HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



379 



je&s of Tezcuco he was not very popular, on account of 

 his pride and the injury he had done his brother the 

 prince Cuicuitzcatzin, who, to (hun being perfecuted, 

 had taken fhelter in Mexico, and was more acceptable 

 to the people on account of his more affable difpofition. 



Cacamatzin therefore went to Tezcuco, and having 

 called together his counfellors and the mod refpe&able 

 perfons of his court, reprefented to them the deplorable 

 ftate of Mexico, owing to the unequalled audacity of 

 the Spaniards, and pufillanimity of the king his uncle; 

 the authority which thofe flrangers were acquiring, the 

 outrages offered to the king by the imprifonment of his 

 perfbn as if he had been a flave, and the infult rendered 

 to their gods by the introduction of the worfliip of a 

 ftrange deity into that kingdom; he exaggerated the 

 evils which might refult from fuch beginnings to the 

 court and kingdom of Acolhuacan: " It is time now," 

 he faid, " to fight for our religion, for our country, for 

 " our liberty, and for our honour, before the power of 

 " thofe men is increafed by reinforcements from their 

 " own country or new alliances in this." At laft he 

 enjoined them all to fpeak their opinions freely. The 

 majority of his counfellors declared for war, either in 

 complaifance to their king or becaufe they were all of 

 the fame opinion, but fome aged refpe&able perfons told 

 the king plainly, that he mould not fuffer himfelf to be 

 led away by the ardour of youth ; that before any refo- 

 lution was taken it ought to be remembered, that the 

 Spaniards were warlike refolute men, and fought with 

 arms fuperior to theirs; that he mould not confider 

 the relation between himfelf and Montezuma fo much 

 as the alliance of the latter with the Spaniards; that a 

 friendftiip of that nature, of which there were the clearefl 



and 



