172 UNIT 2 COLONIAL MESOAMERICA
Figure 4.7 The smallpox epidemic. A woman, possibly a doctor, attempts to comfort a sick
man; other sufferers lie helpless on their sleeping-mats. Florentine Codex,Book 12, 53v.down by the gold they had looted from Motecuhzoma’s treasury. What was left of
Cortés’s troops made their way back to the safety of Tlaxcala.
In the following months, Cortés strengthened his position east of the Basin of
Mexico by carrying out raids and making new allies. Several hundred Spanish rein-
forcements arrived from Jamaica and Cuba, and a garrison founded along the road
to Veracruz established control over routes to the south. By late December, Cortés
and his troops were making the final preparations for an assault on Tenochtitlan.
By now Cortés had a force of over 700 Spaniards and an estimated 75,000 Tlaxcalan
allies as well as eighty-six horses and fifteen cannon.
In the meantime, the people of Tenochtitlan may have experienced their first en-
counter with an Old World infectious disease: smallpox (Figure 4.7). It is not en-
tirely certain that this epidemic struck in 1520. The accounts of Cortés and other
conquistadors do not mention it; it is possible that the epidemic did not occur until
after Spanish control was established the following year. However, the principal na-Florence, The Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Sahagun, 1979. Reproduced with permission
of MiBACT. Further reproduction by any means is prihibited.