Page:The gilded man (El Dorado) and other pictures of the Spanish occupancy of America.djvu/272



HE day on which occurred the massacre of Cholula a very important event in the annals of the Spanish conquest of Mexico has not been determined with certainty, but the month is known. It took place about the middle of Otcober, 1519, probably between the 10th and the 15th. The usual account of the tragedy the conception of it regarded as historical represents it as a causeless piece of treachery on the part of the Spaniards, an act of unjustifiable cruelty, an eternal blot on the fame of Hernando Cortés. Prescott gives the fairest and most exact expression to this view in his "Conquest of Mexico" when he says: "This passage in their history is one of those that have left a dark stain on the memory of the conquerors. Nor can we contemplate, at this day, without a shudder, the condition of this fair and flourishing capital thus invaded in its privacy and delivered over to the excesses of a rude and ruthless soldiery." At the same time Mr. Prescott excuses the proceeding as an act of military necessity, and censures only the excess of the chastisement which Cortés allowed to be inflicted upon the Indians of Cholula.

A long residence in Cholula has enabled me to become thoroughly acquainted with the scene of the massacre, and to collect and study the native traditions concerning it, and their pictorial