The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico

León-Portilla relies on the accounts of Sahagun’s Aztec informants in the Codex Florentino to narrate what happens after the Spaniards flee Tenochtitlan. The Aztecs, convinced the Spanish will never come back, elect Motecuhzoma’s brother Cuitlahuac as his successor (Cuitlahuac was the sole dissenter in Motecuhzoma’s final council meeting before the Spanish arrived, Chapter 7). But after a plague of smallpox devastates the city, the Spanish return.

“Tenochtitlan after the Departure of Cortés” shows life returning to normal in Tenochtitlan. The temples are cleaned and repaired; religious festivals resume. But that fall, a dreadful illness strikes: “sores erupted on our faces, our breasts, our bellies; we were covered in agonizing sores from head to foot.” Many die, including the new king, Cuitlahuac. The survivors are left terribly disfigured. (“The Plague Ravages the City”). Then, before the Aztecs can recover, Cortés and his deputy, Pedro de Alvarado, lead the Spanish back.

In “The Spanish Return,” we see the Aztecs holding their own in a skirmish outside Tlatelolco (a fiercely independent suburb of Tenochtitlan). Though they do not lose a single man, Cortés successfully maintains his position. In a counterattack detailed in “The Spaniards Launch Their Brigantines,” Cortés strategically deploys his warships up the waterways of Tenochtitlan. The Spanish cannons terrify the common people, who flee their homes. The Spaniards loot their possessions and set fire to flotillas of Aztec canoes to deadly effect.

“Defensive Tactics of the Aztecs” shows that the Aztecs are beginning to learn their enemy. Realizing that guns and cannons always fire in a straight line, they run in zigzags or hit the ground when the Spanish fire. They take cover behind a wall, but flee when Spanish cannons destroy it. The Spanish rely heavily on this particular technology: “The smoke belched out in black clouds that darkened the sky, as if night were falling” (“The Spanish Debark”). They set up the largest cannon on a sacred sacrificial stone. When Aztec priests beat drums to rouse defenders for the shrine, the Spanish slaughter them and throw them from the temple heights (“The Spaniards Advance to the Heart of the City”).

Fierce fighting continues for two days. “The Aztecs Take Refuge” concentrates particularly on the bravery of the Tlatelolcas, who bravely rout the troops of Pedro de Alvarado. “The Last Stand” pays homage to another hero, the captain Tzilacatzin, who terrifies the Spanish with his throwing stones and uses various disguises to throw them off his trail. The Spanish are forced to briefly retreat.

Chapter 12 anthologizes several scenes in the final battle for Tenochtitlan. Again, it uses the account by Sahagun’s Aztec informants in the Codex Florentino.

Unable to secure victory in conventional battle, the Aztecs wage psychological warfare. In one particularly brutal episode, they execute 15 Spanish captives in full view of their helpless comrades (“Fifteen Spaniards Are Captured and Sacrificed”). In another instance of morale-affecting strategies, both Indigenous armies, the Tlaxcaltecas and the Aztecs, sing at each other: “It was as if both sides were challenging each other with their songs. They sang whatever they happened to remember and the music strengthened their hearts” (106).

As “The Spaniards Attack Again” makes it clear, the Spanish enjoy victories too. After their Indigenous allies, the Tlaxcaltecas, fill a crucial canal with earth, they cross the waterway freely. Still, for a while, the battle is going to the Aztecs. A surprise assault from the Aztec captain Hecatzin routs the Spanish and their forces—the Spaniards “were so astonished that they blundered here and there like drunkards” (106). The Aztecs even capture the Spanish standard, though they do not know its significance and do not care. “Fifty-Three Spaniards Are Sacrificed” describes the Aztecs underscoring their advance by killing the 53 Spanish captives they take in the skirmish and arranging their heads on pikes.

In “Other Battles,” missteps plague the Spanish campaign. Valiant Aztec warriors like Axoquentzin relentlessly harass their troops, and two accounts, “The Battle in the Market Place” and “The Catapult Is Set Up in the Market Place,” describe how a failed attempt to set up a catapult in the marketplace further embarrasses the Europeans. But the siege of Tenochtitlan begins to take an awful toll on the Aztec people. Many starve or die of dysentery: “We were so weakened by hunger that, little by little, the enemy forced us to retreat. Little by little they forced us to the wall” (“The Sufferings of the Inhabitants”).

In “The Quetzal-Owl,” The Aztecs look to make a last, religiously symbolic stand. The new Aztec king, Motecuhzoma’s nephew Cuauhtémoc, dresses one of his captains in the ceremonial garb of the Quetzal-Owl. Legend has it that if the Quetzal-Owl wounds an enemy with his sacred arrow, there may still be a chance to save Tenochtitlan. At first it seems the plan is a success—the Spanish fail to kill the Quetzal-Owl, who takes up a triumphant spot on a rooftop. But suddenly, the battle ends. Both sides withdraw. The Aztecs have apparently failed.