nd besought the emperor
to turn from his false gods. As Montezuma had himself been a
priest, and was an ardent devotee of his religion, it was scarcely
to be expected that he would favorably entertain the proposal to
change his religion. He answered courteously that, no doubt, the
god of Cortez was good to the Spaniards, just as his own gods were
good to him. What his visitors said of the creation of the world
was similar to what he himself believed. His people had occupied
the land but for a few years, having been led there by a great
being who, after giving them laws, had withdrawn to the regions of
the east. When he left he had promised that he or his descendants
would again visit them, and resume his empire. The wonderful deeds
of the Spaniards, their complexion, the fact that they came from
the east--all showed that they were the descendants of this god.

"Your sovereign beyond the waters is, I know, the rightful lord of
all. I rule in his name. You, Malinzin, are his ambassador, and you
and your brethren shall share what I have."

He then dismissed his visitors with fresh presents.

Malinzin was the name by which Cortez was universally known by the
natives. Malinche was ever with him, and they connected him with
her, and called him by the masculine form of her name.

But gratified as the Spaniards were at the kindness of their
reception, and within the munificent gifts showered upon them, they
could not but feel that their position was a precarious one. They
were in the center of a great city, with a warlike population. It
was broken up, by its canals with their movable bridges, into a
series of fortresses; and it would be well-nigh hopeless to
endeavor, by force, to make their way out of it. At present all
seemed fair, but they were well aware that Montezuma had endeavored
in every way, save by open war, to prevent their coming; and that,
influenced as he was by the oracles of the gods, he might at any
moment exchange his apparent friendship for open enmity.

Two days after arriving at the capital, Roger asked Malinche if she
could obtain permission from the general for him to cross the lake
to Tezcuco, in order that he might pay his friends there a visit.
Presently she returned, saying that the general himself would speak
to him.

Roger had been named Sancho by the Spaniards, as he had not
ventured to give his own name; and it was supposed that he had
forgotten that which he had borne as a child.

"San