Page:About Mexico - Past and Present.djvu/238

230 the army halted at a village about six miles distant, whose inhabitants fled at their approach. The next morning, December 31, 1521, the army entered the almost deserted place and took possession of a great lonely dwelling large enough, we are told, to have held all the Spaniards present had they been doubled in numbers. As no one was seen in the streets, some of the soldiers mounted to the top of a tower which afforded a good lookout, and saw the people fleeing in every direction, some in canoes on the lake, and some on foot toward the mountains.

While Cortez was fortifying Tezcuco he sought in every way to make friends of all the tribes within his reach. Most of them professed sorrow for the part they had taken in the late outbreak. One tribe posted watchmen on the mountains overlooking Mexico, to be ready to make an alliance with the Spanish leader so soon as signal-smokes should tell that he had come. While these people were in camp the messengers of another tribe with whom they had long been at war came to Cortez on the same errand. Hearing that they were unfriendly to each other, Cortez told them that he could have no greater satisfaction than would be afforded by his making peace between these old enemies. His object was to unite the tribes of the valley, in order that they might help him to conquer Mexico. After two days in the Spanish camp, the visitors went home in high good-humor with each other and the white men, and determined to put down the Aztecs.

Among the tribes who had old scores to settle with Mexico were the people of Chalco; their alliance with the Spaniards had roused the Aztecs, who now threatened to punish them. Their messengers came in haste to ask for help, showing on a large white cloth a map on which