Casca 10: The Conquistador

by Barry Sadler

  The difficult parts of the transactions and initial greetings were made without the services of Aquilar, who simply could not grasp the dialect of the Aztec nobles.

  Casca noticed one of the slave girls given to them by the Tabascans talking with one of the Aztec slaves. She was a pretty girl in her twenties with dark eyes and thick black hair tied in a knot. Her features had a clean, intelligent look. Taking her by the arm, he brought her to Cortes. This was the first time he'd spoken directly to the leader of the expedition. He had been very careful on this trip to make no friends. He simply did his job and kept out of everyone's way.

  Moving up close to Cortes, he spoke softly: "Senor, I believe this woman has a grasp of the tongue of these Aztecs. Perhaps through Aquilar and her, you would be able to communicate with them better."

  Cortes eyed the man speaking to him. There was a strangely quiet quality to him. A weariness that was not of the body lay behind a scarred, beardless face. He had noticed the man before, but there had been no reason to speak to him directly. "Gracias, senor." He waited for the man to give him his name.

  "Romano, my captain, Carlos Romano."

  Cortes stroked his spade-shaped beard thoughtfully with a forefinger. "It is good to have men who use their wits in my company. If it is as you have said, then truly this woman may be of great value to us in communicating with the savages. Find Aquilar and send him to me that I may see if she is capable of serving our purpose. Then I would have speech with you. Come to me at my tent after sundown."

  Leaving the scar-faced man to find Aquilar, Cortes indicated that Tuedilli and his lords should accompany some of the Spanish officers on a tour of the camp, with a special emphasis on showing them the horses and cannon. Taking the woman gently by the arm, he led her to his tent, where he tried to reassure her by his manner that she was not in any trouble or danger.

  Aquilar showed up a few minutes later. He looked much better than when he had first come to them. His face had filled out, and he was regaining much of the confidence he had lost while a prisoner of the Indians of Yucatan. Cortes asked him to speak to the woman and find out how good her knowledge of the Aztec tongue was. He leaned back against his cot while the two conversed for a few minutes.

  Aquilar turned to his leader. He said, "She says that she has a good grasp of the language, having learned to speak it as a child. She is well educated for one from these lands. Her parents were wealthy merchants, but she was stolen by slavers some years ago and eventually ended up in the hands of the Tabascans. Her own village, Oluta, is not far from those of the Aztecs, and they have much in common in the way of speech and customs. She has also been converted to the true faith by the good fathers and has been given the name of Marina to replace that given to her at birth."

  Cortes was pleased by the information. He told Aquilar to tell her that if she served him faithfully, she would be well rewarded. She would not have to do any more of the woman's work or bed any of his soldiers unless she wanted to.

  Once Cortes was certain of the girl's capabilities, he gave orders for the Aztec nobles to be seated in a semicircle. He was seated in the center with Tuedilli on his right. Food was prepared and served by the Cubans as Cortes, through Aquilar and then Marina, told the chieftain of his mission: "Lords and guests, I am the emissary of the greatest king on earth, Don Carlos of Austria, king of Spain, emperor of the Christians, and lord of lands more vast than the Aztecs could dream of."

  He leaned closer to Tuedilli, trying to read any expression behind the dark eyes, watching the body for signs that might give him a clue as to the effect his words were having. Tuedilli kept a bland expression on his face. His hands were steady, but his heart began to pound a bit. Cortes noticed the pulse at the temple of the chief's head becoming more pronounced.

  His words were having an effect.

  After clearing his throat with a small taste of wine, he continued: "My lord Tuedilli, my master is a king who is served by kings and princes who rejoice in obeying his commands, for he is good and wise above all others. He has heard of your land and its great lord and has commanded me to come here as his ambassador to bring words that are for his ears only. Great secrets shall I give to your king." Cortes touched Tuedilli's arm, pleased to feel a light sheen of nervous sweat in the fine, dark hairs of the Aztec's forearm. "I have given you my master's message; now, when can I expect to be received by your master, the noble Moctezuma?"

