Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/52

32 conditions in the decaying Empire are understood, and the part played by the Tlascalans in the conquest is rightly estimated. They were a warlike people who had preserved the independence of their mountain republic against the might of Montezuma, somewhat as the Montenegrins have ever defended themselves against the Ottoman power. They were from a military point of view the equals, if not the superiors, of the Aztecs in the field, fighting with the same weapons and employing like tactics; hence one hundred thousand Tlascalans, captained by Cortes, who came as the fulfiller of prophecies, almost a supernatural being with demigods in his train, commanding thunder and lightning, and mounted upon unknown and formidable beasts, were invincible. The Tlascalans had long bided the time for their vengeance, and in the alliance with Cortes they saw their opportunity. In two potential moments Tlascala held the balance of victory or defeat, and a hair would have tipped it either way. When the famished, blood-stained remnant of the Spaniards, flying from the horrors of the Noche Triste, fell exhausted at the gates of their capital, to annihilate them was within their choice, but these loyal, shortsighted Indians stood fast to their bond, took the wreck of the army in as brothers, nursed them, cured their wounds, and played the good Samaritan with suicidal success. Again, without the brigantines, the capture of Mexico was more than doubtful; the brigantines meant famine for the invested city, and even with them it took seventy-five days to reduce it. Tlascala provided the material, built the brigantines, paid for them, and sent eight thousand men to carry them across the mountain passes, escorted by twenty thousand more to protect the convoy, and finally built the canal from which they were launched on the lake of Texcoco. Throw the weight of Tlascala on the Aztec side, and the history of the conquest of Mexico would have to be re-written