THE ROMANCE OF MEXICO
wheel, and elaborately carved with plants and animals, inflamed the cupidity of the Spaniards, who valued this alone at twenty thousand pesos de oro (about £50,000). Last of all was offered to Cortés the Spanish helmet filled to the brim with grains of gold.
With courtly formality the ambassadors then delivered the message of their master. "Montezuma rejoices," they said, "in the arrival of such brave men in his country, and is pleased to hold this communication with their powerful king, for whom he feels the deepest respect. He regrets much that owing to the distance of his capital he cannot receive the strangers at his court, but the journey is beset with so many difficulties that they must not dream of attempting it. It is the emperor's wish, therefore, that they should return at once to their own land bearing his gifts to their master as proofs of friendship."
This reply, so courteous yet so unwelcome, called for all the diplomacy of Cortés, who dissembled his disappointment in effusive thanks for Montezuma's munificence. "It makes me," he declared, "but the more anxious to see and speak with your gracious monarch in person. It will be indeed impossible for me to present myself before my own sovereign without having accomplished this great object of my voyage. One who has sailed over two thousand leagues of ocean holds lightly the perils and fatigues of so short a journey by land."
The ambassadors promised to convey this message, but held out no hopes of a favourable answer, and it was with some reluctance that they accepted for their
