 Book 3, Chapter 8 of the History of the Conquest of Mexico. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. History of the Conquest of Mexico by William H. Prescott. Book 3, Chapter 8. March resumed, Valley of Mexico. Impression on the Spaniards, Conduct of Montezuma. They descend into the valley. Everything being now restored to quiet in Cholula, the Allied Army of Spaniards and Tlescalans set forward in high spirits and resumed the march on Mexico. The road lay through the beautiful savannas and luxuriant plantations that spread out for several leagues in every direction. On the march they were met occasionally by embassies from the neighboring places, anxious to claim the protection of the white men and to propitiate them by gifts especially of gold for which their appetite was generally known throughout the country. Some of these places were allies of the Tlescalans and all showed much discontent with the oppressive rule of Montezuma. The natives cautioned the Spaniards against putting themselves in his power by entering his capital and they stated as evidence of his hostile disposition that he had caused the direct road to it to be blocked up that the strangers might be compelled to choose another which from its narrow passes and strong positions would enable him to take them at great disadvantage. The information was not lost on Cortes who kept a strict eye on the movements of the Mexican envoys and redoubled his own precautions against surprise. Cheerful and active, he was ever where his presence was needed sometimes in the van, at others in the rear, encouraging the weak, stimulating the sluggish and striving to kindle in the breasts of others the same courageous spirit which glowed in his own. At night he never omitted to go the rounds to see that every man was at his post. On one occasion his vigilance had well nigh proved fatal to him. He approached so near a sentinel that the man unable to distinguish his person in the dark leveled his crossbow at him when fortunately an exclamation of the general who gave the watchword of the night arrested a movement which might else have brought the campaign to a close and given a respite for some time longer to the empire of Montezuma. The army came at length to the place mentioned by the friendly Indians where the road forked and one arm of it was found as they had foretold obstructed with large trunks of trees and huge stones which had been strewn across it. Cortes inquired the meaning of this from the Mexican ambassadors. They said it was done by the emperor's orders to prevent their taking a route which, after some distance, they would find nearly impracticable for the cavalry. They acknowledged, however, that this was the most direct road and Cortes declaring that this was enough to decide him in favour of it as the Spaniards made no account of obstacles commanded the rubbish to be cleared away. The event left little doubt in the general's mind of the meditated treachery of the Mexicans but he was too politic to betray his suspicions. They were now leaving the pleasant champagne country as the road wound up the bold Sierra which separates the great plateaus of Mexico and Puebla. The air, as they ascended, became keen and piercing and the blasts, sweeping down the frozen sides of the mountains, made the soldiers shiver in their thick harness of cotton and benumbed the limbs of both men and horses. They were passing between two of the highest mountains on the North American continent, Popocatepitol, the hill that smokes, and Iztasichuatl, or White Woman, a name suggested doubtless by the bright robe of snow spread over its broad and broken surface. A purel superstition of the Indians regarded these celebrated mountains as gods and Iztasichuatl as the wife of her more formidable neighbour. A tradition of a higher character described the northern volcano as the abode of the departed spirits of wicked rulers whose fiery agonies in their prison-house caused the fearful bellowings and convulsions in times of eruption. The army held on its march through the intricate gorges of the Sierra. The route was nearly the same as that pursued at the present day by the courier from the capital to Puebla by the way of Mechameca. It was not that usually taken by travelers from Vera Cruz who followed the more circuitous road round the northern base of Iztasichuatl, as less fatiguing than the other, though inferior in picturesque scenery and romantic points of view. The icy winds that now swept down the sides of the mountains brought with them a tempest of aeroy sleet and snow from which the Christians suffered even more than the Tulascalans reared from infancy among the wild solitudes of their own native hills. As night came on, their sufferings would have been intolerable, but they luckily found a shelter in the commodious stone buildings which the Mexican government had placed at stated intervals along the roads for the accommodation of the traveller and their own couriers. The troops, refreshed by a night's rest, succeeded early on the following day in gaining the crest of the Sierra of Ahualco which stretches like a curtain between the two great mountains on the north and south. Their progress was now comparatively easy and they marched forward with a buoyant step as they felt they were treading the soil of Montezuma. They had not advanced far when, turning in angle of the Sierra, they suddenly came upon a view which more than compensated the toils of the preceding day. It was that of the Valley of Mexico, or Tenochtitlan, as more commonly called by the natives, which, with its picturesque assemblage of water, woodland and cultivated plains, its shining cities and shadowy hills were spread out like some gay and gorgeous panorama before them. In the highly rarefied atmosphere of these upper regions, even remote objects have a brilliancy of coloring and distinctness of outline which seem to annihilate distance. Stretching far away at their feet were seen noble forests of oak, sycamore and cedar and beyond yellow fields of maize and the towering mague intermingled with orchards and blooming gardens. For flowers in such demand for their religious festivals were even more abundant in this populous valley than in other parts of Anahuac. In the center of the Great Basin were beheld the lakes, occupying then a much larger portion of its surface than at present. Their borders thickly studded with towns and hamlets and in the midst, like some Indian emperors with their coronal of pearls, the fair city of Mexico with her white towers and pyramidal temples reposing, as it were, on the bosom of the waters, the far-famed Venice of the Aztecs. High over all rose the royal hill of Chapultepec, the residence of the Mexican monarchs, crowned with the same grove of gigantic cypresses which at this day fling their broad shadows over the land. In the distance beyond the blue waters of the lake and nearly screened by intervening foliage was seen a shining speck, the rival capital of Tescuco, and, still further on, the dark belt of porphyry girding the valley around like a rich setting which nature had devised for the fairest of her jewels. Such was the beautiful vision which broke on the eyes of the conquerors. And even now, when so sad a change has come over the scene, when the stately forests have been laid low the soil, unsheltered from the fierce radiance of a tropical sun, is in many places abandoned to sterility when the waters have retired, leaving a broad and ghastly margin white with the incrustation of salts while the cities and hamlets on their borders have molded into ruins, even now that desolation broods over the landscape so indestructible are the lines of beauty which nature has traced on its features that no traveler, however cold, can gaze on them with any other emotions than those of astonishment and rapture. What, then, must have been the emotions of the Spaniards when, after working their toil some way into the upper air, the cloudy tabernacle parted before their eyes and they beheld these fairest scenes in all their pristine magnificence and beauty. It was like the spectacle which greeted the eyes of Moses from the summit of Pisga and, in the warm glow of their feelings, they cried out, it is the promised land. But these feelings of admiration were soon followed by others of a very different complexion. As they saw in all this the evidences of a civilization and power far superior to anything they had yet encountered, the more timid, disheartened by the prospect, shrunk from a contest so unequal and demanded, as they had done on some former occasions, to be led back again to Vera Cruz. Such was not the effect produced on the sanguine spirit of the general. His avarice was sharpened by the display of the dazzling spoil at his feet, and, if he felt a natural anxiety at the formidable odds, his confidence was renewed as he gazed on the lines of his veterans, whose weather-beaten visages and battered armor told of battles won and difficulties surmounted, while his bold barbarians, with appetites wedded by the view of their enemy's country, seemed like eagles on the mountains ready to pounce upon their prey. By argument in treaty and menace, he endeavored to restore the faltering courage of the leaders, urging them not to think of retreat now that they had reached the goal for which they had panted, and the golden gates were open to receive them. In these efforts he was well seconded by the brave Cavaliers, who held honor as dear to them as fortune, until the dullest spirits caught somewhat of the enthusiasm of their leaders, and the general had the satisfaction to see his hesitating columns with their usual buoyant step once more on their march down the slopes of the Sierra. Every step of their progress, the woods became thinner, patches of cultivated land more frequent, and hamlets were seen in the green and sheltered nooks, the inhabitants of which, coming out to meet them, gave the troops a kind reception. Everywhere they heard complaints of Montezuma, especially of the unfeeling manner in which he carried off their young men to recruit his armies and their maidens for his harem. These symptoms of discontent were noticed with satisfaction by Cortez, who saw that Montezuma's mountain throne, as it was called, was indeed seated on a volcano, with the elements of combustion so active within that it seemed as if any hour might witness an explosion. He encouraged the disaffected natives to rely on his protection, as he had come to redress their wrongs. He took advantage, moreover, of their favorable dispositions to scatter among them such gleams of spiritual light as time in the preaching of Father Olmedo could afford. He advanced by easy stages, somewhat retarded by the crowd of curious inhabitants gathered on the highways to see the strangers, and halting at every spot of interest or importance. On the road he was met by another embassy from the capital. It consisted of several Aztec lords, freighted as usual with a rich lage of gold and robes of delicate furs and feathers. The message of the emperor was couched in the same deprecatory terms as before. He even condescended to bribe the return of the Spaniards by promising in that event four loads of gold to the general and one to each of the captains with a yearly tribute to their sovereign. So effectually had the lofty and naturally courageous spirit of the barbarian monarch been subdued by the influence of superstition. But the man whom the hostile array of armies could not daunt was not to be turned from his purpose by a woman's prayers. He received the embassy with his usual courtesy, considering as before, that he could not answer it to his own sovereign if he were now to return without visiting the emperor in his capital. It would be much easier to arrange matters by a personal interview than by distant negotiation. The Spaniards came in the spirit of peace. Montezuma would so find it, but should their presence prove burdensome to him, it would be easy for them to relieve him of it. The Aztec monarch, meanwhile, was a prey to the most dismal apprehensions. It was intended that the embassy above noticed should reach the Spaniards before they crossed the mountains. When he learned that this was accomplished and that the dread strangers were on their march across the valley, the very threshold of his capital, the last spark of hope died away in his bosom. Like one who suddenly finds himself on the brink of some dark and yawning gulf, he was too much bewildered to be able to rally his thoughts or even to comprehend his situation. He was the victim of an absolute destiny against which no foresight or precautions could have availed. It was as if the strange beings who had thus invaded his shores had dropped from some distant planet so different were they from all he had ever seen in appearance and manners. So superior, though a mere handful in numbers, to the banded nations of Aniwok in strength and science and all the fearful accompaniments of war. They were now in the valley, the huge mountain screen which nature had so kindly drawn around it for its defense had been overleaved. The golden visions of security and repose in which he had so long indulged, the lordly sway descended from his ancestors, his broad imperial domain were all to pass away. It seemed like some terrible dream from which he was now alas to awake to a still more terrible reality. In a paroxym of despair he shut himself up in his palace, refused food and sought relief in prayer and in sacrifice. But the oracles were dumb. He then adopted the more sensible expedient of calling a council of his principal and oldest nobles. Here was the same division of opinion which had before prevailed. Khakama, the young king of Tescucco, his nephew, counseled him to receive the Spaniards courteously as ambassadors, so styled by themselves, of a foreign prince. Kuidlahua, Montezuma's more war-like brother, urged him to muster his forces on the instant and drive back