TRIBUTE TO THE KING OF SPAIN
acknowledging the great king beyond the waters to be your lord, and that you will pay him tribute in the same manner as you have hitherto done to me."
The emperor's will was law. In silent bitterness each noble took the oath of allegiance to Don Carlos of Spain, while the Spanish notary recorded the curious ceremony. So intense seemed the distress of the Aztecs at the act of humiliation that "even though it was in the regular way of our own business," says Bernal Diaz, "there was not a Spaniard who could look on the spectacle with a dry eye."
To show that the Mexicans were vassals in deed as well as word, Cortés at once sent Montezuma's tax-gatherers throughout all Anahuac to collect tribute for the Spanish emperor. As his own share the Aztec monarch gave all the riches of his treasure-chamber.
In twenty days the collectors returned and the tribute was piled in the courtyard of the Old Palace. As Cortés gazed on the shining heaps of gold-dust, the bars of gold and silver, the ornaments, the feather-work, the ingenious toys and trinkets, he exclaimed, "Surely it is a treasure such as no monarch in Europe can boast!"
"I regret," said Montezuma, "that it is not larger, but it is somewhat diminished by my former gifts. Take it, Malintzin, and let it be recorded in your annals that Montezuma sent this present to your master."
And now the soldiers began to clamour for an
