"Because I cannot speak the language of the Spaniards; and it was necessary, for my safety, for them to believe that I am one of themselves, rescued from some Spanish ship cast, by a gale, on their shores when I was a little lad. Had I gone to Cortez direct, he would probably have guessed, from my dress and from my speaking the language, that this was how I came to be here; but had I not seen Malinche before I saw him, she would have recognized me, and would no doubt have told Cortez that she had known me from the time I was cast ashore, near Tabasco, somewhat over two years ago. He would then have known that I could not be a Spaniard, for if so, I could not in so short a time have lost my own language."
Cacama now interposed, and asked many questions about Tlascala and its people.
"Some of the Tlascalan princes and caziques gave their daughters as wives to the Spaniards, did they not?"
"Six of them did so," Roger replied. "The ladies were first baptized into the Christian religion, and then married by the priests to as many of the chief leaders of the Spaniards."
"And what did you think of that?" Cacama asked.
"I did not think much about it," Roger said; "for it was no business of mine, but that of the ladies and their friends. It was certainly a politic course, on the part both of Cortez and the Tlascalans, and bound the alliance more closely together.
"But methinks that, upon such work as the Spaniards are engaged in, a man were better without a wife, both for his sake and her own. A man who goes into battle with no one but himself to think of may take joy in the strife; for he knows that, if he falls, it makes no very great matter to anyone. But if he has a wife hard by, who will be left a widow if he is slain, it must be ever present to him while he is fighting; and though he may not fight less stoutly, it must cause him grievous anxiety, and take away the pleasure of fighting."
"You have already told us that the white men are good husbands," the queen said.
"I do not know that they are in any way better, in that respect, than your own people, Queen Maclutha. There are good and bad--men who treat their wives well, and men who neglect them."
"But you told us that they only had one wife, each," she said; "and that even kings are kept to this rule, as well as their humblest subjects."