apparent truth that the diseases of a strong people fall with particular force on weaker races. After desolating the coast region for some time, the small-pox crossed the plateau border during the summer, and in September14 it broke out round the lakes, on its way to the western sea, smiting high and low, rich and poor. For sixty days, according to native records, the hueyzahuatl, or great pest, raged here with such virulence as to fix itself a central point in their chronology. In most districts, says Motolinia, over half the population died, leaving towns almost deserted, and in others the mortality was appalling. Those who recovered presented an appearance that made their neighbors flee from them, until they became accustomed to the sight. Learning how contagious was the disease, and terrified by the number of deaths, the inhabitants left the bodies to putrefy, thus aiding to extend the pest. In some cases the authorities ordered the houses to be pulled down over the dead, so as to check the contagion. Not the least of the evil was a famine, which resulted from a lack of harvesters.15
Among the first victims at the capital were King Totoquihuatzin, of Tlacopan, and Cuitlahuatzin, the successor of Montezuma. The latter had ruled barely three months,16 but sufficiently long to prove himself a most able leader of his people in their struggle for liberty, for he was brave, full of devices, and energetic, yet prudent; a man who, not content with securing the expulsion of invaders, had sought to strengthen his position with alliances and by attracting the subject provinces through gifts, remissions, and promises. If he did not succeed so well as he had hoped, the fault must be ascribed to the reputation of the previous government and to dereliction of duty among his officers.
As a monarch he would not have fallen far short of the native ideal, for as a general he had distinguished himself; and, the brother of Montezuma, he had in his court imbibed the dignity and majestic manner born of constant adulation from subservient nobles and plebeians. Crafty and