delivered into our hands! They are divided, and
so they will fall." Father Olmedo, the wise and pious confessor of the
forces, to whose prudence the security of the Spaniards owed much, and
who was the representative of the great Church which became so potent
in those lands, blessed his comrades' conclaves, and celebrated solemn
Masses. Indeed, every move of the Spaniards was accomplished under such
auspices, and was always referred by Cortes to the influence of the
desire to carry the Cross of Christ and all it embodied, to those
heathen peoples; and in a spirited address to the soldiers he declared
that "without this motive their expedition was but one of oppression
and robbery." The true proportions of piety and hypocrisy contained in
these expressions and acts must be left to the knowledge of human
nature of the reader. Suffice to say that the Spaniards did, to a large
extent, look upon themselves as Crusaders, and that a militant
religious fervour animated them, in conjunction with a spirit of
avarice and cruelty.

And so they marched on Cempoalla, along the sandy shores of the gulf,
passing through villages, with temples devoted to the abominable
sacrificial rites which they had seen in Yucatan. Thence they
encountered the fringe of the tropical forests, and at length entered
the strange town of Cempoalla, with its numerous inhabitants, and
streets, and houses, and excellent surrounding cultivation. Here they
remained some days, the Spaniards delighted with the fertile region and
the hospitable natives. The great Cacique had received them in his
residence--a building of stone upon a pyramid, after the fashion of the
structures of that country, and, the fair Marina interpreting, Cortes
stated his mission--"to redress abuses and punish oppressors, and to
establish the true faith." The substance of the chief's reply was that,
though weary of the oppressive yoke of the Aztecs: Montezuma was a
terrible monarch, who could pour down his warriors upon them. But
Cortes gathered encouragement from his attitude, and in the meantime a
juncture had been effected with the ships upon the coast a few leagues
distant, at a port discovered by Montejo. Further deliberations took
place during the ensuing days, when a momentous event occurred in the
arrival of special emissaries from Montezuma to the Cacique, setting
forth the anger of the Emperor, and demanding instant reparation and
tribute for the disloyalty of the Totonacs in havi