If Montezuma had really intended harm to the Spanish army this would have been the place, in this gap, where he would, beyond all doubt, have attacked them. For the trail ascends to a height of nearly 14,000 feet, where the winds are of chilling temperature, and the roads wind through great black forests of pine and hemlock, where an Aztec army would have every advantage for an ambuscade. They found nothing to prevent their ascent and descent, except trees felled to obstruct their passage, and another day found them within the limits of the valley of Anahuac, with their goal in sight, at intervals, from the higher hills.
At Cholula, previous to leaving it behind him, Cortez had dismissed the Cempoallans and had accepted from the Tlascallans a thousand men to carry his baggage and draw the artillery, He might have had ten thousand had he so chosen, but that great number it would not have been policy to carry into Montezuma's kingdom on an errand of peace. The Cempoallans returned to their homes; and we do not know that they ever received a reward for their inestimable services; they fell, with the rest of the Indian nations, under Spanish dominion, and to-day you cannot find their city, save perhaps a stone or two of its ruins. Many of them, and likewise all the Indians brought from Cuba, perished of cold and privation when they reached the cold altitudes of the table-lands.
The feelings of the conquerors, as they caught sight of the royal city, situated in the centre of that vast valley, the hills, plains, mountains, even the lakes, dotted with cities and villages, all exhibiting tokens of wealth and power, must have been indescribable. To the first feeling of exhilaration, consequent upon gazing upon such a glorious scene, must have succeeded gloomy reflections upon their own position in this powerful kingdom, sur-
