Chapter VII March to the Sacred City of Cholula—The Natives Plot the Destruction of the Spaniards—Cortes Discovers their Treachery and Slaughters Several Thousand Indians—March to Mexico—Montezuma Meets the Strangers and Escorts them to the Capital
The Spaniards rested a little in Tlaxcala after their exertions and their life among the natives was very peaceable. Several daughters of caciques married prominent Spanish officers, and from these unions distinguished Spanish noblemen have sprung. The caciques did not offer their daughters in marriage to Cortes, for they thought he was married to Marina, or Malinace, he appeared so often in her company.
But days of rest must have an end. Cortes began preparations for the advance to Mexico with his army and an auxiliary force of six thousand brave Tlaxcalans. While thus engaged, another delegation from Montezuma appeared. They brought costly gifts upon golden platters of beautiful workmanship, and richly embroidered fabrics of linen and feather work. The messengers spoke timidly and hesitatingly. They begged Cortes not to enter into an alliance with the low and barbarous Tlaxcalans, but to go alone with his army to Cholula,[7] as the Emperor had given orders he should be fitly received there and his soldiers properly cared for. The Tlaxcalans regarded this invitation with suspicion. They were sure that Montezuma meditated treachery and begged Cortes not to expose himself to the danger awaiting him at Cholula. Cortes thanked his Indian friends for their solicitude, but assured them that European soldiers were not in the habit of avoiding any danger, however great it might be. He broke camp at once and marched to Cholula.
The reception he met was unusually friendly and respectful. The Tlaxcalan auxiliaries, being sworn enemies of the Cholulans, were not allowed to enter the city and were obliged to occupy a convenient spot outside the walls. They had already learned from their European friends how to intrench themselves, and they at once put their knowledge into practice. After a few days of rest, events gradually occurred which confirmed the suspicions of the Tlaxcalans. Provisions were supplied sparingly, the authorities displayed more coolness, and Montezuma’s representatives had frequent interviews with them. Two Tlaxcalans shortly appeared, who had stolen into the city in disguise and informed Cortes they had seen a multitude of women and children fleeing by night to adjacent places and that they learned from them that six young children had been sacrificed in a principal temple,—a custom always observed when any hostile movement was to be undertaken. They advised him, therefore, to be on his guard against attack. While Cortes was now using the utmost watchfulness to discover the secret purposes of the Cholulans, chance suddenly revealed the whole matter. A prominent Cholulan woman had conceived an unusual attachment for Marina, the interpreter. She was anxious to save her new friend from the universal massacre, which had been planned, and told her confidentially of the bloody designs of her people so that she might escape before it was too late. Marina, who was both shrewd and heartily devoted to the Spaniards, pretended she would follow the warnings of the Indian woman and induced her to disclose the whole plot without reserve. She learned that upon the day fixed for the massacre a force of Mexican soldiers would be concealed in the neighborhood of Cholula, for the purpose of rushing in at the appointed time, obstructing the streets by filling them with holes, lightly covered, into which horses would stumble and fall, and conveying great quantities of stones and other missiles to the roofs of houses and temples to be showered down upon the Spaniards, thus making their destruction inevitable.