j ,i: I: :l!M!lf!ll!:|!Jiil ! LIBRARY UKV. S TY Of C A S PS =2| T5- THE AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE B "Romance of Contemporaneous antiquity By Thomas A. Janvier ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK AND LONDON HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 1901 Copyright, 1890, by HARTIR A BROTHIM. All right* reserved. TO 0. A. J. Departimiento y ha entre los engafios. Catales y ha que son buenos, e tales que raalos, e buenoa son aquellos que los omnes fazen a buena f e e a buena intencion. ALONZO IL SABIO, Selena Partida, Titulo xvi., Ley ii. CONTENTS. CHAP. PAOE. PROLOGUE 13 I. FRAY ANTONIO 16 n. THE CACIQUE'S SECRET , . . , 28 m. THE MONK'S MANUSCRIPT 43 iv. MONTEZUMA'S MESSENGER 53 V. THE ENGINEER AND THE LOST-FREIGHT MAN . . 67 VI. THE KING'S SYMBOL 78 VII. THE FIGHT IN THE CANON 92 VIII. AFTER THE FIGHT 100 IX. THE CAVE OF THE DEAD 109 X. THE SWINGING STATUE 119 XI. THE SUBMERGED CITY 129 XII. IN THE VALLEY OF DEATH 140 XIII. UP THE CHAC-MOOL STAIR 152 XIV. THE HANGING CHAIN 161 XV. THE TEMPLE IN THE CLOUDS 174 XVI. AT THE BARRED PASS 181 XVII. OF OUR COMING INTO THE VALLEY OF A/. II, AN . 198 XVIII. THE STRIKING OF A MATCH 208 XIX. THE SEEDS OF REVOLT 218 XX. THE PRIEST CAPTAIN'S SUMMONS 229 XXI. THE WALLED CITY OF CULHUACAN . ... 239 \Ul CONTENTS. CHAT fid* XXII. I UK OUTBREAK OP REVOLUTION . . 252 XXIII. A RESCUE 204 XXIV. THK AFFAIR AT THE WATER-GATE 275 XXV. THE GOLD-MINERS OF HUITZILAN 285 XXVI. THE GATHERING FOR WAR 297 XXVII. AN OFFER OP TERMS 308 XXVIII. THE SURRENDER OP A LIFE 320 XXIX. THE ASSAULT IN THE NIGHT 328 XXX. THE FALL OF THE CITADEL 340 XXXI. DEFEAT 34H XXXII. EL SABIO'S DEFIANCE 359 XXXIII. IN THE AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE 373 XXXIV. A MARTYRDOM 386 XXXV. THE TREASURE-CHAMBER 398 XXXVI. THE VENGEANCE OF THE GODS 410 XXXVII. THROUGH DARKNESS TO LIGHT 421 xxxviii. KING CHALTZANTZIN'S TREASURE 430 EPILOGUE . 439 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. THE DYING CACIQUE Frontispiece. THE LETTER FKOM THE DEAD faces page 54 THE CAVE OF THE DEAD " "112 THE FULFILMENT OF THE PROPHECY . ... " " 204 THE LEAP FROM ABOVE THE WATER-GATE . . " "282 THE LAST RALLY " " 334 FRAY ANTONIO'S APPEAL " " 304 IN THE LIBRARY BEFORE THE OPEN FIRE . " " 441 Who'd hear great marvels told Come listen now! Who longs for hidden gold Come listen now! Who joys in well-fought fights, Who yearns for wondrous sights, Who pants for strange delights- Come listen now! For here are marvels told To listen to! Here tales of hidden gold To listen to! Here gallant men wage fights, Here pass most wondrous sights, Here's that which ear delights To listen to! THE AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE. PROLOGUE. " GOD sends nuts to them who have no teeth:" which ancient Spanish proverb of contrariety comes strongly to my mind as I set myself to this writing. By nature am I a studious, book-loving man, having a strong liking for quiet and orderliness. Yet in me also is a strain that urges me, even along ways which are both rough and dangerous, to get beyond book- knowledge, and to examine for myself the abstractions of thought and the concretions of men and things out of the consideration whereof books are made. And I hold that it is because I have thus sought for truth in its original sources, instead of resting content with what passes for truth, being detached fragments of fact which other men have found and have cut and polished to suit themselves, that I have gathered to myself more of it, and in its rude yet perfect native crystals, than has come into the possession of any other modern investigator. In making which strong assertion I am not moved by idle vanity, but by a just and reasonable conception of the intrinsic merit of my own achievement : as will be universally admitted 14 THE AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE. when I publish the great work, now almost ready for the press, upon which, in preparatory study and in convincing discovery, I have been for the past ten years engaged. For I speak well within bounds when I declare that a complete revolution in all existing conceptions of American archaeology and ethnology will be wrought when Pre-Columbian Conditions on the Continent of North America, by Professor Thomas Palgrave, Ph.D. (Lei|>sic),is given to the world. Upon this work I say that I have been engaged for ten years. Rather should I say that I have been en gaged upon it for forty years ; for its germs were im planted in me when I was a child of but six years old. Before my intelligence at all could grasp the meaning of what I read, my imagination was fired by reading in the pages of Stephens of the wonders which that eminent explorer discovered in Yucatan ; and my mind then was made up that I would follow in his footsteps, and in the end go far beyond him, until I should re veal the whole history of the marvellous race whose mighty works he found, but of whose genesis he could only feebly surmise. And this resolve of the child be came the dominant purpose of the man. In my col lege life at Harvard, and in my university life at Leipsic, my studies were directed chiefly to this end. Especially did I devote myself to the acquisition of languages, and to gaining a sound knowledge of the principles of those departments of archaeology and ethnology which related to the great work that I had in vifw. Later, during the ten years that I (as I believe usefully and acceptably) the Chair PROLOGUE. 