MONTEZUMA REFUSES TO RECEIVE CORTEZ. 



27 



and request them to return to their homes over the sea with these 

 proofs of his perfect friendship. * 



, It may well be supposed that this na'ive system of diplomacy 

 could have but little effect on men who were bent on improving 

 their fortunes, and whose rapacity was only stimulated by the 

 evidences of unbounded wealth which the simple-minded king 

 had so lavishly bestowed on them. Montezuma was the dupe 

 of his own credulity, and only inflamed, by the very means he 

 imagined would assuage the avarice or ambition of his Spanish 

 visiters. Nor was Cortez less resolved than his companions. 

 Accordingly he made another pacific effort, by means of additional 

 presents and a gentle message, to change the resolution of the 

 Indian emperor. Still the Aztec sovereign was obstinate in his 

 refusal of a personal interview, although he sent fresh gifts by the 

 persons who bore to the Spaniards his polite but firm and peremp- 

 tory denial. 



Cortez could hardly conceal his disappointment at this second 

 rebuff ; but, as the vesper bell tolled, whilst the ambassadors were 

 in his presence, he threw himself on his knees with his soldiers, 

 and, after a prayer, Father Olmedo expounded to the Aztec chiefs, 

 by his interpreters, the doctrines of Christianity, and putting into 

 their hands an image of the Virgin and Saviour, he exhorted 

 them to abandon their hideous idolatry, and to place these milder 

 emblems of faith and hope on the altars of their bloody gods. 

 That very night the Indians abandoned the Spanish camp and the 

 neighborhood, leaving the adventurers without the copious supplies 

 of food that hitherto had been bountifully furnished. Cortez, 

 nevertheless, was undismayed by these menacing symptoms, and 

 exclaimed to his hardy followers : "It shall yet go hard, but we 

 will one day pay this powerful prince a visit in his gorgeous 

 capital ! " 



