CHAPTER IV. 



1519 — 1520. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY OF TENOCHTITLAN. MONTEZUMA'S 



WAY OF LIFE MARKET-PLACE. CORTEZ AT THE GREAT TEM- 

 PLE DESCRIPTION OF IT. PLACE OF SACRIFICE SANCTUA- 

 RIES HUITZILOPOTCHTLI. TEZCATLIPOCA DANGER OF COR- 

 TEZ MONTEZUMA SEIZED. MONTEZUMA A PRISONER HIS 



SUBMISSIVENESS. ARRIVAL OF NARVAEZ CORTEz's DIPLO- 

 MACY. CORTEZ OVERCOMES NARVAEZ, AND RECRUITS HIS 



FORCES. 



The city of Mexico, or Tenochtitlan, was, as we have already 

 said, encompassed by the lake of Tezcoco, over which three solid 

 causeways formed the only approaches. This inland sea was, 

 indeed, " an archipelago of wandering islands." The whole city 

 was penetrated throughout its entire length by a principal street, 

 which was intersected by numerous canals, crossed by draw- 

 bridges ; and, wherever the eye could reach, long vistas of low 

 stone buildings rose on every side among beautiful gardens or 

 luxuriant foliage. The quadrangular palaces of the nobles who 

 Montezuma encouraged to reside at his court, were spread over a 

 wide extent of ground, embellished with beautiful fountains which 

 shot their spray amid porticoes and columns of polished porphyry. 

 The palace of Montezuma was so vast a pile, that one of the con- 

 querors alleges its terraced roof afforded ample room for thirty 

 knights to tilt in tournament. A royal armory was filled with 

 curious and dangerous weapons, and adorned with an ample store of 

 military dresses, equipments and armor. Huge granaries contained 

 the tributary supplies which were brought to the Prince by the 

 provinces for the maintenance of the royal family, and there was 

 an aviary in which three hundred attendants fed and reared birds 

 of the sweetest voice or rarest plumage ; whilst, near it, rose a 

 menagerie, filled with specimens of all the native beasts, together 

 with a museum, in which, with an oddity of taste unparalleled in 

 history, there had been collected a vast number of human monsters, 

 cripples, dwarfs, Albinos and other freaks and caprices of nature. 



