Note 473 — Chapter XVI · MEETING WITH MONTEZUMA. November, 1519.

According to Sahagun not a soul was to be seen, either upon the causeway or along the streets, the people having taken this manner to express their indignation at the semi-forcible entry of the Spaniards. Montezuma came to receive them purely out of a feeling of humanity. Startled at this solitude, Cortés fears dangers, and vows, if all goes well, to build a church. This was the origin, says Bustamante, of the Hospital de Jesus. Sahagun, Hist. Conq. (ed. Mex. 1840), 79-84. See note 12, this chapter. Brasseur de Bourbourg accepts this view. Hist. Nat. Civ., iv. 212-13. Still Sahagun describes the interview with Cortés as most cordial. He is in fact contradictory, and it is evident that the order issued to the people to keep the narrow causeway clear, and the etiquette which required them to give way to the emperor, have been hastily interpreted by the chronicler into ‘deserted streets’ and ‘popular indignation.’ Had the citizens objected to receive the strangers, the bridges could have been raised against them.