The Infidel; or, the Fall of Mexico. Vol. II.
Page 8
CHAPTER VIII.
To one whose perverted imagination can dwell with pleasure on 'the pompand circumstance of glorious war,' no better study can be recommendedthan the history of the siege of Mexico, which may be considered as onesingle battle, lasting for the space of ninety-three days, counting fromthe time when the different divisions of the besieging army had takentheir positions in form, upon the different causeways. This does notinclude the period occupied in the march of these bodies from Tezcuco,and which was not devoted to inactivity. On the contrary, theCaptain-General took advantage of the occasion to discipline his navalforce, by sweeping over the lake from bay to bay, and town to town,destroying every piragua that made its appearance, as well as suchchinampas, or floating gardens, as he could approach, and frequently bycannonading the imperial city itself. Besides this, he assaulted andtook, on each occasion after a most sanguinary combat, certainfortresses upon two island rocks, one of which rose near to Iztapalapan:the other, though no longer insulated, still lies a little to the eastof the republican city, and is called the Penon, or Crag, of Montezuma.
The preparations of the Mexicans were extensive and anticipative of allthe peculiar evils which they thought it in the power of their greatenemy to inflict. They had cut through the causeways numberless ditches,each of which was furnished with a light bridge, to be withdrawn, whenabout to fall into the power of the Spaniards; and the earth and stonesthus removed, were built up before and behind the chasms, into strongramparts, which were still further strengthened with palisades. In thismanner, while opposing the greatest obstructions to the passage of thefoot-soldiers, they made it impossible for horses to be brought againstthem,--a precaution that, for a long time, robbed the Spaniards of theirgreatest advantage.
The beginning of the siege of Mexico, then, lay in the struggles of thebesiegers to obtain possession of the ditches, which were to be filledup, by levelling the ramparts. This was a work both of infinite dangerand toil, the besieged fighting from behind the advanced barriers withunexampled resolution, and, however overpowered, never retreating beyondthe ditch, until their companions had left but a single plank for theirpassage, which was immediately afterwards withdrawn. After this, theSpaniards were forced to overturn the first barrier into the chasm,before they could rush across the slough of mud and water, to attack thesecond; and all this was to be done not only against violent oppositionin front, but with a most dangerous and audacious species of annoyancepractised on one flank or the other, and sometimes on both. Wherever theshallows admitted, the Mexicans drove into the bottom of the lake, andat but a short distance from the dike, strong piles, to which theysecured their canoes, furnished with high and thick bulwarks of planks,almost musket-proof; and from these they drove arrows, darts, and stonesagainst the soldiers with destructive effect. Nay, with such wisdom hadthe young king of Mexico devised means to embarrass his adversary, thathe had even secured his little flotillas from the possibility ofapproach, by sinking rows of piles in the lake, parallel with thecauseways, through which the brigantines could not pass, to dispersethem. It was to but little purpose that Cortes battered them from adistance with his falconets; the following morning saw replaced everyloss of men and canoes. The soldiers were excited to fury by anannoyance so irritating, and some were found at times frantic enough toleap into the lake, where the waters happened to be sufficientlyshallow, and endeavour to carry the flotillas, sword in hand.
The narrowness and obstructed condition of the dikes making itimpossible that all the forces could act upon them together, the vastmultitudes of native allies were left in reserve, with the cavalry, onthe shore,--where they were not idle, the numbers, as well as theboldness of the Mexicans being so great, that they frequently sentarmies to the shore by night, who, at the dawn, fell upon the reservedtroops with all the rancour of opponents in a civil war.
This was the condition of the war at its commencement. The granddesiderata,--the removal of the flotillas, and the profitable employmentof the confederates, were not effected until Cortes had seized all thepiraguas of the shore-towns, and sent them, manned with Tlascalans,against the palisaded posts, where, besides doing what execution theycould upon the enemy, the allies tore away the piles, and thus admittedsome of the lighter brigantines among the canoes.
Aided in this manner, the soldiers were able to advance along theseveral dikes, until they got possession of certain military stations,on each, which might have been called the gates of Mexico.
It has been already said, that the causeways of Iztapalapan andCojohuacan, coming respectively from the south and southwest, unitedtogether at the distance of less than a league from Mexico. At the pointof junction, the causeway expanded into a mole or quay, where was astrong and lofty stone wall, the passage through which was contrived bythe overlapping of the walls, in the manner described at Tezcuco. Thisrampart was defended by very strong towers and by a parapet withembrasures, from which the defenders could easily repel any enemy,inferior in strength and determination to the Spaniards. The point wascalled Xoloc, and when wrested from the hands of the Mexicans, becamethe head-quarters of Cortes.
