His biographer admits to a certain extent the truth of the invectives, but
eager to please his Spanish masters he seeks rather to extol the self-sacrifice
and loyalty of his kinsman. He claims that with this reënforcement the
Tezcucan auxiliaries reached the improbable number of 250,000 men, of whom
5000 wounded were now sent home. ‘Next to God, Cortés owed to Tezcucan
aid the conquest and the planting of the faith.’ He further assumes that Ixtlilxochitl
was already king, and had been with Cortés since the fleet set sail,
while his brother Ahuaxpictzoctzin remained at Tezcuco to provide supplies.
Hor. Crueldades, 21-33. He contradicts himself on several points in his Relaciones,
314 et seq. Duran also, as may be expected from a compiler of
native records, extols the hero, ‘à quien dió una espada dorada que Don Hernando
Cortes traia y una rodela.’ Hist. Ind., MS., ii. 493. With Ixtlilxochitl
came half a dozen out of his hundred brothers. Gomara, Hist. Mex., 198;
Chimalpain, Hist. Conq., ii. 55. Torquemada, i. 548, sends Cohuanacoch as
general of the forces, while Clavigero allows King Fernando Ixtlilxochitl to
send his brother Cárlos Ixtlilxochitl. Storia Mess., iii. 202. He is evidently
confused with respect to the surname.