382 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



Was of importance to the nation at large. He fuggefted 

 to them the manner of doing it, and probably alfo made 

 them fome gift and promifed them fome reward to en- 

 courage them in the undertaking. They again folicited 

 other officers and domeftics of the king Cacamatzin, 

 whom they knew to be difpofed to fuch a faction, and by 

 the affiftance of the laft they obtained all that Montezu- 

 ma defired. Among other palaces of the king of Acol- 

 huacan, there was one built upon the edge of the lake, 

 in fuch a manner that by a canal, which ran under it, 

 veffels could come out or go in to it. There, as Caca- 

 matzin was then refiding at this palace, they placed a 

 number of velTels with armed men, and in the darknefs of 

 the night, which favours all confpiracies, they fuddenly 

 feized upon the king, and, before any perfons could 

 come to his affiftance, put him into a veffel and conveyed 

 him with the utmoft expedition to Mexico. Montezu- 

 ma, without paying any refpect to the character of fo- 

 vereign nor his relation with Cacamatzin, delivered him 

 up immediately to Cortes. This general, by what ap- 

 pears from his conduct:, had not the leaft idea of the re- 

 flect which is due to majefty even in the perfon of a bar- 

 barian, put him in irons, and confined him under a ftrong 

 guard. The reflections to be made on this, and other 

 extraordinary events in this hiftory, are too obvious to 

 require any interruption of the courfe of our relation 

 with them. 



Cacamatzin, who began his unhappy reign with the 

 dilTenfion of his brother Ixtilxochitl and the difmember- 

 ment of the ftate, concluded it with the lofs of his crown, 

 his liberty, and his life. Montezuma determined, with 

 the confent of Cortes, that the crown of Acolhuacan 

 fhould be given to the prince Cuicuitzcatzin, who had 



been 



