The Spanish column had not traveled far when scouts reported some 30 Tlaxcalans ahead, equipped for battle and observing the column. Undaunted, Cortés unfurled his banner and marched forward.Ī force of some 3,000 screaming Tlaxcalans sprang from ambush, unleashing a hail of arrows and fire-hardened darts Threatened with the same, the envoys had managed to slip away from their inattentive guards. The only reply to Cortés’ offer of friendship was a resolve, often repeated in the captives’ presence, that whether the intruders were supernatural beings or mortal men, the Tlaxcalans would tear out their hearts and gnaw the flesh from their bones.
None would listen to the Spanish overtures of goodwill. The Tlaxcalans, they said, positively burned with the fervor of determined resistance. Having arrived in the midst of war preparations, they had been seized as suspected spies. After waiting two days with no word, the column resumed its march and soon encountered the terrified envoys. Thus they naturally assumed the foreigners were servants of their mortal foe, come to destroy them.Īs Cortés neared the Tlaxcalan frontier, he sent ahead two Cempoalan chiefs as envoys. They also knew the men from the sea traveled to see Montezuma and marched in the company of his vassals. They had gotten advance word of these strange visitors who had come in great ships, of the fantastic beasts on which they rode, and of their thunder and smoke that killed.
Yet long years of encirclement by their foes and frequent raids and invasions of their lands by vassals of the empire had honed the mistrust of the Tlaxcalans to a fine edge. Of his allies, the most remarkable-both because of their character and the efforts necessary to secure their friendship-were the Tlaxcalans.Ĭortés greatly desired to secure an alliance with the Tlaxcalans, reported to be an independent, hardy and warlike people, undying in their hatred for Montezuma and unyielding in resistance to his rule. Allies not only assisted Cortés in material terms but also boosted his authority in his dealings with Montezuma. Tens of thousands of natives would aid the Spaniards as warriors, porters and laborers and by supplying food throughout the conquest of Mexico. It was crucial for him to win allies, and he ultimately had tremendous success in doing so. Whatever other faults have been attributed to Cortés, an inability to make simple numerical calculations is not among them. The force with which Cortés searched out his fame initially comprised 11 ships, 100 mariners, 508 soldiers-including 32 crossbowmen and 13 harquebusiers-16 horses, 10 heavy brass guns and four falconets-slender resources indeed with which to penetrate an empire whose territory held a population of many millions and whose influence stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific. He also knew the Aztecs possessed wealth almost beyond the dreams of avarice, and he immediately began contemplating ways to make the most of the opportunities fortune had laid before him. He knew the local people were subjects of a great empire governed by a mighty prince named Montezuma, who lived in a magnificent city in the interior. When Hernán Cortés landed on Mexico’s Gulf Coast in April 1519, he had only vague notions of what lay ahead. The Tlaxcalans, after hacking further at the remains of the horse, carried off severed chunks for display to fellow countrymen, to prove the vulnerability of the beasts. A sharp battle raged, as fierce as any waged over a Homeric hero, before the Spaniards withdrew with the rider and his saddle. He surely would have died on the spot had his fellows not rushed to the rescue. Struggling out from beneath his lifeless horse, the rider shielded himself from his assailants’ blows with upraised arm and rodela (a small steel shield, or buckler). One horseman, unable to wrench his lance from the tenacious grasp of an enemy and robbed of his forward momentum, was immediately beset by a throng of warriors who struck at his charger with terrible obsidian-edged broadswords, nearly beheading the animal. The Tlaxcalans showed little fear of either Spanish horses or riders, even grasping the lances of the cavaliers and seeking to overthrow their mounts. Of all the peoples they had encountered since their arrival in Mexico nearly five months ago, none had offered such fierce and determined resistance. On entering the state of Tlaxcala in what today is central Mexico, Spanish conquistadors under Hernán Cortés soon found themselves surrounded by tens of thousands of hostile warriors and fighting desperately for survival. The chalcedony blade of this 16th century ceremonial knife is attached to a cedro wood handle depicting a crouching man dressed as an Aztec eagle warrior. The Warriors Who Nearly Destroyed Cortés - Before Joining Him | HistoryNet Close
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