The Macahuitl and the Sword

The macahuitl and the sword

Historical novel by Juan Carlos Morales

Copyright 2011 Juan Carlos Morales

Smashwords Edition

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Contents

La Gomera

The admiral’s son

A gentleman enamored of women

The hawk of Extremadura

The Aztec Empire

The daughter of Xicotencatl, The Elder

The cacique Hatuey

Ego vox clamanti in deserto

The shipwrecked Spaniards

The foundation of Villa Rica

The Princess Tecuelhuatzin

The slaughter in Cholula

The conquest of Tenochtitlan

The unfortunate Catalina Juarez

The astronomical observatory

Pedro de Alvarado and his army

Passing by Soconusco

The K’iches warriors

Fateful times in Xetulul

The Pachaj Battle

The peaceful Xelajuj Noj

The Pakaja battle

The Village of the Peace

Reinforcements

Capitulations

Q’umarkaj

The K’iche holocaust

Doña Leonor

The foundation of Guatemala

The End

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La Gomera

In the heart of the foggy rain forest on the mountain between pines, evergreen oaks, cypresses and eucalyptuses all covered by lichens, mosses and orchids, the quetzal bird was flying quietly. It is dressed with an iridescence emerald plumage and flaunting his majestic long tail of green feathers; this magnificent specimen of a serpent bird went to perch on a rattan entangled tree, grasping nimbly to it with his dark short legs. From this height he contemplated, for a brief instant the agile movements of a squirrel who jumped innocently from branch to branch.

Very far from there, across the ocean in La Gomera, the noisy crew of the Admiral Christopher Columbus was in a hustle buying provisions and stocking up for the long trip to La Española. The Admiral was gladly welcomed by the governess and consequently his crew received a good treatment. They had raised anchor at the port of Cadiz on September 25th in 1493 with the intention to explore, colonize and preach the Catholic faith in the territories previously discovered during the Admiral’s first trip.

Ensure we get enough water, wine and food for the trip that was the order of the Admiral to the sailors in charge of the ships’ supplies. La Gomera was one of the main islands of the Canary archipelago owned by Spain and located off the northwest coast of Africa.

It was October 7th in 1493; almost a year had passed since land was sighted at 2 a.m. on October 12, by a sailor named Rodrigo de Triana. He gave his famous shout: Land ahoy! as in the distance he could make out the Guanahaní Island, in the paradisiacal archipelago of the Bahamas. What wonderful silky-fine white sand beaches! Seven hundred limestone rock islands and keys, surrounded by warm waters whose color varied according to the depth, going from turquoise to an almost indescribable green color while caressed by solar rays.

The clarity of the water was a dream thanks to the fact that there were no rivers in the islands and as a consequence no sediment. The coral reef formation, the plants and fishes around the reefs were extremely beautiful. At the beginning, the sailors believed they have arrived at the island that the Portuguese had called Antilha, this they discussed:

If you look carefully at this Portuguese map, you will see an island located in the western region of the Atlantic!

The Portuguese cartographers had called it Antilha.

In Castilian, the name is Antilia, which means anti island.

Why did call that island Antilha?

It is because they thought that it is an island antipodal to Portugal

Antipodal?

Yes, this means that it is an island in a geographic location opposed to Portugal!

In his first expedition, , Columbus departed from Palos port with three ships on August 3, 1492, arriving (as mentioned previously) to Guanahani island, which was named San Salvador; later Columbus disembarked on the island of Cuba and on December 5, he arrived at the island renamed La Española. The trip finished the 15 of March of 1493.

Within time the Spaniards would realize that the seven hundred islands and keys of the archipelago of the Bahamas were only a part of the formidable arc of Caribbean islands that went from the south-east of Florida in the United States to the coast of Venezuela, nevertheless the Antilles name remains to refer to all the islands located between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

The four million human beings who inhabited the Antilles could not imagine that the arrival of the Spaniard’s boats from La Gomera was going to be the beginning of the tragedy that almost exterminated them because it would reduce the number of Arawaks, Lucayans, Siboneys, Boriquens and Caribbeans to less than sixteen thousand in only twenty-five years.

