With a prudent foresight to these movements Cortés had shortly after his first successes in Tepeaca sent Martin Lopez, the shipwright, to Tlascala to prepare timber for thirteen brigantines, which were to be transported to the lake for besieging purposes. The republic offered to provide material and native carpenters, and aided by Andrés Nuñez and others, Lopez soon formed an efficient corps of assistants for felling and shaping the pieces, as modelled and numbered by himself. The site of construction was at Atempan, on the Rio Zahuatl,[1] which afforded the necessary water for the trial launch, and had forests near by from which timber, masts, and pitch could be obtained.[2] Iron, sails, cordage, and other needful articles taken from the sunken fleet were forwarded from Villa Rica, together with smiths and other workmen.
With the arrival of Cortés at Tlascala, preparations receive a fresh impulse, and weapons and armor are overhauled, pikes and arrows made, and stores collected. An opportune addition is made by the arrival of a vessel from Spain and the Canaries, laden with war material, bows, bowstrings, arquebuses, powder, and a variety of goods; also over a dozen soldiers, with three horses. Cortés purchases the whole cargo, and persuades the owner, Juan de Búrgos, the captain, and the men to join him.[3]
- ↑ Where now is the chapel of San Buenaventura. Camargo, Hist. Tlax., 176. Yet Lorenzana says: 'Por constante tradicion se trabajó en un Barrio de Hueyothlipan, que llaman Quausimalán, que quiere decir, donde labran los Palos.' Cortés, Hist. N. Esp., 167. But it is more likely to have been on the river passing through Tlascala city, and near Matlaleueye Mount.
- ↑ The timber came probably from the Matlalcueye slopes; the masts from Hueyotlipan; the pitch from the pine woods near Huexotzinco, says Bernal Diaz, where it was prepared by four sailors, for the natives did not understand its manufacture. 'Es la Sierra Matlaleuie,' states Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., i. 524. 'La brea se saca de ... la sierra de la Agua de Xalapa,' near San Juan de los Llanos. Bustamante, in Chimalpain, Hist. Conq., ii. 13. This applies rather to colonial times. Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 118, 124, names a number of those who aided in building. See also Mora, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, x. 302-3.
- ↑ Bernal Diaz names several of the thirteen soldiers. The captain was Francisco Medel. One of the men, Monjaraz, was said to have murdered his wife. He kept aloof from all combat, but once he ascended a tower to look on, and was that same day killed by Indians. Hist. Verdad., 118-19.
