The Aztec Treasure-House

by Thomas A. Janvier

  XXI.

  THE WALLED CITY OF CULHUACAN.

  Our use in turn of the field-glass was a mysterious performance thataroused keenly the barge-master's curiosity. I heard him ask Tizoc foran explanation of it; and Tizoc, who also was much interested, referredhis question to me. Had I been dealing with Tizoc alone I should havetried to make the matter clear to him; but in the case of thebarge-master, whose feeling towards us, I was convinced, was anythingbut friendly, I thought it wiser to be less frank. Therefore, coveringthe action with a negligent motion of my hand, I screwed the glassesclose together, so that in looking through them there was to be seenonly a mass of indistinct objects looming up in a blurred cloud oflight, and so handed them to him. Naturally, neither he nor Tizocarrived at any very satisfactory conclusion in regard to the real use ofthem; and from their talk it was evident that they conceived theceremony in which we had engaged in turn so earnestly to be in thenature of a prayer to our gods. Fray Antonio was both shocked and painedby their taking this view of the matter, and was for making a trueexplanation to them; but at my urgent request he held his peace. Yet itwas evident that he brooded over the matter in his mind, and so was ledto earnest thoughts of the mission that had brought him hither into theValley of Aztlan. Therefore was I not surprised--though I certainly wasalarmed by the thought of what might be its consequences--whenpresently, in low and gentle tones, he began to speak to those about himof the free and glorious Christian faith, which in all ways was moreexcellent than the cruel idolatry in which they were bound. Naturally,he was not permitted long to speak in this strain, for the barge-masterspeedily ordered him in most peremptory tones to keep silence; whichorder doubtless would have been still more quickly given had not theofficer been fairly surprised by Fray Antonio's temerity into momentaryforgetfulness of the dangerous outcome of this gentle talk. And FrayAntonio, knowing the value of the word in season that is dropped tofructify in soil ready for it, did not attempt argument with thebarge-master--by which the thoughts of those who listened would havebeen diverted from the hopeful promise of a better faith that he hadoffered to them--but obeyed the order meekly and so held his peace. Thatwhat he had spoken had taken hold upon the hearts of some at least amonghis hearers I was well assured by their grave look of thoughtfulness,and especially did Tizoc seem to be deeply moved; but--as I supposed forfear of the barge-master--there was no open comment upon what hadpassed.

  By this time, the barge being all the while urged rapidly forward by thesteady strokes of the twenty oarsmen, the city rose so broadly and soopenly before us that we could see the whole of it distinctly with ournaked eyes. And what at this nearer view seemed most impressive about itwas its gloominess; that was due not less to the prison-like effect ofits heavily built houses and its massive walls than to the dullblackness of the stone whereof these same were made. Nowhere was theresparkle, or glitter, or bright color, or brightness of any sort to beseen; and it seemed to me, as I gazed upon this sombre stronghold, thatdwelling always within it well enough might wear a man's heart out witha consuming melancholy begotten of its cold and cheerless tones.

  That it was indeed a stronghold was the more apparent to us the nearerthat we came to it. The plan of it was that of a great fan, spread openupon the hillside, and extending also across the broad sweep of levelland between the base of the promontory and the lake. The promontory hadbeen so cut and shaped that its gentle slope had been transformed intosix broad semicircular terraces, above the highest of which was asemicircular plateau of very considerable size, on which stood theTreasure-house, that also was the great temple. Along the face of eachterrace, and around the face also of the plateau, a heavy defensive wallrose to a height of twenty feet or more; and from the base of thecrowning plateau, thence accessible by a single broad flight ofstairs--being led through openings in the rampart walls of the terraces,and down each terrace face by means of stair-ways--twelve streetsdescended, of which the central six ended at the water-side and theremainder against the great outer wall. It was this outer line ofstrong defence that gave the city--which otherwise would havecorresponded curiously closely with the fortified city of Quetzaltepec,described by the Mexican chronicler Tezozomoc--its most distinctivecharacteristic. Such a vastly thick wall, for the great length of it, asthis was I never have seen in any other place; and so solid was thebuilding of it that it would have been proof against any ordinary trainof siege artillery. For defence against a foe whose only missile weaponswould be javelins and slings and bows, this great wall made the cityabsolutely impregnable. And that the protection that it gave might bestill more complete--and also, as Tizoc explained to us, that in thecase of siege the water supply might be assured, together with a supplyof fish for food--the wall was carried out into the lake so far as toenclose a basin of more than four acres in extent; within which, shouldan enemy gain access to the valley, all the boats upon the lake could bebrought together and held in safety. And finally, the one entrance tothe city was by way of a tunnel-like canal cut in the wall thus risingfrom the water; the outer end of which canal was closed in ordinarytimes by a heavy grating, while in war time the inner end also could beclosed by means of great metal bars.

