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