valids. On the way they were surprised and slaughtered, the treasures and effects being distributed as spoils.[1]
The larger division of the party, under the hidalgo Juan Yuste,[2] which were to join Cortés, also picked up some convalescents, together with additional treasure and baggage, and proceeded to Mexico by the way of Calpulalpan. They numbered five horsemen, forty-five foot-soldiers, and three hundred Tlascaltecs, the latter under command of one of Maxixcatzin's sons. Advised of their approach the natives of Zultepec, among others, were induced, more by cupidity than patriotic zeal, to form an ambuscade along the steep declivity of a narrow pass which had to be followed. Here they fell upon the party on all sides as they descended in single file, encumbered beside by their burdens. Resistance was ineffective, and those not slain were carried to Tezcuco to be offered up to the idols, while their effects were distributed, some of the trophies being dedicated to temples of the Acolhuan capital, there to tell the mournful tale to the returning conquerors.[3]
- ↑ This appears to have taken place on the Xocotlan road, followed by the Spaniards on first entering the country, for in the temple of this town, says Bernal Diaz, were found the saddles and other trophies. He estimates the treasure lost at 40,000 pesos. Hist. Verdad., 108, 116-117; Lejalde, Probanza, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 425.
- ↑ Herrera writes, under Iuste and Morla. If correct there were two Morlas.
- ↑ Herrera copies this account, but gives also another in an earlier chapter, which leads one to suppose that Yuste and a few companions escaped to the mountains. They either perished of hunger or were captured at some settlement while offering the remnant of their treasures for food. An inscription by Yuste on a piece of bark recorded their sufferings. 'Por aqui passò el desdichado Iuan Iuste, con sus desdichados compañeros, con tãta hambre, que por pocas tortillas de mayz, diò vno vna barra de oro, que pesaua ochocientos ducados.' dec. ii. lib. x. cap. xiii.; dec. iii. lib. i. cap. v. Torquemada repeats both versions. i. 530-1. Peter Martyr and Gomara are also confused, allowing the Yuste party in one page to fall at the pass, and on another to turn back to Villa Rica from Tlascala. Hist. Mex., 165, 181-2. A misinterpretation of a vague passage by Cortés is the cause of the mistake, into which nearly every writer has fallen. The party carried, according to the Cartas, 141, 183-4, a number of agreements with the natives, and other valuable documents, beside Cortés' personal effects and valuables, worth over 30,000 pesos de oro. Bernal Diaz says three loads of gold. The inhabitants said that people from Tezcuco and Mexico had done the deed to avenge Cacama. But none except the natives of the district could have had time to gather for the attack.
