350 HISTOR? OF MEXICO. 



of gold, which four nobles bore on their fhoulders, 

 under the (hade of a parafol of green feathers embroid- 

 ered with fancy works of gold ; he wore hanging from 

 his fhoulders a mantle adorned with the richeft jewels 

 of gold and precious ftones, on his head a thin crown 

 of the fame metal, and upon his feet fhoes of gold tied 

 with firings of leather worked with gold and gems ; he 

 was accompanied by two hundred lords, dreil: in a ftyle 

 fuperior to the other nobles, but all barefooted, two 

 by two, keeping clofe on each fide to the walls of the 

 houfes, to (hew the refpecl: they bore to their fovereign. 

 As foon as the king and the Spanifh general faw each 

 other, both alighted, Cortes from his horfe, and the 

 king from his litter, who began to walk leaning on the 

 arms of the king of Tezcuco and the lord of Iztapala- 

 pan. Cortes, after having made a profound bow to 

 the king, approached him to put about his neck a fmall 

 cord of gold, on which were lining glafs beads which 

 appeared like gems, and the king bowed his head to 

 receive it (pi) ; Cortes was alfo going to embrace him, 

 but the two lords did not permit it. The general ex- 

 preffed in a fhort fpeech, as the circumftances required, 

 his benevolence, his refpecl:, and the pleafure he had in 

 the knowledge of fo great a monarch. Montezuma an- 

 fwered him in few words, and having performed the 

 ufual ceremony of touching the earth and killing the 

 hand, he in return for the prefent of the glafs beads, 

 gave him two necklaces of beautiful mother of pearl, 



from 



(m) Solis, in his account of that meeting, makes four miftakes: I. He fays, 

 that the prefent made by Cortes was not a band or chain of glafs. 2. That thofc 

 two lords who accompanied Montezuma did not permit Cortes to put it about 

 his neck. 3. That they did it with fome difdain. 4. That they were repri- 

 manded by the king. The whole of this is falfe, invented at caprice, and con- 

 trary to the account given by Cortes himfelf. 



