually revived his Castilian, he became of essential importance
as an interpreter. Cortes saw the advantage of this from the first,
but he could not fully estimate all the consequences that were to flow
from it.
The repairs of the vessels being at length completed, the
Spanish commander once more took leave of the friendly natives of
Cozumel, and set sail on the 4th of March. Keeping as near as possible
to the coast of Yucatan, he doubled Cape Catoche, and with flowing
sheets swept down the broad bay of Campeachy. He passed Potonchan,
where Cordova had experienced a rough reception from the natives;
and soon after reached the mouth of the Rio de Tabasco, or Grijalva,
in which that navigator had carried on so lucrative a traffic.
Though mindful of the great object of his voyage,-the visit to the
Aztec territories,-he was desirous of acquainting himself with the
resources of this country, and determined to ascend the river and
visit the great town on its borders.
The water was so shallow, from the accumulation of sand at the
mouth of the stream, that the general was obliged to leave the ships
at anchor, and to embark in the boats with a part only of his
forces. The banks were thickly studded with mangrove trees, that, with
their roots shooting up and interlacing one another, formed a kind
of impervious screen or net-work, behind which the dark forms of the
natives were seen glancing to and fro with the most menacing looks and
gestures. Cortes, much surprised at these unfriendly demonstrations,
so unlike what he had reason to expect, moved cautiously up the
stream. When he had reached an open place, where a large number of
Indians were assembled, he asked, through his interpreter, leave to
land, explaining at the same time his amicable intentions. But the
Indians, brandishing their weapons, answered only with gestures of
angry defiance. Though much chagrined, Cortes thought it best not to
urge the matter further that evening, but withdrew to a neighbouring
island, where he disembarked his troops, resolved to effect a
landing on the following morning.
When day broke the Spaniards saw the opposite banks lined with a
much more numerous array than on the preceding evening, while the
canoes along the shore were filled with bands of armed warriors.
Cortes now made his preparations for the attack. He first landed a
detachment of a hundred men under Alonso de Avila, at a point somewhat
lower down the stream, sheltered by a thick grove of palms, from which
a road, as he knew, led to the town of Tabasco, giving orders to his
officer to march at once on the place, while he himself advanced to
assault it in front.
Then embarking the remainder of his troops, Cortes crossed the
river in face of the enemy; but, before commencing hostilities, that
he might "act with entire regard to justice, and in obedience to the
instructions of the Royal Council," he first caused proclamation to be
made through the interpreter, that he desired only a free passage
for his men; and that he proposed to revive the friendly relations
which had formerly subsisted between his countrymen and the natives.
He assured them that if blood were spilt, the sin would he on their
heads, and that resistance would be useless, since he was resolved
at all hazards to take up his quarters that night in the town of
Tabasco. This proclamation, delivered in lofty tone, and duly recorded
by the notary, was answered by the Indians-who might possibly have
comprehended one word in ten of it-with shouts of defiance and a
shower of arrows.
Cortes, having now complied with all the requisitions of a loyal
cavalier, and shifted the responsibility from his own shoulders to
those of the Royal Council, brought his boats alongside of the
Indian canoes. They grappled fiercely together and both parties were
soon in the water, which rose above the girdle. The struggle was not
long, though desperate. The superior strength of the Europeans
prevailed, and they forced the enemy back to land. Here, however, they
were supported by their countrymen, who showered down darts, arrows,
and blazing billets of wood on the heads of the invaders. The banks
were soft and slippery, and it was with difficulty the soldiers made
good their footing. Cortes lost a sandal in the mud, but continued
to fight barefoot, with great exposure of his person, as the
Indians, who soon singled out the leader, called to one another,
"Strike at the chief!"
At length the Spaniards gained the bank, and were able to come
into something like order, when they opened a brisk fire from their
arquebuses and crossbows. The enemy, astounded by the roar and flash
of the firearms, of which they had had no experience, fell back, and
retreated behind a breastwork of timber thrown across the way. The
Spaniards, hot in the pursuit, soon carried these rude defences, and
drove the Tabascans before them towards the town, where they again
took shelter behind their palisades.