the invaders from his capital or die in his defense. But the monarch found it difficult to rally his spirits for this final struggle. With downcast eye and dejected mean he exclaimed, Of what avail is resistance when the gods have declared themselves against us? Yet I mourn most for the old and infirm, the women and children, too feeble to fight or to fly. For myself and the brave men around me we must bear our breasts to the storm and meet it as we may. These are the sorrowful and sympathetic tones in which the Aztec emperor is said to have uttered the bitterness of his grief. He would have acted a more glorious part if he had put his capital in a posture of defense and prepared, like the last of the Palaeology, to bury himself under its ruins. He straight away prepared to send a last embassy to the Spaniards with his nephew, the Lord of Tescucco, at its head to welcome them to Mexico. The Christian army, meanwhile, had advanced as far as Amacamecan, a well-built town of several thousand inhabitants. They were kindly received by the Cacique, lodged in large, commodious stone buildings, and at their departure presented, among other things, with gold to the amount of three thousand castellanos. Having halted there a couple of days, they descended among flourishing plantations of maize and of mague, the latter of which might be called the Aztec vineyards, towards the lake of Chalco. Their first resting place was Ahotzinco, a town of considerable size, with a great part of it then standing on piles in the water. It was the first specimen which the Spaniards had seen of this maritime architecture. The canals, which intersected the city instead of streets, presented an animated scene from the number of barks which glided up and down, freighted with provisions and other articles for the inhabitants. The Spaniards were particularly struck with the style and commodious structure of the houses, built chiefly of stone, and with the general aspect of wealth and even elegance which prevailed there. Though received with the greatest show of hospitality, Cortes found some occasion for distrust in the eagerness manifested by the people to see and approach the Spaniards. Not content with gazing at them in the roads, some even made their way stealthily into their quarters, and fifteen or twenty unhappy Indians were shot down by the sentinels as spies. Yet there appears, as well as we can judge at this distance of time, to have been no real ground for such suspicion. The undisguised jealousy of the court and the cautions he had received from his allies, while they very properly put the general on his guard, seemed to have given an unnatural acuteness at least in the present instance to his perceptions of danger. Early on the following morning, as the army was preparing to leave the place, a courier came, requesting the general to postpone his departure till after the arrival of the king of Tescuco, who was advancing to meet him. It was not long before he appeared, born in a palanquin or litter, richly decorated with plates of gold and precious stones, having pillars curiously wrought, supporting a canopy of green plumes, a favourite colour with the Aztec princes. He was accompanied by a numerous suite of nobles and inferior attendants. As he came into the presence of Cortes, the lord of Tescuco descended from his palanquin, and the obsequious officers swept the ground before him as he advanced. He appeared to be a young man of about twenty-five years of age, with a comely presence, erect and stately in his deportment. He made the Mexican salutation usually addressed to persons of high rank, touching the earth with his right hand and raising it to his head. Cortes embraced him as he rose when the young prince informed him that he came as the representative of Montezuma to bid the Spaniards welcome to his capital. He represented the general with three pearls of uncommon size and luster. Cortes, in return, threw over Kakama's neck a chain of cut glass, which, where glass was as rare as diamonds, might be admitted to have a value as real as the latter. After this interchange of courtesies and the most friendly and respectful assurances on the part of Cortes, the Indian Prince withdrew, leaving the Spaniards strongly impressed with the superiority of his state and bearing over anything hitherto seen in the country. Resuming its march, the army kept along the southern borders of the Lake of Chalco overshadowed at that time by noble woods and by orchards glowing with autumnal fruits of unknown names but rich and tempting hues. More frequently it passed through cultivated fields waving with the yellow harvest and irrigated by canals introduced from the neighboring lake, the hole showing a careful and economical husbandry essential to the maintenance of the populated population. Leaving the main land, the Spaniards came on the Great Dyke or Cosway which stretches some four or five miles in length and defides Lake Chalco from Sochi-Milko on the west. It was a lance in breath in the narrowest part and in some places wide enough for eight horsemen to ride a breast. It was a solid structure of stone and lime running directly through the lake and struck the Spaniards as one of the most remarkable works which they had seen in the country. As they passed along they beheld the gay spectacle of multitudes of Indians darting up and down in their light co-rogues eager to catch a glimpse of the strangers or bearing the products of the country to the neighboring cities. They were amazed also by the sight of the Chinampas or floating gardens those wandering islands of Verdeur to which we shall have occasion to return hereafter teeming with flowers and vegetables and moving like rafts over the waters. All around the margin and occasionally far in the lake they beheld little towns and villages which half concealed by the foliage and gathered in white clusters around the shore looked in the distance like companies of wild swans riding quietly on the waves. A scene so new and wonderful filled their rude hearts with amazement. It seems like enchantment and they could find nothing to compare it with but the magical pictures in the Amadas de Gaula. Few pictures indeed in that or any other legend of chivalry could surpass the realities of their own experience. The life of the adventurer in the new world was romance put into action. What wonder then if the Spaniard of that day feeding his imagination with dreams of enchantment at home and with its realities abroad should have displayed a Quixotec enthusiasm a romantic exaltation of character not to be comprehended by the colder spirits of other lands. Midway across the lake the army halted at the town of Mahwak a place of moderate size but distinguished by the beauty of the buildings the most beautiful according to Cortes that he had get seen in the country. After taking some refreshment at this place they continued their march along the dike. Though broader in this northern section the troops found themselves much embarrassed by the throng of Indians who, not content with gazing on them from the boats, climbed up the causeway and lined the sides of the roads. The general, afraid that his rinks disordered and that too great a familiarity might diminish a salutary awe in the natives was obliged to resort not merely to command but menace to clear a passage. He now found as he advanced a considerable change in the feelings shown towards the government. He heard only of the pomp and magnificence nothing of the oppressions of Montezuma. Contrary to the usual fact it seemed that the respect for the court was greatest in its immediate neighborhood. From the causeway the army descended on that narrow point of land which divides the waters of the Chalco from the Tescucan lake but which in those days was overflowed for many a mile now laid bare. Traversing this peninsula they entered the royal residence of Itzda Palapan, a place containing 12 or 15,000 houses according to Cortez. It was governed by Cuit Lajua, the emperor's brother, who, to do greater honor to the general, had invited the lords of some neighboring cities to the royal house of Mexico like himself to be present at the interview. This was conducted with much ceremony and after the usual presence of gold and delicate stuffs a collation was served to the Spaniards in one of the great halls of the palace. The excellence of the architecture here also excited the admiration of the general, who does not hesitate in the glow of his enthusiasm to pronounce some of the buildings equal to the best in Spain. They were of stone and the spacious elements had roofs of odorous cedar wood, while the walls were tapestryed with fine cottons stained with brilliant colors. But the pride of Itzda Palapan, on which its lord had freely lavished his care and his revenues, was at celebrated gardens. They covered an immense tract of land, were laid out in regular squares and the paths intersecting them were bordered with trellises supporting creepers and aromatic shrubs that loaded the air with their perfumes. The gardens were stocked with fruit trees imported from distant places and with the gaudy family of flowers which belonged to the Mexican flora scientifically arranged and growing luxuriant in the equable temperature of the table land. The natural dryness of the atmosphere was counteracted by means of aqueducts and canals that carried water into all parts of the grounds. In one quarter was an aviary filled with numerous kinds of birds remarkable in this region both for brilliancy of plumage and of song. The gardens were intersected by a canal communicating with the lake of Tescuco and of sufficient size for barges to enter from the ladder. But the most elaborate piece of work was a huge reservoir of stone filled to a considerable height with water well supplied with different sorts of fish. This basin was 1600 paces in circumference and was surrounded by a walk made also of stone wide enough for four persons to go abreast. The sides were curiously sculptured and a flight of steps led to the water below which fed the aqueducts above noticed or collected into fountains diffused a perpetual moisture. Such are the accounts transmitted of these celebrated gardens at a period when similar horticultural establishments were unknown in Europe and we might well doubt their existence in this semi-civilized land were it not a matter of such notoriety at the time and so explicitly attested by the invaders. The generation had scarcely passed after the conquest before a sad change came over these scenes so beautiful. The town itself was deserted and the shore of the lake was strewed with the wreck of buildings which once were its ornament and its glory. The gardens shared the fate of the city. The retreating waters withdrew the means of nourishment converting the flourishing plains into a fowl and unsightly morass the haunt of loathsome reptiles and the waterfowl built her nest in what had once the palaces of princes. In the city of Iztapalapan Cortes took up his quarters for the night. We may imagine what a crowd of ideas must have pressed on the mind of the conqueror as surrounded by these evidences of civilization he prepared with his hand full of followers to enter the capital of a monarch who, as he had abundant reason to know, regarded him with distrust and aversion. This capital was now but a few miles distant distinctly visible from Iztapalapan and as its long lines of glittering edifices struck by the rays of the evening sun trembled on the dark blue waters of the lake he looked like a thing of fairy creation rather than the work of mortal hands. Into this city of enchantment Cortes prepared to make his entry on the following morning. End of Book 3, Chapter 8 Book 3, Chapter 9 of the History of the Conquest of Mexico This is a LibriVox recording. While LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org History of the Conquest of Mexico by William H. Prescott Book 3, Chapter 9 Invirons of Mexico, interview with Montezuma, entrance into the capital, hospitable reception visit to the emperor. With the first faint streak of dawn the Spanish general was up mustering his followers. He gathered with beating hearts under their respective banners as the trumpets set forth its spirit-stirring sounds across water and woodland till they died away in distant echoes among the mountains. The sacred flames on the alters of numberless teocollies dimly seen through the grey mists of mourning indicated the sight of the capital till temple, tower and palace were fully revealed in the glorious illumination which the sun as he rose above the eastern barrier poured over the beautiful valley. It was the 8th of November, a conspicuous day in history as that on which the Europeans first set foot in the capital of the western world. Cortez, with his little body of horse, formed a sort of advanced guard to the army. Then came the Spanish infantry who in a summer campaign had acquired the discipline and the weather-beaten aspect of veterans. The baggage occupied the center and the rear was closed by the dark files of teocollen warriors. The whole number must have fallen short of 7,000, of which less than 400 were Spaniards. For a short distance, the army kept along the narrow tongue of land that divides the tescucon from the teocollen waters when it entered the great dike which, with the exception of an angle near the commencement, stretches in a perfectly straight line across the salt floods of Tescuco to the gates of the capital. It was the same causeway, or rather the basis of that which still forms the great southern city of Mexico. The Spaniards had occasion more than ever to admire the mechanical science of the Aztecs in the geometrical precision with which the work was executed as well as the solidity of its construction. It was composed of huge stones well laid in cement and wide enough throughout its whole extent for ten horsemen to ride abreast. They saw, as they passed along, several large