A similar expansion of the dike of Tacuba, fortified in the same way,and at the distance of two miles from the city, and one from the shore,afforded a resting-place and garrison for the forces under Alvarado,whose first act, after reaching Tacuba, was to destroy the aqueduct ofChapoltepec, which consisted of a double line of baked earthenwarepipes, carried across the lake on a dike constructed only for thatpurpose, and therefore so narrow and inconsiderable, that it does notappear that the Spaniards derived any advantage from the possession ofit.
The division of De Olid united with that of Sandoval at the point Xoloc;the latter of whom was afterwards directed to take possession of thenorthern dike of Tepejacac, the remains of which may yet be tracedbetween the city and the hill of Our Lady of Guadalupe, on which was afortification resembling the others.
These positions being thus assumed, the Captain-General divided thefleet of brigantines among the three captains, to whom they were of vastservice, by protecting the flanks of their divisions.
From this period, the siege may be considered to have been begun inform; and it was continued with a fury of attack and resistance almostwithout parallel in the history of conquest. Foot by foot, and inch byinch, the invaders advanced, staining the causeways with their blood,and choking the lake with the bodies of their foes. Ditch after ditchwas won and filled, and almost as often lost and re-opened. The day wasdevoted to battle, the night to alarms. The only periods of rest werewhen the daily tempests, for it was now the heart of the rainy season,burst over the heads of the combatants, as if heaven had sent its floodsto efface the horrible dyes of carnage, and its thunders to drown theroar of man's more destructive artillery. Then, the exhausted soldierand the fainting barbarian flung themselves to rest upon the trodden mudof their ramparts, within sight of each other, regardless of the wrathof the elements, so much less enduring than their own.
At first, the Spaniards after winning a ditch and filling it, werecontent to return for the night to the fortified stations, to shelterthemselves in the towers, and in miserable huts of reeds which they hadconstructed, from the rains, that, usually, continued until midnight.But finding that the infidels, more manly or more desperate, devoted thenight to repair the losses of the day, by again opening the chasms, theydenied themselves even this poor solace, and threw themselves to sleepon the spots where they fought, ready to resume the conflict at thefirst glimmer of dawn.
Thus, day by day, the approaches were effected, and by the end of thesecond month, the besiegers had advanced almost to the suburbs, whichjutted out into the lake along the three causeways, supported uponfoundations of piles, and sometimes piers of stone. The houses stoodapart from each other, but were connected, in seasons of peace, by lightwooden drawbridges, running from terrace to terrace; so that the_streets_ of these quarters may be said to have been on the tops of thehouses,--and the same thing was true of the gardens. The commun
icationbelow was effected always by means of canoes. Among these edifices, thewater was often of sufficient depth to float the brigantines of lighterdraught, which sometimes entered them, to fire the buildings, that wereso many fortresses, from which the soldiers on the causeways could beannoyed.
The labours and sufferings of the besiegers were constant, and almostintolerable; yet they endured them with a patience derived from theassurance of a certain though tardy success. The toils and distresses ofthe Mexicans were greater, and endured with heroism still more noble,because almost without hope; and it may be said with justice of thesepoor barbarians, whose memory has almost vanished from the earth, thatnever yet did a people fight for their altars and firesides with greatercourage and devotion. They saw themselves each day confined to narrowlimits,--they fought the more resolutely; they beheld all the marineforces of the neighbouring towns, late their feudatories, led againstthem,--they sent navies of their own to chastise the insurgents, andstill kept their ground against the Spaniards.
It was certain that Cortes had found in the young king an antagonist farmore formidable than he had expected. The resistance at the ramparts,the sallies by night that were often made with fatal effect, the secretexpeditions against the shores, and the stratagems put in execution tocripple the brigantines, all indicated, in the infidel prince, acapacity of mind worthy of his unconquerable courage. A single exploitwill prove his daring and his craft. He decoyed two of the largestbrigantines into a certain bay, where many of his strongest piraguas layin ambush among the reeds. With these, he attacked, boarded, and carriedthe two vessels, and had he possessed any knowledge of the management ofsails, would have conducted them in safety to his palace walls. As itwas, they were maintained against an overpowering force, sent to retakethem, and not yielded until the captors had destroyed every Christian onboard, fifty in number, as well as the sails and cordage, and cast thefalconets into the lake.
Another stratagem of a still more daring character, and infinitely morefatal to the Spaniards, was conceived and executed, almost at the momentwhen they thought the young monarch reduced to despair. But of that weshall have occasion to speak more at length hereafter. The thousandconflicts on land and water, that marked the progress of a siege soextraordinary, have but little connexion with the adventures of the twooutcasts; and we are glad of the privilege to pass them by.