52 PROPOSED RE -ALLIANCE OF AZTECS AND TLA SC ALANS. 



prompt submission of the Tlascalans, and, assuring their alliance, 

 had conquered the Cholulans, and obtained the control even of the 

 capital and person of the Aztec Emperor himself. But now they 

 returned defeated, plundered, unarmed, poor, scarcely clad, and 

 with the loss of a large part of those Indian allies who had 

 accompanied the expedition. There was reason for disheartening 

 fear in the breast of Cortez, had it been susceptible of such an 

 emotion. But the Lord of Tlascala reassured him, when he 

 declared that their " cause was common against Mexico, and, 

 come weal, come woe, they would prove loyal to the death ! " 



The Spaniards were glad to find a friendly palace in Tlascala, 

 in which to shelter themselves after the dreadful storms that had 

 recently broken on their head. Yet, in the quiet of their retreat, 

 and in the excitement of their rallying blood, they began to reflect 

 upon the past and the disheartening aspect of the future. Mur- 

 murs, which were at first confined to the barrack, at length 

 assumed public significance, and a large body of the men, chiefly 

 the soldiers of Narvaez, presented to Cortez a petition which was 

 headed by his own secretary, demanding permission to retreat to La 

 Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz. Just at this moment, too, Cuitlahua, 

 who mounted the throne of Mexico on the death of Montezuma, 

 despatched a mission to the Tlascalans, proposing to bury the 

 hatchet, and to unite in sweeping the Spaniards from the realm. 

 The hours which were consumed by the Tlascalans in deliberating 

 on this dread proposal were full of deep anxiety to Cortez ; for, in 

 the present feeble condition of his Spanish force, his whole reliance 

 consisted in adroitly playing off one part of the Indian popula- 

 tion against another. If he lost the aid, alliance, or neutrality of 

 the Tlascalans, his cause was lost, and all hope of reconquest, or 

 perhaps even of retreat, was gone forever. 



The promised alliance of the Mexicans was warmly and sternly 

 supported in the debates of the Tlascalan council by some of the 

 nobles ; yet, after full and even passionate discussion, which ended 

 in personal violence between two of the chiefs, it was unanimously 

 resolved to reject the proposal of their hereditary foes, who had 

 never been able to subdue them as a nation in battle, but hoped to 

 entrap them into alliance in the hour of common danger. These 

 discussions, together with the positive rejection by Cortez of the 

 Spanish petition, seem to have allayed the anxiety of the invaders 

 to return to Vera Cruz. With the assured friendship of the 

 Tlascalans they could rely upon some good turn in fortune, and, 

 at length, the vision of the conquest might be realized under the 