towns resting on piles and reaching far into the water, a kind of architecture which found great favor with the Aztecs being an imitation of that of their metropolis. The busy population obtained a good substance from the manufacture of salt which they extracted from the waters of the great lake. The duties on the traffic were a considerable source of revenue to the crown. Everywhere the conquerors beheld the evidence of a crowded and thriving population exceeding all they had yet seen. The temples and principal buildings of the cities were covered with a hard white stucco which glistened like enamel in the level beams of the morning. The margin of the great basin was more thickly gemmed than that of Chalco with towns and hamlets. The water was darkened by swarms of canoes filled with Indians who clambered up the sides of the causeway and gazed with curious astonishment on the strangers. And here also they beheld those fairy islands of flowers overshadowed occasionally by trees of considerable size, rising and falling with the undilation of the billows. At the distance of half a league from the capital they encountered a solid work or curtain of stone which traversed the dike. It was 12 feet high, was strengthened by towers at the extremities, and in the center was a battle-minted gateway which opened a passage to the troops. It was called the Fort of Choloc and became memorable in aftertimes as the position occupied by Cortes in the famous Siege of Mexico. Here they were met by several captured Aztec chiefs who came out to announce the approach of Montezuma and to welcome the Spaniards to his capital. They were dressed in the fanciful gala costume of the country with a mextatl or cotton sash around their loins and a broad mantle of the same material or of the brilliant feather embroidery flowing gracefully down their shoulders. On their necks and arms they displayed collars and bracelets of turquoise mosaic with which delicate plumage was curiously mingled while their ears underlips and occasionally their noses were garnished with pendants formed of precious stones or crescents of fine gold. As each casique made the usual formal salutation of the country separately to the general, the tedious ceremony delayed the march more than an hour. After this the army experienced no further interruption till it reached a bridge near the gates of the city. It was built of wood since replaced by one of stone and was thrown across an opening of the dike which furnished an outlet to the waters when agitated by the winds or swollen by a sudden influx in the rainy season. It was a drawbridge and the Spaniards as they crossed it felt how truly they were committing themselves to the mercy of Montezuma who by thus cutting off their communications with the country might hold them prisoners in his capital. In the midst of these unpleasant reflections they beheld the glittering retinue of the emperor emerging from the great street of the city. Amidst a crowd of Indian nobles preceded by three officers of state bearing golden wands they saw the royal palanquin blazing with furnished gold. He was born on the shoulders of nobles and over it a canopy of gaudy featherwork powdered with jewels infringed with silver was supported by four attendants of the same rank. They were barefooted and walked with a slow measured pace and with eyes bent on the ground. At an convenient distance it halted and Montezuma descending from his litter came forward leaning on the arms of the lords of Tescucco and Iztapalapan his nephew and brother both of whom as we have seen had already been made known to the Spaniards. As the monarch advanced under the canopy the obesqueous attendants strewed the ground with cotton tapestry that his imperial feet might not be contaminated by the rude soil. His subjects of high and low degree who lined the streets of the highway bent forward with their eyes fastened on the ground as he passed and some of the humbler class prostrated themselves before him. Such was the homage paid to the Indian despot showing that the slavish forms of oriental adulation were to be found among the rude inhabitants of the western world. Montezuma wore the girdle and ample square cloak til matli of his nation. It was made of the finest cotton with the embroidered ends gathered in a knot around his neck. Feet were defended by sandals having soles of gold on the leathern throngs which bound them to his ankles were embossed with the same metal. Both the cloak and the sandals were sprinkled with curls and precious stones among which the emerald and the chalchi wietel a green stone of higher estimation than any other among the Aztecs were conspicuous. On his head he wore no other ornament than a panache of plumes of the royal green which floated down his back the badge of military rather than of regal rank. He was at this time about 40 years of age. His person was tall and thin but not ill-made. His hair which was black and straight was not very long. To wear it short was considered unbecoming persons of rank. His beard was thin, his complexion somewhat paler than is often found in his dusky or rather copper-colored race. His features, though serious in their expression, did not wear the look of melancholy, indeed of rejection which characterizes his portrait and which may well have settled on them at a later period. He moved with dignity and his whole demeanor tempered by an expression of benignity not to have been anticipated from the reports circulated of his character was worthy of a great prince such as the portrait left to us of the celebrated Indian emperor in this first interview with the white men. The army halted as he drew near Cortes dismounting through his head to a page and, supported by a few of the principal Cavaliers, advanced to meet him. The interview must have been one of uncommon interest to both. In Montezuma Cortes beheld the lord of the broad realms he had traversed whose magnificence and power had been the burden of every tongue. In the Spaniard, on the other hand, the Aztec prince saw the strange being whose history seemed to be so mysteriously connected with his own, the predicted one of his oracles as something more than human. But, whatever may have been the monarch's feelings, he so far suppressed them as to receive his guest with princely courtesy and to express his satisfaction at personally seeing him in his capital. Cortes responded by the most profound expressions of respect while he made ample acknowledgments for the substantial proofs which the emperor had given the Spaniards of his munificence. He then hung round Montezuma's neck a sparkling chain of colored crystal with a movement as if to embrace him when he was restrained by the two Aztec lords, shocked at the menace profanation of the sacred person of their master. After the interchange of these civilities, Montezuma appointed his brother to conduct the Spaniards to their residence in the capital and again entering his litter was born off amidst prostrate crowds in the same state in which he had come. The Spaniards quickly followed and with colors flying and music playing soon made their entrance into the southern quarter of Tenochtitmon. Here again they found fresh cause for admiration in the grandeur of the city and the superior style of its architecture. The dwellings of the poorer class were indeed chiefly of reeds and mud, but the great avenue through which they were now marching was lined with the houses of the nobles who were encouraged by the emperor to make the capital their residence. They were built of a red porous stone drawn neighborhood and though they rarely rose to a second story, often covered a large space of ground. The flat roofs, asoteas, were protected by stone parapets so that every house was a fortress. Sometimes these roofs resembled parters of flowers so thickly where they covered with them, but more frequently these were cultivated in broad terraced gardens laid out between the edifices. Occasionally a great square or marketplace intervened surrounded by its intercos of stone and stucco, or a pyramidal temple reared its colossal bulk crowned with its tapering sanctuaries and altars blazing with inextinguishable fires. The great street facing the southern causeway, unlike most others in the place, was wide and extended some miles in nearly a straight line as before noticed through the center of the city. A spectator standing at one end of it, as his eye ranged along the deep vista of temples, terraces and gardens, might clearly discern the other with the blue mountains in the distance, which in the transparent atmosphere of the table land seemed almost in contact with the buildings. But what most impressed the Spaniards was the throngs of people who swarmed through the streets and on the canals, filling every doorway and window and clustering on the roofs of the buildings. I well remember the spectacle, exclaims Bernal Díaz. It seems now, after so many years, as present to my mind as if it were but yesterday. But what must have been the sensation of the Aztecs themselves, as they looked on the portentous pageant? As they heard, now for the first time, the well-cemented pavement ring under the iron tramp of the horses, the strange animals which fear had clothed in such supernatural terrors, as they gazed on the children of the east, revealing their celestial origin in their fair complexions. Saw the bright felchions and bonnets of steel, a metal to them unknown, glancing like meteors in the sun, while sounds of unearthly music, at least such as their root instruments had ever wakened, floated in the air. But every other emotion was lost in that of deadly hatred, when they beheld their detested enemy the Tlaskallan, stocking in defiance as it were through their streets, and staring round with looks of ferocity and wonder, like some wild animal of the forest, who had strayed by chance from his native bassnesses into the haunts of civilization. As they passed down the spacious street, the troops repeatedly traversed bridges suspended above canals, along which they saw Indian barks gliding swiftly with their little cargos of fruits and vegetables for the markets of Tlaskallan. At length they halted before a broad area near the center of the city, where rose the huge pyramidal pile dedicated to the patron war-god of the Aztecs, second only in size as well as sanctity to the temple of Cholula, and covering the same grounds now in part occupied by the great cathedral of Mexico. Facing the western gate of the enclosure of the temple stood a low range of stone buildings, spreading over a wide extent of ground, the palace of Exicato, Montezuma's father, built by that monarch about fifty years before. It was appropriated as the barracks of the Spaniards. The emperor himself was in the courtyard waiting to receive them. Approaching Cortes, he took from a vase of flowers borne by one of his slaves, a massy collar on which the shell of a species of crawfish much prized by the Indians was set in gold and connected by heavy links of the same metal. From this chain depended eight ornaments also of gold made in resemblance of the same shellfish, a span in length each, and of delicate workmanship. For the Aztec goldsmiths were confessed to have shown skill in their craft, not inferior to their brethren of Europe. Montezuma, as he hung the gorgeous sword around the general's neck, said, this palace belongs to you, Malinche, the epithet with which he always addressed him, and your brethren, rest after your fatigues, for you have much need to do so, and in a little while I will visit you again. So seeing, he withdrew with his attendants, evincing in this act a delicate consideration not to have been expected in a barbarian. Cortes' first care was to inspect his new quarters. The building, though spacious, was low, consisting of one floor, except indeed in the center, where it rose to an additional story. The apartments were of great size and afforded accommodations according to the testimony of the conquerors themselves for the whole army. The hardy mountaineers of Telescala were probably not very fastidious, and might easily find shelter in the outbuildings, or under temporary awnings in the ample courtyards. The best apartments were hung with gay cotton draperies, and floors covered with mats or rushes. There were also low stools made of single pieces of wood elaborately carved, and in most of the apartments, beds made of the palm leaf woven into a thick mat, with coverlets, and sometimes canopies of cotton. These mats were the only beds used by the natives, whether of high or low degree. After a rapid survey of this gigantic pile, the general assigned to his troops their respective quarters, had their cautions for security as if he anticipated a siege instead of a friendly entertainment. The place was encompassed by a stone wall of considerable thickness, with towers or heavy buttresses at intervals affording a good means of defense. He planted his cannon so as to command the approaches, stationed his sentinels along the works, and, in short, enforced it in every respect as strict military discipline as had been observed in any part of the march. He provided the importance to his little band, at least for the presence, of conciliating the good will of the citizens, and to avoid all possibility of collision, he prohibited any soldier from leaving his quarters without orders under pain of death. Having taken these precautions, he allowed his men to partake of the bountiful collation which had been prepared for them. They had been long enough in the country to become reconciled to, if not to relish, the peculiar cooking of the Aztecs. The appetite of the soldier is not often dainty, and on the present occasion it cannot be doubted that the Spaniards did full justice to the savory productions of the royal kitchen. During the meal they were served by numerous Mexican slaves, who were indeed distributed through the palace, anxious to do the bidding of the