  It was towards this entrance that the barge that carried us was heading.Presently we reached it, and the grating was raised for our admission bymeans of chains which were operated from the top of the wall. So low andso narrow was the passage that our heads were within a few inches of thehuge slabs of stone of which its roof was formed; and the rowers hadneed to unstep the mast and then to lay their oars inboard, while theybrought the barge through by pushing with their hands against the roofand sides. The canal was fully forty feet long, and thus the enormousthickness of the wall was made apparent to us. It truly was, as Iobserved to Rayburn, a work that well might be attributed to theCyclops.

  "I never met a live Cyclop, Professor," Rayburn answered, "and I don'tbelieve that these fellows ever did either; but it bothers me to knowhow they managed to do work like this without a steam-derrick. If we getout of here with whole skins and our hair on our heads, I hope it won'tbe until I've had a chance to talk to some of their engineers, and soget down to the facts."

  A moment later we emerged from the tunnel through the wall, and soentered the enclosed basin that extended along the whole of the city'sfront. Within the basin were lying many canoes, and also boats of alarger sort that carried oars and that were rigged with a sort oflug-sail; but these all kept away from us, even as all the boats whichwe had seen during our passage of the lake had given us a wide berth.That our barge--one of those employed exclusively in the PriestCaptain's service--was thus shunned was due, as I found later, to thewholesome dread in which the special servitors of the temple and of itshead universally were held; for these very frequently abused theauthority acquired through their semi-sacerdotal functions by using itas a cloak to cover acts of purely personal oppression, while at alltimes they were feared as the executors of their master's wrath. Therewas, indeed (though I did not mention this fact to Fray Antonio), acuriously close resemblance between the officials of this class and thefamiliars of the Inquisition, both in the duties which they performedand in the fear and hatred which they everywhere inspired.

  But even dread of entanglement with the Priest Captain's servants couldnot restrain the curiosity of the crowd that pressed towards us on thebroad pier upon which we disembarked. It was evident that this crowd wasnot made up of the common folk of the city, and also that it was movedby a purpose far higher than that of a mere idle longing to seesomething that was strange. From their dress, and still more from thebeauty of their ornaments and the elegance of the arms which many ofthem carried, it was obvious that for the most part these men werecitizens of the highest rank; and this fact was still further attestedby the dignity of their demeanor and by the reverent age to which themajority of them had attained. So far from manifesting any vulgarexcitement, the crowd maintained an absolute silence; and with this anexterior air of calm that was the more impressive because the eag
er,almost awe-struck expression upon every face showed how strong was theemotion that thus strongly was restrained. But when El Sabio, after muchcoaxing, crossed the gang-plank between the boat and the pier, and socame to where he could be seen of all plainly, there was a curious lowsound in the air as though all at once every man in the crowd hadheaved a sigh; and the sound swelled into a loud murmur as Pablo, inobedience to a quick order that I gave him in Spanish, briskly mountedupon the ass's back. In this murmur only one word was intelligible, andthat I caught again and again: the prophecy!