15 Topical Linguistics in the University of Michigan, all the time that I properly could take from my profes sorial duties was given exclusively to the study of the languages of the indigenous races of Mexico, and to what little was to be found in books concerning their social organization and mode of life, and to the broad subject of Mexican antiquities. By correspondence I became acquainted with the most eminent Mexican archaeologists the lamented Orozco y Berra, Icaz- balceta, Chavero, and the philologists Pimentel and Peiiafiel ; and I had the honor to know personally the American archaeologist Bandelier, the surpassing scien tific value of whose researches among the primitive peoples of Mexico places his work above all praise. And by the study of the writings of these great schol ars, and of all writings thereto cognate, my own knowl edge steadily grew ; until at last I felt myself strong enough to begin the investigations on my own account for which I had sought by all these years of patient preparation fittingly to pave the way. But inasmuch as my life until a short time since has been wholly that of a scholar, and wholly has been passed in quiet ways, I truly have had no teeth at all for the proper cracking of the nuts which have come to me in the course of the surprising adventures that I have now set myself to narrate. For in the course of these adventures (necessarily, yet sorely against my will) I have been thrust by force of circumstances into many imminent and prodigious perils ; much time that I gladly would have devoted to peaceful, fruitful study I have been compelled to employ in rude and profitless 16 THE AZTKC TREASURE-HOUSE. (except that my life was saved by it) battling with savages; and what most of all has pained me many curious and interesting skulls that I gladly would have added entire to my collection of crania, I have been driven in self-defence to ruin irreparably with my own hands. All of which diversities of my likings and my hap penings will appear in due order, as I tell in the follow ing pages of the strange and wonderful things which befell me in company with Rayburn and Young and Fray Antonio and the boy Pablo in our search after and finding of the great treasure that was hidden, in a curiously secret place among the Mexican mountains more than a thousand years ago, by Chaltzantzin, tin third of the Aztec kings. I. FRAY ANTONIO. MY heart was light within me as I stood on the steamer's deck in the cool gray of an October morn ing, and saw out across the dark green sea and the dusky, brownish stretch of coast country the snow- crowned peak of Orizaba glinting in the first rays of the rising sun. And presently, as the sun rose higher, all the tropic region of the coast and the brown walls of Vera Cruz and of its outpost fort of San Juan de Ulua were flooded with brilliant light which sudden and glorious outburst of radiant splendor seemnl i<> FRAY ANTONIO. 17 me to be charged with a bright promise of my own success. And still lighter was my heart, a week later, when I found myself established in the beautiful city of Mo- relia, and ready to begin actively the work for which I had been preparing myself at first unconsciously, but for ten years past consciously and carefully al most all my life long. Morelia, I had decided, was the best base for the operations that I was about to undertake. My main purpose was to search for the remnants of primitive civilization among the more isolated of the native Indian tribes ; and out of the fragments thus found, pieced together with what more I could glean from the early ecclesiastical and civil records, to recreate, so far as this was possible, the fabric that was de stroyed by the Spanish conquerors. Nowhere could my investigations be conducted to better advantage than in the State of Michoacan (of which State the city of Morelia is the capital) and in the adjacent State of Jalisco ; for in this region tribes still exist which never have been reduced to more than nominal subjection, and which maintain to a great extent their primitive customs and their primitive faith, though curiously mingling with this latter many Christian ob servances. Indeed, the independence of the Indians of these parts is so notable that the proverb " Free as Jalisco" is current throughout Mexico. Moreover, Morelia is a city rich in ancient records. The archives of the Franciscan province, that has its centre here, extend back to the year 1531 ; those of the Bishopric 2 B 18 THK AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE. of Michoacan to the year 1538 ; and those of the Co- legio de San Nicolas to the year 1540 ; while in the re cently founded Museo Michoacano already has been collected a rich store of archaeological material. In a word, there was no place in all Mexico where my stud ies and my investigations could be pursued to such advantage as they could be pursued here. From a fellow-archaeologist in the City of Mexico I brought a letter of introduction to the director of the Museo, the learned Dr. Nicolas Leon ; and so cordially was this letter worded, and so cordially was it received, that within the day of my coming into that strange city I found myself in the midst of friends. At once their hearts and their houses were opened to me, and they gave me with a warm enthusiasm the benefit of their knowledge and of their active assistance in for warding the work that I had in hand. In the quiet retirement of the Museo I opened to that one of its members to whom the director espe cially had commended me, Don Rafael Moreno, the purposes which I had in view, and the means by which I Imped to accomplish them. "Surely," I said, "among the free Indians in the mountains hereabouts much may be found in customs, in tone of thought, in religion that has remained unchanged since the time of the conquest." Don Rafael nodded. "Fray Antonio has said as much," he observed, thoughtfully. "And as your own distinguished countryman, Senor Orozco y Berra, has pointed out," I continued, "many dark places in primitive history may be made clear, FRAY ANTONIO. 