On reaching the courtyard of the cacique's house, I found
it filled with warriors most gorgeously attired, and among them one more
splendid than the rest. He was young, very tall and broad, most handsome
in face, and having eyes like those of an eagle, while his whole aspect
breathed majesty and command. His body was encased in a cuirass of gold,
over which hung a mantle made of the most gorgeous feathers, exquisitely
set in bands of different colours. On his head he wore a helmet of gold
surmounted by the royal crest, an eagle, standing on a snake fashioned
in gold and gems. On his arms, and beneath his knees, he wore circlets
of gold and gems, and in his hand was a copper-bladed spear. Round this
man were many nobles dressed in a somewhat similar fashion, except that
the most of them wore a vest of quilted cotton in place of the gold
cuirass, and a jewelled panache of the plumes of birds instead of the
royal symbol.
This was Guatemoc, Montezuma's nephew, and afterwards the last emperor
of Anahuac. So soon as I saw him I saluted him in the Indian fashion by
touching the earth with my right hand, which I then raised to my head.
But Guatemoc, having scanned me with his eye as I stood, bow in hand,
attired in my simple hunter's dress, smiled frankly and said:
'Surely, Teule, if I know anything of the looks of men, we are too equal
in our birth, as in our age, for you to salute me as a slave greets his
master.
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