and construction.” The Spaniards were awed by the beauty of the place. The palace was particularly fine and spacious, with courts shaded by awnings of brilliant colors and bordered by commodious apartments. Adjoining it, and overlooked by a large pavilion, was a vast garden, divided into four squares by hedges of plaited reeds, which were entirely overgrown with roses and other flowers. Shaded walks led out in all directions, now by beds of rare plants collected from remote parts, now into orchards temptingly laden, and again past groups of artistically arranged flowers. In ponds fed by navigable canals sported innumerable water-fowl, consorting with fishes of different species. In the centre of the garden was an immense reservoir of hewn stone, four hundred paces square, surrounded by a tiled pavement from which steps led at intervals to the water.51
Cortés was not only hospitably entertained, but received a present of female slaves, packs of cloth, and over three thousand castellanos in gold.52
The soldiers now prepared under more than usual excitement for the final march, which was to bring them to the longed-for goal. The reputed magnificence of the capital made most of the Spaniards
eager to enter; but there were others who recalled the rumors of its strength, and of the terrible plots which their timid allies declared were to encompass them. “Being men and fearing death, we could not avoid thinking of this,” says Bernal Diaz, frankly, “and commending ourselves to God.” And as he remembers how warnings failed to deter them, the old soldier bursts forth in self-admiration, “What men have existed in the world so daring?”53