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… Mexicans almost weekly made upon this town. Sandoval was left behind with a strong detachmentof foot and horse for the protection of Tezcuco and our brigantines. We set out on our march very early on the morning of the 5th ofApril, 1521, after we had attended mass, and took up our quarters the first night in Tlalmanalco, where we were kindly entertained by theinhabitants. The next day we reached Chalco, which lies in the immediatevicinity of the former place; and Cortes instantly sent for all thecaziques of the province, whom he then addressed at some length bymeans of our interpreters, informing them that his present expedition was directed against the townships which lay on the borders of thelake, in order to force them into obedience, and also to explore theterritory, and form his plans for blockading the city of Mexico. Ourthirteen brigantines, he told them, would shortly be launched, and herequested them to assemble all their warriors by the next day, thatthey might join our troops in this expedition. Upon which the caziquesone and all declared their willingness to comply with his desires. The following morning we continued our march, and arrived as far as the township of Chimalhuacan, which was subject to Chalco. Herewe were joined by upwards of 20,000 of our allies, who had assembled from Chalco, Tezcuco, Huexotzinco, Tlascalla, and other townships. This was a larger body of Indians than had ever, up to this time, joined our troops in New Spain. All these warriors had been induced to joinus in the hopes of making a rich booty; but the expectation of plentiful repasts off human flesh, which never failed after an engagement, was no less an incitement; and I cannot better compare these many thousands of Indians than to the large flocks of vultures, ravens, and other birds of prey which, in the Italian wars, follow the armies, tosatiate themselves on the dead bodies which have fallen in battle. This ferocious appetite of our Indian allies was but too soon to beglutted; for we received information that large bodies of Mexican troops, with their allies from the surrounding neighbourhood, stoodready prepared to attack us in an adjoining valley. At this intelligence, Cortes issued orders that we should equip ourselves for battle early thefollowing morning. We accordingly left Chimalhuacan next day veryearly, after we had attended mass. [Pg 35] Our march lay through some steep rocks, and we soon arrived betweentwo small mountains whose tops had been fortified. Hither a vastnumber of Indians, with their wives, had fled, who yelled excessively, and threw out all manner of abusive language towards us. We, however,took no notice of them, but marched on quietly to an extensivetownship called Yauhtepec, which was quite deserted by its inhabitants.We made no stay in this place, but marched on until we arrived in aplain where there were several small wells, but little water. On oneside of the plain was a high rocky mountain, with a fortification whichwas most difficult of approach. When we had arrived in the vicinityof this rock, we found that it was crowded with Indians, who jeered atus and greeted us with a shower of arrows, lances, and stones, by whichthree of our men were wounded. Here Cortes ordered us to halt, andsaid, "It appears that the Mexicans have everywhere taken up somestronghold, and mock at us, because they imagine we cannot get atthem." He then despatched a few of the horse and crossbow-men toreconnoitre a part of the rock, in order to discover some more favorable point to attack the enemy. They, however, returned with the answerthat the rock was only accessible at the spot where we had halted, and that, on all other sides, it rose up perpendicularly. Cortes then commandedus to ascend and storm the enemy's fortresses. The first ensignChristobal del Corral and the other ensigns were to lead the way, andall the remaining foot to follow them. Cortes, with the cavalry, stationed himself in the plain beneath, to cover our rear, and protect thebaggage against other bodies of Mexicans. As soon as we commencedthis laborious ascent, the Indians began rolling down large stones and huge lumps of rock upon us, and it was terrible to behold how these heavy masses rebounded as they thundered down the rugged steeps.It was a miracle that we were not all crushed to pieces; and certainlyCortes had, in this instance, not acted as a prudent general https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32475/32475-h/32475-h.htm 30/282
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… when heordered this perilous attack. At my very feet a soldier named Martinez,a native of Valencia, and who had been butler to a gentleman of distinctionin Castile, was completely smashed by a piece of rock, anddied without a single groan or sigh. Two other soldiers, one of whom was named Gaspar Sanchez, a nephew of the treasurer of Cuba, and the other, Bravo, met with a similar death from the rolling masses of stone. We, nevertheless, continued the ascent with great intrepidity:but scarcely a few moments had elapsed before another brave soldier,named Alonso Rodriguez, with two of his companions, were crushed to death, and most of us were struck on the head by the pieces of stonewhich were split off the rock by the tumbling masses. At that time I was still an active young fellow, so that I kept upclose with the ensign Corral, and we reached some hollows in the rock,along which we continued to advance for some time, but at the imminentrisk of our lives, until Corral could proceed no further, and held himself fast by one of the thick trees with prickly thorns which grewin these hollows; his head was wounded all over, his face covered withblood, and his colours torn into rags. Here he turned round to me, and said, "Alas! Señor Bernal Diaz, it is impossible to advance furtherthis way; for even if the tumbling masses of rock do not crushus, we shall scarcely be able to hold fast by our hands under theseprojecting masses." As we were thus clinging to the rock by ourhands, I espied Pedro Barba, who commanded the crossbow-men, with two soldiers, likewise clambering up to this projection, and I cried out to him, "Captain, don't give yourself any further trouble; there isneither place here to put your hand or foot, unless you wish to rollheadlong down the mountain." To this he answered, in the fulness of his courage, or because he thought he was bound to speak as an officerin high command, "Here we have to do with deeds, not words." Iwas obliged to swallow this reproach, and replied, "Well, we shall see how well you will manage to get up here!" The words were scarcelyout of my mouth when other large pieces of the rock came rollingdown from the heights above, by which Pedro Barba was wounded, andone of his men crushed to death. This seemed to deter Barba, and hewould not move a step further up. [Pg 36] The ensign Corral now called out to the soldiers to apprize Cortesthat it was impossible to ascend further, and that the descent wasequally dangerous. This information was conveyed from one man tothe other until it reached Cortes, who had even lost three men in theplain below, and several others were severely wounded, by the lumps of rock which came tumbling down. He had, however, not been ableto see the perilous situation we were in, from the winding of the rock,but had fully expected to find that the greater part of us were either killedor dreadfully wounded. He now immediately signified, by loud criesand a few musket shots, that we should descend. This we accordinglydid with the utmost precaution, each one striving to assist hisneighbour down the steep rocks, until we all safely arrived in the plainbeneath; our heads were covered with wounds and blood, and thecolours of our ensigns were torn to rags. When Cortes saw the terrible condition we were in, and was informed that we had lost eight men, heoffered up thanks to the Almighty that the rest of us had escaped so well. [Pg 37] Among other things that came to be spoken about were the few words which passed between Pedro Barba and myself; indeed the latter mentioned it himself; and the ensign Corral gave such a description of theterrible masses of rock which came rolling down, that every one wasastonished at our escape, and the account of the great dangers we hadhad to brave was noised about through the whole of our camp. In the meantime a large body of Mexicans were lying in wait for us in a spot where we could neither see nor imagine them to be. Theyhad been stationed there in case the other troops on the rock just mentionedshould require assistance; but when they were informed that ourattempts to storm this fortified rock had failed, both these bodies determinedto fall upon us from various points at once. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32475/32475-h/32475-h.htm 31/282
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The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo Vol. 2

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