l
promptitude at this crisis. He caused the cacique and the principal
inhabitants and the priests to be taken prisoners, and then commanded
them to quiet the people, threatening that a single arrow shot at the
Spaniards should cost them their lives. Marina also represented the
madness of resistance, reminding the cacique that if he lost the
friendship of the strangers, he would be left alone to face the
vengeance of Montezuma. This consideration decided him: covering his
face with his hands, he exclaimed that the gods would avenge their own
wrongs. Taking advantage of this tacit consent, fifty soldiers rushed up
the stairway of the temple, and dragging the great wooden idols from
their places in the topmost tower, they rolled them down the steps of
the pyramid amid the groans of the natives and the triumphant shouts of
their comrades, and then burnt them to ashes. The Totonacs, finding that
their gods were unable to prevent or even punish this profanation of
their temple, now believed that they were indeed less to be feared than
the Spaniards, and offered no further resistance. By Cortes's orders the
teocalli was then thoroughly purified, and an altar was erected,
surmounted by a great cross hung with garlands of roses, and Father
Olmedo said Mass before the Indians and Spaniards, who seem to have been
alike impressed by the ceremony. An old disabled soldier, named Juan de
Torres, was left to watch over the sanctuary and instruct the natives in
its services, while the general, taking a friendly leave of his Totonac
allies, set out once more for Villa Rica, to finish his arrangements
before departing for the capital. Here he was surprised to find that a
Spanish vessel had arrived in his absence, having on board twelve
soldiers and two horses, a very welcome addition to the tiny army.
Cortes now resolved to execute a plan of which he had been thinking for
some time. He knew very well that none of his arrangements about the
colony would hold good without the Spanish monarch's sanction, and also
that Velasquez had great interest at court, and would certainly use it
against him. Therefore he resolved to send despatches to the emperor
himself, and such an amount of treasure as should give a great idea of
the extent and importance of his discoveries. He gave up his own share
of the spoil, and persuaded his officers to do the same, and a paper was
circulated among the soldiers, calling upon all who chose to resign the
small port