Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/54

34 princes actually came to blows. The story of the conquest is, on the Indian side, a humiliating recital of treachery, mutual betrayals, and tribe plotting against tribe, each foolishly thinking to use the Spaniards as an instrument of vengeance against their neighbours, whereas the fact was that the astute Cortes saw with eminent satisfaction these enervating dissensions, all of which he deftly turned to his own profit.

A perpetual coming and going of Aztec ambassadors accompanied the march from Vera Cruz. These unfortunate messengers, burdened with conflicting and impossible instructions, must have felt themselves sent upon a fool's errand, pulled hither and thither according as Montezuma's hopes or fears happened to be in the ascendant. The task of turning back the obnoxious strangers, but without offending them, lest, being gods, they might wreak vengeance on the Empire, was laid upon them. They carefully watched and quickly reported every step in advance made by the Spaniards, but their despatches were disheartening reading for their imperial master, being but chronicles of Spanish victories, and the defection of provinces. Only half convinced, yet not daring to disclose his doubts, of the semi-divine character of the invaders, Montezuma ordered every attention to be lavished upon them, while at the same time he consulted astrologers and magicians to discover some means to bane the pests, or inspired plans for their destruction, as at Cholula, where, upon the discovery of the plot, he disavowed responsibility, and left the Cholulans to suffer the consequences.

The absence or control of impulse in Cortes saved him from many a disaster which daring alone would have brought upon a leader of equal boldness but less wisdom, placed as he was. Perhaps the most supremely audacious act which history records is the seizure of Montezuma in the midst of his own court, and his conveyance to the