Spanish America (Vol.1&2). Sir Richard Henry Bonnycastle
day. Montezuma took the general of the adversaries with his own hand; the next day the battle was renewed, and the Tepanecans totally defeated, and their city taken.
That nation was afterward totally subdued, and became subjected to Itzcoatl; who, after reducing all the provinces which were refractory, replaced Nezahualcajotl on his throne; in these actions Montezuma manifested his usual address and courage. Itzcoatl gave the Tepanecan country to Totoquihuatzin, with the title of king of Tacuba. These kings then formed a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive. The Xochimilcans, fearing that they might be the next objects of Mexican power, declared war, but were defeated, their capital and strong holds being taken by Montezuma. Thus, after twelve years, Mexico rose from its insignificancy, and became more powerful than all the surrounding states, and was no longer tributary. Itzcoatl died in 1436, at an advanced age, and Montezuma was called to the throne; one of the first acts of his reign was to build an immense temple, and he was no sooner placed on the imperial seat, than he was called to a war between the Chalcese and the Tezcucans; which terminated in the defeat of the former, and in this war he obtained the victims to be sacrificed at his coronation, which was the most splendid they had ever witnessed. The king of Tlatelolco having formed a conspiracy against Itzcoatl, and renewing his designs against Montezuma, he deposed him, and put Moquihuix in his place. Two large provinces were also conquered, and added to the Mexican dominions about this period.
He then engaged in a war with the king of the Mixtacas, the Huexotzincas, and Tlascalans, and after meeting with a reverse, he finally succeeded in defeating them, and again enlarged his dominions. In 1457 he undertook the conquest of Euetlachtlan, and sent Moquihuix, king of the Tlatelolcos to subdue it, but hearing that the Cholulans, the Tlascalans and Huexotzincas had joined the enemy, he ordered his army to return; they however disobeyed his command, conquered the enemy, and dispatched an immense number of them to be immolated in the Mexican temples. This so pleased Montezuma, that he forgave them, and married Moquihuix to one of his own relatives.
The Chalcese, who had again rebelled, were again reduced, and the whole of his reign was occupied in augmenting his dominions; so that at his death, in 1464, his territories reached from the gulf of Mexico nearly to the Pacific.
During the reign of Montezuma, Mexico suffered by an inundation; this happened in 1446, when, after a very long continuance of rain, the lake swelled, and overflowing the city, destroyed many houses; to prevent its recurrence, he constructed a dyke of two parallel rows of stakes, filled in with mud and stones; this dyke was nine miles long, and for the future, prevented that evil in a great measure. Six years after this calamity, the maize harvest failed; and, in 1452, after having suffered more or less, from the same cause, for three years, the people were become so reduced, that many sold themselves for slaves, and Montezuma was obliged to open the granaries, and issue edicts that no woman should sell herself for less than 400 ears of wheat, or any man for less than 500. They existed on fish, and were only restored by a plentiful harvest happening in 1454.
On his demise, he was succeeded by Axaycatl, in 1468; which prince, after a great victory, built an immense temple called Coatlan; this was after conquering the natives of the province of Tecoantepec. The Tlatelolcos, in opposition, built another which they called Coaxolotl. This prince was not so fortunate as Montezuma, for many of the districts he conquered, revolted, and the Tlatelolcos became again the enemies of the Mexicans. In 1469 and 1470, the kings of Acolhuacan and Tacuba died, and thus the league was weakened. The Tlatelolcos now declared war, and the king Moquihuix, who had married a sister of Axayacatl, treated her so ill that she informed her brother of the enterprise, by which means he totally defeated the Tlatelolcos, penetrating, in the commencement of the action, into the market place, where he tore out the heart of Moquihuix, who had been taken prisoner; he then united the city to Mexico, which it has ever since made a part of.
