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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY PUBLICATION NO. 13 



plaining that its troops had opened hostilities, 

 requested the aid of Cortes (Diaz del Castillo 

 1:182). A force of Spaniards, accompanied by 

 2,000 warriors from "Cempoala," headed for 

 "Zimpancingo," to find the Mexicans had aban- 

 doned the town. Basically, this appears to have 

 been an intrigue on the part of "Cempoala," an old 

 enemy of "Zimpancingo" (Diaz del Castillo 

 1 : 185) , owing to boundary disputes (Solis, p. 73) . 

 Cortes did not allow those of "Zimpancingo" to 

 suffer, and, moreover obligated the chieftains of 

 the two towns to make their peace (Diaz del 

 Castillo 1:187). 



TOTONACAPAN AT THE TIME OF CORTES' MARCH 



More or less contemporaneous with the above 

 were other events which need not be mentioned 

 in detail: for example, the establishment of the 

 first ayuntarniento in New Spain; the founding 

 of the first Veracruz, opposite San Juan de Ulua, 

 and, subsequently, that of the new Veracruz, on 

 the shores of the Rio de la Antigua ; the conspir- 

 acy of the partisans of Diego Velazquez, severely 

 crushed by Cortes; and the sinking of the fleet, 

 except for a vessel which carried emissaries to 

 Spain. Of these, perhaps the most important was 

 the founding of the new Veracruz, built with To- 

 tonac aid, and fortified to accommodate a small 

 Spanish garrison. 



At this time, Totonacapan was at peace. A firm 

 alliance with a goodly number of its pueblos had 

 been arranged and, temporarily, Mexican resist- 

 ance was paralyzed. A Spanish garrison had 

 been established in Veracruz, and the army had 

 been reinforced with sailors from the sunken fleet. 

 Under these propitious circumstances, Cortes be- 

 gan preparations for his march to Tenochtitlan. 



Before he left, an incident took place which, 

 on the one hand, jeopardized Spanish-Totonac 

 relationships and, on the other, reinforced them. 

 The chief of "Cempoala" previously had told 

 Cortes of his eagerness to cement friendship 

 through marriage of Spaniards with Totonac 

 women. Cortes, desirous of inducing the Totonac 

 to abandon old beliefs and practices, refused the 

 women; and, at his orders, the Spaniards began 

 to destroy the native idols, in the face of great 

 Totonac indignation. The chief of "Cempoala" 

 intervened and an armed clash was averted. As 

 the final outcome, the Spaniards received eight 



women; and the native temple, cleaned and white- 

 washed, was converted into a Christian chapel. 



Before setting out, Cortes appointed Juan de 

 Escalante head of the small garrison to be left 

 behind and, as a gesture of acceptance, the To- 

 tonac censed him with copal incense (Diaz del 

 Castillo 1 : 207; Torquemada 1 : 411). 



THE TOTONAC IN CORTES' ARMY 



Although the Totonac attitude toward the 

 Spaniards may be considered decisive for the out- 

 come of the Conquest of New Spain, the same can- 

 not be said of Totonac military participation. 

 The number of warriors was not small, yet their 

 action was limited and by no means outstanding. 



There is no agreement concerning the number 

 of Totonac who accompanied Cortes. The latter 

 himself (Gayangos, p. 53) speaks of 50 towns and 

 fortresses and of 50,000 warriors. Torquemada 

 (1 : 402) raises the number to 100,000, as do Soils 

 (p. 69) and Herrera (4:404); Oviedo (3:261) 

 follows Cortes' estimate. 



In any case, the matter is of little importance, 

 since the entire group was not mobilized. Only 

 2,000 "Cempoaltecan" warriors participated 

 against "Zimpancingo," and a small group ac- 

 companied Cortes to Tenochtitlan, less for mili- 

 tary reasons than for the security of the Span- 

 iards who remained behind, in Totonac territory 

 (Gayangos, p. 53). Diaz del Castillo (1:213) 

 writes of "forty principals, all men of war" and 

 says that, in addition, "they gave us two hundred 

 tamemes [porters] to carry the artillery." Solis 

 (p. 79) agrees in the number of porters and of 

 principal men, but adds that the latter were com- 

 plemented by sufficient wai'riors to bring the total 

 to 400. Cortes (Gayangos, p. 62) himself places 

 the number at 400. Oviedo (3:268) gives the 

 same total, but adds 300 warriors from Ixtacamax- 

 titlan which, by his own account, was not Totonac 

 but Mexicano (Oviedo 3 : 260) . 



With the exception of Sahagun (4:45, 46, 60), 

 sixteenth-century sources are silent concerning 

 Totonac military participation. Nevertheless, a 

 later account (Solis) extols the bravery of the 

 Totonac. It was a warrior of "Cempoala" who 

 notified Cortes of the presence of Tlaxcalan spies 

 in the encampment (Solis, p. 98) ; and in Cholula, 

 the "Cempoaltecas" discovered the famous am- 

 bush (Solis, p. 121). Moreover, the Totonac 



