CHAPTER XI. 



1521—1522. 



DISCONTENT AT NOT FINDING GOLD TORTURE OF GUATEMOZIN. 



RESULTS OF THE FALL OF THE CAPITAL. MISSION FROM 



MICHOACAN. REBUILDING OF THE CAPITAL. LETTERS TO 



THE KING. INTRIGUES AGAINST CORTEZ FONSECA NAR- 



VAEZ TAPIA. CHARLES V. PROTECTS CORTEZ AND CONFIRMS 



HIS ACTS. 



The capital had no sooner fallen and the ruins been searched 

 in vain for the abundant treasures which the conquerors imagined 

 were hoarded by the Aztecs, than murmurs of discontent broke 

 forth in the Spanish camp against Cortez for his supposed conceal- 

 ment of the plunder. There was a mingled sentiment of distrust 

 both of the conqueror and Guatemozin ; and, at last, the queru- 

 lousness and taunts rose to such an offensive height, that it was 

 resolved to apply the torture to the dethroned prince in order to 

 wrest from him the secret hiding place of his ancestral wealth. 

 We blush to record that Cortez consented to this iniquity, but it 

 was probably owing to an avaricious and mutinous spirit in his 

 ranks which he was unable at the moment to control. The same 

 Indian stoicism that characterised the unfortunate prince during 

 the war, still nerved him in his hours of abject disaster. He bore 

 the pangs without quivering or complaint and without revealing 

 any thing that could gratify the Spanish lust of gold, save that 

 vast quantities of the precious metal had been thrown into the 

 lake, — from which but little was ultimately recovered even by the 

 most expert divers. 



The news of the fall of Mexico was soon spread from sea to sea, 

 and couriers were despatched by distant tribes and princes to 

 ascertain the truth of the prodigious disaster. The independent 

 kingdom of Michoacan, lying between the vale of Anahuac or 

 Mexico and the Pacific, was one of the first to send its envoys, 



