HISTORY OF MEXICO. 203 



of recovering his liberty, nor of being of any fervice to 

 his nation during the little time he had to live. " If at 

 Jaft/' he faid, " I am to die here, will it not be pre- 

 " ferable, and more glorious to die by mjcjown than by 

 the hands of a cruel and perfidious tyrant ? If 1 can 

 have no other revenge, I Ihall at leall: deprive him of 

 the pleafure which he would take in appointing the 

 " time and mode of death which muft finifti my unhappy 

 days. I fhall be the difpofer of my own life, choofe 

 the time and manner of my death, as it will be attend- 

 ed with fo much the lefs ignominy, the lefs the will 

 of my enemy fliall influence and dire£l it (a;)." In 

 this refolution, which was entirely conformable to the 

 ideas of thofe nations, he hanged himfelf upon a fmall 

 beam of the cage or prifon, making ufe, mofl probably, 

 of his girdle for that purpofe. 



Thus tragic an end had the unfortunate life of the 

 third king of Mexico. We have no more particular 

 accounts of his charafler, or the progrefs the nation 

 made during his reign, which lafled about thirteen years, 

 being concluded in 1423, about a year after the death 

 of Tezozomoc. We know^ only that in the eleventh 

 year of his reign, he ordered a great flone to be brought 

 to Mexico, to ferve as an altar for the ordinary facrifice 

 of prifoners, and a larger round one, for gladiatorian fa- 

 crifices, of which we fhall fpeak hereafter. In the fourth 

 painting of Mendoza's collection, are reprefented the 

 dilFerent victories which the Mexicans obtained during 

 the reign of Chimalpopoca, the cities of Chalco, and Te- 

 quizquiac, and the naval engagement which they had 



with 



(x) Thefe laft words of Chimalpopoca, handed down by the hiftorians of 

 Mexico, were known from the depofitions of the guards who furrounded the 

 cage or prifon. 



