For obvious reasons such a suggestion was not palatable to
them, and they succeeded in persuading him to renounce the plan, and their
deceptions remained undiscovered.
Their idle tales brought no relief to the anxious monarch, and at length,
when his artists showed him pictures of the bearded Spaniards and strings
of glittering beads from Cortes, the emperor could doubt no longer, and
exclaimed: "Truly this is the Quetzalcoatl we expected, he who lived with
us of old in Tula. Undoubtedly it is he, _Ce Acatl Inacuil_, the god of
One Reed, who is journeying."[1]
[Footnote 1: Tezozomoc, _Cronica Mexicana_, cap. cviii.]
On his very first interview with Cortes, he addressed him through the
interpreter Marina in remarkable words which have been preserved to us by
the Spanish conqueror himself. Cortes writes:--
"Having delivered me the presents, he seated himself next to me and spoke
as follows:--
"'We have known for a long time, by the writings handed down by our
forefathers, that neither I nor any who inhabit this land are natives of
it, but foreigners who came here from remote parts. We also know that we
were led here by a ruler, whose subjects we all were, who returned to his
country, and after a long time came here again and wished to take his
people away. But they had married wives and built houses, and they would
neither go with him nor recognize him as their king; therefore he went
back.
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