HISTORY OF MEXICO* 



187 



tood of Tlafcala, and entertaining no fufpicion of the two 

 captains who came to him, fell unwarily into the fnare. 

 The deed was done at fome little didance, but yet in fight 

 of the royal army. They ran up immediately to chaftife 

 the temerity of thofe two defperatc captains, but the army 

 of the confpirators advancing, which was more numerous, 

 they were quickly defeated. The royal corpfe was with 

 difficulty faved, to pay it funeral honours, and the heir 

 of the crown, v/ho was a w^itnefs of the tragic end of his 

 father, was obliged to hide himfelf in the bufhes to efcape 

 the fury of his enemies. Thus did the unfortunate king 

 Ixtlilxochitl end his life in 141 o, after a reign of feven 

 years. 



He left feveral fons, and among them Nezahualcojotl<i 

 heir to the throne, whom he had by Matlalcihuat%in^ 

 daughter of Acamapitzin, king of Mexico (/). This 

 prince was endued with a great genius, and an unpa- 

 ralleled magnanimity, and pre-eminently defcrving of the 

 throne of Acolhuacan j but he was not able from the 

 fuperiority of Tezozomoc, to put himfelf in poffeffion of 

 the throne which was due to him by fo many titles, until 

 many years had elapfed, and many dangers and obflacles 

 to it were furmounted. 



The perfidious Tezozomoc had prepared great bodies 

 of troops, that when the premeditated blow on the per- 

 fon of the king fliould fucceed, they might pour down 

 upon the cities of Tezcuco, Huexotla, Coatlichan, Coate- 



pec, 



if) Torquemada makes Matlalcihuatzin, daugnter of HuitziHhuitl ; but how ? 

 He fays, that this king when he mounted the throne, was only feventeen years 

 of age, nor yet married : and that he reigned twenty-two, or at moft twenty-fix 

 years. On the other hand, he reprefents Nezahualcojotl, at the death of his pre- 

 tended grandfather, of an age able to go to war, and make negociations to fecure 

 himfelf the crown : from whence he would make out that Huitzilihuitl, before 

 'he was twenty-fix years married, had grandfons at Jeafl twenty years old» 



