Page:The Mastering of Mexico.djvu/153

Rh ? Plainly among us there were plenty of valiant gentlemen and soldiers who brought wisdom to our councils, whom Cortes always consulted—in fact, he did nothing without first consulting us.

But after a few days, and after the Tlaxcalans had intrigued and made other attacks, the Almighty inclined the hearts of the caciques to make peace with us. Men of theirs of good understanding finally met in one of the chief towns, and when they sat in council an elder of the first rank addressed them, as we afterwards learned, to the following effect: "Brothers and friends, you know how often these teules, who are now in our country and ready to fight, have asked us for peace, saying they have come as brothers to aid us. You know the number of prisoners they have taken and never harmed, but set free. You know how three times we attacked them and failed to conquer. Again they ask us to make peace; and the Cempoalans who are with them assure us that they are enemies of Montezuma and his Mexicans. You well know that the Mexicans have every year for more than one hundred years made war on us, and have completely shut us in our territory so that we dare not go beyond to fetch salt for our food or cotton for our clothes. If any of our people venture beyond our limits, they rarely return alive. The perfidious Mexicans and their allies kill them or make them slaves. Our wizards and