than to yield their liberty to the destroyers of Tenochtitlan; others counselled a retreat to some stronghold till circumstances should indicate the proper course, for after the submission tendered, and the peaceful assurances of the invaders, resistance might stir these demons to desolate the whole country. Concerned chiefly for his own safety, the irresolute Tangaxoan hastened with a portion of his family to seek refuge at Uruapan, instructing his confidants to spread the rumor that he had been drowned.
Meanwhile Olid advanced on the capital, and although Timagé had sought to rouse the people to defence by bloody sacrifices to the idols, and other measures, yet their hearts failed, and a delegation was sent to welcome the army, and conduct it to the palace. Encouraged by the success at Tangimaroa, the soldiers and allies were not slow to again follow their rapacious bent, and, a good pretext being found in the idolatrous practices to be seen on every side, they began with a raid on the temples; a number of these edifices were fired, while in others a destruction of idols completed the pillage. These excesses were promoted by the flight of a large proportion of the inhabitants, particularly the women and children, after looking in vain for any manifestations of the divine wrath which such desecration seemed to challenge. Private dwellings were now broken into, and while some of the burglars turned into ghouls, to increase their spoils with presents consecrated to the dead, others spread over the neighborhood to continue the raid in fresh fields.[1] While not unwilling to permit a certain amount of
- ↑ In the Relacion de los Ritos, MS., the spoils of gold and silver and ornaments are estimated at forty cofferfuls in one place, at twenty in another, etc. As for Cortes, he mentions merely a gift of 3,000 marks in silver, and 5,000 pesos de oro. Cartas, 275. The army naturally kept the larger part, and the leaders did not think it advisable to expose the excesses of their men, even Cortés being content to share with them and keep quiet. Gomara lowers even Cortés' estimate of the treasure received. Hist. Mex., 217. Herrera and Beaumont abstain from mentioning any figures. Brasseur de Bourbourg. Hist. Nat. Civ., it. 532, assumes that the king's brother, or cousin, as he at times calls him, is sent with a portion of the spoils to Mexico, on the first visit, which Cortés dates long before Olid is despatched to that region.