The Arawaks were passive people, barely dressed with a loincloth attached with a cord of cotton around the waist, a reason why the crews of the boats were surprised staring at the breasts of naked women. The Lucayans loved to sing and dance what they called arieto; they played a kind of beach volleyball named batos. Arawaks and Lucayans smoked tobacco in pipes, lived in circular huts and slept in hammocks. They were organized in small populations led by a cacique; they survived on fishing, hunting turtles and cultivating maize and yucca.

In the tavern of La Gomera while the crew was purchasing supplies for the long trip, Michele, a native of Cuneo, the coastal city of Savona, in Italy and a childhood friend of the Admiral Christopher Columbus, was talking pleasantly with Diego Alvarez Chaca, a doctor of Seville and main surgeon of the expedition.

We are lucky that the Admiral has such a good friendship with the governess of the island said Michele while the bar tender served a good wine. The mention of the governess brings him memories of an anecdote of the Catholic Queen Isabel. She suspected that her husband, King Fernando, was having a love affair with the young lady Beatriz, niece of her dear friend the marchioness of Moya so she plotted to marry her to Hernán Peraza and then to send them to La Gomera; some time later, Beatriz de Bobadilla and Ossorio would become the governess of the island.

I have heard a rumor the people are spreading that our Admiral, Christopher Columbus is having a love affair with the governess Doña Beatriz de Bobadilla and Ossorio; surely you have heard that? asked Diego with the intention to establish the truth about the rumor, holding his glass of wine up in the air. He was also observing the expression of his question brought, anxious to read the answer in his face.

You should not believe what people say, at your age you should already know how people talk without foundation Michele responded evasively. Of course he knew about the love affair between his friend Christopher and the governess of La Gomera.

That is the reason why I am asking to you. You must know it very well. I have not seen our Admiral since we disembarked".

Christopher is a very busy man and he may have diligences to accomplish before we weigh anchor

But you will not deny to me that your friend is the lover of Doña Beatriz Enriquez de Arana, the attractive and confident young lady who lives in Cordova? she was confident and self assured, because she had been independent since becoming orphaned at an early age.

Doña Beatriz Enriquez de Arana is already twenty-six years old and she knows how to make her own decisions. I remind you that Doña Felipa passed away a long time ago, so now Christopher is a widower and maintains a very stable relation with Doña Beatriz Enríquez; proof of this is his five year old son Hernando.

Then, I do not understand why he has not married her!

Perhaps the reason was his eldest son, Diego?

I see, you are very loyal to your friend and you will not say a word; tell me, how is that Doña Beatriz de Bobadilla governs La Gomera? asks Diego Alvarez Chaca.

Since her husband died, she governs the island in the name of her son Guillén

I did not know that she was a widow.

That was five years ago"

Peraza was the name of her husband?

Indeed, Hernán Peraza was her husband

Tell me about his death?

I cannot believe that you do not know about it. It was a great scandal that everybody knows said Michele watching Diego with distrust who did not show signs of being perturbed but rather he kept silent while he served more wine. Michele had no alternative than to begin to tell the story:

Hernán Peraza fell in love with Iballa, a beautiful woman and native of La Gomera, to whom he secretly visited; however one day when he was in the middle of one of his furtive love encounters in the cave of Guahedum, Hupalupo, the father of Iballa caught them by surprise. Hupalupo slew Peraza immediately Michele was loquacious because abstinence from drink was not one of his virtues and he was delighted to be drinking an aromatic wine of a very peculiar flavor.

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the island, distant from the tavern where Michele was conversing and drinking, five monks were rambling in the Forest of Laurisilva where they had escaped from the hustle of the world to embrace Mother Nature and were surrounded by laurel trees. It was awesome to contemplate the ferns, fungi, mosses and the lichens on the branches of the trees. These monks, among them the Catalan Benedictine Fray Buil, would travel in the expedition, Fray Buil was dressed in a black habit and wearing a scapular hung to his chest.

All Christians considered themselves as brothers, giving that origin to the word friar coming from the Latin frater meaning brother; however, with time the term was used exclusively between the members of religious orders. A friar practiced his ministry outside the monastery, whereas a monk would dedicate themselves to oration and the internal workings within his monastery. San Benito, who was born in Umbria, Italy, during fifth century, was the founder of the Congregation of the Benedictine Friars, to which Fray Buil belonged; this order is one of the oldest congregations in the world.

