Sketches of Aboriginal Life American Tableaux, No. 1

~Death opens every door, And sits in every chamber by himself. If what might feed a sparrow should suffice For soldiers' meals, ye have not wherewithal To linger out three days....

Montezuma was always and every where munificent. When he had, though reluctantly, admitted the strangers into his capital, he prepared to give them a royally hospitable entertai...

While these events were transpiring in the ever moving camp of the victorious invaders, the imperial court of Tenochtitlan was agitated and distracted by the divided counsels an...

~What will not man endure, and woman too, To guard the hearth and altar? Give to each A thousand lives, and hedge them close around With all that makes it martyrdom to die, And...

The childhood of the fair princess passed away without any event of importance, except the occasional recurrence of those dark prophecies which overshadowed her entrance into li...

~----They come, Mysterious, dreaded band! With clang of trumpet, torch and brand; With lightning speed, with lightning power, They scale the lofty mountain tower, And sweep alon...

~Feeling dies not by the knife; That cuts at once and kills; its tortured strife Is with distilled affliction, drop by drop Oozing its bitterness. Our world is rife With grief a...

~Hark! at the very portals now they stand, Demanding entrance. Can I shut them out, When all the gods commission them to come? Can we admit them, and preserve intact Our honor a...

The sacred dust restored to its native earth, and the last hallowed rites performed over the sepulchre of the departed, the thoughts of the people were immediately turned to the...

"Wo! wo! wo! to the imperial House of Tenochtitlan! Never saw I the heavens in so inauspicious an aspect. Dark portentous influences appear on every side. May the horoscope of t...

~Heaven gave to Adam one, and so proclaimed Her full equality to man. He who Can ask for more, knows not the worth of one, And so deserves not any--~

The Mexicans encouraged--Oracular declaration of the priests--It fails to be fulfilled--Cortez resolves to lay waste the city--A wide spread ruin--Terrible sufferings of the bes...

Grand military display by the Spaniards--The terror of the Aztecs--Fearlessness and high purpose of Guatimozin and others--The Banquet--The company--A contrast--The strangers pr...

Singular relative position of the Spaniard and the Aztec--The power and timidity of the one, and the danger and boldness of the other--Speculation--Cortez advancing--The Grand C...

Cortez visits Vera Cruz--Alvarado in command in the Capital--His character--The Aztec festival--Unprovoked attack and massacre--The whole nation in arms for revenge--Alvarado in...

Frequent embassies and rich presents to the Spaniards--Montezuma, fearing to act openly, plots their destruction secretly--Cortez cautioned by the Tlascalans--His prudence and s...

Guatimozin prepares for a new invasion--Cortez approaches with a new army--Orders vessels built at Tlascala--Takes possession of Tezcuco--Makes liberal overtures to Guatimozin--...

Cuitlahua elected to the vacant throne--His resolution--Cortez, realizing his danger, resolves to evacuate the city--Attempts to steal away in the night--Assaulted on all sides...

Superstitious forebodings of Montezuma--Loveliness of his daughter--Her suitors--The Prince of Tezcuco--Karee-o-than--A secret revealed--Guatimozin--The ancient legend--The youn...

Montezuma's duplicity--Shuts himself up in despair--Divided counsels--Mistaken policy--Triumphant advance of Cortez--His ambitious views--His military caution--Montezuma in his...

Character of Guatimozin--His practical wisdom and activity--Gaiety of the court--The young Queen--Nahuitla, the Prince of Tlacopan--Atlacan, a princess of Tezcuco--Her brother,...

The Horoscope--Faith in the revelations of Astrology--Montezuma in his palace--The message delivered--Resignation--Fatalism--Infancy of the Princess--The slave Karee--Obtains he...