  Tuedilli listened to the words of Cortes through the mouth of Marina. But they were not the exact words that Cortes had spoken, for Marina had translated them in the manner she thought would serve the Spaniard best. She knew what was in the minds of the Aztecs from her earlier conversations with them. She knew the legend of the Quetza as well as they did. In her translation she left the impression that Cortes might be the god who was returning to his land. In her words, Don Carlos, the king, became the great god and Cortes one of his aspects.

  Tuedilli was deeply concerned. He didn't want to make any moves that could mean his head. As a politician, he knew that the best thing he could do was to stall Cortes and wait for more orders. He said only that he was very glad to hear of the greatness and kindness of the lord emperor but that Cortes should know that his master was a great lord also, with kings who served him and warriors by the tens of thousands at his command. He would, as befitted a good servant, send the request to meet with Moctezuma to Moctezuma himself, as it was not his place to say that which his master should say.

  After this exchange, Cortes gave the order for his troops to parade in mock battle. The savages needed to have a little Christian fear put into their souls. Horses charged, the steel blades of the Spaniards slicing through the air as they used their native shields for targets, cutting them to ribbons. A barricade of logs was erected at the far end of the field and used as a target for the combined fire of the cannon. The logs burst into splinters as the muzzles vomited thunder and flame. Then the horses nearly charged into the faces of the awestruck Aztecs, the men on the animal’s backs crying out to Saint James and the king. They wheeled their horses, spinning away only mere feet from the terrified Aztecs.

  It was then that Cortes asked Tuedilli, "Does Moctezuma have much gold?"

  Stunned, Tuedilli responded automatically: "Yes!"

  Cortes grinned at the fear on his guest's face. "Then have him send me some of it, for my companions suffer from a sickness that can be cured only by gold." Cortes was at last revealing his true colors.

  Marina whispered into the ear of Tuedilli; "Can you not see the gods have returned?" Tuedilli made a hasty apology for having to leave the company. He wanted to put some distance between himself and these terrible beings and monstrous implements of destruction. This would have to be reported immediately to the capital. Runners would be sent to Tenochtitlan, seventy leagues distant, and take with them the pictures drawn on cotton cloth of what he had witnessed. Then he would make sacrifices of his own to appease and gain the support of his gods. Before he left, he ordered two of his nobles to remain in the camp to see to the needs of the Spaniards. In their charge were two thousand Indians who had been drafted from the local tribes to be the servants of the Spaniards. Tuedilli now understood Moctezuma's fear of the strangers from the sea. If they were not gods, they still had powers not known to mortal men. He knew that Moctezuma would be troubled greatly by his message.

  CHAPTER NINE

  After Casca's meeting in the tent of Cortes, he came away impressed with the man's drive and absolute faith in his destiny. He'd told Casca to continue to use his brain since there might come a time when he would have need of an intelligent friend. Casca used this opening as an opportunity to ask Cortes for permission to use the services of Aquilar and Marina. From then on, he spent most of his time listening to the speech of the Aztecs, trying to reach back into the dim recesses of his memory for any familiar words. Some of the language struck distant chords, but what he really experienced was the half-familiar taste of something long forgotten. It was from Aq
uilar and Marina that he began to learn the rudiments of the speech the Aztecs called Nahual. For many days, even after the gifts of Moctezuma had come and been presented, he devoted most of his time to learning the things he would need to know. Marina told him of the Aztecs and their culture, how the place of lakes where their capital was had two names that were used interchangeably. The valley was called Mexico, which meant the source or the center. Its people were called either Aztec or Mexicas, as even Tenochtitlan was called the city of Mexico. This she had long since related to Cortes that he might not be confused with the interchanging of titles.

  Casca worked from dawn till dusk. If he wasn't pestering Aquilar or Marina, he was dragging a protesting Juan with him to visit with the Indians, making them show him different articles and their corresponding names in Nahual. He had always had the gift of tongues, and it served him well in his endless travels from one nation and culture to the next. He found that many of the words were becoming more familiar now. He learned much more quickly than Aquilar or even Marina could have expected. He had a purpose in his mind, and to accomplish it, he required the knowledge of a minimum amount of words. He had to learn whether the Aztecs were worth saving. He had seen the pure gleam of avarice in the eyes of the Spaniards when Tuedilli and his nobles had presented Cortes with their offerings from Moctezuma.

