es, called by them mitotes, and in the islands,
areytos. In these dances they wear all their richest ornaments,
and as this is their principal enjoyment and festivity, all take
part in it. The greatest nobles and knights and those of royal
blood, according to their rank, performed their dances and
ceremonies nearest the buildings where their sovereign was a
prisoner.
12. More than 2000 sons of lords were assembled in the place nearest to
the said palaces who were the flower and the best nobility of all
Montezuma's empire. The captain [Alvarado] of the Spaniards went
thither with a squadron of his men and he sent other squadrons to
all the other parts of the city, where they were performing the said
dances, pretending that they went to witness them; and he commanded
that at a certain hour all should fall upon them.
13. And while the Indians were intent on their dances in all security he
cried, Santiago! and fell upon them; with their drawn swords the
Spaniards pierced those naked and delicate bodies, and shed that
generous blood, so that not even one was left alive. The same was
done by the others in the other squares.
14. This was a thing that filled all those kingdoms and people with
amazement, anguish, lamentation bitterness and grief. And until the
end of the world, or till they are entirely destroyed, they will not
cease in their dances, to lament and sing--as we say here in
romances,--that calamity and the destruction of all their hereditary
nobility, in whom they had gloried for so many years back.
15. Upon witnessing such injustice and unheard of cruelty, inflicted
upon so many innocent and inoffensive people, the Indians, who had
tolerated with patience the equally unjust imprisonment of their
supreme monarch, because he himself had commanded them to refrain
from attacking or making war on the Christians, now took up arms
throughout the city and attacked the Spaniards, many of whom were
wounded and with difficulty found safety in flight.
16. Threatening the captive Montezuma with a dagger at his breast, they
forced him to show himself on the battlements, and to command the
Indians to cease besieging the house and calm themselves. His
subjects had no mind to obey him any further, but on the contrary,
they conferred