Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/663

Rh the dead, so as to check the contagion. Not the least of the evil was a famine, which resulted from a lack of harvesters.

Among the first victims at the capital were King Totoquihuatzin, of Tlacopan, and Cuitlahuatzin, the successor of Montezuma. The latter had ruled barely three months, but sufficiently long to prove himself a most able leader of his people in their struggle for liberty, for he was brave, full of devices, and energetic, yet prudent; a man who, not content with securing the expulsion of invaders, had sought to strengthen his position with alliances and by attracting the subject provinces through gifts, remissions, and promises. If he did not succeed so well as he had hoped, the fault must be ascribed to the reputation of the previous government and to dereliction of duty among his officers.

As a monarch he would not have fallen far short of the native ideal, for as a general he had distinguished himself; and, the brother of Montezuma, he had in his court imbibed the dignity and majestic manner born of constant adulation from subservient nobles and plebeians. Crafty and unscrupulous, he appears not to have hesitated at crime and breach of faith to secure his aims for personal and state advancement. The flourishing condition of his own province indicated a not unwise administrator; and the beauty of Iztapalapan, its magnificent palaces, and exquisite gardens filled with choice plants from different regions, pointed to a ruler of cultivated taste.

There is no doubt that Mexico lost in him one of