19 many illusions may be dispelled, and many deeply in teresting truths may be gathered by one who will go among these Indians, lending himself to their mode of life, and will note accurately what he thus learns from sources wholly original." " Fray Antonio has professed the same belief," Don Rafael answered. "But that his love is greater for the saving of heathen souls than for the advancement of antiquarian knowledge, he long ago would have done what you now propose to do. He has done much towards gathering a portion of the information that you seek, even as it is." "And who is this Fray Antonio, senor ?" "He is the man who of all men can give you the wisest help in your present need. We see but little of him here at the Museo, though he is one of our most honored members, for his time is devoted so wholly to the godly work to which he has given himself that but little remains to him to use in other ways. He is a monk, vowed to the Rule of St. Francis. As you know, since the promulgation of the Laws of the Reform, monks are not permitted in our country to live in com munities ; but, with only a few exceptions, the con ventual churches which have not been secularized still are administered by members of the religious orders to which they formerly belonged. Fray Antonio has the charge of the church of San Francisco over by the market-place, you know and virtually is a parish priest. He is a religious enthusiast. In God's service he gives himself no rest. The common people here, since his loving labors among them while the pesti- 20 THE AZIIf I KKAM'UIMIUl'SK. Icnce of small-pox raged, reverently believe him to be a saint ; and those of a higher class, who know what heroic work he did in that dreadful time, and who see how perfectly his life conforms to the principles which he professes, and how like is the spirit of holiness that animates him to that of the sainted men who founded the order to which he belongs, are disposed to hold a like opinion. Truly, it is by the especial grace of God that men like Fray Antonio are permitted at times to dwell upon this sinful earth." Don Rafael spoke with a depth of feeling and a reverence of tone that gave to his strong words still greater strength and deeper meaning. After a mo ment's pause he resumed: "But that which is of most interest to you, senor, is the knowledge that Fray An tonio has gained of our native Indians during his min istrations among them. It is the dearest wish of his heart to carry to these heathen souls the saving grace of Christianity, and for the accomplishment of this good purpose he makes many journeys into the mount ains; ministering in the chapels which his zeal has founded in the Indian towns, and striving earnestly by his preaching of God's word to bring these far- wandered sheep into the Christian fold. Very often his life has been in most imminent peril, for the idol atrous priests of the mountain tribes hate him with a most bitter hatred because of the inroads which his mild creed is making upon the cruel creed which they uphold. Yet is he careless of the danger to which he exposes himself; and there be those who believe, such is the temerity with which he mar FRAY ANTONIO. 21 his zeal, that he rather seeks than shuns a martyr's crown." Again Don Rafael paused, and again was it evident that deep feelings moved him as he spoke of the holy life of this most holy man. "You will thus under stand, senor," he went on, "that Fray Antonio of all men is best fitted by his knowledge of the ways of these mountain Indians to advise you touching your going among them and studying them. You cannot do better than confer with him at once. It is but a step to the church of San Francisco. Let us go." What Don Rafael had said had opened new hori zons to me, and I was stirred by strange feelings as we passed out together from the shady silence of the Museo into the bright silence of the streets : for Mo- relia is a quiet city, wherein at all times is gentleness and rest. For priests in general, and for Mexican priests in particular, I had entertained always a pro found contempt ; but now, from an impartial source, I had heard of a Mexican priest whose life -springs seemed to be the soul - stirring impulses of the thir teenth century; who was devoted in soul and in body to the service of God and of his fellow-men ; in whom, in a word, the seraphic spirit of St. Francis of Assisi seemed to live again. But by this way coming to such tangible evidence of the survival in the present time of forces which were born into the world six hundred years ago, my thoughts took a natural turn to my own especial interests ; and, by perhaps not over - strong analogy, I reasoned that if this monk still lived so closely to the letter