Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/200

180 his excessive zeal. His father Axotecatl had at first sought to prevent his attendance at school, but the friars carried their point, and soon the boy was baptized under the name of Cristóbal. Eager to convert also his family, the boy destroyed the idols and wine-butts, as the main obstacles to the desired end, only to rouse the bloody spirit of fanaticism in the father. Half dead with wounds, the young iconoclast escaped to his mother's side. The infuriate parent pursued him, nearly killed those who sought to interfere, and cast the boy into a fire. Presently he drew him forth and ended the flickering life with dagger blows. Rage now turned to fear, the body was buried in a corner of the house, and other precautions were taken to keep the murder secret. The friars made inquiries, however, for their missing pupil, and Axotecatl was executed. About the same time two other Tlascaltec youths were killed by the obstinate idolaters of an adjoining district, while assisting two Dominican missionaries. Thus the little republic attained during the first decade the glory of presenting three widely applauded martyrs.

Tlascala enjoyed the additional preëminence of giving the earliest voluntary converts to the faith, with one or two exceptions, and in the persons of her leaders. The lords of the adjoining state of Huexotzinco embraced the faith under the name of Francisco de Sandoval y Moreno and Juan Juarez; at Mexico Quauhtemotzin himself thought it prudent to set his