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

Chapter 10 covers the infamous la noche triste, “Night of Sorrows.” After four days of fierce fighting in the capital, Cortés and the Spaniards are driven from Tenochtitlan under cover of darkness and barely escape with their lives. King Motecuhzoma is killed at some point in the conflict; it is unclear how and by whose hand. This chapter again relies exclusively on the accounts of Sahagun’s informants.

The first passage, “The Spaniards Abandon the City,” starts right in the middle of the Spanish retreat. At midnight, the Spaniards and their Indigenous allies (including the Tlaxcaltecas) attempt to use portable wooden bridges to cross canals in Tenochtitlan and sneak away. But an Aztec woman spots them and raises the alarm, so Aztec warriors jump in their canoes to pursue, “lash[ing] the water of the lake until it boiled” (85). Many are killed on both sides, according to “The Battle Begins.” The Spaniards are driven into one of Tenochtitlan’s major waterways, the Canal of the Toltecs, where they desperately hurl themselves into the water. Their drowned corpses clog the canal. The Aztecs surround the survivors, taking Tlaxcaltecas for sacrifice and killing the Spaniards.