Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/377

Rh generous assumption, and with a fine outburst of indignation finds it "hardly necessary to comment on the absurdity of this monstrous imputation." Such sentiments do credit to the magnanimity of these writers, for it is manifestly the nobler part to admit such a charge against Cortes, only when forced by irrefutable proofs, which in this case are not forthcoming. Orozco y. Berra, the results of whose exhaustive researches are expressed in calm, judicial language in his Conquista de Mexico, adopts the Indian version. Clavigero has perhaps said the most that generous impartiality will allow, when he states that "There reigns such variety among historians that it seems impossible to verify the truth." Torquemada (lib. iv., cap. Ixx.) records that Montezuma's body was taken to Copalco where it was cremated, according to the Aztec usage, though the solemnity was marred by the insults heaped by some of the by-standers upon the hapless corpse. Herrera was of the opinion, that the body was buried at Chapultepec, because the Spaniards heard great lamentations in that quarter, and because that was the place of royal sepulture, but the observation of Clavigero on this opinion, that there was no fixed place for burying the sovereigns and that Chapultepec, being some three miles distant from the Spanish quarters it was hardly likely they could have heard lamentations, seems to weaken this assumption.

Diego Muñoz Camargo, the Tlascallan historian, would seem to be the chief authority for the pious legend that Montezuma was baptised by his own desire just before he died, and that Cortes and Pedro de Alvarado were his godfathers. Gomara asserts that the Emperor had expressed his wish to become a Christian prior to Cortes's departure from Mexico to meet Narvaez, but that the ceremony was deferred until Easter so that it might be celebrated with more solemnity, and was afterwards forgotten amid the confusion of the changed circumstances. The silence of Cortes on a matter he would have been eager to report in his letters, seems alone sufficient to dispose of the assertion, and Torquemada, who would also have not been slow to enroll a royal convert, does not admit the story (Monarchia Indiana, lib. iv., cap. Ixx.). A most instructive dissertation on this subject is contained in an interesting study by Don José Fernando Ramirez entitled Bautismo de Motecuhzoma II., Noveno Rey de Mexico.

A pathetic figure is that of this Aztec king, gifted with some of the highest qualities of his race, venerated during a long and prosperous reign almost as a demi-god, only to be humbled to the very dust. The starting point of his downfall was his superstition, for had he listened to his generals rather than to his priests Cortes and his handful of adventurers would never have left the sea-coast alive. The misfortunes and humiliations of the last months of his life seem to have completely changed his character, so that from the time of his docile abdication at the bidding of Cortes, to the infamy of his appearance on the walls of the Spanish quarters to rebuke his long-suffering people, was but a