strangers. After the repast was concluded and they had taken their siesta, not less important to a Spaniard than food itself, the presence of the emperor was again announced. Montezuma was attended by a few of his principal nobles. He was received with much deference by Cortes, and after the parties had taken their seats, a conversation commenced between them through the aid of Donia Marina, while the Cavaliers and Aztec chieftains stood around in respectful silence. Montezuma made many inquiries concerning the country of the Spaniards, their sovereign, the nature of his government, and especially their own motives in visiting Anahuac. Cortes explained these motives by the desire to see so distinguished a monarch and to declare to him the true faith professed by the Christians. With rare discretion he contented himself with dropping this hint for the present, allowing it to ripen in the mind of the emperor till a future conference. The latter asked whether those white men who in the preceding year had landed on the eastern shores of his empire were their countrymen. He showed himself well informed of the proceedings of the Spaniards from their arrival in Tabasco at present time, information of which had been regularly transmitted in the hieroglyphical paintings. He was curious also in regard to the rank of his visitors in their own country, inquiring if they were the kinsmen of the sovereign. Cortes replied they were kinsmen of one another and subjects of their great monarch who held them all in peculiar estimation. Before his departure Montezuma made himself acquainted with the names of the principal Cavaliers and the position they occupied in the army. At the conclusion of the interview the Aztec prince commanded his attendants to bring forward the presents prepared for his guests. They consisted of cotton dresses enough to supply every man, it is said, including the allies with a suit. And he did not fail to add the usual accompaniment of gold chains and other ornaments which he distributed in perfusion among the Spaniards. He then withdrew with the same ceremony with which he had entered, leaving everyone deeply impressed by the presence and his affability so unlike what they had been taught to expect by what they now considered an invention of the enemy. That evening the Spaniards celebrated their arrival in the Mexican capital by a general discharge of artillery. The thunders of the ordinance reverberating among the buildings and shaking them to their foundations the stench of the sulfurous vapor that rolled in volumes above the hills of the encampment reminding the inhabitants of the explosions and the parts of the superstitious Aztecs with dismay. It proclaimed to them that their city held in its bosom those dread beings whose path had been marked with desolation and who could call down the thunderbolts to consume their enemies. It was doubtless the policy of Cortes to strengthen this superstitious feeling as far as possible and to impress the natives at the outset with the salutary awe of the supernatural powers of the Spaniards. On the following morning the general ordered Cortes to return the emperor's visit by waiting on him in his palace. This was readily granted and Montezuma sent his officers to conduct the Spaniards to his presence. Cortes dressed himself in his richest habit and left the quarters attended by Alvarado, Sandoval, Velazquez, and Ordaz together with five or six of the common pile. The royal habitation was at no great distance. It was a vast irregular pile of low stone buildings like that of the Spaniards. So spacious was it indeed that as one of the conquerors assures us although he had visited it more than once for the express purpose he had been too much fatigued each time by wandering through the apartments ever to see the whole of it. It was built of the red porous stone of the country, Tetsantli, was ornamented with marble and on the facade over the principal entrance were sculptured the arms or device of Montezuma In the courts through which the Spaniards passed fountains of crystal water were playing fed from the copious reservoir on the distant hill of Chapultepec and supplying in their turn more than a hundred baths in the interior of the palace. Crowds of Aztec nobles were sauntering up and down in these squares and in the outer halls loitering away their hours in attendance on the court. The apartments were of immense size though not lofty. The ceilings were of various sorts of odiferous wood conveniently carved. The floor is covered with mats of the palm leaf. The walls were hung with cotton richly stained with the skins of wild animals or gorgeous draperies of featherwork wrought in imitation of birds, insects and flowers with the nice art and glowing radiance of colors that might compare with the tapestries of Flanders. Clouds of incense rolled up from sensors and diffused intoxicating odors through the apartments. The Spaniards might well have fancied themselves in the voluptuous precincts of an eastern harem instead of treading the halls of a wild barbaric chief in the western world. On reaching the hall of audience the Mexican officers took off their sandals and covered their gay attire with a mantle of neccon, a coarse stuff made from the fibers of the mague worn only by the poorest classes. This act of humiliation was imposed on all except the members of his own family who approached the sovereign. Thus barefooted with downcast eyes and formal beacons, they ushered the Spaniards into the royal presence. They found Montezuma seated at the farther end of a spacious saloon and surrounded by a few of his favorite chiefs. He received them kindly and very soon Cortes, without much ceremony, entered on the subject which was uppermost in his thoughts. He was fully aware of the importance of gaining the royal convert whose example would have such an influence on the conversion of his people. The general therefore prepared to display the whole store of his theological science with the most winning arts of rhetoric he could command, while the interpretation was conveyed through the silver tones of Marina as inseparable from him on these occasions as was his shadow. He set forth as clearly as he could the ideas entertained by the Church in regard to the holy mysteries of the Trinity, the incarnation and the atonement. From this he ascended into the origin of things, the creation of the world, the first pair, Paradise and the Fall of Man. He assured Montezuma that the idols he worshiped were Satan under different forms. A sufficient proof of it was the bloody sacrifices they imposed which he contrasted with the pure and simple right of the mass. Their worship would sink him in perdition. It was to snatch his soul and the souls of his people from the flames of eternal fire by opening them to a purer faith that the Christians had come to his land. And he earnestly besought him not to protect the occasion but to secure his salvation by embracing the cross, the great sign of human redemption. The eloquence of the preacher was wasted on the insensible heart of his royal auditor. It doubtless lost somewhat of its efficacy strained through the imperfect interpretation of so recent a neophyte as the Indian damsel. But the doctrines were too obstruous in themselves to be comprehended at a glance by the root intellect of a barbarian. He, who may have, perhaps, thought that it was not more monstrous to feed on the flesh of a fellow creature than on that of the creator himself. He was besides steeped in the superstitions of his country from his cradle. He had been educated in the straightest sect of her religion and had been himself a priest before his election to the throne and was now the head of both the religion and the state. Little probability was there that such a man would be open to argument on the lips of a more practiced polemic than the Spanish commander. How could he obscure the faith that was intertwined with the dearest affections of his heart and the very elements of his being? How could he be false to the gods who had raised him to such prosperity and honors and whose shrines were entrusted into his especial keeping? He listened, however, with silent attention until the general had concluded his homily. He then replied that he knew the Spaniards had been. He doubted not their god was, as they said, a good being. His gods also were good to him. Yet what his visitor said of the creation of the world was like that which he had been taught to believe. It was not worthwhile to discourse further on the matter. His ancestors, he said, were not the original proprietors of the land. They had occupied it but a few ages and had been led there by a great being who, after giving them laws and ruling over the nation for a time, was withdrawn to the regions where the sun rises. He had declared on his departure that he or his descendants would again visit them and resume his empire. The wonderful deeds of the Spaniards, their fair complexions, and the quarter whence they came, all showed they were his descendants. If Montezuma had resisted their visit to his capital, it was because he had heard such accounts of their cruelties that they sent the lightning to consume his people or crushed them to pieces under the hard feet of ferocious animals on which they rode. He was now convinced that these were idle tales, that the Spaniards were kind and generous in their natures. They were mortals of a different race indeed from the Aztecs, wiser and more valiant, and for this he honored them. You too, he said with a smile, have been told perhaps that I am a god and dwell in palaces of gold and silver. But you see, it is false. My houses, though large, are of stone and wood like those of others and as to my body, he said bearing his tawny arm, you see it is flesh and bone like yours. It is true I have a great empire inherited from my ancestors, lands and gold and silver. But your sovereign beyond the waters is, I know, the rightful Lord of all. I rule in his name. You, Malinche, are his ambassador. You and your brethren shall share these things with me. Rest now from your labors. You are here in your own dwellings and shall be provided for your substance. I will see that your wishes shall be obeyed in the same way as my own. As the monarch concluded these words, a few natural tears suffused his eyes, while the image of ancient independence perhaps flitted across his mind. Cortes, while he encouraged the idea that his own sovereign was the great being indicated by Montezuma, endeavored to comfort the monarch by the assurance that his master had no desire to interfere with his authority since then, out of pure concern for his welfare, to effect his conversion and that of his people to Christianity. Before the emperor dismissed his visitors, he consulted his munificent spirit as usual by distributing rich stuffs and trinkets of gold among them so that the poorest soldier, says Bernal Diaz, one of the party, received at least two heavy collars of the precious metal for his share. The iron hearts of the Spaniards were touched with the emotion displayed by Montezuma as well as by his princely spirit of liberality. As they passed him, the Cavaliers with Bonnet in hand made him the most profound obeisance and, on the way home, continues the same chronicler, we could discourse of nothing but the gentle breeding and courtesy of the Indian monarch and of the respect we entertained for him. Speculations of a graver complexion must have pressed on the mind of the general as he saw around him the evidences of a civilization with eloquently power for which even the exaggerated reports of the natives, discredited from their apparent exaggeration, had not prepared him. In the pomp and burdensome ceremonial of the court he saw that nice system of subordination and profound reverence for the monarch which characterized the semi-civilized empires of Asia. In the appearance of the capital, its massy yet elegant architecture, its luxurious social accommodations, its activity in trade, recognized the proofs of the intellectual progress, mechanical skill and enlarged resources of an old and opulent community while the swarms in the streets attested to the existence of a population capable of turning these resources to the best account. In the Aztec he beheld a being unlike either the rude Republican Tlescalan or the effeminate Cholulan, but combining the courage of the one with the cultivation of the other. He was in the heart of the great capital which seemed like an extensive fortification with its dykes and its drawbridges where every house might be easily converted into a castle. Its insular position removed it from the continent, from which at the mere knot of the sovereign all communication might be cut off and the whole war-like population be at once precipitated on him and his handful of followers. What could superior science avail against such odds? As to the subversion of Montezuma's empire now that he had seen him in his capital it must have seemed a more doubtful enterprise than ever. The recognition which the Aztec Prince had made of the feudal supremacy, if I may so say, of the Spanish sovereign was not to be taken too literally. Whatever show of deference he be disposed to pay the latter under the influence of his present perhaps temporary delusion it was not to be supposed that he would so easily relinquish his actual power and possessions for that his people would consent to it. Indeed his sensitive apprehensions in regard to this very subject on the coming of the Spaniards were sufficient proof of the tenacity with which he clung to his authority. It is true that Cortes had a strong lever for future operations in the superstitious reverence felt for himself both by Prince and people. It was undoubtedly his policy to maintain this sentiment unimpaired in both as far as possible. But before settling any plan for future operations it was necessary to make himself personally acquainted with the topography and