Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/414

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

CHAPTER XVII.

CAPTURE OF THE EMPEROR.

November, 1519.

Cortés Inspects the City — Visits the Temple with Montezuma — Discovery of Buried Treasure — Pretended Evidences of Treachery — Cortés Plans a Dark Deed — Preparations for the Seizure of Montezuma — With a Few Men Cortés Enters the Audience-Chamber of the King — Persuasive Discourse — With Gentle Force Montezuma is Induced to Enter the Lion's Den.

Cortés failed not to make diligent inquiries and examinations into the approaches, strength, and topography of the city, but he longed for a view from one of the great temples which, rising high above all other edifices, would enable him to verify his observations. He also desired to obtain a closer insight into the resources of the place. With these objects he sent to Montezuma for permission to make a tour through the town to the Tlatelulco market and temple.[1] This was granted; and attended by the cavalry and most of the soldiers, all fully armed, Cortés set out for that suburb, guided by a number of caciques. It was here that the largest market-place in the city was situated.[2]

  1. They had now been four days in Mexico, without going farther than the palace, says Bernal Diaz. A page named Orteguilla, who had already acquired a smattering of Aztec, was sent with the interpreters to ask this favor. Hist. Verdad., 69.
  2. Soldiers who had been in Rome and Constantinople declared that never had they seen so large and orderly a market, with so large an attendance. Bernal Diaz indicates the site of the plaza to have been where the church of Santiago de Tlatelulco was erected, and this still remains under the same name, over a mile north-west-by-north of the central plaza of Mexico. Hist. Verdad., 70-1. The old maps of Mexico already spoken of give the same site, and Alaman's investigations point out correctly the street which led and leads to it, although he has failed to notice the above authorities, which give the very site. Disert., ii. 282-5.
(294)