and to the spirit of the Rule that 22 THE AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE. St. Francis, six centuries back, gave to his order, most reasonably might I hope to find still quick something of the life that was in full vigor in Mexico only a little more than half that many centuries ago. We turned off from the Calle Principal by the little old church of La Cruz, and passed onward across the market-place, where buying and selling went on lan guidly, and where a drowsy hum of talk made a rhvt h- mic setting to a scene that seemed to my unaccustomed eyes less a bit of real life than a bit lifted bodily from an opera. Facing the market-place was the ancient church ; and the change was a pleasant one, from the vivid sunlight and warmth of the streets to its cool, shadowy interior: where the only sign of life was a single old woman, her head muffled in her rcbozo, praying her way along the Stations of the Cross. For more than two hundred and fifty years had prayer been made and praise been offered here ; and as I thought of the many generations who here had minis tered and worshipped though evil hearts in plenty, no doubt, both within and without the chancel there had been it seemed to me that some portion of the subtle essence of all the soul-longings for heavenly help and guidance that here had been breathed forth, by men and women truly struggling against the sinful forces at work in the world, had entered into the very fabric of that ancient church, and so had sanctified it. \\ crossed to the eastern end of the church, where was a low door-way, closed by a heavy wooden door that was studded with rough iron nails and ornament ! svith rudely finished iron-work; pushing which FEAY ANTONIO. 23 open briskly, as one having the assured right of entry there, Don Rafael courteously stood aside and mo tioned to me to enter the sacristy. From the shadowy church I passed at a step into a small vaulted room brilliant with the sunlight that poured into it through a broad window that faced the south. Just where this flood of sunshine fell upon the flagged floor, rising from a base of stone steps built up in pyramidal form, was a large cross of some dark wood, on which was the life-size figure of the crucified Christ ; and there, on the bare stone pavement before this emblem of his faith, his face, on which the sun light fell full, turned upward towards the holy image, and his arms raised in supplication, clad in his Fran ciscan habit, of which the hood had fallen back, knelt Fray Antonio ; and upon his pale, holy face, that the rich sunlight glorified, was an expression so seraphic, so entranced, that it seemed as though to his fervent gaze the very gates of heaven must be open, and all the splendors and glories and majesties of paradise revealed. It is as I thus first saw Fray Antonio verily a saint kneeling before the cross that I strive to think of him always. Yet even when that other and darker, but surely more glorious, picture of him rises before my mind I am not disconsolate ; for at such times the thought possesses me coming to me clearly and ve hemently, as though from a strongly impelled force without myself that what he prayed for at the mo ment when I beheld him was that which God granted to him in the end. 24 THE AZTUC TREA8UBB-IIOUSB. Some men being thus broken in upon while in the very act of communing with Heaven would have been distressed and ill at ease as I assuredly was because I had so interrupted him. But to Fray Antonio, as I truly believe, communion with Heaven was so entirely a part of his daily life that our sudden entry in no wise ruffled him. After a moment, that he might re- call his thoughts within himself and so to earth again, he arose from his knees, and with a grave, simple ^r.u t came forward to greet us. He was not more than c-ight-and-twenty years old, and he was slightly built and thin not emaciated, but lean with the wholesome leanness of one who strove to keep his body in the careful order of a machine of which much work was required. His face still had in it the soft roundness and tenderness of youth, that accorded well with its expression of gracious sweetness ; but there was a firmness about the fine, strong chin, and in the set of the delicate lips, that showed a reserve of masterful strength. And most of all did this strength shine forth from his eyes ; which, truly, though at this first sight of him I did not perceive it fully, were the most wonderful eyes that ever I have seen. As I then be held them I thought them black; but they really were a dark blue, and so were in keeping with his fair skin and hair. Yet that which gave them so strong an in dividuality was less their changing color than the mar vellous way in which their expression changed with every change of feeling of the soul that anini.it (d them. When I first saw them, turned up towards n, they seemed to speak a heavenly language full FRAY ANTONIO. 