Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/53

Rh But even these brave people were wanting in the true spirit of unity and discipline essential to the success of large military operations, and their leaders, despite their unquestioned bravery, invited defeat by their foolish jealousies and petty quarrels over questions of personal vanity. The Indian tribes in Mexico would indeed seem to have been destitute of patriotic sentiment; tribal feeling undoubtedly existed, but was, unfortunately for them, a source rather of disunion than a bond of strength. In his description of the engagements between the armies under Xicotencatl and the forces of Cortes, Bernal Diaz ascribes the victory to three causes, saying that next to God's help, it was owing to the cavalry (as the elephants of Pyrrhus struck terror to the Romans, so did the Spaniards' horses spread panic amongst the Indians); secondly to the inexperience of the Tlascalans, which prevented their bringing up their troops without confusion, instead of which they massed them together, thus enabling the Spanish artillery to do fearful execution amongst them; and finally because the forces of Guaxocingo, commanded by the chief Chichimecatl, did not support the action of the commander-in-chief, owing to their leader's sulkiness over some observations of Xicotencatl on his conduct during the engagement of the previous day. This chieftain was plagued with a morbid touchiness which despoiled his bravery of its virtue, and Cortes later mentions with what difficulty he was induced to take the rear-guard rather than the lead, during the famous convoy of the brigantines from Tlascala over the mountain passes to the lake of Texcoco, and how he was only finally persuaded by being assured that the rear-guard was the post of greatest honour and danger; even then he made the condition that no Spaniards should share the responsibility with him. Similar rivalries prevailed likewise in the Senate, and during the discussion on the reception to be given the Spaniards, the venerable