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Show CAPITAL Or ANAnUAE i ' ' Cortez's Army Marching Meet Monte-; Monte-; I zurna Friendly Greetings Span- ' jards Enter Mexico - Wonder and j J Amazement of Natives Surprise for ! I the Victors in the City of the Aztecs I j TeocsIIi and It Barbarous Sacrifices ! Cannibals. I 1 On the morning of Xovcmbcr 8, jr19, Cor-i Cor-i trz drcM-fl his men for the parade and entrance to I ilie Aztec capital.- The little army set out from J l2t;ii:i!;ipnn as the sun was rising' over the Sierras. J . J'cvIm Alvaredo plumed, mounted and caparisoned, ! ; leading" the advance. The.v entered upon the cause- way known a "the leopard's road," which lay across 1 sdt and shallow waters of Lake Tezcuco, and S w. wide enough for ten horses to ride abreast. The Jake on both sides of this marine road swarmed with- ranges, decorated' with flowers, and tilled with vney coinplexioncd men, women and children I rrangoly costumed, silent, serious looking and with : vi'-n-mz eyes which struggled in vain with the bnnnnsr urisity which consumed them. A- i lie Spaniards advanced, the city loomed ! :?.r?c before them. A mile from the entrance to tun capital, the troops passed through the battle- (jiiicd gateway of the great stone wall, twelve feet usrt -and strengthened with defensive towers. Here they halted, and Cortez, helmeted and matlcrtrrothT" to ;ho iront. Alvaredo yielding the place of honor', i 1 mhi- chief. A deputation of Aztec nobles how ap- iTOHchni and after saluting the Spanish command-I command-I .t. mlormed him that Montezuma had alreadv left i w.il residence and was on his way to greet i1 mm. The Spanish troops. Cortez in advance, moved nruard and soon beheld the glittering retinue of !.( .-.zur emperor emerging from the great street idii.-li opened a way through the heart of the city APPROACH OF MOXTEZFMA. ! my Diaz, brave soldier, rugged chroniclerj siiJ tighter with the army of Cortez. tells us in his r'ujrhiy written history that : " surrounded by a I c.-wil f Indian nobles, and preceded by three of- 1 f state, bearing golden wands, Moctczurna, j r,.:ii,.r .j Mexico, seated in a royal palanquin of I iurjii-iKcl go Id. came out to meet our general. Over " palanquin, which was carried on the shoulders J . n .i,lrN Was & canopy of gaudy feather-work, cov- I dMith jewels and silver filigree and supported by j mi ''!)lants of princely rank. The palanquin4 I -"-..i.-h The Aztec sat, blazed with burnished gold." I 5 !! the royal cortege came within hailing dis- " r -f the Spaniards, the train halted and Mon-I'-zuma. alight ing, came forward accompanied on his " ' left by the tribuatory chiefs of Tezcuco j --J Iztpalapan. Cortez. dismounting, advanced to I 1 M-.iitezuma, who received him with gracious 0 . After an exchange of presents and friend- -ur(iiiv-s, Montezuma, commending Cortez to '-I-- of the prince of Iztapalpau, was carried 6 K :" palace through vast throngs, who bent i ' vr n nee as the royal palanquin passed I r - urn. I SPANIARDS' ENTER MEXICO. I ( . r ordered Coral to sound the advance; with ( r filing, liorses prancing and music playing, 1 S,.oi,,ards proudly marched; As they drew near I r t-v, motley crowds of wondering people came ' ' 1 heir eyes upon them. In vain their I ).... oi-i,m struggled with the fierce curiosity 1 1 - ti ,. voiired them. "Were these strangers gods ix 1 ' ' ' i being at their head clothed and bon-lrr' bon-lrr' -"'l unknown material, the long-looked-for I 1 ' Quctzaleoatlo, the god of rain, who; ! ' .;iig the land iiv his skin boat long, long p ! ""-ii-'d to come back to them again? Surely I 'r 1 himself a god; and as he and his at- I 'I"'1'- dmojis rode through them, they bowed "'"!!. li;, if in adoration and half in fear of the . (e!,n.!ir., jMrt mr,n a)!(j part jjpagt ie like of which ,ll".v liH.I ,,..V(r 8pCn a, never heard of. ..They I j-''l with awe and wonder on the horses, on the I Sv'-'ord and steel helmets, on the marching I ntfn -"i;,,-, stx) was casljc military pride and I f'.j'- fell as if but one will directed the host, j A,y li-i.11,.,1 with confused emotions of pleasure I1' far to 1 he weird and mystcrious'music, com-I,f!tiM!S com-I,f!tiM!S flf ,-0 Spanish and Moorish minds; j ,,'!lr"1 !" marchinj? files with staring eyes, till at . tlie itfjr complexions of the western Spaniards, j"r' "iumc. the gleam of bright steel, the prancing " ir'r-rS the hflmeted and plumed knights as 'they j "K'v,, forward, created in the minds of the simple ;. du Uiieuliured natives emotions of wonder, awe and "-ihmrr,t. I lli- Spaniards tried in vain to conceal their own amazement. They marvelled at the extraordinary extraordi-nary panorama of strange faces, of wonderful canals, ca-nals, floating flower beds, towers and causeways " . They beheld The imperial city, her far circling wall, Her garden groves and stately palaces, Her temples mountain size, her thousand roofs, And when they saw her might and majesty Their minds misgave them then." Cortez. followed by his troops and Tlascalan Indian allies, entered by the southern gate and. riding rid-ing the main street, halted his men on the great square, before the huge temple raised in honor of the war-god of the Aztecs, to whom thousands of human victims were yearly sacrificed. On the identical iden-tical site where stood this monstrous pyramid of blood dedicated to a demon, there stands today one of the greatest cathedrals of the world, where the adorable sacrifice, the "clean oblation," foretold by the prophet Malachias, is dajly offered to the true and only God. CITY OF THE AZTECS. At the time of the entry of Cortez and his little army to Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City, the Aztec capital was supposed to contain a population of from two to three hundred thousand souls. The present city of Mexico is constructed on the site of the original, but of course many topographical changes have taken place in the locality and its immediate im-mediate neighborhood. The ample canals have disappeared dis-appeared with the salt waters and marsh lands which