25 of love ; and when I saw them last, stern, but shining with the exultant light of joy triumphant, they fairly hurled the wrath of outraged Heaven against the con quered powers of hell. And I can give no adequate conception of the love that shone forth from them when pitying sympathy for human sorrow, or even for the pain which brute beasts suffered, touched that most tender heart for which they spoke in tones richer and fuller than the tones of words. Don Rafael, standing without the door that he had opened in order that I might precede him, did not per ceive that we had interrupted Fray Antonio in his prayers ; and began, therefore, in the lively manner natural to him, when I had been in due form presented as an American archaeologist come to Mexico to pursue my studies of its primitive inhabitants, to commend the undertaking that I had in hand, and to ask of Fray Antonio the aid in prosecuting it that he so well could give. Perhaps it was that Fray Antonio understood how wholly my heart already had gone out to him as suredly, later, there was such close sympathy between us that our thoughts would go and come to each other without need for words and so was disposed in some instinctive way to join his purposes with mine; but, be this as it may, before Don Rafael well could finish the explanation of my wishes, Fray Antonio had compre hended what I desired, and had promised to give me his aid. "The senor already has a book-knowledge of our native tongues. That is well. The speaking knowl- 26 THE AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE. edge will come easily. He shall have the boy Pablo for his servant. A good boy is Pablo. With him he can talk in the Nahua dialect which is the most important, for it is sprung most directly from the an cient stock. And I will arrange that the senor shall live for a time in the mountains it will be a hard life, I fear at Santa Maria and at San Andres, in which villages he can gain a mouth-mastery of both Otomf and Tarascan. A little time must be given to all this some months, no doubt. But the senor, who already has studied through ten years, will understand the needfulness of this short discipline. To a true student study in itself is a delight still more that study which makes the realization of a long-cherished purpose pos sible. The sefior, I know, reads Spanish, since so per fectly he speaks it" this with a gracious movement of the hands and a courteous inclination of the body that enhanced the value of the compliment " but does the senor read with ease our ancient Spanish script ?" "I have never attempted it," I answered. "But as I can read easily the old printed Spanish, I suppose," I added, a little airily, " that I shall have no great diffi culty in reading the old script also." Fray Antonio smiled a little as he glanced at Don Rafael, who smiled also, and as he turned out his hands, answered : "Perhaps. But it is not quite the same as print, as the senor will know when be tries. But it makes no difference; for what is most interest ing in our archives I shall be glad and so also will be Don Rafael to aid him in reading. ** You must know, sefior," he went on, dropping his FRAY ANTONIO. 27 formal mode of address as his interest in the subject augmented, and as his feeling towards me grew warmer, "that many precious documents are here preserved. So early as the year 1536 this western region was erected into a Custodia, distinct from the Province of the Santo Evangelic of Mexico ; and from that time onward letters and reports relating to the work done by the missionaries of our order among the heathen have been here received. In truth, I doubt not that many historic treasures are hidden here. In modern times, during the last hundred years or more, but little thought has been given to the care of these old papers which are so precious to such as Don Rafael and yourself because of their antiquarian value, and which are still more precious to me because they tell of the sowing among the heathen of the seed of God's own Word. It is probable that they have not been at all examined into since our learned brothers Pablo de Beaumont and Alonzo de la Rea were busy with the writing of their chronicles of this Province and the labors of these brothers ended more than two hundred and fifty years ago. In the little time that I myself can give to such matters I already have found many manuscripts which cast new and curious light upon the strange people who dwelt here in Mexico before the Spaniards came. Some of these I will send for your examination, for they will prepare you for the work you have in contemplation by giving you useful knowledge of primitive modes of life and tones of faith and phases of thought. And while you are in the mountains, at Santa Maria and San Andre's, I will make 28 THK AZTKC TKEASURE-11OU8E. further searches in our archives, and what I find you shall see upon your return. " With your permission, sefiores, I must now go about my work. Don Rafael knows that I am much too ready to forget my work in talk of ancient mat ters. It is a weakness with me this love for tin- study of antiquity that I struggle against, but that seems rather to increase upon me than to be overcome. This afternoon, senor, I will send a few of the ancient manuscripts to you. And so until we meet again." n. THE CACIQUE'S SECRET. FRAY ANTONIO punctually fulfilled his promise in regard to the manuscripts, and I had but to glance at them in order to understand the smile that he had in terchanged with Don Rafael when I so airily had ex pressed my confidence in my ability to read them. To say that I more easily could read Hebrew is not to the purpose, for I can read Hebrew very well ; but it is precisely to the purpose to say that I could not read them at all ! What with the curious, involved forma tion of the several letters, the extraordinary abbrevia tions, the antique spelling, the strange forms of ex pression, and the use of obsolete words I could not make sense of so much as a single line. Yet when, l>rinj forced into inglorious surrender, I carried tin- manuscripts to the Museo, and appealed to Don Rafael THK CACIQUE'S SECRET. 