"The meal of the monarch ended, all his guards and domestics sat down to dinner; and, as near as I could judge, above a thousand plates of those eatables that I have mentioned, were laid before them, with vessels of foaming chocolate and fruit in immense quantity. For his women, and various inferior servants, his establishment was of a prodigious expense; and we were astonished, amid such a profusion, at the vast regularity that prevailed.
"His major domo kept the accounts of Montezuma's rents in books which occupied an entire house.
"Montezuma had two buildings filled with every kind of arms, richly ornamented with gold and jewels; such as shields, large and small clubs like two-handed swords, and lances much larger than ours, with blades six feet in length, so strong that if they fix in a shield they do not break; and sharp enough to use as razors.
"There was also an immense quantity of bows and arrows, and darts, together with slings, and shields which roll up into a small compass and in action are let fall, and thereby cover the whole body. He had also much defensive armor of quilted cotton, ornamented with feathers in different devices, and casques for the head, made of wood and bone, with plumes of feathers, and many other articles too tedious to mention."[1]
Besides this sumptuous residence in the city, the Emperor is supposed to have had others at Chapultepec, Tezcoco and elsewhere, which will be spoken of when we describe the ancient remains of Mexico in the valley of Mexico.
If the sovereign lived, thus, in state befitting the ruler of such an empire, it may be supposed that his courtiers were not less sumptuous in their style of domestic arrangements. The great body of the nobles and caciques, possessed extensive estates, the tenures of which were chiefly of a military character;—and, upon these large possessions, surrounded by warlike natives and numerous slaves, they lived, doubtless, like many of the independent, powerful chieftains in Europe, who, in the middle ages, maintained their feudal splendor, both in private life and in active service whenever summoned by their sovereigns to give aid in war.
The power of the Emperor over the laws of the country as well as over the lives of the people, was perfectly despotic. There were supreme judges in the chief towns, appointed by the Emperor who possessed final jurisdiction in civil and criminal causes; and there were, besides, minor courts in each province, as well as
- ↑ Bernal Diaz Del Castillo's Hist. Conq. Mexico.
