HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



275 



their hoftilities by the repeated proteftations which they, 

 made to the natives before they catne to any engage- 

 ment, that they were not come into their country to do 

 them any injury as enemies, but folely as navigators ne- 

 ceffitated to procure, by the exchange of their merchan- 

 dizes, the provifions which they required to continue 

 their voyage ; to which protefts, the Indians anfwered 

 with a mower of arrows and darts. Cortes took folemn 

 pofTeffion of that country in the name of his fovereign, 

 with a ftrange ceremony, though agreeable to the cava- 

 lier cuftoms and ideas of that century. He put on his 

 fliield, unflieathed his fword, and gave three ftabs with 

 it to a large tree which was in the principal village, de- 

 claring, that if any perfon durft oppofe his pofifeffion, he 

 would defend it with that fword. 



To confirm more formally the dominion of his king, 

 he alTembled the lords of that province, and perfuaded 

 them to render him obedience, and to acknowledge him 

 as their lawful fovereign; and to imprefs them with an 

 elevated idea of the power of his king, he made before 

 them a difcharge of the artillery, and by artifices impof- 

 ed upon them the belief, that the neighing of the horfes 

 was a mark of their indignation at the enemies of the 

 Spaniards. They all appeared to acquiefce in the pro- 

 pofals of the conqueror, and liftened with wonder and 

 pleafureto hear the firfl truths of the Chriftian religion, 

 which Bartolomeo de Olmedo, a learned divine, and 

 chaplain to the expedition, declared to them by the in- 

 terpreter Aguilar. They prefented afterwards to Cortes, 

 in token of their fubmiflion, fome little articles of gold, 

 feveral garments of coarfe linen, as they made ufe of no 

 others in that province, and twenty female flaves, which 

 were divided among the officers of his troops. 



Among 



