The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1923-09-12

doomed TO hell unless they accepted
the faith. To them the Cbolula mas
sacre was only a military p~recaution.
They thought 1t right Il seize their
generous host the emperor, 10 hold
him as a prisoner under guard, and
day eYen put him In irons. For
six months MOntezuma reigned under
Spanish orders. overwhelmed with
shame. He loved his captors because
they were gallant gentlemen. he free
ly gave them his royal treasure OF
gems, and gold. and brilliant feather
robes. Over the plunder-a million
and a half sterling IN gold alone
they squabbled clear proof to Monte
yuma that they were not all divine.
Yet still they were friends, 50 he gave
them all the spears and bows from his
arsenal as fuel 10 burn some Of his
mobiles who had affronted them.
1t was at this time that the hostile
governor Of Cuba sent Narvaes with
seventeen ships and a strong force to
arrest the conqueror for rebellion. The
odds were only three to one. instead
OF the usual hundred TO one against
him, so Cogtes went down to the coast.
gave Nnrvaes a thrashing. captured
him. enrolled his men by way of re-
Inducements, and returned with a
force of eleven hundred troops.
He had left his friend. Aivarado.
with a hundred men to hold the capt.
tai and guard the emperor. This Al
varado, so fair that the natives called
him Child Of the Sun. was such a
fool that he massacred six hundred I'M
armed mobiles and gentlefolk for being
pagans, violated the great temple. and
so aroused the whole power Of the
fiercest nation on earth to war of ven
geance. Barely in time TO save Alvar-
ado, Cortes re-entered the city TO be
besieged. Again and again the Aztecs
attempted to storm the palace. The
emperor in his robes of state addressed
them from the ramparts. and they
shot hiS. They seized the great tem-
pie which overlooked the palace. and
this the Spaniards storTned.
In face of awful losses day by day
the S~paniards. starving and desperate,
cleared a road through the city. and
on the night of M~ontezuma's death
they attempted to retreat by one Of
the causeways leading to the main
land. Three canals cut this road. and
the drawbridges had bean taken away,
but Cortes brought a portable bridge
to span them. They crossed the first
as the gigantic sobbing gong upon the
heights Of the temple aroused the en-
tire city.
HesvnW1wpkf. and ~
t~housauds'F men in canoes. they found
that the weight of their transport had
damned the bridge which could not
be removed. They filed the second
gap with rocks. with their artillery and
transport, with chests of gold, horses.
and dead men. So they came to the
third gap. no longer an army but as a
flying mob OF Spaniards and Tlascalan
warriors bewildered in the rain and
the darkness by the headlong despera-
ton Of the attacking host. They were
compelled to swim. and at least fifty
of the recruits were drowned by the
weight Of gold they refused to leave,
while many were captured to be sacri-
feed upon the Aztec affairs. Monte
zuma's children were drowned, and
hundreds more. while Cortes and his
cavaliers. swimming their horses back
and forth conveyed the column. and AL
varado with his rear guard held the
eauseway.
Last in the retreat. grounding his
spear butt. he leaped the ehasm, a
feat of daring which has given a name
forever to this place as Alyarado's
Leap. And just beyond. upon the
mainland there is an ancient tree be-
Meath which Cortes. as the dawn broke
out. sat on the ground and cried. He
had lost four hundred fifty Spaniards.
and thousands of Tlasealans. his rec
ords, artillery, muskets. stores and
treasure in that lost battle of the
Dreadful Night.
A week later the starved and wound
ed force was beset by an army Of two
hundred thousand Aztecs. They had
only their swords now. but. after long
hours of fighting. Cortes himself killed
the Aztec general. SO by his matchless
valor and leadership gaining a vic
tory.
The rest Is a tale of horror beyond
telling, for, rested and reinforced, the
Spaniards went back. They invested,
besieged, stormed and burned the fam
ine-stricken, pestilenee-ridden capital,
a city choked and heaped with The I'M
buried dead of a most valiant nation.
Afterward. under the Spanish vice
roys, Mexico was extended and en-
larged to the edge Of Alaska. a Chris
tan civilized state renowned for
mighty works OF engineering. the splen-
dor Of her architecture. and for such
inventions as the national pawn-shop,
as a bank to help the poor. One of the
so-ealled native slaves Of the mines
once wrote to the king Of Spain. beg
ging his majesty TO visit Mexico and
offering TO make a royal road for him,
paving the two hundred fifty miles
from Vera Cruz TO the capital with
ingots Of pure silver as a gift to Spain.
Letters marked Private are apt
to contain something unpleasant.