CHAPTER III. 

 1519. 



CORTEZ FOUNDS LA VILLA RICA DE LA VERA CRUZ. FLEET 



DESTROYED MARCH TO MEXICO. CONQUEST OF TLASCALA 



CHOLULA. SLAUGHTER IN CHOLULA VALLEY OF MEXICO. 



CORTEZ ENTERS THE VALLEY GIGANTIC CAUSEWAY. LAKE 



OF TEZCOCO RECEPTION BY MONTEZUMA. SPANIARDS ENTER 



THE CAPITAL. 



It is impossible, in a work like the present, which is designed 

 to cover the history of a country during three hundred years, to 

 present the reader with as complete a narrative of events as 

 we would desire. Happily, the task of recording the story of 

 the conquest, has fallen into the hands of the classic historians of 

 Spain, England and America ; and the astonishing particulars of 

 that mighty enterprise may be found, minutely recounted, in the 

 works of De Solis, Robertson and Prescott. We shall therefore 

 content ourselves with as rapid a summary as is consistent with 

 the development of the modern Mexican character, and shall refer 

 those who are anxious for more explicit and perfect details to the 

 writings of the authors we have mentioned. 



Cortez was not long idle after the withdrawal of the Aztec 

 emissaries and the surly departure of the Indians, who, as we 

 have related in the last chapter, quitted his camp and neighborhood 

 on the same night with the ambassadors of Montezuma. He forth- 

 with proceeded to establish a military and civil colony, of which he 

 became Captain General and Chief Justice ; he founded the Villa 

 Rica de la Vera Cruz in order to secure a base on the coast for 

 future military operation, by means of which he might be inde- 

 pendent of Velasquez ; and he formed an alliance with the Toto- 

 nacos of Cempoalla, whose loyalty, — though they were subjects of 

 Montezuma, — was alienated from him by his merciless exactions. 

 We shall not dwell upon the skill with which he fomented a breach 

 between the Totonacos and the ambassadors of Montezuma, nor 

 upon the valuable gifts, and discreet despatches he forwarded to 