Meanwhile Avila had arrived from the opposite quarter, and the
natives taken by surprise made no further attempt at resistance, but
abandoned the place to the Christians. They had previously removed
their families and effects. Some provisions fell into the hands of the
victors, but little gold, "a circumstance," says Las Casas, "which
gave them no particular satisfaction." It was a very populous place.
The houses were mostly of mud; the better sort of stone and lime;
affording proofs in the inhabitants of a superior refinement to that
found in the islands, as their stout resistance had given evidence
of superior valour.
Cortes, having thus made himself master of the town, took formal
possession of it for the crown of Castile. He gave three cuts with his
sword on a large ceiba tree, which grew in the place, and proclaimed
aloud, that he took possession of the city in the name and on behalf
of the Catholic sovereigns, and would maintain and defend the same
with sword and buckler against all who should gainsay it. The same
vaunting declaration was also made by the soldiers, and the whole
was duly recorded and attested by the notary. This was the usual
simple but chivalric form with which the Spanish cavaliers asserted
the royal title to the conquered territories in the New World. It
was a good title, doubtless, against the claims of any other
European potentate.
The general took up his quarters that night in the courtyard of
the principal temple. He posted his sentinels, and took all the
precautions practised in wars with a civilised foe. Indeed, there
was reason for them. A suspicious silence seemed to reign through
the place and its neighbourhood; and tidings were brought that the
interpreter, Melchorejo, had fled, leaving his Spanish dress hanging
on a tree. Cortes was disquieted by the desertion of this man who
would not only inform his countrymen of the small number of the
Spaniards, but dissipate any illusions that might be entertained of
their superior natures.
On the following morning, as no traces of the enemy were
visible, Cortes ordered out a detachment under Alvarado, and another
under Francisco de Lugo, to reconnoitre. The latter officer had not
advanced a league before he learned the position of the Indians, by
their attacking him in such force that he was fain to take shelter
in a large stone building, where he was closely besieged.
Fortunately the loud yells of the assailants, like most barbarous
nations, seeking to strike terror by their ferocious cries, reached
the ears of Alvarado and his men, who, speedily advancing to the
relief of their comrades, enabled them to force a passage through
the enemy. Both parties retreated closely pursued, on the town, when
Cortes, marching out to their support, compelled the Tabascans to
retire.
A few prisoners were taken in this skirmish. By them Cortes
found his worst apprehensions verified. The country was everywhere
in arms. A force consisting of many thousands had assembled from the
neighbouring provinces, and a general assault was resolved on for
the next day. To the general's inquiries why he had been received in
so different a manner from his predecessor, Grijalva, they answered,
that "the conduct of the Tabascans then had given great offence to the
other Indian tribes, who taxed them with treachery and cowardice; so
that they had promised, on any return of the white men, to resist them
in the same manner as their neighbours had done."
Cortes might now well regret that he had allowed himself to
deviate from the direct object of his enterprise, and to become
intangled in a doubtful war which could lead to no profitable
result. But it was too late to repent. He had taken the step, and
had no alternative but to go forward. To retreat would dishearten
his own men at the outset, impair their confidence in him as their
leader, and confirm the arrogance of his foes, the tidings of whose
success might precede him on his voyage, and prepare the way for
greater mortifications and defeats. He did not hesitate as to the
course he was to pursue; but, calling his officers together, announced
his intention to give battle the following morning.
He sent back to the vessels such as were disabled by their wounds,
and ordered the remainder of the forces to join the camp. Six of the
heavy guns were also taken from the ships, together with all the
horses. The animals were stiff and torpid from long confinement on
board; but a few hours' exercise restored them to their strength and
usual spirit. He gave the command of the artillery-if it may be
dignified with the name-to a soldier named Mesa, who had acquired
some experience as an engineer in the Italian wars. The infantry he
put under the orders of Diego de Ordaz, and took charge of the cavalry
himself. It consisted of some of the most valiant gentlemen of his
little band, among whom may be mentioned Alvarado, Velasquez de
Leon, Avila, Puertocarrero, Olid, Montejo. Having thus made all the
necessary arrangements, and settled his plan of battle, he retired
to rest,-but not to slumber. His feverish mind, as may well be
imagined, was filled with anxiety for the morrow, which might decide
the fate of his expedition; and as was his wont on such occasions,
he was frequently observed, during the night, going the rounds, and
visiting the sentinels, to see that no one slept upon his post.
