ced his mission. He was the
ambassador of a mighty Emperor from beyond the seas, come to greet the
Emperor of the Aztecs and to carry a present from his monarch, the
mightiest in the world. When could he be admitted before Montezuma? The
awe in which this potentate was held by his vassals was shown in
Teuhtile's reply: "Was it possible that a monarch, the equal of the
Aztec king, existed elsewhere? How could the white men ask, at such
short notice, to be admitted to the semi-sacred presence?" But he
brought forward presents of beautiful feather-work and ornaments of
gold for the Spaniards; and Cortes, not to be outdone, produced a
richly-carved chair and other things admired by the simple natives,
including articles of cut glass, which were held to be gems of great
price, as of course the Aztecs had no knowledge of glass. All these
matters were carried out with due ceremony, messengers with the
presents were sent to Montezuma, and the Spaniards, pending the return
of the emissaries of Teuhtile with their greeting, devoted themselves
to the perfecting of their dwellings.

[Footnote 14: The Aztec word for centaurs, which was applied to the
horsemen.]

Little more than a week elapsed. In that time the swift native carriers
had traversed and re-traversed the steep and rugged road from the coast
to the valley of Anahuac, a distance of about two hundred miles each
way. The substance of their message from Montezuma was "Come not
hither; the road is long and dangerous; return to your country with our
greetings to your great King." A magnificent present accompanied this
somewhat chilling reply--articles of gold and silver, beautifully
wrought, among them a huge gold plate, and one of silver, circular in
form and "as large as carriage-wheels," twenty-eight spans in
circumference, representing respectively the images of the sun and the
moon and engraved with figures of animals, doubtless indicative of some
chronological symbol--the value of the gold wheel was afterwards
estimated at more than 50,000 pounds sterling--other articles of
clothing and armour, including a number of beautiful golden shields
inlaid and decorated, necklaces of rubies and pearls, and a quantity of
the intricate and beautiful feather-work.

What was the result of all this, upon the Spaniards--this wealth of
treasure and this unencouraging greeting? "Go back again," was the
substance of Cortes's reply to the ambassadors of Montezuma; "tell your
monarch th