to cover the breaches and gain a footing upon it, but without success. The Mexican warriors displayed great spirit, and their leaders are to be blamed for not energetically assuming the offensive and attacking the two camps.
The Mexicans had not quite understood the drift of Cortés' delay and preliminary manœuvres. When they found two camps established, the aqueduct destroyed, and earnest preparations in progress for investment, their eyes were opened; but they were then too bewildered to act with promptness and precision. The chronicles relate that Quauhtemotzin held a grand council to consider the situation, and to sound the spirit of the people for peace or war, so that there might be no faltering when necessity came. A number indeed of the elder and wiser lords, particularly of the Montezuma faction, spoke of the formidable enginery and strength of the Spaniards, and their host of allies, and expressed fears of failure. With the occupation of all the surrounding territory, and the influx of people from abroad, the food supply might fall short, and famine and sickness ensue. But the young men and the warriors, as might be expected, would listen to no counsellor whose words implied cowardice; they were enthusiastic for resistance, and formed too numerous a party to allow the entertaining of peace proposals. Quauhtemotzin cautiously refrained from committing himself,[1] but re-
- ↑ 'Jamàs quisieron Paz [the Aztecs]; y aunque à la postre la recibieron, el Rei no la aceptò, porque al principio, contra su Consejo, la rehusaron.' Torquemada, i. 572. Gomara says the same, but Duran, the historian of his dynasty, declares that he loved too much to rule and to display his personal valor ever to listen to peace proposals. Hist. Ind., MS., ii. 490. On the following pages he gives a speech by this ruler, painting the shame and evil of surrender. Before this, according to the native records of Sahagun, Cortés had invited Quauhtemotzin, under promise of security, to a conference, order to explain his motives for the campaign. Not wishing to appear afraid, the Aztec monarch came to the rendezvous near Acachinanco, in a state barge, attended by several nobles. Cortés arrived in a brigantine. He reviewed the allegiance tendered to the Spanish sovereign, the revolt, precipitated by Alvarado's effort to anticipate the murderous plot, and the subsequent slaughter of Spaniards and robbery of treasures. These unjustifiable and
