As the Spaniards halted before the great wall, speculating on the strength of the people who had erected it, and upon the possible traps it might hide, their late hosts again besought them to take the Cholula route, but Cempoalan counsel prevailed. Waving aloft his banner, Cortés exclaimed: "Behold the cross! Señores, follow it!" And with this he led the way through the semicircular laps of the entrance. The wall was not provided with sentinels, and the army met with no obstacles.[1] Attended by ten horsemen, the general advanced to reconnoitre. After proceeding about four leagues he caught sight of fifteen armed Indians, who were pursued and overtaken. A fight ensued, in which the natives, nerved by despair, fought so fiercely that two horses were killed, and three horses and two riders wounded.[2] Meanwhile a
- ↑ A short distance further they passed through a pine grove, wherein threads and papers were fixed and scattered across the path, the work of Tlascaltec sorcerers, who thus sought to cast a spell upon the invaders. Herrera, dec. ii. lib. vi. cap. iv.
- ↑ 'Segun algunos que lo vieron, cortaron cercen de vn golpe cada pescueco con rieudas y todo.' Gomara, Hist. Mex., 71. 'Io viddi che cōbattēdosi vn dì, diede vn Indiano vna cortellata a vn cauallo . . . . nel petto, che glielo aperse fin alle iteriora, et cadde icōtanēte morto, & . . . . che vn'altro Indiano diede vn'altra cortellata a vn'altro cauallo su il collo che se lo gettò morto.' Relatione per vn gentil'huomo, in Remusio, Viaggi, iii. 305. According to Duran two warriors stepped forth from a vast Tlascalan army before the regular battle, and issued a challenge, which was accepted by two horsemen. After a short combat the Indians, by deft movements, killed both horses, cutting off the neck of one, and wounding the other in the pasterns. Hist. Ind., MS., ii. 411-20; Tezozomoc, Hist. Mex., ii. 255-6. This attack is the only resistance admitted by Camargo. The assailants were all Otomís, who killed one Spaniard and two horses. Hist. Tlax., 146.
frequently absurd from the contradictions implied by other passages. Nor does he neglect to hold forth on his own people for their bravery and exploits in fighting the detested Aztecs, and their unswerving devotion to the Spaniards. In the pursuit of this pleasing theme he scruples not to sacrifice truth when it proves a stumbling-block. He leaves the impression, for instance, that the Tlascaltecs never raised sword against Cortés. Many of the misstatements are due to a non-critical acceptance of tales, for Camargo was as simple and superstitious as any of his contemporaries. Although acting as interpreter in the province, Torquemada, i. 523, he exhibits a not very thorough acquaintance with Spanish, which is the cause of errors and repetitions. The conquest forms but a portion of his narrative, which treats chiefly of aboriginal history and customs, and touches lightly the events that passed before his eyes. It was written in 1585, and lay for some time in the Felipe Neri convent archives, where it was consulted by Torquemada. Taken afterward by Panes to Spain, it was deposited by Muñoz with the Royal Academy of History at Madrid, from which source copies were obtained, among others one by Ternaux-Compans, and a faulty translation was published in the Nouvelles Ånnales des Voyages, xcviii.-ix.
