Montezuma Then Presented A Quantity Of Valuable
Ornaments Of Gold To Our General, With A Present Of Some Gold, And Three
Loads Of Mantles To Each Of Our Captains, And Two Loads Of Mantles To Each
Of The Soldiers.
After this he asked Cortes if all his soldiers were
brothers and vassals to our emperor.
To this Cortes answered that they
were all brothers in love and friendship, men of rank in our own country,
and servants of our great sovereign. Montezuma then departed, with mutual
compliments, after giving orders that we should be amply provided with
every thing we needed; particularly fowls, fruit, and corn, stone mills
for grinding our corn, and women to make bread, and to supply us daily
with plenty of grass for our horses.
Next day being appointed for making a visit to Montezuma, Cortes went to
the royal palace accompanied by captains Alvarado, De Leon, Ordas, and
Sandoval, with five soldiers. Montezuma met him in the middle of the great
hall, attended by his relations, all others being excluded from the
apartment in which he happened to be, except on certain occasions of
importance. After mutual compliments of ceremony, Montezuma took Cortes by
the hand, and led him to a seat on his own right hand, placed on an
elevated platform in the saloon. Cortes then said, "That he came to him in
the name and for the service of the only true God, who was adored by the
Christians, the Lord Christ Jesus, who had died to save us and all men. He
endeavoured to explain the mystery of the cross, as an emblem of the
crucifixion, by which mankind had been redeemed. He recounted the
sufferings and death of our Lord and Saviour, who had risen on the third
day and ascended to heaven, where he now reigns, the creator of the
heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and all that they contain. He
asserted, that those idols which the natives held as gods, were devils
which dared not to remain wherever the holy cross was planted. That as all
mankind were brothers, the offspring of the same first pair, our glorious
emperor lamented the loss of their souls, which would be brought by their
idols into everlasting flames, and had sent us to apply a sure remedy, by
abolishing the worship of idols, the bloody and inhuman sacrifices of
their fellow men, and their other odious customs so contrary to the law of
God: And that our emperor would send them holy men hereafter to explain
all these things more fully." To this Montezuma replied, "Malinatzin! I am
much indebted to your emperor for sending you so far to inform me of all
these things, of which I have already heard by means of my ambassadors who
have visited you in my name, and to which hitherto we have made no reply.
We have always worshipped our gods, whom we consider to be just and good,
and have no doubt yours are so likewise.
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