anded that all such as showed themselves
when come to maturity to be weak or malformed in body, or coward of
heart, then should be put to death; to the end that their natural
increase ever should be of the same stout stuff as themselves, and
also that there might be no lack of victims for the sacrifices
which are acceptable to their barbarous gods. And thus he provided
that in the time of need there should be here a strong army of
valiant warriors, ready to come forth to fight against the
fair-faced bearded men, and by conquering them to save safe the
land.

"And yet more provision did King Chaltzantzin make for the
strengthening and the saving of his race in the later ages. Within
this walled city of Culhuacan he caused to be builded a great
treasure-house, wherein he garnered such store of riches as never
was gathered together in one place since the beginning of the
world. And his order was that if even the power of the army which
should go forth from that city sufficed not to conquer the foreign
foemen, then should this vast treasure be used to buy his people's
ransom, that they might not perish nor be enslaved.

"Having set all which great matters in order, King Chaltzantzin
came forth from the Valley of Aztlan, leaving behind him the noble
colony that he had there founded; and so with his people wandered
vagrant--even as their gods had commanded that they should go until
by a sign from heaven they should be shown where was to be their
lasting home. And that the fulfilling of his purpose might be made
the more sure, he brought his people forth from that valley by most
perilous passes and through strait ways so that they might not
return thither; and that they who remained might not follow, he
closed the way behind him with mighty bars.

"In the fulness of time this wise king died, and others reigned in
his stead; and at last the ages of wandering of the Aztec tribe
were ended by the sign coming from heaven whereby they knew that
the Valley of Anahuac was to be their abiding home. There built
they the city of Tenochtitlan: which city the valiant captain, Don
Fernando Cortes, conquered this short time since--and by conquest
of it verified precisely the prophecy that King Chaltzantzin
uttered in very ancient times.

"But the captive