Montezuma: Warlord of the Aztecs

Chapter 8 The Dusk of Empire

86 8 The Dusk of Empire Even as his corpse grew cold, Motecuhzoma ’s dead hand held the fate of the Mexica in its grip. The damage he had done to the empire had left it too narrow a margin in the dangerous days that were to follow. There were only a few chances to recover the situation. One by one they would be missed. The Toxcatl massacre had cut a deadly swath through the Mexica governing and military elites. It would be experience that the Mexica would miss, not courage. This they demonstrated repeatedly in the week that the Spaniards stood desperate siege in their palace compound. The new tlatoani at least provided the mature leadership the Mexica needed. Cuitláhuac quickly organized a winning strategy —relentless assaults by overwhelming mass. Again and again the Spaniards sortied from their compound hoping to carve a way out of the city, only to be hemmed in and driven back by countless Mexica and their allies. The city itself, with its canals and buildings, was an impossible barrier for the Spaniards. The Mexica squadrons were stacked up along the causeways, waiting their turn. Cuitláhuac boldly told Cortés that he would trade casualties twenty-five to one to destroy the Spaniards. Nothing Cortés could do would sway Cuitláhuac from this objective, neither feats of arms nor ploys of negotiation. In desperation, Cortés and his officers decided to risk a dash for the Tlacopan causeway in the dead of night just after midnight on 30 June. A portable bridge was fashioned from great roof timbers to be placed over each canal, then brought forward to the next canal. Luck favored the Spaniards that night; a torrential rainstorm drove the Mexica sentries indoors, a lapse of discipline that can only be explained by the massacre of the military elite, as well as the Mexica reluctance to fight at night. The head of the Spanish column reached the edge of the causeway before the alarm was given. The city sprang to arms, and masses of warriors fell upon the column from every direction. The bridge became stuck at the Toltec Canal, to be forever known thereafter as the Bridge of Massacre . A fleet of canoes threw warriors directly into the panicked column on the causeway. It was every man for himself as the Mexica took their revenge. Cortés was unhorsed and swarmed over by Mexica eager for the greatest prize of all, but his companions fought him free. So great was the disaster that fewer than four hundred Spaniards and two thousand Tlaxcallans got through to limp into the city of Tlacopan. As many as a thousand Spaniards and four thousand Tlaxcallans had perished or been taken captive to die on the stone of sacrifice. Forgotten among the dead were a son, Chimalpopoca, and two daughters of Motecuhzoma, one of them the young Doña Anna, pregnant by Cortés. The Spaniards would forever call this disaster la Noche Triste, the Sad Night.1 To the amazement of the survivors, there was no pursuit. The famous Mexica discipline broke down in an orgy of looting on the causeway. The arms, armor, and stolen treasures of the Spaniards were irresistible. There were too few experienced Mexica captains to bring order to such chaos. Had the Mexica pursued their enemy , Tlacopan would have been the last stand. As it was, Cuitláhuac had inflicted the greatest defeat and heaviest losses on a European army in the conquest of the Americas. But the fruits of victory are gathered in the pursuit, and that was slow in coming. Cortés, for his part, wasted no time putting the dusk of empire 87 his exhausted force on the road, heading northward around Lake Texcoco for the safety of Tlaxcallan. The pursuit had been slow but eventually Cuitláhuac intercepted Cortés on 8 July at Otumba, in the northeastern part of the Valley of Mexico. The Mexica had come across the lake in canoes to be joined by their junior partners in the Triple Alliance, the men of Texcoco and their vassals. The Mexica commanded a large but brittle host. The Texcocans made up the larger part of the force facing Cortés, but their internal divisions made them unsteady. Cortés had sown much dissension in that kingdom in the preceding six months, by favoring Ixtlilxóchitl, the rebel...