questioned him; and he confirmed all that the Indian woman and the natives of Tascaltecal had told me. As well on account of this information as from the signs I had observed, I determined to anticipate them, rather than be surprised, so I had some of the lords of the city called, saying that I wished to speak with them, and I shut them in a chamber by themselves. In the meantime I had our people prepared, so that, at the firing of a musket, they should fall on a crowd of Indians who were near to our quarters, and many others who were inside them. It was done in this wise, that, after I had taken these lords, and left them bound in the chamber, I mounted a horse, and ordered the musket to be fired, and we did such execution that, in two hours, more than three thousand persons had perished.
In order that Your Majesty may see how well prepared they were, before I went out of our quarters, they had occupied all the streets, and stationed all their men, but, as we took them by surprise, they were easily overcome, especially as the chiefs were wanting, for I had already taken them prisoners. I ordered fire to be set to some towers and strong houses, where they defended themselves, and assaulted us; and thus I scoured the city fighting during five hours, leaving our dwelling place which was very strong, well guarded, until I had forced all the people out of the city at various points, in which those five thousand natives of Tascaltecal and the four hundred of Cempoal gave me good assistance.[1]
- ↑ This massacre is one of the bloodiest in Mexican history, and concerning it the greatest controversy has raged. Las Casas leads in judging Cortes most severely, and says that it was a part of his policy, as indeed it was of the Spaniards everywhere, to strike terror into the natives by a wholesale slaughter. Bernal Diaz defends Cortes and says his course was justified later, when, in the investigation made by the friars who came for that purpose to Cholula, they learned from the chiefs and other Cholulans that there had really been a concerted plot to destroy the Spaniards in their city. A contrary theory is, that the Tlascalans invented the fiction of a plot expressly to
