On the night of May 28-29, 1520, Spanish conquistadors under Hernan Cortes attacked and defeated a much larger force of conquistadors under Panfilo de Narvaez at the native town of Cempoala on the Gulf Coast of present-day Mexico. Narvaez had been sent by Diego Velazquez, governor of Cuba, to rein in Cortes and his audacious conquest of the Aztec Empire. The battle was fierce but short, with only a handful of casualties on both sides.


After the battle, most of the men serving under the defeated Narváez joined Cortes, giving him a much larger and better-equipped army. 

Cortes, Velazquez and Narvaez

In early 1519, Hernan Cortes organized a large expedition from the Spanish Caribbean with the goal of exploring and conquering the mainland. At first, he had the blessing of Diego Velazquez, governor of Cuba, but Velazquez soon reconsidered and sent orders to Cortes to stand down. Knowing the order was coming but not having actually received it, Cortes set out quickly. Cortes landed on the mainland and began his ruthless conquest of the Aztec Empire, slowly fighting his way inland, forging alliances with enemies of the Aztec Empire as he did so. By November of 1519, he was in Tenochtitlan and held Emperor Montezuma captive.

Meanwhile, Velazquez began hearing reliable rumors about the vast wealth Cortes and his men were taking from Mexico. He selected Narvaez, by then a veteran conquistador and a former comrade-in-arms of Cortes, to go with a large force of conquistadors and take command of the expedition from Cortes.

On March 5, 1520, Narváez set out with an imposing force: nineteen ships carrying about 800 foot soldiers, 80 harquebusiers, 120 crossbowmen, 80 cavalrymen and their horses and twenty cannons. Even though one of the ships sank en route (with the loss of all aboard) it was a most impressive force and far larger than the one commanded by Cortes.

Communications Between Cortes, Narvaez and Montezuma

Narvaez landed his men near present-day Veracruz in April and it didn't take Cortes long to figure out that Velazquez had sent an expedition to rein him in. Cortes and Narvaez began a complicated correspondence with one another in which they communicated through messengers but did not communicate directly. Narvaez began by sending three men - Alfonso de Vergara, Father Antonio Ruiz de Guevara and Antonio de Amaya - to visit Cortes' base of operations on the coast, then captained by Gonzalo de Sandoval.

After listening to the three man, Sandoval had them tied up and sent them to Cortes in Tenochtitlan. There, Cortes freed the men, apologized for Sandoval's actions, and impressed them with the wonders of the Aztec Empire. He also (and more importantly) bribed them liberally. Soon, Cortes had won over all three, and he sent them back with tales of the magnificence and wealth of the Aztecs and further bribes to be distributed to Narvaez' more corruptible captains.

Meanwhile, Emperor Montezuma, himself a semi-captive under Cortes, heard about Narvaez and entered into direct, clandestine communication with the conquistador. Narvaez promised to free him and remove the Spanish from Tenochtitlan, and Montezuma surreptitiously ordered his vassals on the coast to aid Narvaez.

Cortes Marches to the Coast

After listening to Narvaez' agents and his own spies, Cortes concluded that his old comrade could not be bought off: he would have to fight Narváez. Although his hold on Tenochtitlan was tenuous, he decided to march back to the coast to face Narvaez. Cortes left his second-in-command, Pedro de Alvarado, in charge in Tenochtitlan with about 120 men and mustered the rest of his troops for the upcoming battle.

Meanwhile, the two camps were still communicating, with several delegations going back and forth. Many of these men knew each other personally from their time together in Cuba: there was even a soldier in Cortes' force who had a brother fighting with Narvaez. Narvaez tried to get Cortes' captains to turn on him by claiming he acted with Velazquez' authority (and therefore that of the King of Spain), while Cortes shamelessly bribed as many of Narvaez' men as he could. Several men freely defected from one side to the other, as old friends of Narvaez went to join him, while some of Narvaez' force, hearing of Cortes' successes, decided to join him.  In the end, Cortes had just over 400 men to Narvaez' 1000 or so.

The Battle of Cempoala

Although Narvaez had been setting up a settlement since his arrival, which he named San Salvador, he did not feel it was defensible. He therefore occupied the nearby native town of Cempoala, which had some walls and stone temples which made it much better base camp. Hearing Cortes was near, Narvaez drew up his men in battle formation on May 28, 1520, in a field near Cempoala, but Cortes did not take the bait and Narvaez and his men spent a day standing around in the rain.

That night, Cortes planned his attack. Because of the nearly constant coming and going of delegations, he had a fair idea of Narvaez' defensive preparations at Cempoala. Cortes divided his forces among his captains as follows:

• One hundred men under Diego de Ordaz, tasked with capturing Gerónimo Martinez de Salvatierra, one of Narvaez' officers and quartermaster of the expedition
• Diego Pizarro was given sixty men and told to seize or somehow neutralize the artillery (Cortes had already paid off one of Narvaez' artillerymen but apparently wanted to make sure his men would not face cannon fire)
• Gonzalo de Sandoval was given eighty men and told to capture or kill Narvaez himself
• Juan Velazquez de Leon (a relative of Diego de Velazquez but loyal to Cortes) was given eighty men and the job of capturing his kinsman, Diego de Velazquez the Younger, nephew of the Governor and an important officer of the expedition
• Cortes himself took command of the remaining men (approximately fifty); he would go wherever he was needed to reinforce the others

Cortes attacked late at night on the night of May 28-29 (the exact date is the subject of some speculation by historians: this is the date given by Cortes). Although a sentry raised the alarm when Cortes' men attacked, the Narvaez camp was slow in reacting and Sandoval and his men were able to get to the top of the temple where Narvaez himself was camped relatively quickly. Narvaez fought fiercely, but he was blinded in one eye by one of Cortes' men and later was partially burned when one of the structures on top of the temple was set afire. Blinded and burned, Narvaez was swiftly captured and his men (many of whom were sympathetic to Cortes anyway) surrendered. The whole battle took only a couple of hours and was over by dawn. Fewer than twenty Spaniards total were killed in the fighting.

Aftermath of the Battle of Cempoala

Narvaez' men joined Cortes' army almost immediately, because by then they had all heard of the vast riches being taken from the Aztec Empire. Overnight, Cortes had roughly tripled the size of his army of ruthless conquistadors, although Narvaez' men were not nearly as skilled as his own veterans. These new men had weapons and horses, which were just as valuable to Cortes. It would also take Cortes some time to weed out the Velazquez loyalists sprinkled in among Narvaez' men.

Narvaez spent the next two years as a prisoner of Cortes in Veracruz before being released once Cortes' hold on New Spain was secure. Narvaez, who was surely the most unlucky of the conquistadors, would later mount a disastrous expedition to Florida which resulted in the near-total loss of all the men involved.

With the defeat of Narvaez, Cortes' hold on Mexico was secure - at least from the Spanish in the Caribbean. The reinforcements he acquired from Narvaez were just in time for Cortes, because he had a rebellion on his hands back in Tenochtitlan, where his captain Pedro de Alvarado had just carried out the infamous "Temple Massacre" in which hundreds of Aztec nobles were slaughtered.

Sources:

Diaz del Castillo, Bernal. The Conquest of New Spain. Trans., ed. J.M. Cohen. 1576. London, Penguin Books, 1963. Print.

Levy, Buddy. Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma and the Last Stand of the Aztecs. New York: Bantam, 2008.

Thomas, Hugh. Conquest: Montezuma, Cortes and the Fall of Old Mexico. New York: Touchstone, 1993.