[400] Cortés, Cartas, 75-6; Gomara, Hist. Mex., 96-7.
[401] ‘Sacrificassen çinco mill personas para festejar é aplacar sus dioses.’ Oviedo, iii. 499. ‘Estuuo encerrado en sus deuociones, y sacrificios dos dias juntamente con diez Papas.’ Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 61. ‘Estuuo en oracion, y ayuno ocho dias.’ Gomara, Hist. Mex., 97. ‘Si ritirò al palazzo tlillancalmecatl, destinato pel tempo di duolo.’ Clavigero, Storia Mess., iii. 69.
[402] Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., 182; Remesal, Hist. Chyapa, 304. According to Arias de Villalobos, the idol was already stricken mute by the shadow of the approaching cross; the angel released the captive, one of 500 destined for slaughter, and he set forth to join the Spaniards. Vetancvrt, Teatro Mex., pt. iii. 126.
[403] From the lord of Tepeaca came 30 female slaves and some gold, and from Huexotzinco a wooden box, bordered with gold and silver, containing jewels worth 400 pesos de oro. Herrera, dec. ii. lib. vii. cap. iii.
[404] ‘Ten thousand pesos de oro,’ says Torquemada, i. 442.
[405] Cortés, Cartas, 75-6; Torquemada, i. 442. Gomara is confused about these messages between Cholula and Mexico, while Bernal Diaz ignores this attempt to keep back the Spaniards.
[406] ‘Quitarnos la comida, é agua, ò alçar qualquiera de las puentes, nos mataria, y que en vn dia, si nos daua guerra, no quedaria ninguno de nosotros á vida.’ This oracle came from Huitzilopochtli. The bodies should be eaten. Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 61; Oviedo, iii. 499; Gomara, Hist. Mex., 97.
[407] Cortés, Cartas, 77. Bernal Diaz relates that six chiefs brought this message, together with a number of gold jewels, worth upward of 2000 pesos, and some loads of robes. Hist. Verdad., 62. Most authors are, like Gomara, somewhat confused about these messages.
[408] Gomara, Hist. Mex., 96. ‘Algunos querian decir que era boca del infierno.’ Motolinia, Hist. Ind., 180; Torquemada, i. 436-7.
[409] ‘Vinieron muchos Indios a besarles la ropa, y a verlos, como por milagro, ó como a dioses.’ Gomara, Hist. Mex., 96. According to Cortés they failed to reach the summit, although coming very near to it. But this statement is open to doubt, for Cortés is not liberal in according credit to others where it might tend to call attention from himself, particularly to a man like Ordaz, who had, until quite lately, been his most bitter opponent. Gomara had evidently good authority for his statement, since he in this case failed to follow his patron’s version; and Bernal Diaz, who is always ready to contradict him, and who was no friend of Ordaz, does also admit that he reached the summit. He gives him only two companions, however, and starts them from Tlascala. Hist. Verdad., 55. Leading modern authors are inclined to doubt their success. Prescott, Brasseur de Bourbourg, and others, from a misinterpretation of Cortés’ text, allow the ascent to be made while the army was camped on the summit of the range, en route for Mexico.