Cortes Presses Attack: From The Third Letter: April 1521

Hernan Cortes kept a number of fires burning at the same time. In addition to the boats being made, there was the arrival of more men and horses and food and arms from the coast, as well as word from the chain of friendly posts on the road from Texcoco to Vera Cruz. At least as important was the arrival of and the benefits from the allied Tlaxcala locals. Cortes also found time in the spring to frequently raid various towns around Texcoco. He would lead these sorties for weeks before the eventual attack and siege on the great city of Tenochtitlan.

One such raid occurred immediately after a great number of Tlaxcala had arrived, as Cortes told his King and Emperor Carlos V, in his Third Letter. It gives a clear sense of these sometimes daily missions and this part of the process that Cortes employed as part of his overall strategy.

"... I prepared twenty-five horsemen and three hundred foot soldiers and fifty crossbowmen and harquebusiers and six small field guns, and without telling anyone where I was going left this city [of Texcoco] at nine in the morning; and with me went the captains... with more than thirty thousand men, all very well organized into battalions, after their fashion. When it was already late, we came upon a group of enemy warriors some four leagues from the city, but the horsemen broke through and routed them, and as the warriors of Tascalteca [the Tlaxcala] are very agile they followed us and together we killed many of our foes; that night we slept in the open, under careful guard.

 On the following morning we continued our journey, and still I had not said where I intended to go, which I did because I distrusted some of those from Tesuico [Texcoco] who were with us, for as yet I had no confidence in them and feared they might betray my intention to the people of Mexico and Temixtitan. We now reached a town called Xaltoca [Xaltocan], which is situated in the middle of the lake, and all around were a great many channels full of water, which made the town very strong because the horsemen could not cross them. The enemy yelled at us loudly and attacked us with darts and arrows, but the foot soldiers succeeded in entering the towns, although with some difficulty, and drove them out and burnt much of the place. That night we put up a league from there. When it was light we continued on our way and soon came upon the enemy, who began to shout at us from afar as they do in war, which is truly a terrifying thing to hear. We followed them and came upon a very large and beautiful city called Goatitan [Cuauhtitlan]; this we found deserted and so slept there that night."

Cortes went with what he brags was a huge force, moving north and west and south again around the end of Lake Texcoco in the great Mexican basin, taking Xaltocan and then, going on to occupy Cuauhtitlan. And this included groups with captains that some of whom Cortes says he was not ready to trust. They pressed on to Tenayucan  where there was 'no resistance' and then to Azcapotzalco. But Cortes said he wanted to continue to Tlacopan which was 'very near Temixtitan', his name for the great central complex Tenochtitlan.

"When we came close to it we found that there also the enemy had dug a great number of ditches and were well prepared for our arrival. When we saw them, we and our allies attacked them, entered the city, killed some, and drove the inhabitants out. But as it was now late we did nothing more that night and lodged in a house which was so large that we were all very comfortable. At dawn our allies began to sack and burn the whole city except for the house where we were quartered, and they were so diligent in this that they destroyed a quarter of it."

Maybe this shows just how much control Cortes had of this huge army. They stayed there for six more days and the fighting continued. The Tlaxclalans 'fought beautifully' and, with the locals, while fighting  "...they argued... shouting insults and threats at each other, all of which was a remarkable sight." But, Cortes goes on, that while 'many of the enemy were killed', 'our people weren't endangered'. There was much resistance and verbal epithets that Cortes relates.

"Often they pretended to open a way for us, saying, "Come in, come in and enjoy yourselves!" or, at other times, "Do you think there is now another Mutezuma to do whatever you wish?""

He stopped at one point and asked a number 'in the middle of these exchanges' for quiet. They complied. He asked them "...if they were mad and wished to be destroyed." Then asked if there was a leader he could talk to. They said they all were, "...so I might say what I wished." Cortes said nothing, but one of his unnamed men spoke to them that they would die of hunger, "for we would not let them escape in search of food." The locals said they weren't hungry, had plenty of food, would eat them and the Tlaxcalans when they were hungry. Then they offered them bread. "Take these and eat them if you are hungry for we are not." It seems unlikely Malintzin was there for this encounter. But could even she be very useful in clearing up such blatant miscommunications?

Next in his narrative, Cortes begs off advancing. Explaining that since his motive was to talk and that was 'achieving nothing', he decided to 'return back to Texcoco,' to 'hasten the assembly of the brigantines', so as to be able to surround them on all sides. The sixth night they returned to Cuauhtitlan.
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quotes from The Third Letter from Hernán  Cortés: Letters From Mexico, translated, edited and with a new intro by Anthony Pagden, as a Yale Nota Bene book, Yale University Press, USA 2001