  But Pablo was no more than fairly seated upon El Sabio's back than theofficer in command of our guard took him roughly by the shoulders andsnatched him thence to the ground again; which act led Tizoc and me to aquick exchange of startled glances, for it showed very plainly that thePriest Captain--to whom the messenger telling of our coming into thevalley had been sent before any of these people had seen Pablo mountedupon El Sabio's back--had anticipated this sign of the fulfilment of theprophecy and had given orders to prevent it. Luckily, the celerity withwhich Pablo had executed my quick order to mount had saved the day forus; and even more than saved it, for as we passed through the crowd, onour way from the water-side into the city, I caught here and therefragments of comment upon what had just passed which showed that notonly was the sign told of in the prophecy recognized, but that theeffort on the part of the officer to neutralize it was understood.

  But before our going into the city there was a stirring conflict ofauthority concerning us between the temporal and the spiritual powers.We were no more than fairly landed, indeed, when an officer addressedthe barge-master, who continued in charge of our party, and gave him aformal order to bring the strangers directly before the Council of theTwenty Lords. And to this the barge-master replied that he already wasunder orders to bring the prisoners, immediately upon their landing,before the Priest Captain--and there was something both curious andominous, it struck me, in the marked manner in which the term"strangers" was employed by one of these men and the term "prisoners" bythe other.

  At this juncture we had further proof of the foresight of the PriestCaptain, and of the determined stand that he was prepared to make ratherthan to suffer the miscarriage of big plans. While the barge-master andthe messenger from the Council still were engaged in hot talk as towhich of the two conflicting orders should be recognised, there was thesound of tramping feet and of arms clanking; and then a body of fullyone hundred soldiers came quickly from behind a house that was near bythe water-side and swept down on a double-quick to where we werestanding at the end of the pier. The crowd, jostled aside to make wayfor the passage of the soldiers, evidently regarded them withastonishment; and this astonishment rapidly changed to anger as thepurpose that brought them thither was made plain. In a moment they hadclosed in around us, separating us from the Council's messenger and fromTizoc; the barge-master placed himself at the head of them, and insharp, quick tones gave the order to march; and the whole force, withourselves in the centre of it, went off the pier at a round pace, andthence along a street that led towards the city's heart. Evidentlyacting under orders, the men broke their platoons and closed in aroundus; and I was well convinced that this unsoldierly marching was adoptedto the end that El Sabio might not be seen.

  Fray Antonio agreed with me that the Priest Captain was carrying matterswith a dangerously high hand in thus opposing the will of the Councilwith armed force. This act of his, if Tizoc had correctly represented tous the excited condition of popular feeling, was quite sufficient initself to stir into violent activity the slumbering fires of mutiny. Butwhether the revolt that we now believed must surely come would come intime to be of service to ourselves, we could not but look upon as a veryopen question.

  "If this old scoundrel is as sharp as he seems to be," Rayburn said,"and if he keeps things up in the way he's begun, it's about all daywith us. His play should be to get rid of us as quick as he can manageit; and I should judge, from the cards that he's put down, that that'sprecisely the way he means to manage the game. It's not much comfort tous to know that after he's cleaned us out somebody else will rake hispile."

  As we talked, we went on rapidly through the city; and even the dangerthat we were in, and the excitement that attended this sudden shiftingof our fortunes, could not prevent me from studying with a livelycuriosity the many evidences of an advanced civilization that I beheld.The plan of the city, as I had discerned while we were approaching it,was that of a wide-open fan. From the Treasure-house, on the height inthe centre, twelve broad streets radiated outward, of which three on thenorthern side and three on the southern ended against the greatenclosing wall, and six came down through openings in the walls alongthe several terraces directly to the water-front. All of these streetswere well paved with large smooth blocks of stone, and were led up thefaces of the terraces by wide and easy stairs. The transverse streetswere true semicircles, starting from and ending at the face of thecliff, and were carried along the outer edges of the terraces, justinside their facing walls. Rayburn was even more astonished than I wasby the exactness with which these great semicircles were laid off; forhe apprehended, as I did not, the difficulty attendant upon running aline in a true and regular curve. But I am not prepared to say that thiswork could not have been accomplished by mere rule of thumb. My friendBandelier, in the course of his admirable analysis of the ruins atMitla, has made clear to me how easy it is to attribute to scientificknowledge work that is the result only of manual skill. As I havepointed out in my discussion of this matter in my _Pre-ColumbianConditions on the Continent of North America_, the plateau at the top ofthis range of terraces easily might have been laid off in a truesemicircle by the simple means of a pointed stick at the end of a longrope; and from the true line thus established the line of the terracebelow it could have been had--and so on down to the lowest terrace ofall.

