THE CONQUEST. 139 
his luxurious habits of life, operating, most probably, upon a temperament 
naturally unresisting and indolent, induced him to allow a foothold to the 
Spaniards, who might have been crushed by his armies at a single blow. 
Instead of striking that blow, he indulged in recollecting the legends of 
his forefathers ; and scarcely had his future conqueror entered the Capital, 
when he hinted the fate to which his country was at last subjected. "It 
is long since we knew from our ancestors," said he. "that neither I nor 
all who inhabit their lands were originally of them, but that we are stran- 
gers, and came hither from distant places. It was said that a great lord 
brought our race to these parts and returned to the land of his birth, and 
yet, came back once more to us. But, in the mean time, those whom he 
first brought had intermarried with the women of the country ; and when 
he desired them to return again to the land of their fathers they refused 
to go. He went alone ; and ever since have we believed, that from among 
those who were the descendants of that mighty lord, one shall come to 
subdue this land, and make us his vassals f According to what you de- 
clare of the place whence you come, (which is toward the rising sun,) and 
of the great lord who is your King, we must surely believe that he is our 
natural lord." 
Cortez was by no means disposed to deny it ! 
