I now require you, all who hear me, to renounce your human sacrifices,
cannibal feasts, and other abominable practices, for such is the
command of our Lord God, whom we adore, who gives us life and death,
and who is to raise us up to heaven."

The natives, however, clung to the debasing faith of their fathers.
The zeal of Cortez was roused. He regarded the hideous idols as
representatives of devils, whom it was right, with any violence, to
overthrow. He was just about ordering an onslaught upon the temples
with sword and hatchet, when the prudent Father Olmedo dissuaded him.

"By introducing our religion thus violently," said this truly good
man, "we shall but expose the sacred symbol of the cross and the image
of the Blessed Virgin to insult as soon as we shall have departed. We
must wait till we can instruct their dark minds, so that from the
heart they may embrace our faith."

And here let us record the full and the cordial admission, that the
Roman Catholic Church, notwithstanding its corruptions, has sent out
into the wilds of heathenism as devoted Christians as the world has
ever seen.

After a rest in this city of five days, the route was again commenced.
The road wound picturesquely along the banks of a broad and tranquil
stream, fringed with an unbroken line of Indian villages. Some twenty
leagues of travel brought them to the large town of Xalacingo. Here
they met with friendly treatment. They were now on the frontiers of a
very powerful nation, called the Tlascalans, who, by their fierce and
warlike habits, had thus far succeeded in resisting the aggressions of
the Mexicans. The whole nation was organized into a camp, and thus,
though many bloody battles had been fought, the Tlascalans maintained
their independence.

Cortez was quite sanguine that he should be able to form an alliance
with this people. He therefore decided to rest his army for a few
days, while an embassy should be sent to the Tlascalan capital to
solicit permission to pass through their country, and gently to
intimate an alliance. Four Zempoallans of lofty rank were selected as
embassadors. In accordance with the custom of the country, they were
dressed in official costume, with flowing mantles, and each bearing
arrows tipped with _white_ feathers, the symbol of peace.

But the Tlascalans had heard of the arrival of the Spaniards upon the
coast, of their ships, "armed with thunder and clad with wings," of
their fearful war-horses, a