HISTORY OF MEXICO.
CHAPTER I.
REBUILDING OF MEXICO.
1521-1523.
Quarelling over the Booty — Poor Results — Torture of Quauhtemotzin — Treasure-hunting — A Disappointment — Pasquinades — Financial Measures — A Sabine Capture — Looking for a Capital — Mexico Selected — Municipality Formed — Planning the City — Architectural Features — Cortes' Palaces — Building Material — Fort and Aqueduct — Attracting Serfs and Settlers — Merry Toilers — Arms of Tenochtitlan.
Famed Tenochtitlan had fallen, its splendor buried with the blood-stained altars that had so long been a terror to Anáhuac. And the proud Aztecs lay trodden under foot, beaten back into their original abasement, as serfs and refugees, to form with their emblazoned prestige a pedestal for the victor's fame. The promise of Cortés to the king, made two years before, was fulfilled, and his prospects were very bright. Little fear now of dungeons, of a traitor's fate; he could boldly face his arch-enemy and rival, and point to all justifying success as an advocate for the attainment even of the coveted governorship of this empire, the largest and richest so far acquired for his sovereign. Proudly exultant, he hugged himself as his mind dwelt upon the foremost conqueror in the Indies.
But his cup was not wholly free from bitterness even now; whose is? His soldiers and companions expected also their reward, and that quickly and in
