310 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



ccffive fize, to be fought for, which was found near to 

 Cojoacan. After ordering it to be poliflied and cut, he 

 commanded it to be brought in due form to Mexico. A 

 vaft number of people went to drag it along, but in pafT- 

 ing a wooden bridge over a canal, in the entry to the city, 

 the (lone by its enormous weight, broke through the 

 bridge and fell into the canal, drawing fome men after 

 it, and among the reft, the high prieft, who was accom- 

 panying it, and fcattering incenfe. The king and the 

 people were a good deal difconcerted by this misfortune; 

 but without giving up the undertaking, they drew the 

 ftone, with prodigious labour and fatigue, out of the 

 water, and brought it to the temple, where it was confe- 

 crated with the facrifice of all the prifoners that had been 

 referved for this great feftival, which was one of the 

 moft folemn ever celebrated by the Mexicans. The king 

 invited the principal nobility of all his kingdom to it, 

 and expended a great deal of his treafure in prefents 

 which he made to the nobles and populace. In this 

 fame year the confecration of the temple Tlamatzinco 

 was celebrated, and alfo that of Quaxicalco, of which we 

 fliall fpeak elfewhere. The victims facrificed at the con- 

 fecration of thefe two edifices, and the altar of the fa- 

 crifices, were, according to the account of hiftorian§, 

 twelve thoufand two hundred and ten, in number. 



To have been able to furnifti fuch a number of vi£i:ims, 

 they muft have been continually at war. In 15 ii, the 

 Jopas rebelled, and defigned to kill all the Mexican gar- 

 rifon in Tlacotepec ; but their intentions being feafona- 

 bly difcovered, they were puniflied accordingly, and two 

 hundred of them carried prifoners to Mexico. In 1 5 1 2, 

 an army of the Mexicans marched towards the north, 

 againft the Quitzalapanefe, and with the lofs only of 



ninety- 



