were very great towns and houses, well built of the best masonry, such as we had not seen in any of these parts. This province of Coastoaca is forty leagues from that of Izzucan. The natives of the said eight towns offered themselves as vassals of Your Highness, and said that four others in the same province would come very soon. They asked me to excuse them if they had not dared to do so before for fear of the Culuans, but said that they never had taken up arms against me, nor had they participated in the killing of any Spaniards, and that always since offering themselves to the service of Your Highness they had been good and loyal subjects in their hearts, but had not dared to manifest it out of fear of the Culuans. Thus Your Highness may be very sure that, Our Lord favouring Your Royal good fortune, we shall within a short time regain what was lost, or the greater part of it; because every day many provinces and cities, who before were subject to Montezuma, come to offer themselves as vassals of Your Majesty; for they see that those who do so are well received and treated by me, and that those who do otherwise are destroyed one after another.
From prisoners taken in the city of Guacachula, especially from that wounded man, I learned very fully
Montezu-
ma's
Successor about the affairs of the capital of Temixtitan, and how, after the death of Montezuma, a brother of his, lord of the city of Iztapalapa, called Cuetravacin,[1] had succeeded to the lordship, because the son of Montezuma, who should
- ↑ After the death of Montezuma, Cuitlahuaczin of Iztapalapan, who had been in chief command of the rising against the Spaniards, assumed the chieftainship and three months later (Aztec calendar) he was appointed emperor. He married Montezuma's daughter, the Princess Tecuichpo. His coronation was celebrated with the customary solemnities, the prisoners taken on the Sorrowful Night, both Spaniards and Tlascalans, serving as victims for the sacrifices. The newly elected sovereign had to cope with a situation bristling with difficulties — dissensions within, insubordination in the tributary provinces, the enemy without, and finally and most terrible of all, the
