Pioneer Spaniards in North America . ospect lay before them : on the right the dark,pine-clad Sierra Madre; to the south the snowypeak of Orizaba; while behind and below themspread the rich plain to the distant ocean, whichmany of them might look upon for the lasttime. As the road mounted higher and higher theair grew colder, and many of the Indians, un-protected and unaccustomed to any but thewarm air of the coast, died on the road. Theinvaders had now reached the high table-land ofAnahuac, seven thousand feet above the a place where they stopped they were receivedas gods, and fi
Pioneer Spaniards in North America . ospect lay before them : on the right the dark,pine-clad Sierra Madre; to the south the snowypeak of Orizaba; while behind and below themspread the rich plain to the distant ocean, whichmany of them might look upon for the lasttime. As the road mounted higher and higher theair grew colder, and many of the Indians, un-protected and unaccustomed to any but thewarm air of the coast, died on the road. Theinvaders had now reached the high table-land ofAnahuac, seven thousand feet above the a place where they stopped they were receivedas gods, and fifty men were sacrificed to was mentioned in the preceding chapter,according to Aztec belief there was once agigantic struggle between the fair god Quetzal- i6o CORTES TAKES THE CITY coatl, god of light, and the dark god, Tezcatlipoca,the horrible deity to whom the hearts of humanvictims were the most delightful offering. Thedark god won and drove the fair god away. Butwhen he was departing he said that some day he i^l^fefeJ^. A PAGE FROM AN AZTKC BOOK would come back with many friends, to dethronethe cruel god of darkness and rule the land inlight. For some reason, the return of Ouetzal-coatl was expected about the time that the Span-iards appeared. Can we wonder that these palestrangers, coming on the coast in their ships,II i6i PIONEER SPANIARDS which the natives took to be winged housesfloating on the water, seemed like visitors fromanother world ? This belief also explains Mon-tezumas indecision. He and his council wereperplexed. Were these new-comers indeed, Quet-zalcoatl and his heavenly warriors, come to routthe hosts of darkness ? Those strange monsters(the horsemen) seemed to make this so, they must be greeted with every were they ordinary men of flesh and blood,who were to be resisted and killed, if possible ?This question perplexed the council of eachpueblo. We can hardly realize how much thedread of the supernatural, of unearthly powers,
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