local advantages of the capital the character of its population and the real nature and amount of its resources. With this view he asked the emperor's permission to visit the principal public edifices. CHAPTER I RESIDENTS IN MEXICO TESCUCAN lake description of the capital places and museums royal household Montezuma's way of life The ancient city of Mexico covered the same spot occupied by the modern capital. The great causeways touched it in the same points. The streets ran in much the same direction nearly from north to south and from east to west. The cathedral and the plaza may stand on the same ground that was covered by the temple of the Aztec war-god. And the four principal quarters of the town are still known among the Indians by the ancient names. Yet an Aztec of the days of Montezuma could he behold the modern metropolis which has risen with such phoenix-like splendor from the ashes of the old, would not recognize its sight as that of his own tenno-chair titlan. For the latter was encompassed by the salt floods of Tescuco which flowed in ample canals through every part of the city. While the Mexico of Arde stands high and dry on the mainland nearly a league distant at its centre from the water. The cause of this apparent change in its position is the diminution of the lake which, from the rapidity of evaporation in these elevated regions had become perceptible before the conquest, but which has since been greatly accelerated by artificial causes. The Chinampus, the archipelago of wandering islands to which our attention was drawn in the last chapter have also nearly disappeared. These had their origin in the detached masses of earth which, loosening from the shores, were still held together by the fibrous roots with which they were penetrated. The primitive Aztecs in their poverty of land availed themselves of the hint thus afforded by nature. They constructed rafts of reeds, rushes and other fibrous materials which, tightly knit together, formed a sufficient basis for the sediment that they drew up from the bottom of the lake. Gradually islands were formed two or three hundred feet in length and three or four feet in depth with a rich stimulated soil on which the economical Indian raised his vegetables and flowers for the markets of Tenochtitlan. Some of these Chinampus were even firm enough to allow the growth of small trees and to sustain a hut for the residents of the person that are charge of it, who, with a long pole resting on the sides or the bottom of the shallow basin, could change the position of his little territory at pleasure, with which its rich freight of vegetable stores were seen moving like some enchanted island over the water. The ancient dikes were three in number, that of Istapalapen, by which the Spaniards entered, approaching the city from the south. That of Tepahakak on the north, which contained in the principal street might be regarded also as a continuation of the first causeway. Lastly the Dyke of Tlacopan connecting the island city with the continent on the west. This last causeway, memorable for the disastrous retreat of the Spaniards, was about two miles in length. They were all built in the same substantial manner of lime and stone, were defended by drawbridges and were wide enough for ten or twelve horsemen to ride abreast. The rude founders of Tenochtitlan built their frail tenements of reeds and rushes on the group of small islands in the western part of the lake. In process of time these were supplanted by more substantial buildings. A quarry in the neighbourhood of a red porous Amogadaloid Tetsontili was opened and a light brittle stone drawn from it, and wrought with little difficulty. Of this the edifices were constructed with some reference to architectural solidarity if not elegance. Mexico, as already noticed, was the residence of the great chiefs whom the sovereign encouraged or rather compelled from obvious motives of policy to spend part of the year in the capital. It was also the temporary abode of the great lords of Tescuco and Tlacopan who shared nominally at least the sovereignty of the empire. The mansions of these dignitaries and of the principal nobles were on a scale of rude magnificence corresponding with their state. They were low indeed, seldom of more than one floor, never exceeding two, but they spread over a wide extent of ground, were arrayed in a quadrangular form with a court in the centre and were surrounded by portugos embellished with porphyry and jasper easily found in the neighbourhood. While not unfrequently a fountain of crystal water in the centre shed a grateful coolness over the atmosphere, the dwellings of the common people were also placed on foundations of stone, which rose to the height of a few feet and were then succeeded by courses of unbaked bricks crossed occasionally by wooden rafters. Most of the streets were mean and narrow. Few, however, were wide and of great length. The principal street, conducting from the great southern causeway, penetrated in a straight line the whole length of the city and afforded a noble vista in which the long lines of stone edifices were broken occasionally by intervening gardens rising on terraces and displaying all the pomp of Aztec horticulture. The great streets, which were coated were intersected by numerous canals. Some of these were flanked by a solid way, which served as a foot-walk for passengers and as a landing-place where boats might discharge their cargoes. Small buildings were erected at intervals, as stations for the revenue officers who collected the duties on different articles of merchandise. The canals were traversed by numerous bridges, many of which could be raised, afforded in the means of cutting off communication between different parts of the city. From the accounts of the ancient capital one is reminded of those aquatic cities in the old world, the positions of which have been selected from similar motives of economy and defence. Above all, of Venice, if it be not rash to compare the rude architecture of the American Indian with the marble palaces and temples, alas shorn of their splendour, which crowded the once-proud mistress of the Adriatic. The example of the metropolis was soon followed by the other towns in the vicinity. Instead of resting their foundations on terra firma, they were soon advancing far into the lake, the shallow waters of which in some parts do not exceed four feet in depth. Thus an easy means of intercommunication was opened, and the surface of this inland sea, as Cortes styles it, was darkened by thousands of canoes, an Indian term, industriously engaged in the traffic between these little communities. How gay and picturesque must have been the aspect of the lake in those days, with its shining cities and flowering islets rocking, as it were, a tanker on the fair bosom of its waters. The population of Tenochatillon, at the time of the conquest, is variously stated. No contemporary writer estimates it at less than sixty thousand houses, which, by the ordinary rules of reckoning, would give three hundred thousand souls. If a dwelling often contained, as is asserted, several families, it would swell the amount considerably higher. Nothing is more uncertain than estimates of numbers among barbarous people, who necessarily live in a more confused and promiscuous manner than civilized, and among whom no regular system is adopted for ascertaining the population. The concurrent testimony of the conquerors, the extent of the city, which was said to be nearly three leagues in circumference, the immense size of its great marketplace, the long lines of edifices, vestiges of whose ruins may still be found in the suburbs, miles from the modern city, the fame of the metropolis, throughout Anahuac, which, however, could boast from any large and populous places. Lastly, the economical husbandry, and the ingenious contrivances to extract ailment from the most unpromising sources, all attest to numerous population, far beyond that of the present capital, a careful police provided for the health and cleanliness of the city, a thousand persons are said to have been daily employed in watering and sweeping the streets, so that a man, to borrow the language of an old Spaniard, could walk through them with as little danger of soiling his feet as his hands. The water, in a city washed on all sides by the salt floods, was extremely brackish. A liberal supply of the pure element, however, was brought from the Tepek, the Grasshoppers Hill, less than a league distant. It was brought through an earthen pipe, a longer dike constructed for the purpose. That there might be no failure in so essential an article, when repairs were going on, a double course of pipes was laid. In this way a column of water the size of a man's body was conducted into the heart of the capital, where it fed the fountains and reservoirs of principal mansions. Openings were made in the aqueduct as it crossed the bridges, and thus a supply was furnished to the canals below, by means of which it was transported to all parts of the city. While Montezuma encouraged a taste for architectural magnificence in his nobles, he contributed his own share towards the embellishment of the city. It was in his reign that the famous Calender Stone weighing probably in its primitive state nearly fifty tons was transported from its native quarry, many leagues distant, to the capital, where it still forms one of the most curious monuments of Aztec science. Indeed, when we reflect on the difficulty of hewing such a stupendous mass from its hard basaltic bed without the aid of iron tools, and that of transporting it such a distance across land and water without the help of animals, we may feel admiration at the mechanical ingenuity and enterprise of the people who accomplished it, not content with the spacious residence of his father. Montezuma erected another, on a yet more magnificent scale. It occupied the ground partly covered by the private dwellings on one side of the plaza-may of the modern city. This building, or as it might more correctly be styled, Parle of Buildings, spread over an extent of ground so vast that, as one of the conquerors assures us, its terraced roof might have afforded ample room for thirty nights to run their courses in a regular tourney. I've already noticed its interior decorations, its fanciful draperies, its roofs inlaid with cedar and other odourous woods held together without a nail and probably without a knowledge of the arch. Its numerous and spacious apartments, which Cortez, with enthusiastic hyperbola, does not hesitate to declare superior to any thing of the kind in Spain. Adjoining the principal edifices were others devoted to various objects. One was an armoury filled with the weapons and military dresses worn by the Aztecs, all kept in the most perfect order ready for instant use. The emperor was himself very expert in the management of the Maccure Hytel or Indian sword and took great delight in witnessing athletic exercises and the mimic representation of war by his young nobility. Another building was used as a granary and others as warehouses for the different articles of food and apparel contributed by the districts charged with the maintenance of the royal household. There were also edifices appropriated to objects of quite another kind. One of these was an immense aviary in which birds of splendid plumage were assembled from all parts of the empire. Here was a scarlet cardinel, the golden pheasant, the endless parrot tribe with their rainbow hues, the royal green predominant, and that miniature miracle of nature, the hummingbird, which delights to revel among the honeysackle bowers of Mexico. Three hundred attendants had charged at the savoury, who made themselves acquainted with the appropriate food of its intimates, often times procured at great cost, and in the malting season were careful to collect the beautiful plumage, which, with its many coloured tints, furnished the materials for the Aztec painter. A separate building was reserved for the fierce birds of prey, the voracious vulture tribes and eagles of enormous size, whose home was in the snowy solitudes of the Andes. No less than five hundred turkeys, the cheapest meat in Mexico, were allowed for the daily consumption of these tyrants of the feathered race. A journey in this aviary was a menagerie of wild animals, gathered from the mountain forests, and even from the remote swamps of the Tierra caliente. The resemblance of the different species to those in the Old World, with which no one of them, however, was identical, led to a perpetual confusion, the nomenclature of the Spaniards, as it has since done in that of better instructed naturalists. The collection was still further swelled by a great number of reptiles and serpents, remarkable for their size and venomous qualities, among which the Spaniards beheld the fiery little animal, with the castanets in his tail, the terror of the American wilderness. The serpents were confined in long cages, lined with downall feathers or in trows of mud and water. The beasts and birds of prey were provided with apartments long enough to allow for their moving about and secured by strong latticework, through which light and air were freely admitted. The hole was placed under the charge of numerous keepers who acquainted themselves with the habits of their prisoners and provided for their comfort and cleanliness. With what deep interest would the enlightened naturalist of that day, an Ovedo or Amater, for example, have surveyed this magnificent collection in which the various tribes which roamed over the western wilderness, the unknown races of an unknown world, were brought into one view. How would they have delighted to study the peculiarities of these new species, compared with those of their own hemisphere? And thus have risen to some comprehension of the general laws by which nature acts in all her works. The rude followers of courtiers did not trouble themselves to find