29 for assistance, he read to me in fluent Spanish all that I had found so utterly incomprehensible. " It is only a knack," he explained. " A little time and patience are required at first, but then all comes easily." But Don Rafael did here injustice to his own scholarship. More than a little time and patience have I since given to the study of ancient Spanish script, and I am even yet very far from being an expert in the reading of it. In regard to the other promise that Fray Antonio made me that he would send me a servant who also would serve as a practical instructor in the Nahua, or Aztec, dialect he was equally punctual. While I was taking, in my bedroom, my first breakfast of bread and coffee the morning following my visit to the church of San Francisco, I heard a faint sound of music ; but whether it was loud music at a distance or very soft music near at hand I could not tell. Presently I per ceived that the musician was feeling about among the notes for the sabre song from La Grande Duchesse selections from which semi-obsolete opera, as I then remembered, had been played by the military band on the plaza the evening before. Gradually the playing grew more assured; until it ended in an accurate and spirited rendering of the air. With this triumph, the volume of the sound increased greatly; and from its tones I inferred that the instrument was a concertina, and that whoever played it was in the inner court-yard of the hotel. Suddenly, in the midst of the music, there sounded and this sound unmistakably came from the hotel court-yard the prodigious braying of an ass ; and accompanying this came the soft sound of 30 THE AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE. bare feet hurrying away down the passage from near my door. I opened the door and looked out, but the passage was empty. The gallery overlooked the court-yard, and stepping to the edge of the low stone railing, I beheld a sight that I never recall without a feeling of warm tenderness. Almost directly beneath me stood a small gray ass, a very delicately shaped and perfect little animal, with a coat of most extraordinary length and fuzziness, and with ears of a truly prodigious size. His head was raised, and his great cars were pricked forward in a fashion which indicated that he was most intently listening; and upon his face was an expression of such benevolent sweetness, joined to such thought- fulness and meditative wisdom, that in my heart (which is very open to affection for his gentle kind) there sprung up in a moment a real love for him. Sudden ly he lowered his head, and turned eagerly his regard towards the corner of the court-yard where descended the stair- way from the gallery on which I stood; and from this quarter came towards him a smiling, ]>lt asant- faced Indian lad of eighteen or twenty years old, whose dress was a cotton shirt and cotton trousers, whose feet were bare, and on whose head was a battered hat of straw. And as the ass saw the boy, he strained at the cord that tethered him and gave another mighty bray. " Dost thou call me, Wise One?" said the boy, speak ing in Spanish. "Truly this Senor Americano is a lazy sefior, that he rises so late, and keeps us waiting for his coming so long. But patience, Wise One. The Padre says that he is a good gentleman, in whose serv- THE CACIQUE'S SECRET. 31 ice we shall be treated as though we were kings. No doubt I now can buy my rain-coat. And thou,Wise One thou shalt have beans!" And being by this time come to the ass, the boy en folded in his arms the creature's fuzzy head and gently stroked its preternaturally long ears. And the ass, for its part, responded to the caress by rubbing its head against the boy's breast and by most energetically twitching its scrag of a tail. Thus for a little time these friends manifested for each other their affection ; and then the boy seated himself on the pavement be side the ass and drew forth from his pocket a large mouth-organon which he went to work with such a will that all the court-yard rang with the strains of Offenbach's music. It was plain from what he had said that this was the boy whom Fray Antonio had promised to send to me; and notwithstanding his uncomplimentary comments upon my laziness, I had taken already a strong liking to him. I waited until he had played through the sabre song again to which, as it seemed to me, the ass listened with a slightly critical yet pleased atten tion and then I hailed him. " The lazy Senor Americano is awake at last, Pablo," I called. " Come up hither, and we will talk about the buying of thy rain-coat, and about the buying of the Wise One's beans." The boy jumped up as though a spring had been let loose beneath him, and his shame and confusion were so great that I was sorry enough that I had made my little joke upon him. 32 THE AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE. "It is all right, my child," I said, quickly, and with all the kindness that I could put into my tones. " Thou wert talking to the Wise One, not to me and I have forgotten all that I heard. Thou art come from Fray Antonio ?" " Yes, senor," he answered ; and as he saw by my smiling that no harm had been done, he also smiled; and so honest and kindly was the lad's