Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/369

Rh. True, they had been forced by threats, and by the exhibition of an apparently superior force, into a submission which they could ill brook, and were justified in striking a blow for liberty, especially when encouraged, or bidden, by the great monarch; but they had no right to complain if they suffered the penalty everywhere affixed to treachery; and the Cholultecs did bear an unenviable reputation in this respect. The native records naturally assert their innocence; but even if we ignore the confession of the Indians, as prompted by fear of their judges and masters, or as colored by Franciscans whose patron Cortés was, and if we disregard all official testimony, we must still admit that there was evidence enough to justify the general in a measure which he regarded as necessary for the safety of his men.Spanish chroniclers as a rule approve the deed as necessary and just, either in tacit or open comment, and a few devout missionaries, who have assumed the rank of Indian apostles, are the only ones to take exception. Chief among these stands Las Casas, as might be expected from his sympathy with Velazquez, and from his character as Indian protector. He condemns it in the most unmeasured terms as a base murder of innocent and defenceless people, committed merely with a view to spread terror. Six thousand carriers, he writes, were shut up in a court and put to the sword, while the many discovered alive on the following days were thrust through and through. The chiefs of the city and neighborhood, to the number of over 100, were chained together to a circle of poles and burned alive, and the king, who fled with 30 or 40 followers to a temple, met the same fate there. While the soldiers were butchering and roasting the captives, 'eorum Capitaneum summa lætitia perfusum in hunc cantum prorupisse:

 Monte ex Tarpeio Romana incendia spectans Ipse Nero planctus vidit, nec corde movetur.'

''Las Casas, Reg. Ind. Devastat.,'' 26-8. A number of finely executed copper plates are appended to illustrate these deeds.

Bernal Diaz expresses himself hotly against this version, and states that several of the first Franciscans who came to Mexico held an investigation at Cholula of the massacre. After examining the leaders, and other persons who had witnessed it, they came to the conclusion that the story of the conquerors was true, and that the slaughter was a well merited punishment for a plot which involved the lives of Cortés' soldiers, and would, if successful, have stayed the conquest for God and the king. Diaz had heard the pious Motolinia say that although he grieved over the deed, yet, being done, it was best so, since it exposed the lies and wickedness of the idols. ''Hist. Verdad.,'' 61. The Franciscans did not probably care to weigh carefully the value of testimony from new converts given before a tribunal composed of their religious and political masters, nor were they likely to favor a Dominican friar like Las Casas when the interest of their patron Cortés was at stake. In awe of the friars, and in terror of the conquerors whose encomienda slaves they were, the Indians hardly dared to say aught to implicate the latter. This is