speculations. They gazed on the spectacle with a vague curiosity, not unmixed with awe. And as they listened to the wild cries of the ferocious animals and the hissings of the giant serpents, they almost fancied themselves in the infernal regions. I must not omit to notice a strange collection of human monsters, dwarfs and other unfortunate persons, in whose organization nature had completely deviated from her regular laws. Such hideous anomalies were regarded by the Aztecs as a suitable appendage estate. It is even said they were in some cases the result of artificial means employed by unnatural parents, desirous to secure a provision for their offspring by thus qualifying them for the place in the Royal Museum. Extensive gardens were spread out in these buildings, filled with fragrant shrubs and flowers, and especially with medicinal plants. No country has afforded more numerous species of these last than New Spain, and their virtues were perfectly understood by the Aztecs, with whom medical botany may be said to have been studied as a science. Amidst this labyrinth of sweet-scented groves and shrubberies, fountains of pure water were circling jets and scattering refreshing Jews over the blossoms. Ten large tanks, well-stopped with fish, afforded a retreat on their margins to various tribes of waterfowl whose habits were so carefully consulted that some of these ponds were of salt water, as that which they most loved to frequent. A tessellated pavement of marble enclosed the ample basins, which were overhung by light buildings, that admitted the perfume breezes of the gardens, and offered a grateful shelter to the monarch and his mistresses in the sultry heat of summer. But the most luxurious residence of the Aztec monarch, at that season, was the Royal Hill of Chapultepek, a spot consecrated moreover by the ashes of his ancestors. It stood in a westerly direction from the capital, and its base was, in his day, washed by the waters of the Tessecoco. On its lofty crest a poor phoretic rock there now stands the magnificent, though desolate, castle erected, by the young Viceroy Galvez at the close of the 17th century. The view from its windows is one of the finest in the environs of Mexico. The landscape is not disfigured here as in many other quarters by the white and barren patches so offensive to the site. But the eye wanders over an unbroken expanse of meadows and cultivated fields, waving with rich harvests of European grain. Montezuma's gardens stretched for miles around the base of the hill. Two statues of that monarch and his father, carton-base relief in the porphyry, were spared till the middle of the last century, and the grounds are still shaded with cypresses, more than fifty feet in circumference, which were centuries old at the time of the conquest. The place is now a tangled wilderness of wild shrubs, where the myrtle mingles its dark, glossy leaves, with the red berries in delicate foliage of the peppetry. Surely there is no spot better suited to awake in meditation on the past. None were the traveller, as he sits under those stately cypresses gray with the moss of ages, can so fitly ponder on the sad destinies of the Indian races, and the monarch who once held his courtly revels under the shadow of their branches. The domestic establishment of Montezuma was on the same scale of the barbaric splendor as everything else about him. He could boast as many wives as are found in the harem of an eastern sultan. They were lodged in their own apartments and provided with every accommodation, according to their ideas, for personal comfort and cleanliness. They passed their hours in the usual feminine employments of weaving and embroidery, especially in the graceful featherwork for which such rich materials were furnished by the royal avarice. They conducted themselves with strict decorum under the supervision of certain aged females who acted in the respectful capacity of duenas in the same manner as in the religious houses attracted to the Teo-calilis. The palace was supplied with numerous baths and Montezuma set the example in his own person of frequent abulations. He bathed at least once and changed his dress four times it is said every day. He never put on the same apparel a second time, and went away to his attendance. Queen Elizabeth with a similar taste for costume showed a less princely spirit in hoarding her discarded suits. Besides his numerous female retinue the halls and handy chambers were filled with nobles in constant attendance on his person who served also as a sort of bodyguard. It had been usual for plebeians of merit to fill certain offices in the palace. But the haughty Montezuma refused to be weighted upon by any but men of noble birth. They were not unfrequently the sons of the great chiefs and remained as hostages in the absence of their fathers, thus serving the double purpose of security and state. His meals the emperor took alone. The well matted floor of a large saloon was covered with hundreds of dishes. Sometimes Montezuma himself but more frequently a steward indicated those which he preferred and which were kept hot by means of chaffing dishes. The royal bill of fare comprehended besides domestic animals gained from distant forests and fish which the day before were swimming in the gulf of Mexico. They were dressed in manifold ways for the Aztec artists, as we have already had occasion to notice had penetrated deep into the mysteries of culinary science. The meats were served by the attendant nobles, who then resigned the office of waiting on the monarch to maid and selected for their personal grace and beauty. A screen of rich guilt and carved wood was drawn around him so as to conceal him from vulgar eyes during the repast. He was seated on a cushion and the dinner was served on a low table covered with delicate cotton cloth. The dishes were of the finest way of chalula. He had a service of gold which was reserved for religious celebrations. Indeed it was scarcely if comported with even his princely revenues to have used it on ordinary occasions when his table-equipage was not allowed to appear a second time but was given away to his attendants. The saloon was lighted by torches made of resinous wood which sent forth a sweet odour and probably not a little smoke as they burned. At his meal he was attended by five or six of his ancient counsellors who stood at a respectable distance answering his questions and occasionally rejoiced by some other vians with which he complimented them from his table. This course of solid dishes was succeeded by another of sweet meats and pastry for which the Aztec cooks provided with the important requisites of maize flour, eggs and the rich sugar of the alloy were famous. Two girls were occupied at the further end of the apartment during dinner in preparing fine rolls and wafers with which they garnished the board from time to time. The emperor took no other beverage than the chocolatele a petition of chocolate flavoured with vanilla and other spices said as to be reduced to a froth of the consistency of honey which gradually dissolved in the mouth. This beverage, if so it could be called, was served in golden goblets with spoons of the same metal or of tortoise shell finely wrought. The emperor was exceedingly fond of it to judge from the quantity no less than fifty jars or pictures being prepared for his own daily consumption. Two thousand more were allowed for that of his household. The general arrangement of the meal seems to have been not very unlike that of Europeans but no prince in Europe could boast a dessert which could compare with that of the Aztec emperor. For it was gathered fresh from the most opposite climes and his board displayed the products of his own temperate region and the luscious fruits of the tropics plucked the day previous from the green glows of the Tierra clienti and transmitted with the speed of steam by means of couriers to the capital. It was as if some kind fairy should crown our banquets with the spicy products that, but yesterday, were growing in a sunny isle of the far-off Indian seas. After the royal appetite was appeased water was handed to him by the female attendants in a silver basin in the same manner as had been done for commencing his meal. For the Aztecs were as consistent in their ablulations at these times as any nation of the east. Pipes were then brought made of a varnished and richly gilt wood from which he inhaled sometimes through the nose at others through the mouth the fumes of an intoxicating weed called tobacco mingled with liquid amber. While this soothing process of fumigation the emperor enjoyed the exhibitions of his mount-a-banks and jugglers of whom a regular core was attached to the palace. No people, not even those of China or Hindustan, surpassed the Aztecs in feats of agility and ledger domain. Sometimes he amused himself with his jester. For the Indian monarch had his jesters as well as his more refined brethren of Europe at that day. Indeed he used to say that more instruction was to be gathered from then, then from wiser men for they dared to tell the truth. At other times he witnessed the graceful dances of his women or took delight in listening to music. If the rude minstrelsy of the Mexicans deserves that name accompanied by a chant in slow and solemn cadence celebrating the heroic deeds of great Aztec warriors or of his own princely line. When he had sufficiently refreshed his spirits with these diversions he composed himself to sleep for in his siesta he was as regular as a Spaniard. On awaking he gave audience to ambassadors from foreign states or his own tributary cities or to such cacquies as had suits to prefer to him. They were introduced by the young nobles in attendance and whatever might be their rank unless of the blood-royal. They were obliged to submit to the humiliation of shrouding their rich dresses under the coarse mantle of Necquian and entering barefooted with downcast eyes into the presence. The emperor addressed few and brief remarks to the suitors answering them generally by his secretaries and the parties retired with the same reverential obeisance taking care to keep their faces turned towards the monarch. Wellmite Cortés exclaimed that no court, whether of the grand senor or any other infidel ever displayed so pompous and elaborate a ceremonial. Besides the crowd of retinas already noticed the royal household was not complete without a host of artisans constantly employed in the erection or repair of buildings besides a great number of jewellers and persons skilled in working metals who found abundant demand for their trinkets among the dark-eyed beauties of the harem. The imperial mummies and jugglers were also very numerous and the dancers belonging to the palace occupied a particular district of the city appropriated exclusively to them. The maintenance of this little host amounting to some thousands of individuals involved to heavy expenditure requiring accounts of a complicated and, to a simple people, it might well be embarrassing nature. Everything, however, was conducted with perfect order and all the various receipts and disbursements were set down in the picture-writing of the country. The arithmetical characters were a more refined and conventional sort than those for narrative purposes and a separate apartment was fired with hierarchical ledgers exhibiting a complete of the economy of the palace. The care of all this was entrusted to a treasurer who acted as a sort of major domo in the household having a general superintendent over all its concerns. This responsible office on the arrival of the Spaniards was in the hands of a trusty cacacue named Tapia such as the picture of Montezuma's domestic establishment and way of living affiliated by the conquerors and their immediate followers who had the best means of information too highly coloured it may be by the pronus to exaggerate which was natural to those who first witnessed a spectacle so striking to the imagination so new and unexpected. I have thought it best to present the full details trivial though they may seem to the reader as affording a curious picture of manners of refinement to those of the other Aboriginal tribes on the North American continent nor are they in fact so trivial when we reflect that in these details of private life we possess as sure a measure of civilisation than in those of a public nature in surveying them we are strongly reminded of the civilisation of the East not of that higher intellectual kind which belonged to the more polished Arabs in the Persians but that semi-civilisation which has distinguished for example the Tata races among whom are to even science have made indeed some progress in their adaptation to material wants and sensual gratification but little in reference to the higher and more ennobling interests of humanity it is characteristic of such a people to find a plural pleasure in a dazzling an ostentatious pegantry to mistake show for subsidence feign pomp for power to head round the throne itself with a barren and burdensome ceremonial the counterfeit of real majesty even this however was an advance in refinement compared with the rude manners of the earlier Aztecs the change may doubt this be referred in some degree to the personal influence of Montezuma in his younger days he had tempered the fierce habits of the soldier with the milder profession of religion in later life he had withdrawn himself still more from the brutalising occupations of war and his manners acquired a refinement tinctured it may be added with an effeminacy unknown to his martial predecessors the condition of the empire too under his reign was favourable to this change the dismemberment of the Tescoocan kingdom on the death of the great Nezahual Pallili had left the Aztec monarchy without a rival and it soon spread its colossus arms over the furthest limits of Anna Huak the aspiring mind of Montezuma rose with the acquisition of wealth and power and he displayed