178 



HISTORY OF MEXICO* 



in the tenth year of the reign of Huitzilihuitl, he went 

 to Azcapozalco, and affembled the nobility, in order to 

 lay before them his complaints againft the Mexicans and 

 their king. He reprefented the increafe of the popula- 

 tion of Mexico ; enlarged upon the pride and arrogance 

 of that people, and upon the fatal effe6i:s which were to 

 be feared from their prefent difpofitions ; and efpecially 

 complained of the great affront done to him by the 

 Mexican king, in depriving him of his wife. It is ne- 

 celTary to obferve, that Maxtlaton and Ayauhcihuatl, 

 although both children of Tezozomoc, were yet born 

 of different mothers ; and perhaps fuch marriages were 

 in thofe times, permitted among the Tepanecas. Whe- 

 ther he ever adually intended to marry his fifler, or only 

 made that a pretext to cover his cruel deligns, is uncer- 

 tain ; but, in the alTembly of the nobles, it was determined 

 to fummon Huitzilihuitl, to anfwer to the pretended 

 charge. The Mexican king went to Azcapozalco ; nor 

 will this appear extraordinary, when we conlider that it 

 was no uncommon thing, at that time, for princes to vi- 

 fit one another j and that, befides, it was the duty of Hu- 

 itzilihuitl, as a feudatory of that crown ; for, although 

 from the birth of Acolnahuacatl, the queen of Mexico 

 had prevailed upon her father Tezozomoc to relieve the 

 Mexicans from the oppreffions to which they had been 

 fubje£led forfo many years before, yet Mexico flill con- 

 tinued in the nature of a fief of Azcapozalco, and the 

 Mexicans owed the Tepanecan king an annual prefent of 

 a couple of ducks by way of acknowledgment of his 

 fuperiority. 



Maxtlaton received Huitzilihuitl in a hall of the pa- 

 lace, and after having dined with him in the prefence of 

 the courtiers who flattered all his fchemes, he charged 



Huitzilihuitl 



