HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



413 



cent, liberal, zealous for juftice, and grateful for the fer- 

 vices of his fubjefts ; but his referve and diftance made 

 the throne inacceffible to the complaints of his people. 

 His magnificence and liberality were fupported by the 

 burdens laid on his fubjedts, and his juftice degenerated 

 into cruelty. He was exact and punctual in every thing 

 appertaining to religion, and jealous of the worfliip of 

 his gods and the obfervance of rites (/). In his youth 

 he was inclined to war and courageous, and came off 

 conqueror, according to hiftory, in nine battles ; but in 

 the laft year of his reign, domeflic pleafures, the fame 

 of the firft victories of the Spaniards, and, above all, fu- 

 perftition, weakened and debafed his mind to fuch a de- 

 gree, that he appeared, as his fubjects reproached him, 

 to have changed his fex. He delighted greatly in mufic 

 and the chafe, and was as dextrous in the ufe of the bow 

 and arrow as in that of the fliooting-tube. He was a 

 perfon of a good ftature, but of an indifferent complex- 

 ion, and of a long vifage, with lively eyes. 



He left at his death feveral fons, of whom three pe- 

 riflhed that unlucky night of the defeat of the Spaniards, 

 either by the hands of the Spaniards themfelves, as the 

 Mexicans affirm, or by the hands of the Mexicans, as 

 the Spaniards report. Of thofe who furvived, the moft 

 remarkable was Johualicahuatzin, or Don Pedro Mote- 

 zu?na 9 and of him defcended the Counts Montezuma and 

 Tula. Montezuma had this fon by MiahuaxochitI, the 

 daughter of Ixtlilcuechahuac, lord of Tollan. By ano- 

 ther wife he had Tecuichpotzin, a beautiful princefs, 



from 



(/) Solis fays that Montezuma hardly bent his neck, that is bowed his head to 

 his gods ; that he had a higher idea of himfelf than of them, &c. He adds 

 alfo, that the devil favoured him ivith frequent vifts. Such credulity does not be- 

 come the greater hilloriographer of the Indies. 



