CHAPTER V. 



1520. 



CORTEZ RETURNS TO THE CAPITAL CAUSES OF THE REVOLT 



AGAINST THE SPANIARDS. CORTEZ CONDEMNS ALVARADO 



HIS CONDUCT TO MONTEZUMA. BATTLE IN THE CITY MON- 

 TEZUMA MEDIATES. FIGHT ON THE GREAT TEMPLE OR TEO- 



CALLI. RETREAT OF THE SPANIARDS NOCHE TRISTE. 



FLIGHT OF THE SPANIARDS TO TACUBA. 



Whilst Cortez was beset with the difficulties recounted in our 

 last chapter, and engaged in overcoming Narvaez on the coast, the 

 news reached him of an insurrection in the capital, towards which 

 he immediately turned his steps. On approaching the city, intelli- 

 gence was brought that the active hostilities of the natives had 

 been changed, for the last fortnight, into a blockade, and that the 

 garrison had suffered dreadfully during his absence. Montezuma, 

 too, despatched an envoy who was instructed to impress the con- 

 queror with the Emperor's continued fidelity, and to exculpate him 

 from all blame in the movement against Alvarado. 



On the 24th June, 1520, Cortez reached the capital. On all 

 sides he saw the melancholy evidences of war. There were neither 

 greeting crowds on the causeways, nor boats on the lake ; bridges 

 were broken down ; the brigantines or boats he had constructed to 

 secure a retreat over the waters of these inland seas, were destroyed ; 

 the whole population seemed to have vanished, and silence brooded 

 over the melancholy scene. 



The revolt against the lieutenant Alvarado was generally attri- 

 buted to his fiery impetuosity, and to the inhuman and motiveless 

 slaughter committed by the Spanish troops, under his authority, 

 during the celebration of a solemn Aztec festival, called the " in- 

 censing of Huitzilopotchtli." Six hundred victims, were, on that 

 occasion, slain by the Spaniards, in cold blood, in the neighbor- 

 hood of the Great Temple ; nor was a single native, engaged in 



