CHAPTER CI.

CHAPTER CI.

_How the powerful Motecusuma, with several caziques and chief
personages of the country, declare themselves vassals of our
emperor; and of other occurrences which happened then._

As peace was again restored to the country after the imprisonment of the petty kings, Cortes reminded Motecusuma of the offers he had made, previously to our entering Mexico, to pay tribute to our emperor; observing at the same time that he must now be sufficiently convinced of the power and the vast extent of his empire, the number of his vassals, among whom even there were distinguished sovereigns. It would be good, therefore, if he, with all his subjects, likewise acknowledged themselves vassals of our emperor; and it was customary for this act of submission to be preceded by payment of tribute.

In answer to this, Motecusuma said he was quite willing to assemble all the grandees of his empire, and deliberate the matter with them: and after the space of ten days the greater part of the caziques from the surrounding districts assembled together, with the exception, however, of the cazique of Matlaltzinco, who was a near relation of Motecusuma, and considered a man of uncommon bravery; at least his demeanour and bodily frame fully bespoke it, and he was looked upon as Motecusuma's successor to the throne of Mexico.

But even this man, it would appear, was seized with terror; for he sent Motecusuma word from Tula, where he was then staying, that it was impossible for him to be present at the meeting, and he was unable to pay tribute; indeed scarcely able to live himself on what his province produced him.

Enraged at this unexpected answer, Motecusuma despatched some of his generals to take the refractory prince prisoner. But as he was a very powerful cazique, he had, of course, numerous adherers, who sent him intelligence of the steps Motecusuma had determined to take against him; so that he had sufficient time to retreat into the interior of the country, where he was quite out of his monarch's reach.

The other chiefs, however, duly assembled at their monarch's bidding; but neither Cortes nor any of us were present at the meeting, save the page Orteguilla, from whom we learnt what follows:--Motecusuma opened the assembly by reminding the caziques of the ancient tradition of their forefathers, written down in their historical records, of a people that would one time come from the quarter where the sun rose, who were destined to rule this country, and put an end to the Mexican empire. That tradition referred to us, as he concluded, from the declarations of his gods. The priests of Huitzilopochtli had expressly demanded an oracle of that god on this point, and had instituted sacrifices for that purpose; but the god, contrary to his usual custom, had refused the oracle, and merely referred them to his previous declaration; wherefore they had not dared to put any further questions. We may therefore conclude, continued Motecusuma, that Huitzilopochtli meant to say we were even to take the oath of allegiance to the king of Spain, whose subjects the teules are. For the present we cannot do otherwise than act accordingly: we must wait to see if our gods will give a better response some time hence, we can then act as circumstances require. He therefore desired and commanded them, for their own good, cheerfully to give some proof of their allegiance to the Spanish monarch. Malinche had been importunate on this point, and it would not be well to refuse him. For the eight or ten years he had ruled over them they had obeyed him like faithful servants; for which reason he had enriched them, enlarged their territories, and elevated them to high dignities. They were to consider his present confinement as the will of Huitzilopochtli, who had particularly advised him to it, as he had so often assured them on other occasions.

After this reasoning and statement of Motecusuma, all present declared themselves willing to comply with his wishes, but broke out into tears, and sighed deeply, Motecusuma himself being most vehemently affected. He then immediately despatched one of his principal officers to Cortes with the information that the day following they would again meet, and take the oath of allegiance to the emperor.

The next day accordingly this was done in the presence of Cortes, of our officers, and the greater part of the soldiers. All the Mexicans seemed deeply grieved, and Motecusuma himself could not refrain from shedding tears. Even we ourselves, from the great affection we bore this monarch, became quite affected at the sight of his tears, and many of us wept as much as the monarch himself. We therefore strove, if possible, to redouble our attention towards him, and Cortes, with Father Olmedo, who was a man of great intelligence, scarcely left him for a moment; and while we employed every means to cheer him, we never lost an opportunity of exhorting him to abolish his false gods.