CHAPTER XVI.
A CAPTIVE CHIEF.
THE only opportunity which Europeans ever had of seeing the Aztecs at home, pursuing the ordinary business of life, was during the first five months which Cortez and his companions spent in the valley. Although a city invaded by the inhabitants of another world—as the Spaniards seemed to the Mexicans to be—must have been excited by their presence, it is probable that Mexico and its people appeared to these visitors much as they had been for nearly a hundred years. Possibly it had not been so long since it had been beneath the dignity of a chief of high rank to walk up stairs. Mexican officials appear then to have indulged in a pomp unknown before and quite out of keeping with the democratic principles of the tribe. An instance of this occurred during this first week in Mexico, when Cortez and Montezuma were together visiting the great temple. They had come to the foot of the first flight of stairs, when Montezuma ordered two stout Indian porters to pick up his guest and carry him in their arms to the top of the building. Cortez resisted, but the chief did not yield the point. He considered that Cortez was the representative of the lord of the whole earth, and that as such he ought to receive all the honors which Mexico could heap upon him.