  To Juan it was a bit boring. He couldn't understand why his friend went to such lengths to understand pagans. Casca had hoped that Juan would take an interest in the natives beyond their wealth in gold, but it was a futile exercise. The young Castilian was too much a victim of his own culture to accept another's right to exist.

  When the gifts of Moctezuma arrived, it was clear to Cortes that he was close to that which he sought most of all – the wealth of a great nation. The ambassadors from Moctezuma came to his ships while the captain was on board. There they offered him straws dipped in their own blood, as Tuedilli had done the first time they'd met. Then they showed him the gifts and dressed him in the feathered robes of the Quetza, placing the serpent mask of blue-green turquoise over his face, with its gold earrings hanging down on either side. They put on his chest a vest and collar of chalcuhuites, with a gold sun disk in the center. On his hips they fastened mirrors of polished silver, and from his shoulders they hung a cloak known as the ringing bell. On his shins were placed greaves that were set with turquoise and emeralds. Attached to them were little bells of fine gold that rang as he walked. Into his hands they placed the shield with its gold center and fringe of cobalt feathers and ornaments of mother-of-pearl and gold. Last, they put his feet into black sandals made from the hide of the great lizards that swam in the waters of the rivers to the far south. When this was done, they laid the rest of their gifts before him for his pleasure and bowed their heads before the god. Cortes merely said: "Is this all? Is this the extent of your gifts of welcome? Is this how you greet me?"

  From this, Casca knew that the Indians were in for a rough time. The other gifts given to them, which Cortes treated so poorly, consisted of two disks, one of the sun, weighing one hundred marks, the other of the moon, weighing fifty. The disks were each ten palms in diameter and thirty in circumference. A rough estimate of their value was twenty thousand ducats. The jewels and other items were probably worth as much. Forty thousand ducats would have paid for their trip ten times over. Yet it only served to whet the appetites of the Castilians. Once this sample had been seen, there was no stopping the Spaniards. They knew that the real treasure would have to be in the capital city of the Aztecs, and that was where they would go.

  Once the gifts were accepted, Cortes gave the orders for the cannon on the ships to be fired. At their sound, the gift bearers from Moctezuma fainted in shock, for they had never heard anything like the thunder which came at the command of the god.

  Once they had been revived with wine, Cortes removed his mask and said to them: "I have heard that the warrior of Mexico is a great fighter, brave at heart and terrible in battle, that he knows how to retreat, counter, and rush back to conquer, even if his enemy is ten or even twenty times his number. This I wish to see for myself. I want to find out if you are as brave and strong as your people say you are." With this he gave them shields of leather, native swords, and spears, dismissing them after saying: "On the morrow, at daybreak, we are going to fight each other in pairs. In this way we can learn the truth. We will see who falls to the ground!"

  The ambassadors were terrified. This they had not expected. They said to Cortes through his interpreters, “Our lord, we were not sent here for this by Moctezuma! We have come on an exclusive mission to bring you his gifts, to offer you friendship and repose. What the lord desires is not within our warrant to give. If we did this thing, we might anger Moctezuma, who would surely order our deaths and those of our families."

  Cortes was determined to humiliate them and fill their souls with awe at the might of the conquistadors. "No! It will be done. I must see for myself, because even in Castile they say you are famous as brave warriors. Therefore, eat an early meal. I will also eat. So be of good cheer!" With this he let them leave the boats, knowing full well that they would not be found anywhere near his camp in the morning. They were not going to go against the wishes of their king, but he had achieved his purpose by proving the readiness of the Spaniards to fight.

  To the amusement of those on the ships, when the ambassadors practically jumped into their canoes to paddle away, some of them took to using their hands to hasten their departure. Tez-cuzcli cried to his friends, "Hurry, hurry, we must get away from here. Nothing must happen to us here. Nothing!"