Axayacatl then engaged in war with some other states and was wounded, however, he gained a complete victory over the Matlatzincas, and continued to extend his dominions till his death in 1477. He was succeeded by his brother Tizoc, after reigning thirteen years. Tizoc conquered fourteen cities, and after having collected materials to build a larger temple than any of his ancestors, was poisoned by his subjects. This prince married one of his grand-daughters to the king of the Acolhuacans, who also fell in love with her sister Xocotzin, and married her, by whom he had a son named Cacamatzin, who succeeded his father, and was taken prisoner afterwards by the Spaniards.
Ahuitzotl, the brother of Tizoc, succeeded him in 1482, after he had reigned five years. His first care was to finish the temple begun by Tizoc, which he completed in four years. This king was engaged in several wars, and the human sacrifices he caused to be made at the dedication of the new temple, were so enormous, that they are said to have amounted to upwards of 70,000. Another temple was also dedicated in his reign, at which many unfortunate victims were immolated.
The dedication of these temples took place in 1486 and in 1487, when there was a terrible shock of an earthquake felt at Mexico. This monarchʼs life was spent in war, he extended his dominions as far as Guatimala, 900 miles from his capital. The Mexicans were however defeated in 1476, by the Atlixcans, under the command of a chief of the Huexotzincas.
Ahuitzotl caused a channel or aqueduct to be made from a fountain into the lake, by which the waters were so much increased, that an inundation, followed by a famine, took place.
He died in 1502, after a reign of twenty years. At the period of his death, Mexico was precisely in the same state, with regard to territorial acquisitions, as when the Spaniards arrived. He embellished Mexico by building with a stone which he discovered a quarry of in the neighbourhood, and his death was caused by a contusion on the head, which he received in rushing out of his palace, when the waters of the lake rose, by striking his head against the upper part of the door.
The next sovereign was Montezuma, the second of that name, and the ninth in order; he was called Montezuma Xocotzin, or the younger; who was a priest, and a man of great bravery; and on his election the people particularly valued themselves.
Montezumaʼs attention was first directed to war, in order to procure victims to be offered to the deities at his coronation, and the unfortunate Atlixcans were the sufferers, who, however, slew numbers of the Mexicans before they were subdued.
The pomp of Montezumaʼs coronation exceeded that of any preceding emperor, and the people saw with regret, symptoms of a tyrannical and haughty disposition show themselves after this ceremony, which they had before not suspected.
Montezuma changed many of the rules adopted by his predecessors, and particularly favoured his nobles, at the expence of the other classes. His household were entirely composed of people of rank, and he kept a number of women confined in the palace, choosing those for himself and favourites, which he thought the most beautiful; 600 neighbouring chieftains came to congratulate him, and appeared themselves to be in the utmost dread of his vengeance. His attendants cast off their shoes on entering the palace, and he permitted none of them to be sumptuously dressed. On entering the audience hall, they made three obeisances, at each of which they addressed him with a higher title. He was carried in a litter on the shoulders of his nobles, covered with a canopy, and carpets were spread along the streets in which he walked; the kitchen utensils of the finest earthenware, his tablecloths and napkins were never used more than once. His chocolate was prepared in golden vessels, and his state dinners were carried by three or four hundred young nobles, who respectfully retired when they set the dishes down, each dish standing on a chafing dish, and the whole consisting of every variety of the game, fish, fruits and herbs of the country. He pointed out those which he preferred, and the rest were taken into the anti-chamber to the attendant nobility. Four women stood by him the whole time with ewers, and he was surrounded by his counsellors and carvers.
He bathed every day, and changed his dress four times, never putting on the same dress again, they being reserved for his nobles and chief warriors. One whole city he appointed as a place of residence at his expence, for those who were worn out in his service. All his palaces and gardens were very magnificent, and he had palaces in Mexico, appropriated to the kings and foreign nobles, whenever they should choose to reside there; with royal menageries; an aviary that occupied the attention of 300 men and physicians; five hundred turkeys were killed every day for the birds of prey,