The five monks were walking silently, when suddenly they stopped to witness a peculiar scene: a Guanche native was whistling, with another native listening to him from the opposed side of the ravine, soon he answered by returning the whistle. Fray Buil, observing that his religious companions continued to be very intrigued, asked to them:

Have you not heard the Gomero whistles before?"

No, in my life I have never heard anything similar responded the fattest of them while the other friars shook their heads.

It is a whistled language practiced by some inhabitants of the island to communicate through ravines explained Fray Buil to them.

Is it a Guanche language? asked the friars of Fray Buil.

The whistled language uses six sounds, two of them like vowels and the other four like consonants; with these it is possible to express more than four thousand words. They are communicating in Guanche, but there is also gomero whistle in Spanish said Fray Buil who was a connoisseur of La Gomera’s culture.

It was time to depart, everything was ready and the crew was on-board the boats preparing themselves to weigh anchor and sail to the New World again, when Christopher Columbus appeared with a bright smile in his face.

Admiral, I have purchased many vegetables, bananas and pigs at an excellent price! said Benito, the sailor in charge of buying all the necessary supplies for the long trip.

The cook will be anxious to include them in the menu; the trip will be long responded the Admiral.

Yes, I have bought enough pigs with the intention to leave some of them for breeding in La Española" responded Benito, pleased about that bargain he had acquired crossing in the corridor with Michele and returning to his onboard duties.

Christopher, tell me about the fort you have constructed on one of those islands? inquired Michele de Cuneo to his friend the Admiral.

We are heading to La Española, so you will see it. Wait a second, I want to show you the peculiar name that the native Tainos had given to La Española; I wrote it down on a piece of paper somewhere

Forget about it Christopher, I would prefer to hear about the fort you have constructed in La Española inquired Michele de Cuneo to his friend the Admiral.

Ah yes, it is here! The indigenous word is Quisqueya which means mother of all the lands

I have listened to the sailors saying that the shipwreck of the biggest of the three ships was your fault, they mentioned that it was your negligence

Negligence? Quite the opposite, the ship has served to construct The Town of Christmas.

I had said that it was a fort said Michele, a little surprised.

In fact, the wood was enough to construct a fort and a tower. Since the date was 25th of December, we named that construction The Town of Christmas. It was built on the north-western coast of the island near a river. Whom have you left in charge?"

I have left Diego de Arana, bailiff of the expedition. He is a young man, 25 years old, native of Cordova and son of Rodrigo de Arana. Do you know him?

Christopher, Christopher, how should I not know him, if he is cousin of Beatriz, your sweetheart. Is Enríquez de Arana not her last name?

The Admiral blushed, when he realized that his friend was acquainted with Diego de Arana, and therefore Columbus hurried to say:

Also remaining in the fort are Pedro Gutiérrez and Rodrigo de Escobedo, the scribe. In addition there are 36 armed men

After crossing the ocean, they arrived to the Island of Puerto Rico on November 19th and nine days later reached their ultimate destination., They disembarked on the north-western coast of the island La Española, where The Town of Christmas had been constructed. Columbus was surprised when he saw that the fort was destroyed.

The cacique Guacanagarí explained what had happened to them:

At the beginning, we were all astonished by the knowledge of those Spanish men, we gave them food and we celebrated with them; but the celebration didn’t last long because they committed very great abuses to our women

Did you ordered the destruction of the town? the Admiral asked.

No, Anacaona, the sister of the cacique Bohechío got so infuriated after seeing how the men raped their young women that she demanded to the cacique Caonabo to stop the vileness

Where are the men I left? asked Columbus, knowing beforehand the answer.

All of them are dead said the Guacanagarí cacique with resignation.

Columbus retired angry and decided to continue sailing until arriving on December 8, 1493, to a solitary coast of splendid golden sandy beaches and crystalline waters. There, fifteen hundred men and many domestic animals disembarked from the seventeen ships that composed the expedition.

With the animals there were eight couples of pigs for breeding and their descendents would be taken to all the islands known by the Spaniards. Unfortunately the pigs were the carriers of the influenza virus.

The following day, after