r, five
hundred thousand inhabitants, besides those in another smaller province
adjacent to this, called Guazincango, who live in the manner, not
subject to any native sovereign and are not less the vassals of Your
Highness than the people of Tlascala."

Montezuma gave another reason for permitting the Tlascalans their
liberty and independence. He said that he was allowing them to
maintain their existence {141} and remain a republic because everything
else in the vicinity had been conquered; and as there was no field for
the young warriors of the Aztec nation to obtain that military training
which it was always best to learn by actual experience, he kept
Tlascala in a state of enmity because it furnished him a place where he
could get the human beings for sacrifices to his gods that he required
and at the same time train his young soldiery. In other words,
Tlascala was regarded as a sort of game preserve from a religious point
of view. Doubtless, Tlascala did not acknowledge the justice, the
propriety and the correctness of this attitude of scorn and contempt on
the part of the Aztecs. The other tribes of Mexico bore the yoke
uneasily, and cherished resentment, but even the enmity between the
Jews and the Samaritans was not more bitter than the enmity between the
Tlascalans and the people of the city of Anahuac.

When Cortes drew near Tlascala, the senate debated what course it
should pursue toward him. One of the four regents, so called, of the
republic was a man of great age, feeble and blind, but resolute of
spirit. His name was Xicotencatl. He was all for war. He was opposed
by a young man named Maxixcatzin. The debate between the two and the
other participants was long and furious. Finally the desire of
Xicotencatl prevailed in a modified form. There was a tribe occupying
part of the Tlascalan territory and under Tlascalan rule called
Otumies. It was decided to cause the Otumies to attack Cortes and his
force. If Cortes was annihilated, the problem would be solved. If the
Otumies were defeated their action would be disavowed by the Tlascalans
and no harm would be done to anybody but the unfortunate {142} Otumies,
for whom no one in Tlascala felt any great concern.

The Otumies were placed in the front of the battle, but the Tlascalans
themselves followed under the command of another Xicotencatl, son of
the old regent, who was a tried and brilliant soldier. The battles
along the coast had been more