 
On the evening of the same day Montezuma and his brilliant retinue returned to make the first visit to their much honored guest. As soon as Cortes was notified of his approach, he went to the courtyard, received him with a low bow, and conducted him to his apartment. The Mexican Emperor seated himself familiarly and requested the general to be seated also. His attendants ranged themselves at the side of the room and the Spaniards did the same. Marina, the interpreter, was stationed near by, and the Emperor began a ceremonious address, in which he made a strenuous effort to remove any prejudice which Cortes might entertain against him, growing out of harmful reports. “Some have said,” he stated, “that I belong to the immortal gods, others have striven to calumniate me, representing me as a haughty and cruel tyrant. The first of these reports is as false as the other. The refutation of the one will expose the falsity of the other.” With these words, he bared his arm and requested Cortes to convince himself by sight and touch that he was made of flesh and blood like other men—a fact of which Cortes had no doubt. After this he continued his assurances that the reports of his tyranny, with which his enemies had sought to prejudice Cortes against him, were unfounded. After these preliminaries he expressed his sentiments as to the arrival of the Spaniards and the object of their visit in the following words: “We know from traditions which have come down to us from old times that our ancestors came from a distant region and conquered those countries which are to-day subject to my authority. Their leader was the great Quetzalcoatl, Cortes rejoiced at this news which was favorable to his intentions. He confirmed the superstitious Montezuma in his belief and satisfied him that the prophecy of the great Quetzalcoatl had been fulfilled and that he and his Spaniards were his descendants. “In the meantime,” he added, “while it is evident that the exalted monarch of the East, whose most humble servant I have the honor to be, has a just claim upon all your countries, yet he is too far away personally to assert his claim. He only desires of you and your people that you shall abandon your errors and accept the true faith which he has commissioned me to announce. You are living under a false religion. You are worshipping senseless blocks, made by your own hands. There is but one true God, and He has created and governs everything that is. This one Being, who is without beginning and without end, has made out of nothing the whole universe, the flaming sun which shines upon all, the earth and all that is in it, and the first man, from whom we are all descended. We are all obliged to recognize the First Cause of all things, and for that reason the King, my master, invites you, great Emperor, and all your people to accept these sentiments and maintain affectionate and brotherly relations with him. He desires you to enter into a friendly alliance which will always be of great advantage to you.” Montezuma was visibly excited by Cortes’ address. It was so intolerable to hear his deities insulted that it was with difficulty he could restrain his impatience until Cortes ended. Then he arose somewhat hastily and replied that while he gratefully accepted the offer of friendly relations with a prince descended from Quetzalcoatl, these relations might be maintained without giving up his own deities for the God whom the Spaniards worshipped. With these words he closed the interview and, after bestowing some costly gifts, made his way back to his palace. On the next day, accompanied by his leading officers, Cortes went with much ceremony for another interview with the Emperor. This one lasted longer than the first. Montezuma asked a hundred questions about the European mode of life, habits, and customs, but Cortes, who had not these matters so much at heart as the work of conversion, seized every opportunity to give the conversation a religious turn, and specially inveighed against the cruel custom of human sacrifices. At the close of the interview Montezuma exhibited to his guests the splendors of the temples. He conducted them to the largest of these, and the priests offered no objection to their admission upon condition that nothing unseemly should be done. Montezuma himself exhibited and explained everything to them. He told the names of the deities, the highest of which was called Bitzliputzli, and described the worship which was paid to each of them. As these heathenish rites were inexpressibly shocking, Cortes asked permission to place the Cross of Christ in the temple, thinking that it would soon convince them that their deities were powerless. Montezuma listened to the proposal with the greatest displeasure, and the priests with amazement. The Emperor soon recovered his composure, however, and merely replied that he had expected his guests would show the same respect for the place where they were that they had shown to him. With these words he passed out, telling the Spaniards they were at liberty to repair to their own quarters, but as for himself he would remain to ask pardon of his deities for his extraordinary patience. The natives of Mexico professed a horrible religion, of which human sacrifice was the principal feature. They often made war upon neighboring people for no other purpose than to capture prisoners to be slaughtered upon their altars and afterward eaten. During battle they spared the lives of their enemies, saving them for a more terrible death by the knives of the priests. The number of these unfortunate victims sometimes reached thousands in a single day. Some historians have placed it as high as twenty-five thousand. If the nation were at peace for a long time and no prisoners were available for offerings, the priests would notify the Emperor that the deities were suffering from hunger. As soon as the Emperor’s proclamation spread the news through the country that the deities were ready for a banquet, it was the signal for a general war upon their neighbors. Then as soon as a sufficient number of prisoners had been collected, the priests began their hideous business. It cannot be denied that the various calamities which befell the natives at the hands of the tyrannical Europeans were a very great wrong, but, as compared with the terrible cruelties practised before their arrival, it must be acknowledged that these unfortunate people upon the whole gained more than they lost by submission to the Spanish yoke. Cortes’ delight over the successful progress of his undertaking up to this time was now disturbed by reflections upon the dangerous situation into which he had so recklessly plunged. He realized all too clearly that he had ventured more than he might be able to carry out, and that the fate of himself and his army rested in the hands of a prince whose real intentions seemed to grow more and more mysterious. The Tlaxcalans from the beginning had not ceased to warn him that Montezuma’s object in receiving him in his capital was to catch him in a trap from which there was no way of escape. The disposition of this ruler and the peculiar situation of his capital lent probability to these warnings. Should they destroy the causeways located along the lake, which were the only approaches to the city, he saw that he would be completely cut off from the rest of the world and surrounded by a multitude against whose superior numbers neither his courage nor his weapons might be of any avail. In this emergency a very unpleasant event had occurred at Vera Cruz, of which Cortes received information shortly before this time. Quauhpopoka, one of the Mexican generals, after Cortes’ departure for that region, determined to punish those people who had revolted and placed themselves under the protection of the Spaniards. Escalante, the governor of Vera Cruz, considered himself bound to assist his allies. At the head of his little band and with the two remaining horses he offered battle. He held his ground, but he himself and seven others were fatally wounded. The most unfortunate event of the battle was the killing of one of the horses and the capture of one of his men. The Mexicans killed their prisoner at once and sent his head to various cities as a proof that the Spaniards were not immortal. At last their trophy reached the capital. Cortes, who naturally was disturbed by the dangers confronting him, spent that night in earnest consideration of methods to escape them. Toward morning he summoned some of his faithful Tlaxcalans to ascertain just what they had seen or heard of Montezuma’s secret designs. Their statements confirmed his suspicions as well as his determination to carry out the plan he had settled upon. They specially informed him that the leading officials had acted mysteriously for several days, that the head of a Spaniard had been sent among the provinces, and that Montezuma had issued orders to conceal it. Finally they declared they had heard that preparations were already being made to destroy the causeways. This was enough for Cortes. His decision was made, and he endeavored to convince his officers that there was no other way of escape except that which he had planned. |
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