He also obtained a grant of an extensive tract of land in the
fruitful province of Oaxaca, where he proposed to lay out a plantation
for the Crown. He stocked it with the different kinds of
domesticated animals peculiar to the country, and with such indigenous
grains and plants as would afford the best articles for export. He
soon had the estate under such cultivation, that he assured his
master, the emperor, Charles the Fifth, it was worth twenty thousand
ounces of gold.
Chapter V [1520]
MONTEZUMA SWEARS ALLEGIANCE TO SPAIN- ROYAL TREASURES-
THEIR DIVISION- CHRISTIAN WORSHIP IN THE TEOCALLI-
DISCONTENTS OF THE AZTECS
CORTES now felt his authority sufficiently assured to demand
from Montezuma a formal recognition of the supremacy of the Spanish
emperor. The Indian monarch had intimated his willingness to acquiesce
in this, on their very first interview. He did not object,
therefore, to call together his principal caciques for the purpose.
When they were assembled, he made them an address, briefly stating the
object of the meeting. They were all acquainted, he said, with the
ancient tradition, that the great Being, who had once ruled over the
land, had declared, on his departure, that he should return at some
future time and resume his sway. That time had now arrived. The
white men had come from the quarter where the sun rises, beyond the
ocean, to which the good deity had withdrawn.
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