face that I liked him more and more. " Patience for yet a little longer, Wise One," he said, turning to the aas, who gravely wagged his ears in an swer. And then the boy came up the stair to the gal lery, and so we went to my room that I might have talk with him. It was not much that Pablo had to tell about himself. He was a Guadalajara lad, born in the Indian suburb of Mexicalcingo as his musical taste might have told me had I known more of Mexico who had drifted out into the world to seek his fortune. His capital was the ass so wise an ass that he had named him El Sabio. "He knows each word that I speak to him, senor," said Pablo, earnestly. "And when he hears, even a long way off, the music that I make upon the little in strument, he knows that it is from me the music comes, and calls to me. And he loves me, senor, as though h< were my brother ; and he knows that with the same tenderness I also love him. It was the good Padre who gave him to me. God rest and bless him always !" This pious wish, I inferred, related not to the ass but to Fray Antonio. "And how dost thou live, Pablo?" I asked. THE CACIQUB'S SECRET. 33 "By bringing water from the Spring of the Holy Children, senor. It is two leagues away, the Ojo de los Santos Ninos, and El Sabio and I make thither two journeys daily. We bring back each time four jars of water, which we sell here in the city for it is very good, sweet water at three tlacos the jar. You see, I make a great deal of money, senor three reales a day ! If it were not for one single thing, I should soon be rich." That riches could be acquired rapidly on a basis of about twenty-seven cents, in our currency, a day struck me as a novel notion. But I inquired, gravely: " And this one thing that hinders thee from getting rich, Pablo, what is it ?" " It is that I eat so much, senor," Pablo answered, ruefully. " Truly it seems as though this belly of mine never could be filled. I try valiantly to eat little and so to save my money; but my belly cries out for more and yet more food and so my money goes. Although I make so much, I can scarcely save a media in a whole week, when what El Sabio must have and what I must have is paid for. And I am trying so hard to save just now, for before the next rainy season comes I want to own a rain-coat. But for a good one I must pay seven reales. The price is vast." " What is a rain-coat, Pablo?" " The senor does not know ? That is strange. It is a coat woven of palm leaves, so that all over one it is as a thatch that the rain cannot come through. What I was saying just now to El Sabio Pablo stopped suddenly, and turned aside from me in a shamefaced 3 C 34 THE AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE. way, as he remembered what he also had said to El Sabio about my laziness. " Was that out of the wages I am to pay thee thou canst save enough money to buy thy coat with," I said, quickly, wishing to rid him of his confusion. And then we fell to talking of what these wages should be, and of how he was to help me to gain a speaking knowledge of his native tongue for so far we had spoken Spanish together and of what in general would be his duties as my servant. That El Sabio could be anything but a part of the contract seemed never to cross Pablo's mind; and so presently our terms were concluded, and I found myself occupying the respon sible relation of master to a mouth-organ playing boy and an extraordinarily wise ass. It was arranged that both of these dependants of mine should accompany me in my expedition to the Indian villages ; and to clinch our bargain I gave Pablo the seven reales wherewith to buy his rain-coat on the spot. I was a little surprised, two days later, when we started from Morelia on our journey into the mountains to the westward, to find that Pablo had not bought his much -desired garment; though, to be sure, as the rainy season still was a long way off, there was no need for it. He hesitated a little when I questioned him about it, and then, in a very apologetic tone, said: "Perhaps the senor will forgive me for doing so ill with his money. But indeed I could not help it. There is an old man, his name is Juan, senor, who has been very good to me many times. He has given me things to put into this wretchedly big belly of THE CACI^UB'S SECRET. 35 mine; and when I broke one of my jars he lent me the money to buy another with, and would take from me again only what the jar cost and no more. Just now this old man is sick it is rheumatism, senor and he has no money at all, and he and his wife have not much to eat, and I know what pain that is. And so and so Will the senor forgive me ? I do not need the rain-coat now, the senor understands. And so I gave Juan the seven reales, which he will pay me when he gets well and works again ; and should he die and not pay me Does the senor know what I have been thinking? It is that rain-coats really are not very needful things, after all. Without them one gets wet, it is true; but then one soon gets dry again. But truly " and there was a sudden catching in Pablo's throat that was very like a sob "truly I did want one." When Pablo had told this little story I did not won der at the esteem in which Fray Antonio held him, and from that time onward he had a very warm place in my heart. And I may say that but for his too great devotion to his mouth-organ for that boy never could hear a new tune but that he needs must go at once to practising it