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GALERÍA HISPÁNICA: Tales and
Images from the Spanish-Speaking
World
Volume 44: La Noche Triste or
The Sad Night
Hernán Cortés had made the
decision that if the
conquistadores and their Indian
allies were to escape from
Tenochtitlán, the chosen route
would be toward Tlacopán (also
known as Tacuba) over it’s
shorter causeway, and that they
would go at night. Exiting the
city over the causeway would be
a formidable challenge for the
Spaniards, but the one to Tacuba
would be the quickest route to
the mainland. They chose to
leave at night for the obvious
reason that the Aztecs weren’t
known to fight at night. They
chose to leave that very night;
June 30, 1520.
Cortés gave the order to his
officers to get the soldiers
ready to leave. Then, he went
about the business of securing
the transport of the Aztec
treasure. He turned his
personal treasure and the King’s
royal fifth over to an
attachment of soldiers for safe
guarding. The Spaniards had the
practice of melting down
precious metal objects into bars
and chains that could be
transported easier than crates
full of Aztec objects d’art.
Cortés new very well that it
would be perilous for a soldier
going into battle to be
overburdened with loot, so when
he allowed the foot soldiers to
take freely all the left over
gold and silver in the royal
Aztec treasury, he warned them
of the danger facing them
traversing the causeway while
overloaded with gold. Cortés
chronicled that mostly the
troops of the defeated Pánfilo
de Narváez were the only ones
who didn’t heed his advice.
They greedily loaded down their
persons with all they could cram
into their pockets and equipment.
Before opening the gates and
marching out, Cortés very
carefully arranged his troops in
order to maximize his battle
plan. Cortés placed his
infantry soldiers in the rear
under the command of Pedro de
Alvarado. Cortés took command
of his center battle force which
also included the cannons, the
treasure, and some prisoner
hostages. These were three of
Moctezuma’s children and Cacama,
cacique of Texcoco. He gave
Gonzalo de Sandoval the command
of the front forces and in all
units Cortés placed a generous
quantity of Tlaxcalan warriors.
Earlier, Cortés ordered the
construction of a portable
bridge that would be placed over
the first open canal. After
most of the Spanish force had
crossed the canal safely, a team
of soldiers would take up the
portable bridge and move it
forward through the ranks to the
next open canal. There were
three open canals in the
Tlacopán causeway, but the
Spaniards had only enough time
to construct one bridge. As a
result, the success of the
escape lay in the successful
transporting of the portable
bridge forward.
At midnight and after Mass was
delivered, Cortés ordered that
the front gates be opened and
the conquistadores exited their
garrison as noiselessly as
possible, heading toward the
causeway leading to Tlacopán.
It was not an unusual summer’s
night in the Valley of Mexico.
It was cloudy and raining. As
the Spaniards moved forward in
the silence of the city night,
all that could be heard was the
thud of the trodding horses and
the rumbling of the artillary
wheels. The Spaniards made it
safely to the start of the
causeway without being
discovered, but as they were
turning onto the causeway itself,
they were spotted by several
Aztec sentinels who gave the
alarm which soon after resounded
throughout the entire city. The
Spaniards lost no time in moving
the portable bridge forward and
up to the first open canal where
it was securely placed. Cortés
ordered all of his army to begin
moving over the bridge and onto
the causeway. No sooner had
they begun marching across, a
rumbling noise was heard that
grew louder and louder. At the
same time, a constant splashing
was heard over the lake. Cortés
deduced immediately the nature
of both noises when arrows and
stones began flying from all
directions toward his soldiers
on the causeway. Thousands of
Aztecs could be seen approaching
the causeway on foot from all
directions while canoes full of
the same began landing at the
sides of the causeway. The
total number of enemy Indians
was so great that it would never
be counted accurately. Cortés
and all his soldiers knew that
there situation was then one of
pure self preservation. It was
now every man for himself trying
to escape through the mass of
Aztecs and via their only exit:
the causeway in front of them.
To make matters worse, once the
army had successful crossed the
portable bridge at the first
open canal, the contingent in
charge of it began the process
of extricating it from its
location. Unfortunately,
because of the heavy load that
had just crossed over it, the
framework of the bridge was now
stuck solidly in the mud of the
causeway. No amount of effort
could or would be able to remove
it. The bridge was abandoned
there at the entrance to the
causeway. Behind the bridge,
thousands of Aztecs were
approaching from all directions.
In front of the bridge, the
entire Spanish army and its
Tlaxcalan allies were spread out
trying to fight their way
through the Aztecs who had
landed by canoe onto the road.
Now there was no possible means
of retreat and the Spaniards had
no other bridge they could use
to traverse the remaining two
open canals. They would have to
finesse their way out of this
seemingly hopeless situation.
Those soldiers who had horses,
jumped them into the water and
tried swimming them toward the
banks. Some succeeded reaching
the banks, but once they
attempted to climb upward, the
banks were so slippery that the
horse and rider fell immediately
backward into the dark murky
waters of Lake Texcoco. The
infantry soldiers attempted to
do the same, but often they were
run through by the spears or
felled by the warclubs of the
Aztecs in the canoes. The worst
fate was to be dragged alive
into the Aztec canoes and
transported away to be used as
sacrificial victims at a later
time.
The battle was going on longer
and longer and the Spanish
losses were mounting. In their
desperate attempt to flee the
causeway, the Spaniards were
losing their cannons, horses,
wagons, ammunition, treasure,
and men into the open canal
spaces. As a result, the rear
guard was able to climb over and
through the debris, similar to a
landfill bridge for fording the
canal. The coup de grace facing
Cortés was that the final open
canal was the widest of all and
the most difficult to cross.
The greatest and final loss of
Spanish life would occur there.
The unfortunate troops of
Sandoval were loaded down with
gold and upon jumping into the
canal to try to affect an
escape, sank with it into the
dank, dark waters of the lake.
In a desperate final act of
salvation, cavalry and infantry
soldiers leaped into the waters,
let loose of their horses and
weapons, and struggled to gain
the shore, fighting their way
through the throngs of Indians
wielding spears and warclubs.
Many Spaniards were drowned or
killed in the final valiant
effort to make it to the banks
on the edge of the lake. A few
at a time succeeded and
eventually made it to the old
village of Popotla/Tacuba.
Cortés led the stragglers to a
pyramid there and waited under
an ancient ahuehuete
tree until it was quite clear
that no other soldiers would
make it out alive from
Tenochtitlán.
Since that night, Cortés’
reaction and response to what he
witnessed has been chronicled
and written many times over.
The very sight of so few
survivors, and even those
survivors were wounded,
exhausted, and filthy from the
battle, caused him so much
emotion. The normally composed
captain/general sat and wept for
their plight under the ahuehuete
tree on that night. The Sad
Night, or La Noche Triste
as it was to be called, was only
to be so for the Spaniards. The
Aztecs, even though they had
lost their emperor and thousands
of warriors, never the less had
expelled the Spaniards from
their city that night. In the
Tacuba neighborhood of Mexico
City today, one can still locate
the ahuehuete tree under which
the Spaniards lamented their
losses. Today it is known as
El Árbol de la Noche Triste (the
Tree of the Sad Night).
Pictures follow below:
This is the oldest known
photograph of El Arbol de la
Noche Triste taken in the late
19th century.
This is all that remains of El
Arbol de la Noche Triste located
in the Tacuba neighborhood of
modern Mexico City. Lightening
strikes and fires set by vandals
have taken its toll on this
historic symbol of the conquest
of Mexico.
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