Note 421 — Chapter XV · FROM CHOLULA TO IZTAPALAPAN. October-November, 1519.

Bernal Diaz relates in a confused manner that at Izcalpan the Spaniards were told of two wide roads beginning beyond the first pass. One, easy and open, led to Chalco; the other, to Tlalmanalco, had been obstructed with trees to impede the horses, and so induce the army to take the Chalco route, upon which the Aztecs lay in ambush, ready to fall upon them. Hist. Verdad., 63. This finds some support in Sahagun, whose mythic account relates that Montezuma, in his fear of the advancing forces, had blocked the direct road to Mexico and planted maguey upon it, so as to direct them to Tezcuco. Hist. Conq., 21. Cortés indicates clearly enough that the Mexican envoys had at Cholula recommended a route leading from that city south of Huexotzinco to the usual mountain pass, and used by their people in order to avoid this inimical territory. Upon it every accommodation had been prepared for the Spaniards. This road was not only circuitous, but had been declared by Tlascaltecs and others as hard and perilous, with deep ravines, spanned by narrow and insecure bridges, and with Aztec armies lying in ambush. Cortés, Cartas, 76-8; Tapia, Rel., in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., ii. 574. Peter Martyr, dec. v. cap. ii., calls this route shorter and easier, though more dangerous. Certain remarks by Bernal Diaz indicate that the ambush had been arranged in connection with the plot at Cholula, and abandoned upon its failure, loc. cit. There could hardly have been more than one route across the range, through the pass wherein the Aztecs had erected their station for travellers, and this the Spaniards did follow. Here also accommodation was prepared for them, and here the embassy from Montezuma appeared. Hence the obstructions spoken of must have been at the junction of the Huexotzinca road with the main road from Cholula to the pass, and intended as an intimation to the Huexotzincas or to the Mexicans not to trespass. They could have been of no avail against the Spaniards, who were beside invited to enter on the main road then at hand. These are facts overlooked by Prescott, Clavigero, and writers generally who have lost themselves in the vague and confused utterances of the chroniclers, and in seeking to elaborate a most simple affair. Modern travellers follow the easier and less picturesque route north of Iztaccihuatl, which skirts Mount Telapon. This was the road recommended by Ixtlilxochitl, leading through Calpulalpan, where he promised to join him with his army; but Cortés preferred to trust to his own arms and to his Tlascaltec followers. Torquemada, i. 442.