HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



309 



voured to perfuade him that the illnefs which the princefs 

 had fulFered, had turned her brain. He avoided for ever 

 after returning to fee her, that he might not again hear 

 the melancholy prefages of the ruin of his empire. The 

 princefs, it is faid, lived many years in great retirement 

 and abftinence. She was the firft who, in the year 1524, 

 received the facred baptifm in Tlatelolco, and was called 

 from that time, Donna Maria Papantzin, 



Among the memorable events, in 1510, there hap- 

 pened without any apparent caufe, a fudden and furious 

 burning of the turrets of the greater temple of Mexico, 

 in a calm, ferene night ; and in the fucceeding year, fo 

 violent and extraordinary an agitation of the waters of 

 the lake, that many houfes of the city were deftroyed, 

 there being at the fame time no wind, earthquake, nor 

 any other natural caufe to which the accident could be 

 afcribed. It is faid alfo, that in 1 5 11 , the figures of 

 armed men appeared in the air, who fought and flew 

 each other. Thefe and other fimilar phenomena, re- 

 counted by Acofla, Torquemada and others, are found 

 very cxadlly defcribcd in the Mexican and Acolhuan 

 hiftories. 



The conflernation which thefe fad omens raifed in the 

 mind of Montezuma did not, however, turn afide his 

 thoughts from war. His armies made numerous expe- 

 ditions in 1508, particularly againft the Tlafcalans and 

 Huexotzincas, the Atlixchefe, Icpatepec, and Malinalte- 

 pec, in which they made five thoufand prifoncrs, which 

 were afterwards facrificed. In 1509, the war againft 

 Xochitepec happened, that ftate having rebelled. In 

 the year following, Montezuma thinking the altar for 

 the facrifices too fmall, and unproportioned to the mag- 

 nificence of the temple, he caufcd a proper flone of ex- 



ceflive 



