Note 138 — Chapter VII · WHAT MONTEZUMA THOUGHT OF IT.

When Francisco Cortés entered the town, shortly after the fall of Mexico, he was met by a body of Indians with their hair tonsured like priests, and with crosses in their hands, headed by the chief in flowing white gown and scapulary. This, they explained, had been the practice of the shipwrecked crew, who had held up the cross as a recourse from all danger. Frejes, Hist. Conq., 63-4. This authority places implicit reliance in the story, and regards the strangers as a missionary party driven from the East Indies or China. Jalisco, Mem. Hist., 30-2.