Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/35

Rh took formal possession with the army. No effort appears to have been made to erect a church, and for several years a hall in Cortés' house served for chapel. This seems a strange neglect on the part of men who came in the guise of crusaders. They were more attentive to temporal comforts, as manifested in particular by the eagerness to introduce water. Indeed, one of the first measures had been the restoration of the aqueduct which in Aztec times brought water from Chapultepec, about two miles distant.

"Raze and tear down, ye slaves, but all must be rebuilt with your own hands for the victor!" Such had been the taunting prophecy frequently thrown into the teeth of the allies as they paved a way for the Spaniards through the city of the Aztecs, and truly was it fulfilled, for the task of rebuilding was ruthlessly exacted from the lake allies, though the Aztecs had to share in it. It was also necessary to populate the city to obtain hewers of wood and drawers of water and other purveyors for the comfort of the victors. As the best means to promote