THE CONQUEST. 137 
to the foot of mountains, where the sunshine for ever warmed the fruits and 
flowers into vigorous life. 
Such was the city of Mexico, and the style of the Emperor; but it was 
not alone in externals, that the nation was great and powerful. It was 
regulated by good laws, well and speedily administered ; the relations of 
life were recognized and guarded ; it fostered a good system of education ; 
the arts were cultivated and encouraged ; architecture had advanced 
to a high degree of excellence ; the knowledge of astronomy, and of the 
calculation of time, was exact and scientific. The Aztecs were bold in war; 
they had built a vast Empire, springing from a sparse tribe which found 
its first home among the reeds and marshes of the lake where they had 
hidden for safety from their foes ; and, although their religious rites were 
brutal and bloody, they still had some glimmering ideas of an invisible 
and omnipotent God. It was a nation of splendid contradictions, where 
social elegance and comfort were almost unequalled, and yet where reli- 
gious brutality was quite as unparalleled. 
The sight of this splendid city was too tempting for Cortez — " The king- 
doms of the world were at his feet." He had resolved, before, to attempt 
the entire subjugation of this people ; and the view of this wealth only 
stimulated his resolution, while the bloody rites* of the Temple aided in 
exciting his ambition to give another land of idolatry to the control of the 
Holy Cross. 
He soon afterward seized the King, and, as some assert, caused him to 
be put to death, or to be so exposed that his death was inevitable ; yet, 
when tlie wonted spirit of the Mexicans was aroused, his troops were 
driven from the Capital. 
He returned with Indian allies. He invested the city with a sort of 
mimic navy, which he launched on the lake from Tezcoco ; and at length, 
after a severe struggle, the Capital fell into his hands. 
" What I am going to say is truth, and I swear, and say Amen to it !" 
(exclaims Bernal Diaz del Castillo, in his quaint style :) "I have read of 
the destruction of Jerusalem, but I cannot conceive that the mortality 
there exceeded that of Mexico ; for all the people from the distant prov- 
inces, which belonged to this Empire, had concentrated themselves here, 
where they mostly died. The streets, and squares, and houses, and the 
courts of the Tlatelolcof were covered with dead bodies ; we could not 
* " The walls and pavements of this Temple," says Bernal Diaz, " were so besmeared with blood, that they 
stunk worse than all the slaughter-houses of Castile." Further on he says : " At the door stood frightful idols ; 
by it was a place for sacrifice, and within, boilers, and pots full of water, to dress the flesh of victims, which 
was eaten by the priests. The idals were like serpents and devils : and before them were tables and knives for 
sacrifice, tlie place being covered with blood which was spilt on those occasions. The furniture was like that 
ofa butcher's stall; and Inever gave this accursed building any name exceptthatof Hell ! In another temple 
were the tombs of the Mexican nobility. It was begrimed with soot and blood. Next to this, was another, full 
cf skeletons, and piles of bones, each kept apart, but regularly arranged." 
t Diaz, contrary to other writers, declares this to have been the site of tlie great Temple. It is nov? the site 
of the Convent of St. lago Tlaltelolco. 
