nvoys on his
journey. They informed him on the way that the Aztec governor had,
on the previous evening, dispatched an officer of high rank to
Mexico, to give the emperor the full details of the conversation
and sayings of the strange visitor; for the dispatches were
available only for sending news of facts and occurrences, but could
not be used as mediums for conveying thought.

"Montezuma is mild and gentle in his disposition, and quite unlike
his two predecessors, who were mighty warriors; and doubtless, in
his heart, he will welcome the words you said yesterday concerning
Quetzalcoatl. But he is swayed wholly by the priests, and such
sentiments will not be agreeable to them, for sacrifices are
forever going on at the teocalli. At the dedication of the great
temple for Huitzilopotchli, just thirty years ago, seventy thousand
captives were put to death."

"They must have been miserable creatures," Roger said indignantly,
"to have submitted tamely to such a fate. They might, at least,
have rushed upon their guards, however numerous, and died
fighting."

Roger said little more during that day's journey. The admiration he
had at first felt, for the arts and civilization of these people,
had been succeeded by a feeling of abhorrence. He had heard, from
Malinche, that all victims sacrificed to the gods were afterwards
cooked and eaten; and although he had scarcely believed the girl,
in spite of her solemn assurances, he could now, after seeing the
vast pile of human skulls, quite believe that it was true.

Chapter 8: At Tezcuco.

In each city through which they passed, and several of these were
of vastly greater size and importance than Tepeaca, Roger was
received with the same welcome and rejoicings that had greeted him
there. The houses were decorated with flowers and garlands, dense
crowds lined the streets, processions came out to meet him;
banquets were given in his honor, and everything seemed gay and
joyous. But Roger was low and depressed. To him the whole thing
appeared a mockery. He seemed to see blood everywhere, and the fact
that, as he learned from the casual remark of one of the envoys,
numbers of victims were offered upon the altars on the evening
before his arrival at each town, in order to please the gods and
bring about favorable omens, added to his depression; and he
thought that he had better, a thousand times, have been drowned
with his father and friends, than be the cause of men being t