While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Great Battles With The Natives.
Conciliatory Intercourse. Donna Marina.
Hitherto a blind superstition, by which
supernatural powers were ascribed to the
whites, had quelled the vigor and spirit of
the Indians; but an interpreter named
Melchorejo, whom Cortez had brought over
from Cuba, deserted from the Spaniards
during the first night spent in Tabasco, and
urged the natives to another engagement. He
explained the real nature of the mysterious
weapons, whose flash and thunder had created
such terror, and disabused the simple
savages of the ideas entertained by them of
the invulnerable nature of their foes. They
proved in the subsequent battles much more
dangerous opponents than before. The
narrator mentions, with no little
satisfaction, the fate of this deserter. His
new allies, it seems, " being vanquished a
second time, revenged themselves on the
adviser of the war, by making him a
miserable sacrifice to their idols."
All was as still, upon the succeeding day,
as if the country was abandoned by its
inhabitants; but a party of one hundred men,
on a scout, was suddenly surrounded and
attacked by such hordes of the enemy, that
they might have been cut off from sheer
fatigue, but for another company which came
to their assistance. As the Spaniards
endeavored to retreat to the camp, the
Indians would rush upon them in full force,
"who, immediately upon their facing about,
got out of their reach, retiring with the
same swiftness that they were attacked; the
motions of this great multitude of
barbarians from one side to another,
resembling the rolling of the sea, whose
waves are driven back by the wind."
Two of the Spaniards were killed and eleven
wounded in the fray: of the Indians,
eighteen were seen lying dead on the field,
and several prisoners were taken. From these
Cortez learned that tribes from all sides
were gathered to assist those of Tabasco in
a general engagement planned for the next
day, and he accordingly made the most
diligent preparation to receive them. The
horses were brought on shore, and care was
taken to restore their animation, subdued by
confinement on board ship.
As soon as day broke, mass was said, and the
little army was put in motion to advance
upon the enemy. They were discovered,
marshaled on the vast plain of Cintia, in
such numbers that it was impossible to
compute them. They extended so far, says
Solis, "that the sight could not reach to
see the end of them." The Indian warriors
were painted and plumed, their arms were
bows and arrows, slings, darts, clubs armed
with sharp flints, and heavy wooden swords.
The bodies of the leaders were protected by
quilted coats of cotton, and they bore
shields of tortoise-shell or wood, mounted,
in some instances, with gold.
To the sound of rude drums, and the blast of
seashells and large flutes, the vast crowd
fell furiously upon the Spaniards, and
although checked by their more efficient
weapons, only retired to a convenient
distance for hurling stones and discharging
arrows. The field-pieces mowed them down by
hundreds; but concealing the havoc by
raising clouds of dust, and closing up their
ranks with shouts of " ala lala " (the
precise sound of the Turkish war-cry, viz.,
a constant repetition of the word Allah),
they held their ground with the most
determined courage.
The little handful of cavalry, which, led by
Cortez in person, had made a detour to avoid
a marsh, now fell upon the Indians from a
new quarter, and, riding through and through
the crowded mass of savages, so bewildered
and amazed them that they fled in dismay. No
such animal as the horse had ever before
been seen by them. They took the monsters,
says Diaz, for centaurs, supposing the horse
and his rider to be one.
On the field of battle, as the conquerors
passed over it, lay more than eight hundred
dead or desperately wounded. But two of the
Spaniards were killed, although seventy of
their number were wounded at the first rush
of the barbarians.
The victors having rendered thanks "to God
and to our Lady, his blessed Mother," for
their success, dressed their wounds, and
those of the invaluable horses, with the fat
of dead Indians, and retired to refresh
themselves by food and sleep.
Lopez de Gomara affirms that one of the holy
apostles, under the form of Francisco de
Morla, appeared upon the field during this
bloody engagement, and turned the scale of
victory. Diaz says, "It might be the case,
and I, sinner as I am, was not permitted to
see it. What I did see was Francisco de
Morla, in company with Cortez and the rest,
upon a chestnut horse. But although I,
unworthy sinner that I am, was unfit to
behold either of those holy apostles,
upwards of four hundred of us were present;
let their testimony be taken." He adds, that
he never heard of the incident until he read
of it in Gomara s history.
Several prisoners were taken in this battle,
among them two who appeared to be of
superior rank. These were dismissed with
presents and favors, to carry proposals of
peace to their friends. The result was
highly satisfactory: fifteen slaves, with
blackened faces and ragged attire, "in token
of contrition," came bringing offerings.
Permission was given to bury and burn the
bodies of those who fell in the terrible
slaughter, that they might not be devoured
by wild beasts ("lions and tigers,"
according to Diaz). This duty accomplished,
ten of the caciques and principal men made
their appearance, clad in robes of state,
and expressed desire for peace, excusing
their hostility, as the result of bad advice
from their neighbors, and the persuasion of
the renegade whom they had sacrificed.
Cortez took pains to impress them with ideas
of his power and the greatness of the
monarch he served; he ordered the artillery
to be discharged, and one of the most
Spirited of the horses to be brought into
the reception-room: "it being so contrived
that he should show himself to the greatest
advantage, his apparent fierceness, and his
action, struck the natives with awe."
Many more chiefs came in on the following
day, bringing the usual presents of little
gold figures, the material of which came,
they said, from "Culchua," and from "
Mexico," words not yet familiar to the ears
of the Spaniards.
Twenty women were, moreover, offered as
presents, and gladly received by Cortez, who
bestowed one upon each of his officers. .
They were all duly baptized, and had the
pleasure of listening to a discourse upon
the mysteries of his faith, delivered for
their especial benefit by Father
Bartholomew, the spiritual guide of the
invaders. Knowing nothing of the language,
and having no competent interpreter, it
probably made no very vivid impression; but
these captives were set down as the first
Christian women of the country.
Among them was one young woman of remarkable
beauty and intelligence, whom the Spaniards
christened Marina. She was said to be of
royal parentage, but from parental cruelty,
or the fortunes of war, had been held in
slavery at a settlement on the borders of
Yucatan, where a Mexican fort was
established, and afterwards fell into the
hands of the Tabascan cacique. She spoke
both the Mexican language, and that common
to Yucatan and Tabasco, so that Cortez was
able, by means of her and Aguilar, to
communicate with the inhabitants of the
interior, through a double interpretation,
until Marina had mastered the Spanish
tongue. She accompanied Cortez throughout
his eventful career in Mexico, and had a son
by him, who was made, says Solis, "a Knight
of St. Jago, in consideration of the
nobility of his mother s birth." Before this
connection she had been bestowed by the
commander upon one Alonzo Puerto Carrero,
until his departure for Castile.
This site
includes some historical materials that may imply negative stereotypes
reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. These
items are presented as part of the historical record and should not be
interpreted to mean that the WebMasters in any way endorse the stereotypes
implied .
Indian Races of North and South America, By Charles De Wolf Brownell, 1865
