Page:The Mastering of Mexico.djvu/159

Rh men to patrol exactly as you did when you attacked our lines, and we believe you do this because the Mexicans, wishing to estrange you and us, have whispered in your ears fears that we prove treacherous. Ask for as many hostages as you like, Malinche, and you shall have them."

Cortes and all of us were moved by the kindness and grace with which the old men spoke, and our captain answered that he wanted no hostages, he knew their good will, but to be on guard was always a custom of ours. At this moment other chiefs arrived with supplies of fowls, maize bread, prickly pears and vegetables. Indeed we had everything in abundance during the whole of the twenty days we lay in the town.

One of those days Cortes took the two elder chiefs aside and questioned them intimately about affairs in Mexico. Montezuma, they assured him, could march one hundred and fifty thousand men from his capital to the field when he wished to capture a city. Besides these he kept strong garrisons in all the provinces. He was such a powerful and rich prince that he had everything he desired, and forced all his provinces to pay him tribute of gold, silver, feathers, precious stones, cotton cloths and men and women