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Show 2:?.2 nooK rv. ~ It I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0 . fought, ..,.,·as fo weighty, that. a man of ordinary ftrength. could ~a rdly rnife it from the ground. His name was a terror to the enem1es of the republic, and wherever he appeared in arms, they fled before him. In an affimlt which the Huelrotzincas made upon a garrifon of the Ottomies, he got inadvertently, during the heat of the engagement, into a madh, where not being able to move with fufficient agility, he was made prifoncr, confined in a fl:rong cage, carried to Mexico, and prefented to Montezuma. The king, who could el~eem merit even in his enemies, inftead of putting him to death, graciouily granted him liberty to return to his native country; but the proud Tlafcalan yrould not accept the favour, pretending that as he had been made pri[oner, he had not confidence to prefent himfelf after fuch di!honour before his countrymen. He faid he defired to die like the other prifoners, in honour of their god. Montezuma obferving his averfion to retum to his country, and at the fame time being unwilling to deprive the world of a man who was fo renowned, continued to entertain him at his court, in hopes of making him a friend to the Mexicans, and gaining his fervices to the crown. In the mean time a war broke out vith the Michuacanefe, the reafons and particulars of which we know not, when Montezuma committed the command of the army which he fent to T laxirnalojan, the frontier as we have already mentioned of Michuacm, to Tlahuicol. Tlahuic;ol correfponded faithfully with the trufi: repofed in him; for although he could not difiodge the enemy from the place where they were fortified, yet he made many prifoners, and brought off a great quantity of gold and filver. Montezuma was fenfible of his fervices, and again made him offers of liberty; but this being refufed as formerly, he was offered the honourable poft of 'l'lacatecat!, general of the Mexican arms. To this the Tlafcalan nobly anfwered, that he would never be a traitor to his country, that he defired pofitively to die, provi edit might be in th~ gladiatorian facrifice, which as it was referved for the moO: refpetl:able prifoners, would therefore be more honourable to him. This celebrated general paffed three years in Mexico with one of his wives, who came there from Tlafcala to live with him. It is probable, that the Mexicans bro1.1ght her to him that he might leave them fame pofi:erity, to ennoble with his virtues the court and kingdom of Mexiro. The king perceiving at laft the obftinacy with which he re-x fufed H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. fufed every offer which was made him, yielded to his barbarous incli.~ ation, and appointed the day of the facrifice. Eight days before the arnval of that day, they began to celebrate the occa.fion with entertainments of ~ancing; after w~ich, they, in prefence of the king, the nobility, and an tmmenfe croud of people, put the Tlafcalan prifoner, tied by one foot, upon the 'l'emalacat!, or the large round ftone on which fuch fa. cr~fices. were made. Several brave men came on, one at a time, to fight w1th hun, of whom, according to report, he killed eight and wound<::d twenty, until at lail: falling almoft dead from a fevere blow which hereceived on the. head, they carried him before the idol of Huitzilopochtli, where the pnefl:s opened his breafl: and took out his heart, ' and threw the body down the il:air of the temple according to the efiaulirhed rites. Thus fe~l th~s famous g~neral, whofe courage and fidelity to his conn try, had he hved 111 mar': enlightened times, would have raifed him high i11 the rank of heroes. · During the time in which war was carrying on agninfi the Tlafcalans, fame provinces of the empire were diftrefied with a famii1e, occafioned by two years of dry weather. All the grain which indivi~ uals .ro~eifed. being confumed, the king had an opportunity of fhewu~ g Ius. hberahty; he opened all his granaries, and di!h ibuted among his fubjeB:s all the maize which was in them; but this not being fuffi~ ient to relieve their neceffities, in imitation of Montezuma I. he pcrmttted them to go to other countries to procure their fubfiftence. The following year, I so 5, having had an abundant harvefi, the Mexicans went to war againft Guatemala, a province upwards of nine hun~red miles di~ant from Mexico in the fouth-eaft. During the contmuance of th1s war, occafioned probably by fame hofl:ilitics offe 1·ed to ~orne of the fubjeB:s of the crown, the 'building of a temple, ere :ted m honom of the goddefs Centiotl, was finifl1ed at Mexico, the con .fecration of which was celebrated with the facrifice of the priloncrs made in that war. They had, during this feafon alfo, enlarged the road upon the lake from Chapoltcpec to Mexico, and repaired the aqueduCt: which waA upon that road, but the rejoicings which the conclufion of fuch a Ia~ ~our e~cited were interrupted by the turret of another temple, called Zomo/11, being fet on fire by lightning. The inhabitants of that part of • SecT. VH. Famine in the })I'Ovinces of the empire, nnd p11bli · works in /he r~pita l . • |