Aztec Autumn

numerous warriors of the northern tribes who stole them from Spanish army outposts as they came hither through the Disputed Lands. We now have nearly a hundred of those weapons, and about twice that many men who have become expert at using them. We have also acquired a goodly armory of steel knives and swords.'

'This is all most gratifying to hear,' I said. 'Have you anything not so gratifying to report?'

'Only that we are better supplied with armament than with food. Given a hundred of hundreds of mouths to be fed, well, you can imagine. Our hunters and foragers have by now killed every last animal and bird and plucked every fruit, nut and edible green from all these mountains, and emptied the waters of every last fish. I had to set a limit to their foraging, you see, not let them go too far abroad, lest word of their activity reach the wrong ears. But you may wish to countermand that order, Tenamaxtzin, for we are now reduced to scant rations indeed—roots and tubers and frogs and insects. Such deprivation is of course beneficial for warriors. It makes them lean and hard and eager to reap from the fat lands we will be invading. However, besides the Purempe women now among us, a good number of those runaway slaves who fled here are women and children. I hate to sound like a woman myself, but I do feel sorry for those weaker ones who came trusting that we would care for them. I hope, my lord, that you will give instant order for us all to march from here into more bounteous lands.'

'No,' I said. 'That order I will not give yet, and I will not countermand any of yours, even if we all must live for a time by chewing the leather of our own sandals. And I will tell you why.'

Thereupon, I repeated to Nocheztli everything the Bishop Quiroga had confided to me, and added:

'This, then, is my first order. Send sharp-eyed and fleet-footed men west from here. One is to be posted, well hidden, beside every road, every trail, every deer path that wends northward from Compostela. When Governor Coronado passes with his train, I want a count of his men, his arms, his horses, mules, bearers, packs—everything he is taking with him. We will not attack that train, because the foolish man is doing us a favor immeasurable. When I have the report that he and his fellows have passed, and when I judge they have gone far enough north, then—but not until then—will we move. You concur, Knight Nocheztli?'

'But of course, my lord,' he said, wagging his head in wonderment. 'What astonishingly good fortune for us, and what astonishingly imbecilic behavior on the part of Coronado. He leaves the field wide open for us.'

It was immodest of me, but I could not help saying, 'I flatter myself that I had some small part, a long while ago, in arranging both the good fortune and the imbecility. I sought for years to find the one pregnable gap in the white men's seeming invulnerability. It is greed.'

'That reminds me,' said Nocheztli. 'I almost forgot to mention another astonishing thing. Among those fugitives who came seeking sanctuary with us are two white men.'

'What?' I said, incredulous. 'Spaniards fleeing their own kind? Turning against their own kind?'

Nocheztli shrugged. 'I do not know. They seem very peculiar Spaniards. Even those few of us Azteca who have some words of Spanish cannot understand the Spanish they try to speak to us. But the two of them jabber between themselves with noises like geese honking and hissing.' He paused, then added, 'I have heard that the Spanish are forbidden by their religion to do away with any children born deficient of brain. Perhaps these are two of those defectives, grown to man-size, not knowing what they are doing.'

'If so, we will do away with them rather than feed them. I will have a look at them later. In the meantime, speaking of feeding, may I request a meal—of whatever grubs and thorns may be the fare today?'

Nocheztli grinned. 'We would be as foolish as the white men if we starved and weakened our lord commander. I have some smoked deer parts put by.'

'I thank you. And while I feast on those viands, send me whichever officer you have appointed leader of those Purempe women.'

'They have their own—a woman. They refused to be ordered about by any man.'

I should have known. The leader was that same coyotl-faced woman with the inappropriate name of Butterfly. To forestall her trying to bully me, I congratulated her on being still alive, and on the many successful forays she had led against the whites in New Galicia, and thanked her for having spared the Utopia communities, as I had asked. Butterfly preened at being so fulsomely praised, and looked even more appreciative when I said:

'I want to arm your gallant contingent of women warriors with a special weapon all your own. Also, it is a weapon that can best be made by women, whose fingers are more delicate and nimble and precise than any man's.'

'Only command us, Tenamaxtzin.'

'It is a weapon that I invented myself, though the Spaniards have something similar, and call it a granada.'

I explained how to wrap clay tightly around a packing of polvora, and insert into it a thin poquietl for a wick, and bake the thing to hardness in the sun.

'Then, when we go into battle, my lady Butterfly, have each of your women go smoking a poquietl herself and carrying several of those granadas. Whenever opportunity offers, ignite the wick of a granada and throw it at the enemy or—better yet—inside their houses or guard posts or fortresses. You will see some spectacular damage done.'

'It sounds delightful, my lord. We will get to work on them straightaway.'

When I had done gnawing on the deer meat, drinking some octli and smoking a poquietl myself, I called for those two 'peculiar' white men to be brought before me.

Well, they turned out to be neither Spanish nor defective, though it took me a confusing while to figure that out. One of the men was considerably older than myself, the other a little younger. Both were as white and hairy as Spaniards, but, like all the other slaves now in our encampment, barefooted and dressed in tatters. They had evidently, somehow, been made aware that I was chief of all the people assembled here, so they approached me respectfully. As Nocheztli had said, they spoke very imperfect Spanish, but we managed mostly to understand each other. However, they sprinkled their converse with words that I can hope only to approximate here, for they did sound like goose talk.

I introduced myself in Spanish simple enough for even a defective to comprehend. 'I am called by you Spanish folk Juan Britanico. What are you—?'

But the older one interrupted, 'John British?!' and both of them stared at me, wide-eyed, then quacked excitedly at one another. I could catch only repetitions of that word British.

'Please,' I said, 'speak Spanish, if you can.'

So they did, mostly, from then on. But in my recounting of that conversation, I am making them sound much more fluent than they were, and also I am doing my best to pronounce the frequent goose words.

'Your pardon, John British,' said the elder of the two. 'I was saying to Miles here that, by the blood, we are finally having a run of—a run of what we call luck—a run of buena suerte. You must be a castaway, same as us. But Miles said, and so do I—begod, Cap'n, you do not appear to be British.'

'Whatever that is, I am not,' I said. 'I am Aztecatl—you would say indio—and my name is properly Teotl- Tenamaxtli.' Both men looked at me with faces as blank as only white faces can be. 'None but the Spanish call me by the Christian name of Juan Britanico.'

Some more honking and hissing went on between them, the word Christian occurring several times. The elder turned again to me.

'At least you are a Christian indio, then, Cap'n. But would you be one of these damned crossback Papists? Or would you be good Bishop's-Book Church of England?'

'I am not any kind of Christian!' I snapped. 'And I am asking the questions here. Who are you?'

He told me, and it was my turn to look blank. The names could as well have been Yaki as goose. They certainly were not Spanish.

'Here,' he said. 'I can write.' He looked about for a sharp stone, while saying, 'I am a ship's sea-artist, I am. What the Spaniards call a navegador. Miles is only fo'c'sle, and ignorant.' With the stone, he scratched in the earth at my feet, which is why I can accurately render the names here, JOB HORTOP—'That is me'—and MILES PHILIPS—'That is him.'

He had mentioned ships and sea, so I asked, 'Are you in the sea service of King Carlos?'