CORTEZ LEVELS THE CITY TO ITS FOUNDATION. 



71 



Accordingly the conqueror resolved again to commence active 

 hostilities. But, this time, he designed to permit no hazards of the 

 moment, and no personal carelessness of his officers to obstruct his 

 entry or egress from the city. As he advanced the town was to be 

 demolished ; the canals filled up ; the breaches in the dykes per- 

 fectly repaired ; and, as he moved onwards to the north and west, he 

 determined that his path should be over a level and solid surface 

 on which he might encounter none of the dangers that had hitherto 

 proved so disastrous. The necessity of this course will be evident 

 when it is recollected that all the houses were terraced with flat 

 roofs and protecting parapets, which sheltered the assailants, 

 whilst the innumerable canals bisecting the streets served as so 

 many pit-falls for cavalry, footmen and Indians, when they became 

 confused in the hurry of a promiscuous onset or retreat. 



Meanwhile the Aztecs within the city suffered the pangs of 

 famine. The stores that had been gathered for the siege were 

 gone. Human bodies, roots, rats, reptiles, served for a season, 

 to assuage the famished stomachs of the starving crowds ; — when 

 suddenly, Cortez despatched three Aztec nobles to Guatemozin, 

 who were instructed to praise his defence, to assure him he had 

 saved the honor of himself and soldiery, and to point out the utter 

 uselessness of longer delay in submitting to inevitable fate. The 

 message of the conqueror was weighed by the court with more 

 favor than by the proud and spirited Emperor, whose patriotic 

 bosom burned at the disgraceful proposal of surrender. The 

 priests turned the tide against the white men ; and, after two days, 

 the answer to the summons came in a warlike sortie from the city 

 which well nigh swept the Spanish defenders from the dykes. 

 But cannon and musketry were too strong for mere numbers. 

 The vessels poured in their volumes of iron hail on the flanks, and 

 the last dread effort of defensive despair expired before the un- 

 flinching firmness of the Castilian squadrons. At length, Cortez 

 believed that the moment for final action had arrived. He gave 

 orders for the advance of the several corps of the army simulta- 

 neously by their several causeways ; and although it pained him 

 greatly to destroy a capital which he deemed "the gem of the 

 world," yet he put into execution his resolve to raze the city to its 

 foundation unless it surrendered at discretion. The number of 

 laborers was increased daily by the hosts that flocked like vultures 

 to the carcase of an expiring victim. The palaces, temples and 

 dwellings were plundered, thrown down, and cast into the canals. 