surrounded the ancient city. Four centuries - ago. nearly all the houses of the poor stood on piles elevated above the floods which annually inundated in-undated the city by the overflow of Lake Tezcuco. The great causeway leading north from the royal residence of Iztapalapan was intersected by another, an-other, and a third causeway led west to the town of Tacuba. In the very heart of the city, surrounded by imposing buildings, towered the great Aztec temple, the Teocalli, or House of Horrors. THE TEOCALLI. It stood in the center of a great open space enclosed en-closed by a stone wall, and disfigured with sculptured sculp-tured figures of grinning skulls and hideous serpents. ser-pents. Four battlemented gateways gave entrance to the temple square. The temple proper was built in the form of a pyramid, of earth and pebblea cemented and coated, on the west and south sides with hewn stone. It consisted of five stories narrowing nar-rowing in the ascent. To reach the summit, or the sacrificial platform, the victims for the sacrificial slaughter had to ascend a flight of circular stairs on the outside and pass around the building four; times. The effect, on the adoring multitude of the barbarous Aztecs, when the victims were led to their doom followed by a procession of temple officials, as they swept four times around the building intfull view of the people to the accompaniment of weird . and wild minstrelsy, must have been f earsomely impressive. im-pressive. On an elevated and railed platform on the summit sum-mit of the temple, in full view of the worshippers filling the square and the roofs of the neighboring houses, was the large convex block of granite on which the unhappy victim was stretched and his heart torn out. The bleeding and palpitating heart was held aloft and offered to the sun, and was then thrown into the gaping maw of the stone idol of Huitzilopochtli, the god of death. The bodies of the victims were sold to butchers, who carried them to their shambles, cut them up and sold the pieces by weight to their customers, by whom they were roasted and devoured. At the northern end of the open space were two buildings three stories high. On the ground floor of one of these structures were ranged the idols or sculptured images of the Aztec gods, the rest of tho interior was filled with sacrificial sacrifi-cial and ceremonial instruments and with implements imple-ments used in particular services. In the other building was raised a great altar to the sun-god with the perpetual fire upon it. If this flame was extinguished by accident or neglect, it boded misfortune misfor-tune to the city. The official, whose duty it' was to feed the flame, was put to death if the fire went out through his neglect. , Here also was housed the huge cylindrical drum of serpent's skins. It was struck only when the city was threatened with disaster and when sounded sent through the capital and over the valley of Mexico a weird, fearsome and melancholy wail. The Spaniards Span-iards heard it to their cost on the awful ''night of sorrow," when sixty-five of them were made prisoners, pris-oners, sacrificed and devoured by the Aztecs. In these minor temples private sacrifices of human life were offered to the gods of Mexico or Anahuac. Bernal Diaz, who accompanied Cortez in his visit to the great temple and to these buildings, tells us in his history that the stench of gore and putrefy-(Continued putrefy-(Continued on page 5.) CAPITAL OF ANAHUAE. (Continued from page 1.) ing human blood in these heathen chapels was more, intolerable than that from all the slaughter-houses in Castile. Within the walls enclosing the temple was a sacred structure dedicated to the mysterious Quetzalcoatle, "The Fair God," and here, too, were the training schools for boys and girls destined des-tined for the service of the temple. East of the temple- square, and outside the walls, was an immense im-mense aviary with birds of splendid plumage; a menagerie caging wild animals from the mountain lands and curious creatures collected from the great swamps and hot lands of the south. In long boxes of cedar, lined with down, or in troughs of' slime and mud snakes or sacred serpents were protected. pro-tected. In another quarter of the city stood the armory, where the military paraphernalia, the bows and arrows, war clubs and other weapons of 'war were arranged in order. Xear the armory was the national granary and various warehouses. After the temple the great market was the most conspicuous conspic-uous place in the Aztec city. The Spanish historian Herera says: "The Spaniards were astonished at the throng of people pressing toward the market, and on entering the place their surprise "was still further heightened by te sight of the multitude assembled there, and the dimensions of the enclosure, enclo-sure, twice as large as the square at Salamanca. Here were traders from all parts; gold and silversmiths silver-smiths from Azcapozalco, potters and jewelers from Cholula, painters from Tezcuco, stone cutters, hunters, hunt-ers, fishermen, gardeners, chair-makers, florists, etc. Animals, both domestic and wild, were on saW, and beside them a gang of slaves with collars .fastened to their necks. Here also were exposed provisions of all kinds; meats, the flesh of the temple victims and prisoners of war, domestic poultry, game from the mountains, fish and fruits in all the delicious variety and abundance of these temperate regions, green vegetables and the never-failing maize." In this huge market and all through the city the women went about as freely as the men. They wove skirts or petticoats of different lengths, with ornamental orna-mental borders, and many of them were dressed in loose flowing robes. Their faces were unveiled aud their dark raven hair fell over their shoulders revealing re-vealing faces of cinnamon hue, aud of an expression expres-sion of s-adness caught from their melancholy and repulsive religion. Such, briefly, was the Aztec city which went down to death after a siege replete with epic horror. Mexico City. |