At the first glimmering of light he mustered his army, and
declared his purpose not to abide, cooped up in the town, the
assault of the enemy, but to march at once against him. For he well
knew that the spirits rise with action, and that the attacking party
gathers a confidence from the very movement, which is not felt by
the one who is passively, perhaps anxiously, awaiting the assault. The
Indians were understood to be encamped on a level ground a few miles
distant from the city, called the plain of Ceutla. The general
commanded that Ordaz should march with the foot, including the
artillery, directly across the country, and attack them in front,
while he himself would fetch a circuit with the horse, and turn
their flank when thus engaged, or fall upon their rear.
These dispositions being completed, the little army heard mass and
then sallied forth from the wooden walls of Tabasco. It was
Lady-day, the 25th of March,-long memorable in the annals of New
Spain. The district around the town was chequered with patches of
maize, and, on the lower level, with plantations of cacao,-supplying the beverage, and perhaps the coin of the country, as in
Mexico. These plantations, requiring constant irrigation, were fed
by numerous canals and reservoirs of water, so that the country
could not be traversed without great toil and difficulty. It was,
however, intersected by a narrow path or causeway, over which the
cannon could be dragged.
The troops advanced more than a league on their laborious march,
without descrying the enemy. The weather was sultry, but few of them
were embarrassed by the heavy mail worn by the European cavaliers at
that period. Their cotton jackets, thickly quilted, afforded a
tolerable protection against the arrows of the Indian, and allowed
room for the freedom and activity of movement essential to a life of
rambling adventure in the wilderness.
At length they came in sight of the broad plains of Ceutla, and
beheld the dusky lines of the enemy stretching, as far as the eye
could reach, along the edge of the horizon. The Indians had shown some
sagacity in the choice of their position; and, as the weary
Spaniards came slowly on, floundering through the morass, the
Tabascans set up their hideous battle-cries, and discharged volleys of
arrows, stones, and other missiles, which rattled like hail on the
shields and helmets of the assailants. Many were severely wounded
before they could gain the firm ground, where they soon cleared a
space for themselves, and opened a heavy fire of artillery and
musketry on the dense columns of the enemy, which presented a fatal
mark for the balls. Numbers were swept down at every discharge; but
the bold barbarians, far from being dismayed, threw up dust and leaves
to hide their losses, and, sounding their war instruments, shot off
fresh flights of arrows in return.
They even pressed closer on the Spaniards, and, when driven off by
a vigorous charge, soon turned again, and, rolling back like the waves
of the ocean, seemed ready to overwhelm the little band by weight of
numbers. Thus cramped, the latter had scarcely room to perform their
necessary evolutions, or even to work their guns with effect.
The engagement had now lasted more than an hour, and the
Spaniards, sorely pressed, looked with great anxiety for the arrival
of the horse,-which some unaccountable impediments must have
detained,-to relieve them from their perilous position. At this
crisis, the furthest columns of the Indian army were seen to be
agitated and thrown into a disorder that rapidly spread through the
whole mass. It was not long before the ears of the Christians were
saluted with the cheering war-cry of "San Jago and San Pedro," and
they beheld the bright helmets and swords of the Castilian chivalry
flashing back the rays of the morning sun, as they dashed through
the ranks of the enemy, striking to the right and left, and scattering
dismay around them. The eye of faith, indeed, could discern the patron
Saint of Spain himself, mounted on his grey war-horse, heading the
rescue and trampling over the bodies of the fallen infidels!
The approach of Cortes had been greatly retarded by the broken
nature of the ground. When he came up, the Indians were so hotly
engaged, that he was upon them before they observed his approach. He
ordered his men to direct their lances at the faces of their
opponents, who, terrified at the monstrous apparition,-for they
supposed the rider and the horse, which they had never before seen, to
be one and the same,-were seized with a panic. Ordaz availed
himself of it to command a general charge along the line, and the
Indians, many of them throwing away their arms, fled without
attempting further resistance.
