It was she who brought me water to wash in,
and a clean robe of linen to replace my foul and tattered garments, and
a cloak fashioned of bright feathers for my shoulders.
When supper was done a mat was given me to sleep on in a little room
apart, and here I lay down, thinking that though I might be lost for
ever to my own world, at least I had fallen among a people who were
gentle and kindly, and moreover, as I saw from many tokens, no savages.
One thing, however, disturbed me; I discovered that though I was well
treated, also I was a prisoner, for a man armed with a copper spear
slept across the doorway of my little room. Before I lay down I looked
through the wooden bars which served as a protection to the window
place, and saw that the house stood upon the border of a large open
space, in the midst of which a great pyramid towered a hundred feet or
more into the air. On the top of this pyramid was a building of stone
that I took to be a temple, and rightly, in front of which a fire
burned. Marvelling what the purpose of this great work might be, and in
honour of what faith it was erected, I went to sleep.
On the morrow I was to learn.
Here it may be convenient for me to state, what I did not discover till
afterwards, that I was in the city of Tobasco, the capital of one of the
southern provinces of Anahuac, which is situated at a distance of some
hundreds of miles from the central city of Tenoctitlan, or Mexico.
Pages:
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184