hen there no
longer was any safe shelter upon the land, Guatemozin retired to his
canoe and took shelter here, and calmly waited till his time should
come to be murdered. He could not flee. He could not capitulate, for he
was an emperor. As he sat here waiting for death, what must have been
his reflections! What thoughts did not the very boat he occupied call
up! How often had it carried him out upon the lake to the floating
gardens and volcanic islands, where he had witnessed so many times the
gorgeous reflections of an evening sun upon the snow-capped
Popocatapetl, in whose bowels "the god of fire" had his dwelling! And
then the lake itself, how much it had perplexed his thoughts, that in
one part its waters should be fresh, with islands teeming with the
richest vegetation, and in another part salt and bitter, with utter
barrenness resting upon its shores! How he used to meet his brother of
Tezcuco in the after part of the day, to exchange congratulations and
talk over affairs of interest to both the royal families! Now all these
pleasures were terminated forever. His brother of Tezcuco was in the
ranks of his enemies, seeking his destruction.

Thus sat the emperor, surrounded by a numerous fleet of canoes, whose
occupants were without hope of escape or strength to fight; but, with
Indian stoicism, all sat waiting their inevitable doom from freebooters
whom they had disappointed of their prey. As the emperor and his nobles
sat here witnessing the destruction of their pumice-stone palaces and
mud-built huts, and the filling up of their canals, they consoled
themselves with the reflection that their gold and their wealth were
all at the bottom of these canals, and that the Spaniards, in their hot
haste to enjoy the spoils of the city, were unwittingly burying forever
the prize for which they were contending. Such were the thoughts of
these Aztecs as they sat in their canoes, longing for death to relieve
them from agony of suspense, enduring all the torments of the extremest
thirst, which they vainly sought to quench by draughts of the brackish
water of the lake. They had not long to wait; for, by the express
commands of Cortez, his followers were mowing down unresisting
citizens, because the emperor, over whom they had no control, would not
surrender himself.

Who can stand for the first time upon the mountain rim that incloses
this valley, and not have his thoughts carried back to some such scene
as this? The recolle