eding so large a body of men would be
great, indeed; and as his authority over them would be but feeble,
constant broils with the Aztecs would be the inevitable result. He
therefore, with many thanks, declined the offer; but said that he
would gladly take with him a force of six thousand volunteers.

The first march was to be to Cholula, whose people had sent a warm
invitation to Cortez to visit them; and Montezuma, by his last
envoys, also requested them to journey forward by way of that city.

The Tlascalans had strongly urged him to refuse the invitation. The
Cholulans were, they said, a treacherous people and not to be
trusted. They were bigoted beyond the people of other cities,
Cholula being the holy city of Anahuac. It was here the god
Quetzalcoatl had remained for twenty years on his way down to the
coast, instructing the people in the arts of civilization. Here was
the great temple of the god, a pyramid whose base covered
forty-four acres, and whose height was a hundred and eighty feet;
the platform on its summit, where the sacrifices took place, being
an acre in size.

Cortez, however, decided upon visiting Cholula. He deemed the
reports of the Tlascalans to be prejudiced, as there was a
long-standing animosity between the two peoples; and he thought
that, were he to avoid visiting this important town, which lay
almost on his road to Mexico, it might be set down by the Aztecs to
distrust or fear.

The departure from Tlascala was witnessed by the whole of the
population of the state, who assembled to bid the white men
farewell, and to wish them success upon their way. A day's march
took them to within a mile or two of Cholula. Here they were met by
many nobles from the city, who urged them to enter it that evening;
but Cortez, bearing in mind the warnings he had received, and
thinking it dangerous to enter the streets of an unknown and
possibly hostile city after dark, declined to move forward until
morning. Seeing the hostility and distrust excited in the minds of
his visitors at the sight of the Tlascalans in his camp, he ordered
his allies to remain in camp when he advanced in the morning, and
to join him only when he left the city on his way to Mexico.

The Spaniards, as they entered Cholula, were greatly struck with
the appearance of the city and its inhabitants, it being a very
much larger and more highly civilized place than any they had yet
met with. The buildings were large and handsome, the str