In this emergency, the government sent a deputation to its ancient
enemies, the Tlascalans. It consisted of six Aztec nobles, bearing a
present of cotton cloth, salt, and other articles, rarely seen, of
late years, in the republic. The lords of the state, astonished at
this unprecedented act of condescension in their ancient foe, called
the council or senate of the great chiefs together, to give the envoys
audience.
Before this body, the Aztecs stated the purpose of their
mission. They invited the Tlascalans to bury all past grievances in
oblivion, and to enter into a treaty with them. All the nations of
Anahuac should make common cause in defence of their country against
the white men. The Tlascalans would bring down on their own heads
the wrath of the gods, if they longer harboured the strangers who
had violated and destroyed their temples. If they counted on the
support and friendship of their guests, let them take warning from the
fate of Mexico, which had received them kindly within its walls and
which, in return, they had filled with blood and ashes. They
conjured them, by their reverence for their common religion, not to
suffer the white men, disabled as they now were, to escape from
their hands, but to sacrifice them at once to the gods, whose
temples they had profaned. In that event, they proffered them their
alliance, and the renewal of that friendly traffic which would restore
to the republic the possession of the comforts and luxuries of which
it had been so long deprived.
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