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Show H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. nooK JX. of honour left he would be a01amed of feeing himfclf made the flave .....-v--J of four ruilia;1s, who, while they cajoled with fair words, ~e~ped aCts of affi·ont upon him; that fmce neither zeal for the Mextcan religion and the gods of the Acolhuans, whom thofe (hangers had bbfphcmoufly infulted, nor the glory of his anc~11:ors, o~~c ured_ and debafed by his own pufillanimity, could move htm, he lHmfeH was difpofed to aid his religion-to vindicate his ?ods-to prcferve_ the kingdom, and recover the honour and liberty ~f htm and every M.extca_n fubjeCt; that he would indeed iee him at Mextco,_ not however w1th l:ts hands in his bofon , but weilding his [word, to wtpc off and cancel wJth · the.blood of the Spaniards the difgrace which fiained the nation. ~ ucT •. D<:. · Montezuma was extremely alarmed by this anfwer, feadt)g that, 1•.:-. alt:ltlou of • d 1 c. f 1 • C rhe pri nce either from the rcvenl"e of the Spamar s or t H.; IUry o 1ung acamat- .~~~~cllitzcat- zin, he would becom~ the viCtim of the appro:1ching !l:orm; upon ·which :iccoun t he refolved to adopt the laO: rciource to prevent it, and fave his own life by treachery. He therefore gave fecret orders to fome Mexican officers, who ferved in the guard of his nephew the king of Acolhuacan, to exert their utmoO: efforts, and without delay, to feize his perfon and conduCt him with the gr;ateO: care to 1\1exico.._ ·becaufe it was of importance to the nation at large. He fuggeO:ed to them the manner of doing it, and probably alfo made them fame gift a.nd promifed them fame reward to encourage them in the undertak~ ing. They again folicited other officers and domeO:ics of the king Cacamatzin, whom they knew to be difpofed to fuch a f.1.Ction, and by the afii11:ance of the laO: they obtained all that Montezuma defired. Among other palaces of the king of Acolhu:tcan, there was one built upon the edge of the lake, in fuch a manner that by a canal, which ran under it, veffels could come out or go in to it. There, as Cacamatzin was then refiding at this palace, they placed a number of veffds with armed men, and in the darknefs of the night, which favours all confpiracies, they fuddenly feized upo!1 the king, and, before any perfons could come to his afli{bnce, put him into a veffel and conveyed him with the utmoO: expedition to Mexico. Montezuma, without paying ar~y refpeCl: to the charaCter of fovereign nor his relation with Cacamat. zin, delivered him up immediately to Cortes. This gener. 1, by what appears from his conducr, had not the leafi idea of the r~fpect which s lS H I S T 0 R Y · 0 F M E X I C 0. .s9 is due to majcll:y even in the perfon of a b1rbarian, put him in irons, B()OK IX • and confined him under a {lronJ guard. The refletl:ions to be made ·"-v--' on this, and other· extraordinary events in this hiftory, are too obvious to require any interruption of the courfe of our relation with them. Cacamatz;n, who began his unhappy reign with the diffenfion of his brother Ixtlilxochitl and the difmemberment of the ftate, cort· eluded it with the lofs of his crown, his liberty, and his life. Montezuma determined, with the confent of Cortes, that the crown of Acolhuacan lhould be given to the prince Cuicuitzcatzin, who had been entertained by Montezuma in his palace from the time that, in order to avoid the perfecutio~s of his brother Cacamatzin, he had taken refuge in Mexico and put himfelf under his proteCtion. This elecl:ion did great wrong to the princes Coanacotzin and Ixtlilxochitl, who, by having been born of the queen Xocotzin, had a better right to the crown. The motive does not appear which made MQq~ezuma refufe Coanacotzin, although with refpeet to Ixtlilxochitl it is certain,, that he was afraid of increaiing the power of fo troublefome an enemy . .' However it was, Montezuml made Cuicuitzcatzin be acknowledged king by the nobles of Tezcuco, and accompanied him, afong , with , • Cortes, to the veffd in which he was to crofs the lake, and · recom-mended ,to him the confiant friendlhip of the Mexicans ~nd the Spaniards, as he was indebted to them both for his crown. Cuicuitzcatzin repaired to Tezcuco, accompanied by many nobles of each court, and was received there with acclamations, triumphal arches, and dances, the nobility tranfporting him in a litter from the vefil:l to the royal palace, where the eldeft noble made him a long difcourfe in the name of the whole nation, congratulating him aud exhorting hi!n to love all his vaffids, and promifing to treat him a~ a father and to revere him ~s their fovereign. It is imponible to expref.<; the grief which this event occafioned to Cacamatzin, who found himfelf in the flower of youth, being fiill no more than twenty- five years of age, deprived of the crown which three years before he had inherited from his father, and reduced to the confinement and folitude of a prifon by the ve,ry king whom he had purpofed to make free, and thofe firangers whon1 .he had defigncd to drive out of the kingdom . VoL. II. N CQrtes ~ • |