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r brothers,
as he had had some previous knowledge respecting their country. May God
in his mercy grant," continued Cortes, "that we may be the means of
saving you from eternal perdition!" To which we all added, "Amen!"

The good reader will now, no doubt, have heard sufficient of our
discourses with the people of Tlascalla. And I myself shall be glad to
cut them short here, as I have many other things to relate besides
these.

Among others, in particular, the burning mountain of Huexotzinco, which,
at the time we were in Tlascalla, happened to be emitting more flames
than usual, and Cortes and all of us, to whom a volcano was something
new, regarded it in astonishment. Diego de Ordas, one of our chief
officers, entertained the bold idea to inspect this wonder more
minutely, and begged leave of our general to ascend the mountain, who
granted this request.

Ordas took two of our men with him, and desired some of the chief
personages of Huexotzinco to accompany him. They certainly did not
refuse, but tried to deter him by assuring him, that when he should have
ascended the Popocatepetl, for so they termed this volcano, half way, he
would not be able to advance further on account of the trembling of the
earth, and the flames, stones and ashes which were emitted from the
crater. They themselves never durst venture higher than to where some
temples were built to the teules of Popocatepetl. And indeed they left
Ordas when he arrived at that spot. The latter, however, boldly
continued to ascend with our two soldiers until he had reached the
summit.

While they were still ascending, the volcano began to emit huge flames
of fire, half burnt and perforated stones, with a quantity of ashes; and
the whole mountain shook under their feet to the very foundation. They
then halted for an hour, until they found that the smoke and fire
gradually began to diminish and less ashes to fall; they then continued
to ascend until they reached the crater, which was perfectly round and
about a mile in diameter. From this elevation they could plainly discern
the great city of Mexico, with the whole of its lake, and the
surrounding townships; for this mountain only lies about forty-eight
miles from Mexico.

After Ordas had well viewed everything and sufficiently enjoyed and
wondered at the sight of Mexico and its suburbs, he again returned with
the two soldiers and the Indians of Huexotzinco to Tlascalla. The
inhabitants there considered this undertaking to be extremely
venturesome, and even we ourselves who had never seen a burning mountain
before, were perfectly astonished at the account which Ordas gave Cortes
of his hazardous enterprise. Indeed at that time it might well be
termed hazardous! Subsequently, to be sure, several other Spaniards and
Franciscan monks ascended to the mouth of this volcano, but Ordas was
nevertheless the first who had ventured. When, therefore, he afterwards
again returned to Spain, he begged permission of his majesty to bear a
volcano in his coat of arms. These arms are at present borne by his
nephew of the same name, living at Puebla. As long as we remained in
this country we never again saw the mountain throw out so much fire, or
heard of its making such a heavy rumbling noise, as on this occasion,
and not until the year 1539 did it burst out again.

Enough, however, of this mountain; we now pretty well know what it is.
Subsequently we saw many other volcanoes, as those of Nicaragua and
Guatimala; after which that of Huexotzinco is scarcely worth noticing. I
have still to mention that in Tlascalla we found houses built of wood,
in the shape of cages, in which numbers of Indians, of both sexes, were
confined, and fattened for their sacrifices and feasts. We never
hesitated a single moment to break them down and liberate the prisoners.
These unfortunate beings, however, never durst leave our side, and this
was the only means of saving them from being butchered. From this moment
Cortes gave orders to break open these cages wherever we came, for we
found them in every township. We all showed our horror of these
atrocities, and earnestly reproved the caziques for it, who then
promised no longer to kill and devour human beings. I say they promised,
but that was all, and if we were but an instant out of sight the same
barbarities were committed. It is now, however, high time to think of
our march to Mexico.

CHAPTER LXXIX.

 _How our captain Hernando Cortes and all our officers and soldiers
 determine to march to Mexico._

We had now been seventeen days in Tlascalla, and had heard so much
during that time respecting the immense treasures of Motecusuma, and the
splendour of his metropolis, that Cortes resolved to hold a consultation
concerning our march to Mexico, with all those officers and soldiers
amongst us whom he presumed were inclined to advance further on. In this
council of war it was agreed that we should commence our march thither
without delay; various opinions, however, were expressed on the occasion
in our camp. Many maintained that it would be acting over-rashly to
venture with a mere handful of men into a strongly fortified city,
whose monarch had such vast numbers of warriors at his command. But
Cortes declared that all arguing on this point was useless; we could not
alter the resolution we had come to, and we had on every occasion
expressed our desire to pay our respects personally to Motecusuma. When
those who were averse to this step saw his determination, and that the
majority of us warriors were devoted with our very hearts to him, crying
out, "Forward, now or never!" they ceased to make any further
opposition. Those who opposed us were those again who had possessions in
the island of Cuba; we other poor soldiers were ready to sacrifice our
very existence in battle, and to undergo all manner of fatigues for God
and our sovereign. When Xicotencatl and Maxixcatzin were convinced that
it was our determination to march to Mexico, they grew anxious on our
account. They urgently dissuaded Cortes from it, and warned him not to
put the slightest trust in Motecusuma, nor altogether in any of the
Mexicans,--to put no faith in his show of veneration, his courteous and
humble talk. All their professions of friendship, said they, and even
their very presents had treachery at the bottom; for what they give at
one moment they take away at another. They advised us to be upon our
guard night and day; for they were perfectly assured that the Mexicans
would fall upon us when we were least prepared to defend ourselves.
Neither were we to spare life to any of them, if it should come to a
battle;--to the young man that he might not again take up arms against
us, to the old man that he might not do us injury by his counsel.

They gave us many similar precautions, and our captain assured them how
grateful he was for it, and otherwise showed them every possible
kindness, made them and the other caziques various presents, and divided
among them a great portion of the fine stuff

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