vassals of our emperor; and it was customary for this act of
submission to be preceded by payment of tribute.

In answer to this, Motecusuma said he was quite willing to assemble all
the grandees of his empire, and deliberate the matter with them: and
after the space of ten days the greater part of the caziques from the
surrounding districts assembled together, with the exception, however,
of the cazique of Matlaltzinco, who was a near relation of Motecusuma,
and considered a man of uncommon bravery; at least his demeanour and
bodily frame fully bespoke it, and he was looked upon as Motecusuma's
successor to the throne of Mexico.

But even this man, it would appear, was seized with terror; for he sent
Motecusuma word from Tula, where he was then staying, that it was
impossible for him to be present at the meeting, and he was unable to
pay tribute; indeed scarcely able to live himself on what his province
produced him.

Enraged at this unexpected answer, Motecusuma despatched some of his
generals to take the refractory prince prisoner. But as he was a very
powerful cazique, he had, of course, numerous adherers, who sent him
intelligence of the steps Motecusuma had determined to take against him;
so that he had sufficient time to retreat into the interior of the
country, where he was quite out of his monarch's reach.

The other chiefs, however, duly assembled at their monarch's bidding;
but neither Cortes nor any of us were present at the meeting, save the
page Orteguilla, from whom we learnt what follows:--Motecusuma opened
the assembly by reminding the caziques of the ancient tradition of their
forefathers, written down in their historical records, of a people that
would one time come from the quarter where the sun rose, who were
destined to rule this country, and put an end to the Mexican empire.
That tradition referred to us, as he concluded, from the declarations of
his gods. The priests of Huitzilopochtli had expressly demanded an
oracle of that god on this point, and had instituted sacrifices for that
purpose; but the god, contrary to his usual custom, had refused the
oracle, and merely referred them to his previous declaration; wherefore
they had not dared to put any further questions. We may therefore
conclude, continued Motecusuma, that Huitzilopochtli meant to say we
were even to take the oath of allegiance to the king of Spain, whose
subjects the teules are. For the present we cannot do otherwise than act