Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/527

Rh Cortés deemed it discreet to bandy no further words at present. So spirited a tongue must be curbed with gifts; but Cortés awaited his opportunity. He never forgot anything.

With a view chiefly to divert the troubled spirits two expeditions were sent out, each of two hundred men, mostly from the ranks of the late enemy. One was directed to Goazacoalco, as before, under the command of Velazquez de Leon, who had already held this commission, and two vessels were placed at his disposal to send to Jamaica for live-stock, seeds, and other requirements of the proposed colony. The other expedition was intrusted to Ordaz for the occupation of Pánuco, with a view to anticipate Garay. Two vessels were given him to explore the coast.

While Cortés was thus risking all on the cast of fortune at Cempoala the troops at Mexico had been exposed to even greater perils. At the time of his departure for the coast, Toxcatl, the fifth month, had begun, and with it the most solemn festival of the year. It was in honor of Tezcatlipoca, the highest of the divinities, and identified with a supreme god, although less conspicuous in the daily worship of the people, for they appealed rather to the nearer minor deities, whom they regarded as intercessors, than to their supreme divinity, whom they greatly feared, and who was very far away. The Mexicans had been permitted to hold the celebration in the great temple, which had