Note 759 — Chapter XXIII · UPRISING OF THE AZTECS. May-June, 1520.

‘Para dar á entender con esto que ellos estaban de guerra y muy ofendidos de los españoles que él habia dejado.’ Sahagun, Hist. Conq. (ed. 1840), 108. His account of deserted streets, applied to Cortés’ first arrival in Mexico, belongs no doubt to this occasion. Duran argues that had the massacre taken place before Cortés’ arrival he would not have been allowed to enter. Hist. Ind., MS., ii. 470. Equally in the dark is Acosta, who assumes that the Indians were openly at war, but the custom being to rest every fourth day, Cortés managed to enter during the cessation of hostilities. Hist. Ind., 522. Oviedo looks on the non-resistance of the Indians as a wile to entrap all the Spaniards. iii. 510.