The cacique added, that the Totonac territory contained about
thirty towns and villages, which could muster a hundred thousand
warriors,- a number much exaggerated. There were other provinces of
the empire, he said, where the Aztec rule was equally odious; and
between him and the capital lay the warlike republic of Tlascala,
which had always maintained its independence of Mexico. The fame of
the Spaniards had gone before them, and he was well acquainted with
their terrible victory at Tabasco. But still he looked with doubt
and alarm to a rupture with "the great Montezuma," as he always styled
him; whose armies, on the least provocation, would pour down from
the mountain regions of the west, and, rushing over the plains like
a whirlwind, sweep off the wretched people to slavery and sacrifice!
Cortes endeavoured to reassure him, by declaring that a single
Spaniard was stronger than a host of Aztecs. At the same time, it
was desirable to know what nations would cooperate with him, not so
much on his account, as theirs, that he might distinguish friend
from foe, and know whom he was to spare in this war of
extermination. Having raised the confidence of the admiring chief by
this comfortable and politic vaunt, he took an affectionate leave,
with the assurance that he would shortly return and concert measures
for their future operations, when he had visited his ships in the
adjoining port, and secured a permanent settlement there.
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