Cortes was too content with the victory, to care to follow it up
by dipping his sword in the blood of the fugitives. He drew off his
men to a copse of palms which skirted the place, and, under their
broad canopy, the soldiers offered up thanksgivings to the Almighty
for the victory vouchsafed them. The field of battle was made the site
of a town, called in honour of the day on which the action took place,
Santa Maria de la Vitoria, long afterwards the capital of the
province. The number of those who fought or fell in the engagement
is altogether doubtful. Nothing, indeed, is more uncertain than
numerical estimates of barbarians. And they gain nothing in
probability, when they come, as in the present instance, from the
reports of their enemies. Most accounts, however, agree that the
Indian force consisted of five squadrons of eight thousand men each.
There is more discrepancy as to the number of slain, varying from
one to thirty thousand! In this monstrous discordance, the common
disposition to exaggerate may lead us to look for truth in the
neighbourhood of the smallest number. The loss of the Christians was
inconsiderable; not exceeding-if we receive their own reports,
probably, from the same causes, much diminishing the truth-two
killed, and less than a hundred wounded! We may readily comprehend the
feelings of the Conquerors, when they declared, that "Heaven must have
fought on their side, since their own strength could never have
prevailed against such a multitude of enemies!"
Several prisoners were taken in the battle, among them two chiefs.
Cortes gave them their liberty, and sent a message by them to their
countrymen, "that he would overlook the past, if they would come in at
once, and tender their submission. Otherwise he would ride over the
land, and put every living thing in it, man, woman, and child, to
the sword!" With this formidable menace ringing in their ears, the
envoys departed.
But the Tabascans had no relish for further hostilities. A body of
inferior chiefs appeared the next day, clad in dark dresses of cotton,
intimating their abject condition, and implored leave to bury their
dead. It was granted by the general, with many assurances of his
friendly disposition; but at the same time he told them, he expected
their principal caciques, as he would treat with none other. These
soon presented themselves, attended by a numerous train of vassals,
who followed with timid curiosity to the Christian camp. Among their
propitiatory gifts were twenty female slaves, which, from the
character of one of them, proved of infinitely more consequence than
was anticipated by either Spaniards or Tabascans. Confidence was
soon restored; and was succeeded by a friendly intercourse, and the
interchange of Spanish toys for the rude commodities of the country,
articles of food, cotton, and a few gold ornaments of little value.
When asked where the precious metal was procured, they pointed to
the west, and answered "Culhua," "Mexico." The Spaniards saw this
was no place for them to traffic, or to tarry in.-Yet here, they were
not many leagues distant from a potent and opulent city, or what
once had been so, the ancient Palenque. But its glory may have even
then passed away, and its name have been forgotten by the
surrounding nations.
Before his departure the Spanish commander did not omit to provide
for one great object of his expedition, the conversion of the Indians.
He first represented to the caciques, that he had been sent thither by
a powerful monarch on the other side of the water, to whom he had
now a right to claim their allegiance. He then caused the reverend
fathers Olmedo and Diaz to enlighten their minds, as far as
possible, in regard to the great truths of revelation, urging them
to receive these in place of their own heathenish abominations. The
Tabascans, whose perceptions were no doubt materially quickened by the
discipline they had undergone, made but a faint resistance to either
proposal. The next day was Palm Sunday, and the general resolved to
celebrate their conversion by one of those pompous ceremonials of
the Church, which should make a lasting impression on their minds.
A solemn procession was formed of the whole army with the
ecclesiastics at their head, each soldier bearing a palm branch in his
hand. The concourse was swelled by thousands of Indians of both sexes,
who followed in curious astonishment at the spectacle. The long
files bent their way through the flowery savannas that bordered the
settlement, to the principal temple, where an altar was raised, and
the image of the presiding deity was deposed to make room for that
of the Virgin with the infant Saviour. Mass was celebrated by Father
Olmedo, and the soldiers who were capable joined in the solemn
chant. The natives listened in profound silence, and if we may believe
the chronicler of the event who witnessed it, were melted into
tears; while their hearts were penetrated with reverential awe for the
God of those terrible beings who seemed to wield in their own hands
the thunder and the lightning.
These solemnities concluded, Cortes prepared to return to his
ships, well satisfied with the impression made on the new converts,
and with the conquests he had thus achieved for Castile and
Christianity. The soldiers, taking leave of their Indian friends,
entered the boats with the palm branches in their hands, and
descending the river re-embarked on board their vessels, which rode at
anchor at its mouth. A favourable breeze was blowing, and the little
navy, opening its sails to receive it, was soon on its way again to
the golden shores of Mexico.