WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES — VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 149 



and he only tells them a truth in order to deceive them thereby with 

 many lies. So when his people had reached the end of many years' 

 pilgrimage and hardships and were in sight of the great Lake of 

 Mexico, although on their way they had settled Michoacan and other 

 provinces, he told them that they were now in the land of their de- 

 sire, which he had promised them, and that they should search for 

 a place where they would find a prickly pear growing on a rock, with 

 an eagle perched upon it ; that was the place where they should build 

 their city. 



419. When they found the spot indicated, they built their city in 

 the middle of the lake among beds of reeds and cattails, and they 

 named it Tenoxtitlan, for the reason given above, and the tribe 

 Mexico, derived from the name of their chieftain Mexi ; and although 

 it had such slight and meager beginnings among those beds of reeds, 

 it became the largest settlement and city to be found in all the Indies. 

 And the Mexicans its founders were so valiant that in a short time 

 they made themselves masters of all the country; they divided the 

 city or settlement into four wards according to their chieftains or 

 leaders ; at the present day these are the one where Santa Maria la 

 Redonda is located, San Juan, San Pablo, and San Sebastian. 



420. Some members of this tribe, feeling themselves aggrieved, 

 went out from among their fellows and established another city 

 nearby, which they named Tlaltelolco, which is where Santiago stands 

 at the present day ; these likewise grew exceedingly and showed them- 

 selves hostile on every occasion to the residents of Mexico. There 

 were nine kings of this tribe who reigned for the duration of this 

 Mexican monarchy, which was a little over lop years ; during this 

 time they conquered and brought under their sway many tribes and 

 provinces, as far as Nicaragua ; they accepted them all under the con- 

 dition of fief and vassalage, exception made for the tribes of Tlascal- 

 teca, Tepeaca, and Michoacan, who always resisted them valiantly. 



421. In the days of the eighth king of the Mexicans, Motezuma 

 the second of that name, in the fourteenth year of his reign (which 

 was the year 1517), after learning of important omens portending 

 the collapse of his monarchy, he received word from the Indians on 

 the Atlantic coast that great ships had made their appearance there 

 such as had never been seen on those shores, and that in them came 

 men who were children of the Sun, very different from them in dress 

 and elegance. This brought great solicitude and anxiety to Motezuma 

 and his courtiers, though he concealed it for the moment. That was 

 when Hernando Cortes arrived on his expedition ; and when he had 

 received word of this powerful Kingdom of Mexico, he went back 



