y sacrificed on the altars of his gods! His
capital stood on a lake, in the center of a spacious valley.... The
approach to the city was by means of causeways several miles long;
and when the connecting bridges were raised all communication with
the country was cut off.

The Indians showed the greatest curiosity respecting the dresses,
weapons, horses, and dogs of their strange visitors. The country all
around was then well wooded and full of villages and towns, which
disappeared after the conquest. Humboldt remarked, when he traveled
there, that the whole district had, "at the time of the arrival of the
Spanish, been more inhabited and better cultivated, and that in
proportion as they got higher up near the table-land, they found the
villages more frequent, the fields more subdivided, and the people more
law-abiding."

Before entering upon the table-land, Cortes resolved to visit the
republic of Tlascala, which was noted for having retained its
independence in spite of the Aztecs. After sending an embassy,
consisting of the four chief Zempoallas, who had accompanied the army,
he set out toward Tlascala, lingering as they proceeded, so that his
ambassadors should have time to return. While wondering at the delay,
they suddenly reached a remarkable fortification which marked the limits
of the republic, and acted as a barrier against the Mexican invasions.
Prescott thus describes it:

A stone wall nine feet in height and twenty in thickness, with a
parapet a foot and a half broad raised on the summit for the
protection of those who defended it. It had only one opening in
the center, made by two semicircular lines of wall overlapping each
other for the space of forty paces, and affording a passageway
between, ten paces wide, so contrived, therefore, as to be
perfectly commanded by the inner wall. This fortification, which
extended more than two leagues, rested at either end on the bold
natural buttresses formed by the sierra. The work was built of
immense blocks of stone nicely laid together without cement, and
the remains still existing, among which are rocks of the whole
breadth of the rampart, fully attest its solidity and size.

Who were the people of this stout-hearted republic? The Tlascalans were
a kindred tribe to the Aztecs, and after coming to the Mexican Valley,
toward the close of the twelfth century, had settled for many years