to settle amongst them with his troops, and they gave him and his officers some of the noblest Indian women as wives, in order to strengthen the alliance between them. They cautioned him against the people of Cholula, their next neighbors, who had formerly been allies of theirs, but who, by a detestable act of treachery, had won their undying hate, and were now subjects, or allies, of Montezuma. There were two roads to the Mexican capital, the most direct was through the country of the Huexotzincos, who had already sent in their allegiance to the King of Spain; the other through the district of Cholula, the residence of the priests of Quetzalcoatl. The embassadors of Montezuma advised them to go by the way of Cholula, because, though the route was longer, they could perform the journey with less discomfort. Cortez sent to ask the Cholulans why they had not offered their congratulations on his arrival, and they returned reply that they feared the Tlascallans, who were a base and treacherous people, but that they now acknowledged themselves vassals of his king, and hoped he would pay them a visit.
Four of the principal nobility of the Mexican court now arrived, with more gold and more mantles, amounting to ten thousand crowns' value of the former, and ten bales of the latter. Montezuma had now changed his policy, probably seeing that the Spaniards were determined to advance at all odds, and thinking perhaps that it would be better to receive them as friends than to allow them to league themselves with his enemies, the Tlascallans. He sent to them, saying that he "wondered at their staying amongst a people so poor and base as the Tlascallans, who were robbers, and unfit even for slaves," and then invited to his capital.
When the Tlascallans saw that Cortez would go to Mexico, and through the district of Cholula, they raised an
