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 252 part of Montezuma, at whose instigation the Cholulans were to rise upon and sacrifice the Spaniards, or not, seems never to have been fully proven. It seems more in accordance with what we know of Cortez and his band to believe that there was no treachery intended, except by the Spaniards themselves, and the massacre was committed in order to strike terror into the hearts of all the inhabitants of the Mexican valley, and to secure the rich booty that would fall to the share of the victors.

The Spanish army at last moved out of Cholula, leaving behind them woe and ruin, tears, wounds, death, and lamentation, as they did at Tabasco, and, turning their backs upon the fertile plains, commenced to climb the mountains.

Between them and the central valley of Mexico lay only a ridge of mountains, but a ridge containing two of the highest peaks in North America, which rose directly before them. Popocatapetl was the name of the highest peak, which, rising to a height of nearly 18,000 feet, had its summit always covered with snow. Popocatapetl is an Indian name, and signifies the "hill that smokes," because it is a volcano, and within the memory of the Indians had belched out smoke and even ashes. A few miles away from this volcano rose another, a long, broken ridge covered with snow, and called Iztaccihuatl—or "the woman in white;" named by the Spaniards, La Mujer Blanca—which signifies the same thing. This name had been given to it on account of its shape, which has a fancied resemblance to a great, dead giantess, robed in snowy white. Between these giant mountains ran the trail to Mexico, and from their western slopes the Spaniards first caught sight of the Aztec city, which, though near sixty miles away, could be seen glimmering in the sunlight like a fairy creation of pyramids and palaces.