Retreat of Cortes from the City of Mexico: Aztecs

Cortes and his companions now rode forward to the front, where the troops, in a loose, disorderly manner, were marching off the fatal causeway. A few only of the enemy hung on their rear, or annoyed them by occasional flights of arrows from the lake. The attention of the Aztecs was diverted by the rich spoil that strewed the battle-ground; fortunately for the Spaniards, who, had their enemy pursued with the same ferocity with which he had fought, would, in their crippled condition, have been cut off, probably, to a man. But little molested, therefore, they were allowed to defile through the adjacent village, or suburbs, it might be called, of Popotla.

The Spanish commander there dismounted from his jaded steed, and, sitting down on the steps of an Indian temple, gazed mournfully on the broken files as they passed before him. What a spectacle did they present! The cavalry, most of them dismounted, were mingled with the infantry, who dragged their feeble limbs along with difficulty; their shattered mail and tattered garments dripping with the salt ooze, showing through their rents many a bruise and ghastly would; their bright arms soiled, their proud crests and banners gone, the baggage, artillery, all, in short, that constitutes the pride and panoply of glorious war, forever lost. Cortes, as he looked wistfully on their thin and disordered ranks, sought in vain for many a familiar face, and missed more than one dear companion who had stood side by side with him through all the perils of the Conquest. Though accustomed to control his emotions, or, at least, to conceal them, the sight was too much for him. He covered his face with his hands, and the tears which trickled down revealed too plainly the anguish of his soul.

The story of the conquest of Mexico may be briefly concluded. Cortes, in his retreat, found himself opposed by a vastly outnumbering army, filling a valley through which he was forced to pass. A desperate conflict ensued, in which the Spaniards were in imminent danger of annihilation, when Cortes, followed by his bravest cavaliers, spurred to the point where the great Aztec standard rose in the center of the army, cut down the general, and seized the imperial banner. On seeing their standard fall, the army at once broke into a panic and fled in all directions, leaving free passage to the remnant of the Spanish force. Cortes proceeded to the coast, where he received reinforcements, and returned to besiege the city. It was defended with desperate determination, and yielded only after a siege of several months, when the city was nearly levelled with the ground, and after the inhabitants had endured the extremities of famine. The submission of the city was that of the empire, and the Aztecs experienced the fate which had been visited upon the natives in the other Spanish colonies.