Page:About Mexico - Past and Present.djvu/155

Rh and were worth two hundred and twenty thousand dollars. When these articles were sent to Spain, they were accompanied by four Mexican chiefs and two native women. These appeared before the emperor Charles V. dressed in their native costume. The warriors had jewels set in gold hanging from their ears and lips—a fashion which the Spanish courtiers thought very unbecoming in men, but one which these Indians considered altogether ornamental. This exhibition took place in one of the northern cities in Spain. The emperor, after questioning about the climate, was considerate enough to send his visitors to the warmest corner of Spain, where they need not be exposed to sudden changes of temperature. Montezuma's gifts only whetted the Spaniards' appetite for gold. However, the next embassy from Mexico, which came in a few days, brought more gifts, but a firm refusal from the council of chiefs to allow the army to approach any nearer to the city.

That evening, as the sun sank behind the woods and the Aztec officials were preparing to leave, the bell rang for vespers. There was a sudden dispersion of the group which always gathered about the presents. Every man hurried to the large wooden cross which had been set up in camp, and, kneeling on the sand, began to pray with the most ostentatious devotion. So religious a people as the Aztecs could not fail to understand such movements, although they did not know what god was addressed. Father Olmedo told them that the chief object of this visit of Europeans to their coast was to bring to its people a knowledge of the one true God and Jesus Christ, whom he had sent to be the Saviour of the world, showing them, at the same time, an image of the Virgin Mary with the infant Jesus. When the address was finished,