Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/388

268 gods not place within your house, my lord, one who shall cast you forth and usurp the empire," was the solemn warning of Cuitlahuatzin, as he heard this resolution.

The Spaniards had meanwhile descended the wooded slope from Quauhtechcatl to the cultivated district round Amaquemecan, a city which, together with its suburban villages for two leagues around, numbered over twenty thousand families. The lord, Cacamatzin Teotlateuchtli, received them in his own palace, and entertained them most liberally during their two days' stay, presenting them gifts of forty female slaves and three thousand castellanos in gold. The chiefs of Tlalmanalco and other neighboring towns came to tender their respects, and encouraged by the reports of Spanish prowess they hesitated not to lay bare their grievances against the Aztecs, who oppressed them with heavy taxes, robbed them of wives and daughters, and carried the men into slavery. Cortes encouraged the chiefs with fair promises, and was not a little delighted at finding disaffection in the very heart of the empire, whose power had been so much extolled.

Passing by way of Tlalmanalco through a succession of flourishing maize and maguey fields, the Spaniards reached Ayotzinco, a town at the south end of Chalco lake. Here was seen the first specimen of the peculiar