384 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



Cortes had now got into his power the two moft po- 

 tent kings of Anahuac, and it was not long before he 

 took alfo the king of Tlacopan, the lords of Iztapalapan 

 and Cojohuacan, both brothers of Montezuma, two fons 

 of this fame king, Itzquauhtzin lord of Tlatelolco, a 

 high-pried of Mexico, and feveral more of the moll: re- 

 fpe&able perfonages into cuftody, although we do not 

 know the particulars of their imprifonment ; but it is 

 probable, that he proceeded to take them one after ano- 

 ther, as they came to vifit Montezuma. 



The general, encouraged by his various fucceffes, and 

 feeing the king of Mexico totally devoted to his will, 

 told him it was now time for his fubje&s to acknowledge 

 the king of Spain their lawful fovereign, who was de- 

 fended from the king and god Quetzalcoatl. Monte- 

 zuma, who had not courage to contradict, him, aiTembled 

 the principal nobility of the court and the neighbour- 

 ing cities ; they came all readily to receive his orders, 

 and being met in a large hall of the Spanifh quarters, 

 the king made them a long difcourfe, in which he de- 

 clared the afFe&ion he bore them as a father, from 

 whom confequently they ought not to fear that he would 

 propofe any thing to them which was not juft and ad- 

 vantageous : he called to their memory the ancient tra- 

 dition concerning the devolution of the Mexican empire 

 on the defcendants of Quetzalcoatl, whofe viceroys he 

 and his anceftors had been, and the phenomena obferved 

 in the elements, which, according to the interpretation 

 of the priefls and divines, fignified that the time was now 

 arrived when the oracles were to be fulfilled : he then 

 proceeded to compare the marks obferved in the Spani- 

 ards with thofe of the tradition, from whence he con- 

 cluded that the king of Spain was evidently the lawful 

 * defcendant 