  There could be no doubt, however, that engineering skill of a highorder--howsoever crude might have been the actual method of itsapplication--was exhibited both in the preparation of the site, and thenin the city's building. On the site alone an almost incredible amount oflabor had been expended; for the rocky promontory--that primitively, asthe result showed, had been broken and irregular--had been so cut awayin some places, and so filled in in others, and the whole of it had beenso carefully trimmed and smoothed, that in the end it became a huge massof rock-work, in the regularity of which there was not perceptible thesmallest flaw. And in this preliminary work, as well as in the buildingof the houses afterwards, fragments of stone were used of such enormoussize that the moving of them, Rayburn declared, would be wellnighimpossible even with the most powerful engineering appliances of our owntime. Nor was the use of these huge pieces of stone confined to thefoundations of the houses. Some of them were high above the ground;indeed, the very largest that we observed--the weight of which Rayburnestimated at not less than twenty tons--was a single block that made theentire top course of a high wall.

  All of the stone-work was well smoothed and squared; and while theexteriors of the houses were entirely plain, we could see through theopen door-ways that the interiors of many of them were enriched withcarvings. All were destitute of windows opening upon the street; andtheir dull, black walls, and the dull black of the stones with which thestreets were paved, gave a dark and melancholy air to the city thatoppressed us even more heavily when thus seen closely than it had whenwe beheld it from afar off. Yet the interior court-yards, so far as wecould tell from the glimpses that we had of them through open door-ways,were bright with sunshine and gay with flowers; thus showing that thegloom of these dwellings did not extend beyond their outer walls. Iobserved with much interest that the provision for closing the entrancesfrom the street was not swinging doors of wood, but either metal bars,such as we had seen in Tizoc's house, or else a metal grating, that wasarranged like a portcullis to slide up and down in a groove; and Iattributed the absence of wooden doors less to a desire for strongerbarriers than to the comparative recentness of the a
cquisition of theknowledge of wood-working tools. Here, I thought, was a curious instanceof development along the lines of greatest resistance; for in itself theinvention and the making of a swinging door of wood was a much easiermatter than was the invention and the making of these finely wroughtsliding doors of hardened gold.

  As for Young, the sight of all this gold-work quite took his breathaway. "It regularly jolts me, Professor," he said, "t' see th' genuinestuff, that's good t' make gold dollars out of, slung around this way. Afront door of solid gold is a huckleberry above Jay Gould's biggestpersimmon; an' as t' Solomon, these fellows just lay Solomon outcold--regularly down th' old man an' sit on him. Why, for just that onefront door of th' big house ahead of us I'd sell out all my shares inthis treasure-hunt, an' be glad t' do it. But I guess I'd have to hireSamson--who was in that line of business--t' carry it off for me. Itmust weigh a solid ton!"

  By this time we had mounted all of the terraces, and the house towardswhich Young pointed as he spoke was built directly beneath the crowningplateau on which the great temple stood. It was the largest and by farthe most elegant house that we yet had seen, and the sliding grating ofgold that closed the entrance was unusually heavy, and very beautifullywrought. Sentinels were stationed here, wearing the same uniform as thatof the soldiers who formed our guard; and this further indication of theimportance of the building gave us the impression that it was thedwelling of some great dignitary. Close by the portal we were halted,while the commander of our guard spoke through the grating to some oneinside. A moment later the grating was slowly raised, and we weremarched through the narrow entrance, and so along a short passage-wayinto a long, narrow chamber that obviously was a guard-room; for spearsand javelins were ranged in orderly fashion upon racks, and swords andshields and bows and quivers of arrows were hung upon the walls. Here wewere halted again; and while we stood silent together, wondering whatmight be in store for us in this place, we heard the heavy gratingbehind us close with a dull clang.