way to
life glorious and eternal; for in the fight that happened when he
was captured--of which fight he alone of all his companions had
survived--he was sorely wounded; and though in time his wounds had
healed he remained but a weakly man, and the service to which his
captors forced him was hard. So it was that I had but little more
than time to put him in the way leading to heaven before his spirit
gladly forsook its weary body and went thence from earth.

"That he truly was a convert to our holy faith I am well assured,
by the signs of a spirit meet for repentance which he showed in his
own person; and still more by his strong longing, most earnestly
expressed, that this same glorious faith of freedom should be
preached to a certain great company of his people, whereof he most
secretly told me, who still remain bound in the bondage of
idolatry. And it is what he told me of these, Very Reverend Father,
and of the marvellous hidden city wherein they dwell, and of the
mighty treasure which there they guard, that I desire now to bring
to your private knowledge, before it shall be known of by the
Oidores, and through you to our lord the King. Here now is the
whole of the mystery that he recited:

"In very ancient times, he said, his people came forth from seven
caves which are in the western region of this continent, and
wandered long in search of an abiding-place. And in the course of
ages it came to pass that a certain wise king ruled over them to
whom was given the gift of prophecy. Which king, by name
Chaltzantzin, foretold that in the later ages there should come an
army of fair and bearded men from the eastward, who would prevail
over the people of his race: slaying many, and making of the
remainder slaves. Being sorely troubled by thought of what he thus
foresaw, he set himself to provide a source of strength whereon his
descendants in that later time might draw in the hour of their
peril--and so save themselves from cruel death and from yet crueler
slavery. To which end, in a certain great valley that lies securely
hidden among the mountains of this continent, he caused to be built
a walled city; and this city he then peopled with the very bravest
and strongest of his race. And he made for those dwelling there a
perpetual law that comm