Cortes Reproved Them Sharply For The Change
In Their Behaviour To Us, And Commanded Them To Send An Immediate Supply
Of Provisions, And Likewise To Provide Him Next Day With A Competent
Number Of People To Convey Our Baggage And Artillery, As He Meant Then To
Resume His March To Mexico.
The chiefs appeared quite confounded and panic
struck, yet promised to send in provisions immediately, alleging in excuse
for their conduct, that they had been so ordered by Montezuma, who was
unwilling that we should advance any farther into his dominions.
At this time, three of our Chempoallan allies called Cortes aside, and
told him that they had discovered several pitfals close to our quarters,
covered over with wood and earth, and that on examining one of these they
found its bottom provided with sharpened stakes. They informed him also
that all the terraces of the houses near our quarters had been recently
provided with parapets of sod, and great quantities of stones collected on
them, and that a strong barricade of timber had been erected across one of
the streets. Eight Tlascalans arrived also from their army on the outside
of the town, who warned Cortes that an attack was intended against us, as
the priests of Cholula had sacrificed eight victims on the preceding night
to their god of war, five of whom were children; and that they had seen
crowds of women and children withdrawing from the city with their valuable
effects, all of which were sure signs of some impending commotion. Cortes
thanked the Tlascalans for this instance of their fidelity, and sent them
back to the camp with orders to their chiefs to hold themselves in
readiness for any emergency. He then returned to the chiefs and priests,
to whom he repeated his former orders, warning them not to deviate from
their obedience, on pain of instant condign punishment, commanding them at
the same time to prepare 2000 of their best warriors to accompany him next
day on his march to Mexico. The chiefs readily promised to obey all his
commands, thinking in this manner to facilitate their projected treachery,
and took their leave. Cortes then employed Donna Marina to bring back the
two priests who had been with him before, from whom he learnt, that
Montezuma had been lately very unsettled in his intentions towards us,
sometimes giving orders to receive us honourably, and at other times
commanding that we should not be allowed to pass. That he had lately
consulted his gods, who had revealed that we were all to be put to death,
or made prisoners in Cholula, to facilitate which he had sent 20,000 of
his troops to that place, half of whom were now in the city, and the rest
concealed at the distance of a league. They added, that the plan of
attack was all settled, and that twenty of our number were to be
sacrificed in the temples of Cholula, and all the rest to be conveyed
prisoners to Mexico. Cortes rewarded them liberally for their
intelligence, and enjoined them to preserve the strictest secrecy on the
subject, commanding them to bring all the chiefs to his quarters at an
appointed time. He then convened a council of all the officers, and such
soldiers as he most confided in, before whom he laid an account of the
information which he had received, desiring their advice as to the best
conduct to be pursued in the present alarming emergency. Some proposed to
return immediately to Tlascala, and others proposed various measures, but
it was the universal opinion that the treachery of the Cholulans required
to be severely punished, as a warning to other places. It was accordingly
resolved to inflict condign punishment on the Cholulans within the courts
where we were quartered, which were surrounded by high walls, but in the
meantime, to continue our preparations for resuming the march, in order to
conceal our intentions. We then informed the Mexican ambassadors, that we
had discovered the treacherous intentions of the Cholulans, who pretended
that they acted by orders of Montezuma, which we were convinced was a
false aspersion. They solemnly declared their ignorance of these
transactions; but Cortes ordered them to have no farther intercourse with
the inhabitants of the city, and sent them to his own quarters under a
strong guard for the night, during the whole of which we lay upon our arms,
ready to act at a moments warning.
During this anxious night, the wife of one of the caciques, who had taken
a great liking to Donna Marina, came secretly to visit that lady,
informing her of the plot, invited her to take refuge in her house from
the danger which was about to overwhelm us, and proposed to give her for a
husband the brother of a boy who was along with her. Donna Marina, with
her usual presence of mind, agreed to every thing proposed with a
profusion of thanks, and said she only wanted some one to take charge of
her effects before leaving the Spanish quarters. In course of this
conversation, Marina acquired particular information of every part of this
mysterious affair, which the old woman told her had been communicated to
her three days before by her husband, who was chief of one of the
divisions of the city, and was now with his warriors, giving directions
for their co-operation with the Mexican troops, and who had lately
received a gold drum from Mexico, as an ensign of command. Donna Marina
desired the old woman and her son to remain in her apartment till she went
in search of her valuables; but went immediately to Cortes, to whom she
communicated all the information she had received, adding that her
informer was still in her apartment. Cortes immediately sent for the old
woman, who being confronted by Donna Marina, repeated every thing exactly
as before, which agreed in all respects with the information he had
already received from others.
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