CHAPTER XVII.
TLASCALA, CHOLULA, AND MEXICO.
The Tlascallans never broke faith with the Spaniards, not even when they had them in her power at their capital, nor when, crushed and bleeding, they returned to them from their disastrous defeat at Mexico. Once having made treaty with them, they gave over all thoughts of revenge; the past was completely buried; they received the conquerors into their homes, gave them their sisters and daughters for wives, and what gold the country afforded. This present was small, because, they explained, Montezuma absorbed it all as a condition by which he refrained from a war upon them of extermination. Another present, the second received in Tlascalla, now arrived from Montezuma,—jewels and gold, dresses of cotton and beautiful feathers.
It is strange how blind that monarch was to the actual consequences of such an exhibition of his wealth; while he thought to bribe the conquerors to retire, he was only offering stronger inducements for them to advance. It was only the burning desire to witness for themselves the source of all this wonderful wealth that urged them on; but for that, Cortez would long before have been left alone.
The aged senators came out to meet him, in hammocks and litters, and ratified the alliance; they acknowledged themselves as vassals to the King of Spain; a fact very gratifying to Cortez, and humiliating to them, as they had maintained their independence, as a people, from time immemorial.
