Montezuma appeared to be about forty years of age. He was of medium size and rather thin. He had a very majestic appearance, a pleasing countenance, and in color was not so brownish yellow as the rest of the Mexicans. He wore a long cloak of fine woollen stuff which was literally covered with ornaments, pearls, and gems. A golden crown, much resembling a bishop’s mitre, comprised his headdress. His shoes were made of solid gold plates fastened with straps and gold buckles.
[Illustration: _MEETING OF CORTES AND MONTEZUMA_]
The entry was now made with his guest. The city was large and populous. According to the Spanish historians it had twenty thousand flat houses or adobes and a multitude of temples and palaces which in size and splendor exceeded anything ever seen before in the New World. One of the largest of these so-called palaces was assigned to Cortes as his headquarters, and Montezuma accompanied him there. As soon as they arrived he left, in order to have time for rest, as he said, and, as he was going away, begged Cortes to make himself as much at home as if he were among his own brethren.
Cortes stationed sentinels as usual and placed cannon at all the approaches to the palace and ordered his officers and soldiers not to relax their vigilance.
Chapter VIII Religious Rites of the Mexicans—Human Sacrifices—The Natives Discover that the Spaniards are not Divine but Human
On the evening of the same day Montezuma and his brilliant retinue returned to make the first visit to their much honored guest. As soon as Cortes was notified of his approach, he went to the courtyard, received him with a low bow, and conducted him to his apartment. The Mexican Emperor seated himself familiarly and requested the general to be seated also. His attendants ranged themselves at the side of the room and the Spaniards did the same. Marina, the interpreter, was stationed near by, and the Emperor began a ceremonious address, in which he made a strenuous effort to remove any prejudice which Cortes might entertain against him, growing out of harmful reports. “Some have said,” he stated, “that I belong to the immortal gods, others have striven to calumniate me, representing me as a haughty and cruel tyrant. The first of these reports is as false as the other. The refutation of the one will expose the falsity of the other.” With these words, he bared his arm and requested Cortes to convince himself by sight and touch that he was made of flesh and blood like other men—a fact of which Cortes had no doubt. After this he continued his assurances that the reports of his tyranny, with which his enemies had sought to prejudice Cortes against him, were unfounded. After these preliminaries he expressed his sentiments as to the arrival of the Spaniards and the object of their visit in the following words: