That time, he thought, had now come.
In a former part of this work, the reader has been made acquainted
with the ancient history of the Acolhuan or Tezcucan monarchy, once
the proud rival of the Aztec in power, and greatly its superior in
civilisation. Under its last sovereign, Nezahualpilli, its territory
is said to have been grievously clipped by the insidious practices
of Montezuma, who fomented dissensions and insubordination among his
subjects. On the death of the Tezcucan prince, the succession was
contested, and a bloody war ensued between his eldest son, Cacama, and
an ambitious younger brother, Ixtlilxochitl. This was followed by a
partition of the kingdom, in which the latter chieftain held the
mountain districts north of the capital, leaving the residue to
Cacama. Though shorn of a large part of his hereditary domain, the
city was itself so important, that the lord of Tezcuco still held a
high rank among the petty princes of the valley. His capital, at the
time of the Conquest, contained, according to Cortes, a hundred and
fifty thousand inhabitants. It was embellished with noble buildings,
rivalling those of Mexico itself.
The young Tezcucan chief beheld, with indignation and no slight
contempt, the abject condition of his uncle. He endeavoured to rouse
him to manly exertion, but in vain. He then set about forming a league
with several of the neighbouring caciques to rescue his kinsman, and
to break the detested yoke of the strangers.
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