40 COCOA : ALL ABOUT IT. 



But it is more difficult to realise the brutality and treachery of 

 Cortes in seizing and holding captive the generous and noble 

 Emperor who had treated him with all the honours of a trusted 

 guest. While still in captivity the people welcomed his brother 

 Cuitlahua as the representative of their sovereign, and he led them 

 on to victory against the Spaniards, expelling them after a desperate 

 struggle from the city. It was after the death of Montezuma — • 

 while in captivity — and of Cuitlahua, that Ouauhtimoc was crowned 

 Emperor of the Aztecs. This last monarch of the royal line was 

 nephew to Montezuma and married his beautiful daughterTecuichpo. 



He defended his capital with the utmost bravery, again and 

 again defeating the Spaniards, and refusing to capitulate at the 

 last, even at the greatest extremity. When captured, Cortes put 

 him to the torture to discover his hidden treasure, but, as the 

 historian relates, " The hero w4io had braved death in its most 

 awful forms was not to be intimidated by bodily suffering," He 

 thus put to shame his cruel conqueror, but so insatiable was the tyrant 

 for venoreance that he soon afterwards had his victim executed 

 on a false charge of conspiracy, although, according to the account 

 given us by Bernal Diaz, who was present on the occasion, he 

 declared his innocence, adding, "The execution was most unjust, 

 and was thought wrong by all of us." Prescott pays him a 

 splendid tribute in these words : " Such was the sad end of 

 Guatemozin (Quauhtimoc), the last Emperor of the Aztecs * * 

 Among all the names of barbarian princes there are few entitled 

 to a higher place on the roll of fame than that of Guatemozin. 

 He was young, and his public career was not long, but it was 

 glorious. *, * * Xo one can refuse his admiration to the 

 intrepid spirit which could prolong a defence of his city while one 

 stone was left upon another, and our sympathies for the time are 



