perors,--Augustin de
Iturbide and the hapless Maximilian,--both in this present century; and
Moctezuma was neither its emperor nor even its king. The social and
political organization of the ancient Mexicans was exactly like that of
the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico at the present day,--a military
democracy, with a mighty and complicated religious organization as its
"power behind the throne." Moctezuma was merely Tlacatecutle, or head
war-chief of the Nahuatl (the ancient Mexicans), and neither the supreme
nor the only executive. Of just how little importance he really was may
be gathered from his fate.

Having founded Vera Cruz, Cortez caused himself to be elected governor
and captain-general (the highest military rank)[6] of the new country;
and having burned his ships, like the famous Greek commander, that there
might be no retreat, he began his march into the grim wilderness before
him.

It was now that Cortez began to show particularly that military genius
which lifted him so far above all other pioneers of America except
Pizarro. With only a handful of men,--for he had left part of his forces
at Vera Cruz, under his lieutenant Escalante,--in an unknown land
swarming with powerful and savage foes, mere courage and brute force
would have stood him in little stead. But with a diplomacy as rare as it
was brilliant, he found the weak spots in the Indian organization,
widened the jealous breaches between tribes, made allies of those who
were secretly or openly opposed to Moctezuma's federation of tribes,--a
league which somewhat resembled the Six Nations of our own history,--and
thus vastly reduced the forces to be directly conquered. Having routed
the tribes of Tlacala (pronounced Tlash-cah-lah) and Cholula, Cortez
came at last to the strange lake-city of Mexico, with his little Spanish
troop swelled by six thousand Indian allies. Moctezuma received him with
great ceremony, but undoubtedly with treacherous intent. While he was
entertaining his visitors in one of the huge adobe houses,--not a
"palace," as the histories tell us, for there were no palaces whatever
in Mexico,--one of the sub-chiefs of his league attacked Escalante's
little garrison at Vera Cruz and killed several Spaniards, including
Escalante himself. The head of the Spanish lieutenant was sent to the
City of Mexico,--for the Indians south of what is now the United States
took not merely the scalp but the whole head of an enemy. This was a
direful disas