Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/314

194 of gold and grain allures to cultivation, all the realm are out of doors keeping company with the sun. From afar comes the music-laden breeze whispering its secrets to graceful palms, aloft against the sky, and which bend to meet the confidence, while the little shrubs stand motionless with awe. Each cluster of trees repeats the story, and sings in turn its own matin to which the rest are listeners. At night, how glittering bright with stars the heavens, which otherwise were a shroud of impenetrable blackness. In this land of wild Arcadian beauty the beasts are free, and man keeps constant holiday. And how the hearts of these marauders burned within them as they thought, nothing doubting, how soon these glories should be Spain's and theirs.

The boundary of the Totonac territory was crossed, and on the fourth day the army entered a province called by Cortés Sienchimalen, wherein the sway of Montezuma was still maintained. This made no difference to the Spaniards, however, for the late imperial envoys had left orders with the coast governors to treat the strangers with every consideration. Of this they had a pleasing experience at Xicochimalco, a strong fortress situated on the slope of a steep mountain, to which access could be had only by a stairway easily defended. It overlooked a sloping plain strewn with villages and farms, mustering in all nearly six thousand warriors. With replenished stores the expedition began to ascend the cordillera in reality, and to approach the pine forests vhich mark the border of the tierra fria. Marching through a hard pass named Nombre de Dios, they entered another province defended by a fortress,