  The ambassadors reached Xicalanco in great haste, stopping only to eat and gather provisions. Then they raced on through one city after another, not stopping even to rest for the night when a village official offered them shelter. "No!" they replied hastily. "We must keep going! We must report to the king all that we have seen, and it is a terrible thing. Nothing like this has ever been seen before!"

  Now that he had seen a sample of the wealth of the Aztecs, Cortes would not allow anything to prevent him from reaching the source of the gold, the capital city of Mexico – Tenochtitlan. He attempted diplomacy again, requesting that Tuedilli send him with a proper escort to the capital. This Tuedilli refused, stating, "Lord, the way is long and hard. One must travel over mountains and across dry deserts through lands that are not friendly to the great king Moctezuma and his friends."

  Cortes was adamant; he knew when he was being given the runaround. He had done it often enough himself. He locked eyes with Tuedilli. Forcing him to look down, he demanded that his request to visit Moctezuma be sent to him immediately. Tuedilli agreed to do as he said and left him in a hurry. The meeting was not a total loss. Cortes did acquire one piece of useful information. There were tribes that were not subject to the Aztecs, but were instead their enemies. This might be to his advantage. Caesar had said it long before: divide and conquer!

  During the time they waited for Moctezuma's response, the Spaniards noticed that on several occasions men stood watching them from a nearby hilltop, making no effort to come down as had the other villagers. When they questioned the Aztec nobles left with them by Tuedilli, they replied only that they were simple farmers come to take a look at the gods. This didn't satisfy Cortes, and so he called for Casca to take four men and go to the watchers on the hill. Casca chose not to ride, as he thought the horses probably would scare them away. Instead he took with him Juan and three others who had shown some small signs of common sense. They walked up to them slowly, hands extended, smiling to show the watchers that they were in no danger. They came willingly enough into the Spanish camp, although Casca could see that they looked about carefully as if uneasy about something.

  These Indians were far different from the Aztecs. They were bigger men, more heavily muscled, and by Spanish standards, unbelievably ugly. The cartilage of their noses was so widely spread and pierced with so many heavy ornaments of crude gold and rough turquoise that it hung ne
arly to their mouths. Their lower lips were pierced by heavy rings of gold set with colored stones of green and the ever present turquoise. Heavy rings and plugs pulled their lips down so far that their gums and lower teeth were exposed. All this they did to make themselves more attractive, but the Spaniards swore that they must be married to a nation of blind women.

  Many of the Aztecs decorated themselves in much the same fashion, with large earrings and lip plugs, but not to such extremes. Conversing with the Spaniards through Marina, they said that they were from a city called Cempola, a day's march distant. The border of their nation was about half that distance, separated from the borders of the Aztecs by a river. Their Cacique had sent them to find out if the ones who had come on the floating teocalli or temples, were men or gods. Cortes was friendly to them as was his habit when first encountering new tribes. Giving them small gifts of no value, he showed them his arms and horses, which had their usual effect on the savages.

  Doña Marina, as she was now being called by the Spanish soldiery, was asked why the Indians didn't speak to any of those who were already there. Marina said that they were from a different tribe. Although much of their language was similar to that of the Aztecs, they had no love for them. They obeyed a lord who had managed to keep some of his independence from the Aztecs by the strength of his warriors, though he still had to pay unwilling tribute to the stronger nation. This pleased Cortes mightily, for now he saw that he had the opportunity to acquire allies who would increase his strength greatly in the event of war.

  The ambassadors hadn't stopped until they reached the great city of Mexico, all of them near death from exhaustion. When Moctezuma heard their report, an even greater feeling of desperation and fear came over him, especially when he heard about the cannon. Tez-cuzcli fell low to his knees as he made his report:

  "Oh, my lord, a thing like a ball of stone burst out of its entrails, throwing sparks and raining fire. The smoke it gives off is most vile in odor, a pestilential smell like that of decayed mud. This smoke penetrates to the brain, causing great feelings of discomfort. If the cannon is aimed at a mountain, the mountain splits open, the very rocks shatter. If it is aimed at a tree, the tree erupts, bursting into thousands of splinters as if it had exploded from the inside."