The Gold Given On This Occasion Was Worth About
A Thousand Crowns, And The Whole Was Given With So Much Affability And
Indifference, As Made Him Appear Truly Munificent.
Cortes now took leave,
it being the hour of dinner, and we retired impressed with high respect
for the liberality and princely munificence of Montezuma.
The great Montezuma appeared to be about forty years of age, of good
stature, well proportioned, and rather thin. His face was rather long,
with a pleasant expression, and good eyes, and his complexion rather
fairer than the other Indians. His hair was short, just covering his ears,
and his scanty beard was thin, black, and well arranged. His person was
very clean and delicate, as he bathed every evening; and his manners were
a pleasing compound of gravity and good humour. He had two lawful wives,
who were princesses, and a number of mistresses; but his visits to these
were conducted with such secrecy as only to be known by his most familiar
servants; and he lay under no suspicion of unnatural vices, so common
among his subjects. The clothes he wore one day were not used for four
days after. His guard consisted of two hundred nobles, who had apartments
adjoining his own. Certain persons only among these were permitted to
speak to him, and when they went into his presence, they laid aside their
ordinary rich dresses, putting on others quite plain but clean, entering
his apartment barefooted, with their eyes fixed on the ground, and making
three profound reverences as they approached him.
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