The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo Vol. 2

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1/25/22, 8:50 PM The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo written by himself, containing a true an… four women andthree men, whom we had captured among the mountains. In gratitudefor this, and in order to show how friendly they were disposed towards us, these Indians presented our general with several ornaments of gold, but the metal was of an inferior quality. In this neighbourhood wehalted three days, as it contained plenty of good food for our horses,and a great abundance of maise. Cortes considered this would be amost eligible spot to found a colony in, as the country round about contained a number of wealthy townships, from which a settlement would derive great advantages, and have a constant supply of all necessaries.Here Cortes also made the most minute inquiries of the caziques and Indian merchants as to the route we were to take; for which purposehe laid before them a piece of nequen cloth, he had broughtwith him from Guacasualco, and on which were noted down all thetownships we had to pass through up to Huyacala. This place wastermed by these Indians Great Acala, in order to distinguish it fromanother, called Little Acala, and they assured us that the greater partof our route lay through a country containing numerous rivers, andwas intersected in various places by arms of the sea. Up to Tamaztepecalone, they said, which lay at a distance of three days' journey, weshould have to pass no less than three rivers, and one estuary, whichwas exceedingly broad. In consequence of this information, Cortes requested the caziques tofurnish us with canoes, and assist us in the construction of bridges.This they readily consented to do, but took care not to fulfil their promise.We, however, placed perfect confidence in what they had said, and only took provisions for three days with us. But it appears they hadmerely wished to get rid of us as speedily as possible; for, instead ofthree, it took us seven days' march before we arrived at Tamaztepec,nor did we find at any of the rivers either canoes or bridges; so thatour Indian friends had deceived us in every way. We were thereforecompelled to set to work ourselves, to construct bridges sufficiently strong to carry our horses; every officer and soldier set diligently towork in felling the heavy trees, and dragging them to the river side, inall of which we were likewise greatly assisted by the Mexican warriors.Three days were spent in the construction of this bridge, during whichtime we had nothing to subsist on but grass, and a wild root called bythe Indians quecuenque, which burnt our lips and tongues. After wehad at length, with great difficulty, safely crossed this broad estuary, our further progress was almost impeded by an impenetrable barrier of thickets and woods, through which we were obliged to cut a road withour swords. In this way we continued to move forward in a straightline, in the hopes of reaching some township. One morning, as usual,when we had again commenced marching forward in this laboriousmanner, Cortes himself began to find that our position was trulymiserable. He could not help hearing how the men murmured againsthim, and cursed the whole expedition, and the terrible hunger theysustained; uttering aloud that he ought immediately to march back toMexico, if at least he was not desirous of starving us to death. To allthis suffering was added, that we now saw before us nothing but terrificmountains, which almost hid the very heavens from our view. Thoughsome of us climbed to the tops of the highest trees, all we could seewas one huge pile of mountains frowning above the other on every side.Besides this, two of our Indian guides had secretly decamped, and thethird was so ill, that he was unable to move along, and had so far lost hisrecollection, that he could give us no information as to which way we were to bend our steps. But as Cortes was a man who never shrunkback from any difficulty, and whose active mind was never at a loss, heordered the pilot Pedro Lopez to bring him the compass, which he placed on our map of nequen cloth above mentioned, and then desired him to point out the direction we were to take, in order to reach the nearest township. In accordance with Lopez's instructions, we commenced cuttingour way through the woods in an easterly direction, and moved upthe mountains. It was here that our general himself declared he shouldbe quite at a loss what to do, if we did not reach some township by thenext day. [Pg 242] Although every one of us would gladly have marched back to NewSpain at this moment, yet, strengthened by hope, we continued our difficultroute, and in a short time it pleased God we should come up to a treewhich had been recently cut down, and a little further on https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32475/32475-h/32475-h.htm 162/282
1/25/22, 8:50 PM The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo written by himself, containing a true an… to a smallfootpath. Pedro Lopez and myself, who were a good bit in advance,with several of the men, to explore the way, instantly hastened back toinform Cortes of our discovery, and to assure him that some habitation or other must be in the immediate vicinity. Our general, with the whole of the men, were exceedingly rejoiced at this news; though we found that we had to cross a river and several marshes before we couldreach any dwellings. By employing our utmost exertions, however,we soon surmounted these difficulties, and we arrived at a township,from which the inhabitants had fled on our approach, but leaving behind them a quantity of maise, beans, and other vegetables, which tasted the more savoury to us, as we were completely famished. Here our horses likewise regained their strength, and we offered up our humble thanks to God for so much mercy. On this last march, Cortes' buffoon and threesoldiers, who had recently arrived from Spain, died from exhaustion. A great number of Mechoacan and Mexican Indians likewise perished, and many others, who were unable to bear the fatigues, became ill, andin despair sank down on the ground as we marched along. As this township was quite deserted by its inhabitants, and we hadno guides left, Cortes despatched myself and another captain among the mountains in search of other small villages. Others of our men alsocrossed the broad river, which flows here, in some canoes they found, belonging to this township, and they soon came up with a number of the inhabitants, thirty of whom, for the greater part caziques and papas,they persuaded, by kind words and promises, to accompany them to Cortes, who, with the assistance of Doña Marina, spoke to them in an affectionate manner; so that they brought us several more fowls, anda quantity of maise. They then pointed out the route we were to take,in order to reach the next township, which was called Izguatepec, the distance to which place, they said, was three days' journey, or sixty-fourmiles; but that on our road we should come up to another smalltownship, which was subject to Tamaztepec, where we were then staying. [Pg 243] Before describing our further march, I must not forget to mentionthat a few Mexican chiefs, who were unable to endure the pains ofhunger any longer, had secreted two or three Indians of the townships we had passed through, among their baggage. These unfortunate beings they slaughtered on our march, and baked them after the fashion oftheir country, between heated stones, under ground, and then devouredtheir flesh. We afterwards discovered that our two guides, whom weso suddenly missed, had been served in a similar manner. When Cortes was informed of this revolting circumstance, he ordered the caziques into his presence, and reprimanded them for committing suchatrocities, threatening to punish them most severely if they repeated this abominable conduct. One of the Franciscan monks likewise preached a sermon on the occasion, and he told them many holy and edifying things. In order, however, to deter the caziques from committinga similar offence, one of them was sentenced to be burnt at thestake. [46] [Pg 244] I will not go further into the particulars of the many hardships and privations we had to suffer. Our distress was so great, that even the performers on the sackbut, clarion, and dulcimer, who were constantly to have amused us with their instruments, the only hard work they hadto do, fell ill for want of food, and so an end was put to their music. There was only one of them who managed to force out a tune nowand then, but we all grew so sick of his blowing and puffing that wetold him it sounded in our ears like the mingled howls of foxes andwolves, and that a handful of maise to stay the cravings of hungerwould be more acceptable than all his music. Several persons on reading this history have asked me, why we did not kill the herd of swine which Cortes took with him? For youknow, they said, that necessity breaks through all law, and Corteswould undoubtedly have distributed some of the flesh from time totime among the troops. To this I answered, that Cortes' chief butlerGuinea, a man of a dubious character, gave out that the hogs had by degrees all been devoured by the alligators and https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32475/32475-h/32475-h.htm 163/282
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The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo Vol. 2

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