The greatest victory is that which requires no battle - Sun Tzu
INTRODUCTION
With peace unraveling while trapped in the water city of Mexico, the conquistadors have arrested Lord Montezuma and brought him to their quarters to live under armed guard while they figure out how to escape the city with their lives and the gold.
The modern adaptations of Conquistador life as recorded by Bernal Diaz and Pedro de Cieza fall on https://crackpot.substack.com/t/incadinca
With Montezuma our prisoner, we bought ourselves some time. Cortes dispatched Gonzalo de Sandoval to Villa Rica on the coast. Gonzalo was to fetch blacksmiths and lumber to be hauled into Mexico City for constructing boats.
In the afternoons Cortes and Montezuma played Totoloque - game like marbles played with smooth pellets of gold. The Alvarados and others would watch and keep score or comment on the action. The stakes were palace jewels and gold that were bestowed upon either sides vassals; Cortes to Montezuma’s nephews and favorites, Montezuma to us watching.
The materials sent by Gonzalo de Sandoval from the coast arrived then and Cortes informed Montezuma that he wished to build two sloops for trawling around the lake with his conquistadors. Montezuma sent his best carpenters to help the Spaniards shape the oak timber.
When the sloops were complete, Cortes took Montezuma out on the boat. Velasquez de Leon, Pedro de Alvarado, Cristobal de Olid (who later gives his life to save Cortes), Alonzo de Avila and 200 soldiers accompanied Montezuma for the ride. We placed four bronze cannons aboard. The sailors brought us along the lake and Montezuma enjoyed sailing very much.
16 Axayactl’s Gold
The Lord of Texcoco, Cacamatzin, came to know that his Uncle Montezuma was a prisoner of the conquistadors and that every day the conquistadors were establishing their position. He also knew that the conquistadors had opened the bricked-up chamber of Axayaca’s treasure, Cacamatzin called together the Lords of Texcoco, his vassals, the lord of Coyoacan, his cousin, the Lord of Tacuba and the Lord of Iztapalapa and the Lord of Matalcingo, a relative of Montezuma known for bravery. They conspired to marshal their forces into a single host and attack us on a given day. Montezuma got word of this conspiracy and informed Cortes, not wishing to see his city ruined. Cortes could thus maneuver before the attack and began working on all the Lords that Cacamatzin gathered with messages of good will and gifts. Many lords in those city states were brought over to Cortes before the attack.
On the day of the attack, with the forces gathered, Cacamatzin made a speech promising glory and title if they freed the City of Mexico from conquistadors. Some chiefs spoke up and asked how he could make war in his uncle Montezuma’s city. Cacamatzin ordered these chiefs imprisoned. Thus before the attack started, unity fractured into argument over internal strife and broke up before it began. Cortes shortly had all the chief conspirators in chains and imprisoned.
Cortes dispatched Captain Diego de Ordas and many soldiers throughout the land to request tribute from petty chieftains in gold and jewels. Slowly these loads trickled in. One day Montezuma spoke to us and said.
MONTEZUMA: Malinche Cortes, I know that you took down the wall and saw my treasury. I gift all of it to you.
The conquistadors doffed their helmets at Montezuma’s generosity. Montezuma sent his peons to hand over all the treasure and gold and wealth that was in that plastered chamber. We spent three days pulling apart the valuable silver and gold embroidery and cutting it down into slabs and ingots that could be packed tight for flight.
One day Montezuma told Cortes he could not hold his people much longer and that on account of our lives we best be getting out of Mexico. Cortes replied that yes this was certainly true, but Montezuma would have to return with the conquistadors to Spain to see his new Lord, Emperor Don Carlos.