and exhibited the tactics which contributed so powerfully to Spanish supremacy over native arms. He also enjoyed sports, and among games the totoloque was his favorite. This consisted in throwing small golden balls at pieces of the same metal set up as targets at a certain distance. Five points won the stakes. Cortés often played it with him, and Alvarado, who kept count for the general, usually marked more points than he was entitled to. Montezuma playfully protested against such marking, although what Cortes won he gave to the Mexican attendants, while Montezuma presented his gains to the Spanish guard.[1]
Montezuma was at times allowed to visit his palaces, and to enjoy the hunting-field, but these trips were of rare occurrence, owing to the danger of popular demonstrations.[2] On such occasions, says Cortes, the escort of prominent Mexicans numbered at least three thousand. The first time Montezuma requested this privilege it was for the purpose of offering prayer and sacrifice at the great temple, as required by his gods, he said; and although Cortes did not like the arrangement, his prisoner convinced him that this public demonstration was necessary, in order to show the people that he was not kept in compulsory confinement, but remained with the
- ↑ Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 77. 'Un giuoco, che gli Spagnuoli chiamavano il bodoque.' Clavigero, Storia Mess., iii. 97. Bodoque signifies balls in this connection. When Alvarado lost, he with great show of liberality paid in chalchiuites, stones which were highly treasured by the natives, but worth nothing to the Spaniards. Montezuma paid in quoits, worth at least 50 ducats. One day he lost 40 or 50 quoits, and with pleasure, since it gave him the opportunity to be generous. B. V. de Tapia testifies that Alvarado used to cheat in playing cards with him and others. Cortés, Residencia, i. 51-2. Another way of gratifying this bent was to accept trifles from the Spaniards and liberally compensate them. Alonso de Ojeda, for instance, had a silk-embroidered satchel with many pockets, for which Montezuma gave him two pretty slaves, beside a number of robes and jewels. Ojeda wrote a memoir on the conquest, of which Herrera makes good use. dec. ii. lib. viii. cap. v.
- ↑ 'Fué muchas veces á holgar con cinco ó seis españoles á una y dos leguas fuera de la ciudad.' Cortés, Cartas, 92. Both the times and the number of the Spaniards are doubtful, however. 'Quando salia a caçar. . . . Lleuaua ocho o diez Españoles en guarda de la persona, y tres mil Mexicanos entre señores, caualleros, criados, y caçadores.' Gomara, Hist. Mex., 124; Ixtlilxochill, Hist. Chich., 297.
