ds of an unappeasable fate. He gave himself up to fasting,
prayer and sacrifice. He consulted all his oracles anew. But they gave
no response. He then sought counsel of his chiefs, and the sages of his
court. Here again he was distracted by the divided opinions of his
friends. While many of the princes, overawed by the invincible courage
and invariable success of the Castilians, advised a frank and courteous
reception, there was still a powerful war-party, with the brave
Cuitlahua at their head, who were eager to measure lances with the
strangers, and show them that, in order to reach the capital, they had
other foes to contend with and overcome, than half savage Tlascalans, or
trading Cholulans.

Montezuma found no difficulty in following the counsel of the majority,
though the mystic warning of Karee had not wholly faded from his mind. A
new embassy was immediately despatched, consisting of a numerous suite
of powerful nobles, and a long train of servants bearing rich presents
of gold, and other valuables, and charged with a message couched in
terms of humble and earnest supplication, proposing, if the Spaniards
would now return, not only to send them home laden with gold to their
utmost wish, but to pay an annual tribute of gold to their master, the
king of Spain. Finding that this bribe only fired the grasping conqueror
with a more fixed determination to secure the whole prize for which he
had so long, and against such fearful odds, contended, the messengers
yielded the point, and threw wide open to the dreaded foe every avenue
to the heart of the empire, assuring him, in the name of the Emperor,
that he should be received as a brother, and entertained with the
consideration due to the powerful representative of a mighty monarch.

The march of the Spaniards was now a continued triumph. No longer
compelled to fight their way on, they had time to enjoy the rich and
varied scenery, to scale the mountain, explore the caverns and ravines
of the sierras, and the craters of the volcanoes, and show to the
admiring natives, by their agility and love of adventure, that fighting
and conquest had neither tamed their spirits, nor exhausted their
physical powers. As they advanced, they were continually surprised and
delighted with the growing evidences of civilization and high prosperity
which met them on every side. In the cultivation of the land, in the
style of architecture, and in all that constitutes the refinement, or
cont