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 Rh had returned and with them had brought such a present for the Spanish monarch, Don Carlos, as never before had passed from one hemisphere to another!

On their arrival they touched the ground with their hands, at the same time kissing them, and then fumigated the Spaniards with incense, calling them Teteuctin—lords or gentlemen. This, the customary mode of salutation of embassadors, caused the Spaniards to imagine they addressed them as gods—Teules, from Teteo, gods—when they had meant nothing of the kind, and gave these cut-throat adventurers an exalted opinion of their own importance.

With fine compliments, conveying from Montezuma his congratulations, and the pleasure he had received in learning of the arrival of such a brave body of men on his coast, the embassador begged Cortez to receive this present from his emperor, as a slight return for the very valuable (?) gifts he had sent him on the occasion of his first visit. Having delivered himself of a speech to this effect, consisting of long and high-sounding words—for diplomacy was a fine art at the court of Montezuma—the embassador caused some mantles to be spread upon the ground and the Indians to lay upon them their precious burdens. It may be justly imagined that the Spaniards gazed upon these treasures in open-mouthed astonishment. There were elegant works in gold and silver, gems, gold carved in the shape of various animals, bales of the finest cotton garments interwoven with bright feathers, bows and arrows, ten collars of fine gold, plumes of feathers cast in gold, panaches of green and gorgeous feathers, and numberless wrought and other figures in gold. The most glorious gifts were two great disks, as large as a cart-wheel, one of gold, representing the sun, the other of silver, having an engraved image of the moon. And last, there was the helmet, filled,—