Note 197 — Chapter IX · THE MIGHTY PROJECT IS CONCEIVED. May, 1519.

Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., 288. This author is not very careful, however, and his desire to court the Spaniards has no doubt led him to antedate the event. Brasseur de Bourbourg accepts his story in full. Hist. Nat. Civ., iv. 87-8. A similar revelation is claimed to have been made by two Aztec chiefs, Vamapantzin and Atonaltzin, who came to the camp in the retinue of the first messengers from Mexico. Descendants of the early Aztec kings, and discontented with the present ruler, they promised Cortés to deliver certain native paintings foretelling the coming of white men, to reveal the whereabouts of the imperial treasures, and to plot an uprising among native states in aid of Spaniards. For these services they received extensive grants after the conquest, including that of Ajapusco town. The document recording this is a fragment which Zerecero parades in the opening part of his Mem. Rev. Méx., 8-14, as a discovery by him in the Archivo General. It pretends to be a title to Ajapusco lands, and contains on the first pages a letter signed by Cortés at San Juan de Ulua, ‘20 March,’ 1519, as ‘Captain-general and governor of these New Spains.’ Both the date and titles stamp the letter at least as more than suspicious.