the consciousness of new importance by the assumption of unprecedented state he effected a reserve unknown to his predecessors withdrew his person from the vulgar eye and fenced himself round with an elaborate and courtly etiquette when he went abroad it was in state on some public occasion usually to the great temple to take part in the religious services and as he passed along he extracted from his people as we have seen the homage of an adulation worthy of an oriental despot his haughty demeanour touched the pride of his more potent vassals particularly those who at a distance felt themselves nearly independent of his authority his exactions demanded by the profuse expenditure of his palace scattered broadcast the seeds of discontent and while the empire seemed towering in its most palmy and prosperous state the kangaroo had eaten deepest into its heart and a book four chapter one the spaniards had elapsed since the spaniards made their entry into Mexico whatever schemes their commander may have revolved in his mind he felt that he could determine on no plan of operations till he had seen more of the capital and ascertained by his own inspection the nature of its resources he accordingly, as was observed at the close of the last book sent to Manizuma asking permission to visit the great Teokali and some other places in the city he even prepared to go in person to the great temple to receive his guests there it may be to shield the shrine of his tutelor deity from any attempted profanation he was acquainted, as we have already seen with the proceedings of the spaniards on similar occasions in the course of their march Cortes put himself at the head of his little core of cavalry and nearly all the Spanish foot as usual and followed the casiques sent by Manizuma to guide him he proposed first to conduct him to the great market of Tlatelotko in the western part of the city on the way the Spaniards were struck in the same manner as they had been on entering the capital with the appearance of the inhabitants and their great superiority in the style and quality of their dress over the people of the lower countries the til-matli or cloak thrown over the shoulders and tied around the neck made of cotton of different degrees of fineness and the ample sash around the loins were often wrought in rich and elegant figures and edged with a deep fringe or tassel as the weather was now growing cool mantles of fur or of the gorgeous feather work were sometimes substituted the latter combined the advantage of great warmth with beauty the Mexicans had also the art of spinning a fine thread of the hair of the rabbit and other animals which they wove into a delicate web that took a permanent dye as in other parts of the country seemed to go about as freely as the men they wore several skirts or petticoats of different lengths with highly ornamented borders and sometimes over them loose flowing robes which reached to the ankles these also were made of cotton for the wealthier classes of a fine texture prettily embroidered no veils were worn here as in some other parts of Anahuac where they were made of the aloe thread or of the light web of hair above noticed the Aztec women had their faces exposed and their dark raven tresses flowed luxuriously over their shoulders revealing features with although of a dusky or rather cinnamon hue were not unfrequently pleasing while touched with the serious even sad expression characteristic of the national physiognomy on drawing nearer to the tiangas or great market the Spaniards were astonished at the throng of people pressing towards it and on entering the place the prize was still further heightened by the sight of the multitudes assembled there and the dimensions of the enclosure thrice as large as the celebrated square of Salamanca here were met together traders from all parts with the products and manufacturers peculiar to their countries the goldsmiths of Ascapotzalko the potters and jewelers of Chulula the painters of Tescuco the stonecutters of Tenahocan the hunters of Shalotopec the fishermen of Kuitlachwak the fruiterers of the warm countries the mat and chair makers of Kautidlan and the florists of Shotimilko all busily engaged in recommending their respective wares and in chaffering with purchasers the marketplace was surrounded by deep porticoes and the several articles had each its own quarter allotted to it here might be seen cotton piled up in bales or manufactured into dresses and articles of domestic use as tapestry curtains, coverlets and the like the richly stained and nice fabrics reminded Cortes of the Alcaiseria or silk market of Granada there was the quarter assigned to the goldsmiths where the purchaser might find various articles of ornament or use formed of the precious metals or curious toys such as we have already had occasion to notice made in imitation of birds and fishes with scales and feathers alternately of gold and silver and with movable heads and bodies were often garnished with precious stones and showed a patient quarrel ingenuity in the manufacture like that of the Chinese in an adjoining quarter were collected specimens of pottery coarse and fine vases of wood elaborately carved varnished or gilt of curious and sometimes graceful forms there were also hatchets made of copper alloyed with tin the substitute and as it proved not a bad one for iron in the implements of his trade the cask fashioned into the head of some wild animal with its grinning defences of teeth and bristling crest dyed with the rich tint of the cock-kneel the escopole or quilted doublet of cotton the rich circote of feather mail and weapons of all sorts copper-headed lances and arrows and the broad macawito the Mexican sword with its sharp blades of easley here were razors and mirrors of the same hard and polished mineral which served so many of the purposes of steel with the Aztecs in the square were also to be found booths occupied by barbers who used these same razors in their vocation for the Mexicans contrary to the popular and erroneous notions respecting the aborigines of the new world had beards though scanty ones other shops or booths were tenanted by apothecaries well provided with drugs, roots and different medicinal preparations in other places again the Aztecs or maps for the hieroglyphical picture writing were to be seen folded together like fans and made of cotton skins or more commonly the fibers of the agave the Aztec papyrus under some of the porticos they saw hides, raw and dressed and various articles for domestic or personal use made of the leather animals both wild and tame were offered for sale and near them perhaps a gang of slaves with collars round their necks intimating they were likewise on sale a spectacle unhappily not confined to the barbarian markets of Mexico though the evils of their condition were aggravated there by the consciousness that a life of degradation might be consummated at any moment by the dreadful doom of sacrifice the heavier materials for building as stone, lime, timber were considered too bulky to be allowed to place in the square and were deposited in the adjacent streets on the borders of the canals it would be tedious to enumerate articles whether for luxury or daily use which were collected from all quarters in this vast bazaar I must not omit to mention however the display of provisions one of the most attractive features of the tianquettes, meats of all kinds domestic poultry, game from the neighboring mountains, fish from the lakes and streams, fruits in all the delicious abundance of these temperate regions, green vegetables and the unfailing maize there was many a vion too which sent up at savory streams provoking the appetite of the idle passenger pastry, bread of the Indian corn, cakes and confectionery along with these were to be seen cooling or stimulating beverages the spicy foaming choco latte with its delicate aroma of vanilla and the inebriating coulque the fermented juice of the aloe all these commodities and every stall in portico were set out or rather smothered with flowers a much greater scale indeed a taste similar to that displayed in the markets of modern Mexico flowers seemed to be the spontaneous growth of this luxuriant soil which instead of noxious weeds as in other regions is ever ready without the aid of man to cover up its nakedness with this rich and variegated livery of nature as to the numbers assembled in the market the estimates differ as usual the Spaniards often visited the place and no one states the amount at less than 40,000 some carry it much higher without relying too much on the arithmetic of the conquerors it is certain that on this occasion which occurred every fifth day the city swarmed with a motley crowd of strangers not only from the vicinity but from many leagues around the Cosways were thronged and the lake was darkened by canoes filled with traders flocking to the great tianques it resembled indeed the periodical fairs in Europe not as they exist now as they existed in the middle ages when from the difficulties of intercommunication they served as the great central marts for commercial intercourse exercising a most important and salutary influence on the community the exchanges were conducted partly by barter but more usually in the currency of the country this consisted of bits of tin stamped with a character like a T bags of cacao the value of which was regulated by their size and lastly quills filled with gold dust gold was part of the regular currency it seems in both hemispheres in their dealings it is singular that they should have had no knowledge of scales and weights the quantity was determined by measure and number the most perfect order range throughout the vast assembly officers patrolled the square whose business it was to keep the peace to collect the duties imposed on the different articles of merchandise to see that no false measures or fraud of any kind were used to bring offenders at once to justice a court of twelve judges sat in one part of the tiangas clothed with those ample and summery powers which in despotic countries are often delegated even to petty tribunals the extreme severity with which they exercised these powers in more than one instance proves that they were not a dead letter the tiangas of Mexico was naturally an object of great interest as well as wonder to the Spaniards for in it they saw converged into one focus as it were all the rays of civilization scattered throughout the land here they beheld the various evidences of mechanical skill of domestic industry the multiplied resources of whatever kind within the compass of the natives it could not fail to impress them with high ideas of the magnitude of these resources as well as of the commercial activity and social subordination by which the whole country was knit together and their admiration is fully a newtness and energy of their descriptions from this bustling scene the Spaniards took their way to the great Teokali in the neighborhood of their own quarters it covered with the subordinate edifices as the reader has already seen a large tract of ground now occupied by the cathedral part of the marketplace and some of the adjoining streets it was the spot which had been consecrated to the same object probably ever since the foundation of the city however was of no great antiquity having been constructed by Awid Zotel who celebrated its dedication in 1486 by that hecatomb of victims of which such incredible reports are to be found in the chronicles it stood in the midst of a vast area encompassed by a wall of stone in line about 8 feet high ornamented on the outer side by figures of serpents raised in relief which gave it the name of Kote Pantli or a wall of serpents this emblem was a common one in the sacred sculpture of Anawak as well as of Egypt the wall which was quadrangular was pierced by huge battle-minted gateways opening on the four principal streets of the capital over each of the gates was a kind of arsenal filled with arms and war-like gear and if we may credit the report of the conquerors there were barracks adjoining garrisoned by 10,000 soldiers who served as a sort of military police for the capital supplying the emperor with a strong arm in case of tumult or sedition the Teokali itself was a solid pyramidal structure of earth and pebbles coated on the outside with hewn stones probably of the light chorus kind employed in the buildings of the city it was probably square with its sides facing the cardinal points it was divided into five bodies or stories each one receding so as to be of smaller dimensions than that immediately below it the Aztec Teokalis as already described and bearing obvious resemblance to some of the primitive pyramidal structures in the old world the ascent was by a flight of steps on the outside which reached to the narrow terrace or platform at the base of the second story passing quite round the building when a second stairway conducted to a similar landing at the base of the third the breadth of this walk was just so much space as was left by the retreating story above it in this construction the visitor was obliged to pass around the whole Oedipus four times in order to reach the top this had a most imposing effect in the religious ceremonials when the pompous procession of priests with their wild minstrelsy came sweeping around the huge sides of the pyramid as they rose higher and higher in the presence of gazing multitudes towards the summit the dimensions of the temple cannot be given with any certainty the conquerors judged by the eye with anything like an accurate measurement it was probably not much less than 300 feet square at the base and as the Spaniards counted 114 steps was probably less than 100 feet in height when Cortes arrived before the Teocali he found two priests and several casiques commissioned by Montezuma to save him the fatigue of the ascent by bearing him on their shoulders in the same manner as had been done to the emperor