way or set foot within that
impregnable city of Tenochtitlan--that fatal causeway, as indeed it
afterwards became.

Barbaric splendour, blended with the arts and industries of a civilised
and practical people, formed the environment of this long-striven-for
goal, where the men of Spain now lay at ease. A great pile of low stone
buildings gave them commodious quarters. Rich gifts of gold and
clothing, and ample food supplies, were given and provided for the
white men; and their hearts, whether of the high-mettled and scornful
cavaliers, or of the rude boors who formed the common soldiery, were
won by the gentle courtesy and the generosity of Montezuma and the
respect of the Aztecs who obeyed him. Even the savage and hated
Tlascalan allies were lodged and provided for--their detested presence
tolerated from consideration for the Spaniards. Here was an unhoped-for
and magnificent reception. Here was a way and a time where the
civilisation and religion of the Christian world might have been
implanted--it would seem--by the philosophy of natural methods, by
forbearance, example, and sagacity. So, at least, have thought some of
the old chroniclers--so the student of to-day cannot but think.

But it was not to be so. The heart of the thinker bleeds to-day for the
things of history which might have been; and the story of Montezuma is
strong to give us philosophical regret. Some six days elapsed in this
peaceful occupation of the city. Cortes and his Spaniards admired the
huge market-place, where products from all quarters of the country were
brought together: food, clothing, weapons, manufactured articles of
rich material and colour, objects of gold, and a wealth of flowers
which the inhabitants loved, stone buildings which lined the streets,
the canals and streets which gave access thereto, and, in brief, the
whole detail and substance of that remarkable centre of a
semi-civilisation which the Spaniards commonly pronounced the equal of
anything in their own native land. In company with Montezuma Cortes
ascended the great _teocalli_, or pyramidal temple, and he and his
companion, from this high point, beheld with amazement the panorama of
the city below--with the lakes, the causeways giving access to the
mainland, the towns on the farther side, and the intense cultivation of
the valley. "Only the murmur of the people below reached our ears, as
we gazed upon this panorama," wrote Bernal Diaz, who was there. To the
chiefs who h