South American Fights and Fighters, and Other Tales of Adventure

  [1] Cortes applies this name to the province in which the city, calledby him Temixtitan, more properly Tenochtitlan, but now Mexico, wassituated. Throughout this article the curious spelling of the greatconqueror is retained as he wrote.

  [2] This is the plant known in this country under the name of the_Century Plant_, which is still much cultivated in Mexico for thepurposes mentioned by Cortes. It usually flowers when eight or tenyears old.

  [3] The original has the word _Mesquitas_, mosques; but as the term isapplied in English exclusively to Mohammedan places of worship, one ofmore general application is used in the translation.

  [4] The title invariably given to Muteczuma (or Montezuma) in thesedispatches is simply Senor, in its sense of Lord or (to use an Indianword) Cacique; which is also given to the chiefs or governors ofdistricts or provinces, whether independent or feudatories. The titleof Emperador (Emperor), how generally applied to the Mexican ruler, isnever conferred on him by Cortes, nor any other implying royality,although in the beginning of this despatch, he assures Charles V. thatthe country is extensive enough to constitute an empire.

  [5] Two hundred and fifty pounds weight.

  [6] I am not ignorant that it has been asserted that Montezuma receivedthe rite of baptism at the hands of his Christian captors. SeeBustamante's notes on Chimalpain's Translation of Gomara (_Historia delas Conquistas de Hernando Cortes_. Carlos Maria de Bustamante.Mexico, 1826, p. 287). But the objection raised by Torquemada--thesilence of some of the best authorities, such as Oviedo, Ixlilxochitl,_Histoire des Chichimeques_, and of Cortes himself; and, on the otherhand, the distinctly opposing testimony of Bernal Diaz (see cap. 127),and the statement of Herrera, who asserts that Montezuma, at the hourof his death, refused to quit the religion of his fathers. ("No sequeria apartar de la Religion de sus Padres." _Hist. de las Indias_,dec. II. lib. x, cap. 10), convinces me that no such baptism took place.

  [7] These gates they had made themselves. The Aztecs had not learnedthe art of making gates or doors. The exits and entrances of theirhouses were closed, if at all with portieres.

  [8] It is growing very old and is badly decayed. The newspapers reportthat efforts are being made by experts to try a course of treatmentwhich will preserve this venerable and interesting forest relic,already nearly four hundred years old, but it is not believed thatsuccess will attend their endeavors.

  [9] "Tlaltelulco" was the quarter of the town where the market wassituated.

  [10] Archbishop Lorenzana, in his note on this passage, greatly extolsthe pious fervor of Cortes, who, he says, "whether in the field or onthe causeway, in the midst of the enemy or toiling by night or day,"never omitted the celebration of the mass.

  [11] They were Andres de Tapia and George de Alvarado, a brother of themore famous Pedro, Tonatiuh.

  [12] Antonio de Quinones was the captain and Francisco de Olea, theyouth, according to Gomara; who says that the latter cut off at oneblow the arms of the men that had seized Cortes, and was himselfimmediately slain by the enemy. Cortes was then rescued byQuinones.--_Cron. Nuev. Esp._ cap., 138.

  [13] I wonder where it is! There may be a great amount of it somewhere.