but the general declined the compliment referring to march up at the head of his men on reaching the summit they found it a vast area paved with broad flat stones the first object that met their view was a large block of jasper the peculiar shape of which showed it was the stone on which the bodies of the unhappy victims were stretched for sacrifice its convex surface by raising the breast enabled the priest to perform his diabolical task more easily of removing the heart at the other end of the area there were two towers or sanctuaries consisting of three stories the lower one of stone and stucco the two upper of wood elaborately carved in the lower section stood the images of their gods the apartments above were filled with utensils for their religious services and with the ashes of some of their Aztec princes who had fancied this eerie sepulcher before each sanctuary stood an altar with that undying fire upon it the extinction of which boated as much evil empire as that of the Vestal Flame would have done in ancient Rome here also was the huge cylindrical drum made of serpent's skins and struck only on extraordinary occasions when it sent forth a melancholy sound that might be heard for miles a sound of woe in aftertimes to the Spaniards Montezuma, attended by the high priest came forward to receive Cortes as he mounted the area you are weary Malinche, said he to him with climbing up our great temple but Cortes, with a politic bond assured him the Spaniards are never weary then taking him by the hand the emperor pointed out the localities of the neighborhood the temple on which they stood rising high above all other edifices in the capital afforded the most elevated as well as central point of view below them the city lay spread out like a map with its streets and canals intersecting each other at right angles its terraced roofs blooming like so many towers every place seemed alive with business and bustle canoes were glancing up and down the canals the streets were crowded with people in their gay picturesque costume while from the marketplace they had so lately left a confused hum of many sounds and voices rose upon the air they could distinctly trace the symmetrical plan of the city with its principal avenues issuing as it were from the four gates of the Cotipantli and connecting themselves with the causeways to the capital this regular and beautiful arrangement was imitated in many of the inferior towns where the great roads converged towards the chief teokali or cathedral as to a common focus they could discern the insular position of the metropolis bathed on all sides by the salt floods of the Tescuco and in the distance the clear fresh waters of the Chalco far beyond stretched a wide prospect of fields and waving woods with the burnished walls of many alofty temple rising high above the trees and crowning the distant hilltops the view reached in an unbroken line to the very base of the circular range of mountains whose frosty peaks glittered as if touched with fire in the morning ray while long dark reeds of vapor rolling up from the hoary head of Popocatepitol told that the destroying element was indeed at work in the bosom of the beautiful valley Cortes was filled with admiration at this grand and glorious spectacle and gave utterance to his feelings in animated language to the emperor the lord of these flourishing domains his thoughts however soon took another direction and turning to father Olmeido who stood by his side he suggested that the area would afford a most conspicuous position for the Christian cross if Montezuma would but allow it to be planted there but the discreet ecclesiastic with the good sense which on these occasions seems to have been so lamentably deficient in his commander reminded him that such a request at present would be exceedingly ill timed as the Indian monarch had shown no dispositions as yet favorable to Christianity Cortes then requested Montezuma to allow him to enter the sanctuaries and behold the shrines of his gods to this the latter after a short conference with the priests assented and conducted the Spaniards into the building they found themselves in a spacious apartment encrusted on the sides with a taco on which various figures were sculptured representing the Mexican calendar perhaps or the priestly ritual on one end of the saloon was a recess with a roof of timber richly carved in guilt before the altar in the sanctuary stood the colossal image of Weetzlilopochtli the tutelary deity and war god of the Aztecs his countenance was distorted into hideous lineaments of symbolical import in his right hand he wielded a bow and in his left a bunch of golden arrows which a mystic legend had connected with the victories of his people the huge folds of a serpent consisting of pearls and precious stones were coiled around his waist and the same rich materials were profusely sprinkled over his person on his left foot were the delicate feathers of the hummingbird which singularly enough gave its name to the dread deity the most conspicuous ornament was a chain of gold and silver hearts alternate around his neck emblematical of the sacrifice in which he most delighted a more unequivocal evidence of this was afforded by three human hearts smoking and almost palpitating as if recently torn from the victims and now lying on the altar before him the adjoining sanctuary was dedicated to a milder deity this was Tuscotlipoca next in honor to that invisible being the supreme god who was represented by no image no temple he was Tuscotlipoca who created the world and watched over it with a providential care he was represented as a young man and his image of polished black stone was richly garnished with gold plates and ornaments among which a shield burnished like a mirror was the most characteristic emblem as in it he saw reflected all the doings of the world but the homage to this god was not always of a more refined or merciful character than that paid to his carnivorous brother for five bleeding hearts were also seen in a golden platter on his altar the walls of both these chapels were stained with human gore the stench was more intolerable exclaimed Diaz than that of the slaughterhouses in Castile and the frantic forms of the priests with their dark robes clotted with blood as they flitted to and fro seemed to the Spaniards to be those of the very ministers of Satan from this foul abode they gladly escaped into the open air when Cortez, turning to Montezuma said with a smile I do not comprehend how a great and wise prince like you can put faith in such evil spirits as these idols the representatives of the devil if you will but permit us to erect here the true cross and place the images of the blessed virgin and her son in your sanctuaries you will soon see how your false gods will shrink before them Montezuma was greatly shocked at this sacrilegious address these are the gods he answered who have led the Aztecs on to victories since they were a nation and who send the seed time and harvest in their seasons had I thought you would have offered them this outrage I would not have admitted you into their presence Cortez after some expressions of concern at having wounded the feelings of the emperor took his leave Montezuma remained saying that he must expiate if possible the crime of exposing the shrines of the divinities to such profanation by the strangers on descending to the court the Spaniards took a leisurely survey of the other edifices in the enclosure the area was protected by a smooth stone pavement so polished indeed that it was with difficulty the horses could keep their legs there were several other teokalis built generally on the model of the great one though of much inferior size dedicated to the different Aztec deities on their summits were the altars crowned with perpetual flames which with those on the numerous temples the corners of the capital shed a brilliant illumination over its streets through the long nights among the teokalis in the enclosure was one consecrated to Quetzalcoatl circular in its form and having an entrance in imitation of a dragon's mouth bristling with sharp fangs and dropping with blood as the Spaniards cast a furtive glance into the throat of this horrible monster they saw collected their implements of sacrifice and other abominations of fearful import their bold hearts shuttered at the spectacle and they designated the place not in aptly as the hell one other structure may be noticed as characteristic of the brutish nature of their religion this was a pyramidal mound or tumulus having a complicated framework of timber on its broad summit on this was strung an immense number of human skulls which belonged to the victims mostly prisoners of war who had perished on the accursed stone of sacrifice had the patience to count the number of these ghastly trophies and reported it to be 136,000 belief might well be staggered did not the old world present a worthy counterpart in the pyramidal Gaugathas which commemorated the triumphs of Tamerlane there were long ranges of buildings in the enclosure appropriated as the residents of the priests and others engaged in the offices of religion the whole number of them was said to amount to several thousand there were also the principal seminaries for the instruction of youth of both sexes drawn chiefly from the higher and wealthier classes the girls were taught by elderly women who officiated as priestesses in the temples accustomed familiar also to Egypt the Spaniards admit that the greatest care for morals and the most blameless deportment were maintained in these institutions the time of the pupils was chiefly occupied as in most monastic establishments with the minute and burdensome ceremonial of their religion the boys were likewise taught such elements of science as were known to their teachers and the girls initiated in the mysteries of embroidery and weaving which they employed in decorating the temples at a suitable age they generally went forth into the world to assume the occupations fitted to their condition though some remained permanently devoted to the services of religion the spot was also covered by edifices of still a different character there were greeneries filled with the rich produce of the church lands and with the first fruits and other offerings of the faithful one large mansion was reserved for strangers of eminence who were on a pilgrimage to the great Teokali the enclosure was ornamented with gardens shaded by ancient trees and watered by fountains and reservoirs from the copious streams of Chipotlepec the little community was thus provided with almost everything requisite for its own maintenance and the services of the temple it was a microcosm of itself a city within a city and according to the assertion of Cortes embraced a tract of ground large enough for 500 houses it presented in this brief compass the extremes of barbarism blended with a certain civilization altogether characteristic of the Aztecs the rude conquerors saw only the evidence of the former in the fantastic and symbological features of the deities they beheld the literal lineaments of Satan in the rites and frivolous ceremonial his own a special coat of damnation and in the modest deportment and careful nature of the inmates of the seminaries the snares by which he was to beguile his deluded victims before a century had elapsed the descendants of these same Spaniards discerned in the mysteries of the Aztec religion the features obscured and defaced indeed of the Jewish and Christian revelations such were the opposite conclusions of the unlettered soldier and of the scholar untouched by superstition might well doubt which of the two was the most extraordinary the sight of the Indian abominations seems to have kindled in the Spaniards a livelier feeling for their own religion since on the following day they asked leave of Montezuma to convert one of the halls of their residence into a chapel that they might celebrate the services of the church there the monarch in whose bosom the feelings of resentment seemed to have soon subsided easily granted their request and sent some of his own artisans to aid them in the work while it was in progress some of the Spaniards observed what appeared to be a door recently plastered over it was a common rumor that Montezuma still kept the treasures of his father King Axiacatl in this ancient palace the Spaniards acquainted with this fact felt no scruple in gratifying their curiosity by removing the plaster as was anticipated it concealed a door enforcing this they found the rumor that there was no exaggeration they beheld a large hall filled with rich and beautiful stuffs articles of curious workmanship of various kinds gold and silver in bars and in the ore and many jewels of value it was the private hoard of Montezuma the contributions it may be of tributary cities and once the property of his father I was a young man says Diaz who was one of those that obtained a sight of it and it seemed to me as if all the riches of the world were in the room the Spaniards notwithstanding their elation of the discovery of this precious deposit seemed to have felt more commendable scruples as to appropriating it to their own use at least for the present and Cortes after closing up the wall as it was before gave strict injunctions that nothing should be said of the matter unwilling that the knowledge of its existence by his guests should reach the ears of Montezuma three days sufficed to complete the chapel and the Christians had action to see themselves in possession of a temple where they might worship God in their own way under the protection of the cross and the blessed virgin mass was regularly performed by the fathers Olmeido and Diaz in the presence of the assembled army who were most earnest and exemplary in their devotions partly says the chronicler above quoted from the propriety of the thing and partly for its edifying influence on the benighted heathen End of book 4 chapter 2