Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/355

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CHAPTER XIV.

SUBJUGATION OF CHOLULA.

October, 1519.

Departure from Tlascala — Description of Cholula — The Welcome — Army Quarters in the City — Intimations of a Conspiracy between the Mexicans and Cholultecs — Cortés Asks for Provisions and Warriors — He Holds a Council — Preparations for an Attack — The Lords Enter the Court with the Required Supplies — Cortés Reprimands them in an Address — The Slaughter Begins — Destruction of the City — Butchery and Pillage — Amnesty finally Proclaimed — Xicotencatl Returns to Tlascala — Reconciliation of the Cholultecs and Tlascaltecs — Dedication of a Temple to the Virgin — Reflections on the Massacre of Cholula.

The Spaniards had been three weeks beneath the hospitable roofs of the Tlascaltecs, and now they departed amid expressions of good-will mingled with grief.[1] A crowd as large as that which had welcomed their arrival followed them for a considerable distance, and this included all the available warriors of the districts,[2] who would gladly have joined the handful of heroes in their quest for wealth and glory amongst the hated Aztecs. Cortés did not think it well, however, to trammel his movements, or to intrude on his various hosts with too large a force of undisciplined and unmanageable men, whom he had not learned to trust, and only about five thousand were allowed to attach themselves to his army.[3]

  1. 'Hiço sacrificar treynta muchachos el dia. que se partieron.' Oviedo, iii. 497.
  2. Estimated by Cortés at a round 100,000. Others say he was offered 10,000 to 20,000 men.
  3. This is the figure deduced from later references. 'Quedaron en mi compañia hasta cinco ó seis mil.' Cortés, Cartas, 72. Dismissing the 100,000 with presents, he retained only 3000. 'Por no ponerse en manos de gente barbara.'
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