upon his beloved "instrumentito" un til he had mastered it he was the best servant that man ever had. And within his gentle nature was a core of very gallant fearlessness. In the times of dan ger which we shared together later, excepting only Rayburn, not one of us stood face to face and foot to foot with death with a steadier or a calmer bravery; for in all his composition there did not seem to be one single fibre that could be made to thrill in unison with 36 THE AZTEC 1 KKAbU KK HOUSE. fear. Of his qualities as a servant I had a good trial during the two months that we were together in the mountains in which time I got enough working knowl edge of the Indian dialects to make effective the knowl edge that I had gained from books and I was amazed liy the quickness that he manifested in apprehending and in supplying my wants and in understanding my ways. As to making any serious study of Indian customs save only those of the most open and well-known sort in this short time, I soon perceived that the case was quite hopeless. Coming from Fray Antonio, whose benevolent ministrations among them had won their friendship, the Indians treated me with a great respect and showed me every kindness. But I presently began to suspect, and this later grew to be conviction, that because my credentials came from a Christian priest I was thrust away all the more resolutely from knowl edge of their inner life. What I then began to learn, and what I learned more fully later, convinced me that these Indians curiously veneered with Christian prac tices their native heathen faith ; manifesting a certain superstitious reverence for the Christian rites and cer emonies, yet giving sincere worship only to their hea then gods. It was something to have arrived at this odd discovery, but it tended only to show me how dif ficult was the task that I had set myself of prying into the secrets of the Indians' inner life. Indeed, but for an accident, I should have returned to Morelia no wiser, practically, than when I left it; but by that turn of chance fortune most wonderfully favored me, and with far-reaching consequences. It THE CACIQUK'S SECRET. 37 was on the last afternoon of my stay in the village of Santa Maria; and the beginning of my good -luck was that I succeeded in walking out upon the mountain side alone. My walk had a decided purpose in it, for each time that I had tried to go in this direction one or another of the Indians had been quickly upon my heels with some civil excuse about the danger of fall ing among the rocks for leading me another way. How I thus succeeded at last in escaping from so many watchful eyes I cannot say, but luck was with me, and I went on undisturbed. The sharply sloping mountain-side, very wild and rugged, was strewn with great fragments of rock which had fallen from the heights above, and which, lying there for ages be neath the trees, had come to be moss-grown and half hidden by bushes and fallen leaves. In the dim light that filtered through the branches, walking in so un certain a place was attended with a good deal of dan ger ; for not only was there a likelihood of falls lead ing to broken legs, but broken necks also were an easy possibility by the chance of a slip upon the mossy edge of one or another of the many ledges, followed by a spin through the air ending suddenly upon the jagged rocks below. Indeed, so ticklish did I find my way that I began to think that the Indians had spoken no more than the simple truth in warning me against such dangers, and that I had better turn again while light remained to bring me back in safety; and just as I had reached this wise conclusion my feet slid sud denly from under me on the very edge of one of the ledges, and over I went into the depth below. 38 THE AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE. Fortunately I fell not more than a dozen feet or so, and my fall was broken by a friendly bed of leaves and moss. When I got to my feet again, in a moment, I found myself in a narrow cleft in the rocks, and I was surprised to see that through this cleft ran a well-worn path. All thought of the danger that I had just es caped from so narrowly was banished from my mind instantly as I made this discovery; and full of the ex citing hope that I was about to find something which the Indians most earnestly desired to conceal, I went rapidly and easily onward in the direction that I had been pressing towards with so much difficulty along the rocky mountain-side. The course of this sunken path, I soon perceived, was partly natural and partly artificial. It went on through clefts such as the one that I had fallen into, and through devious ways where the fragments of fallen rock, some of them great mass es weighing many tons, had been piled upon each other in most natural confusion, so as to leave a narrow pas sage in their depths. And all this had been done in a long-past time, for the rocks were thickly coated with moss ; and in one place, where a watercourse crossed the path, were smoothed by water in a way that only centuries could have accomplished. So cleverly was the concealment effected, the way so narrow and so irregular, that I verily believe an army might have scoured that mountain-side and never found the path at all, save by such accident as had brought me into it. For half a mile or more I went on in the waning light, my heart throbbing with the excitement of it all, and so came out at last upon a vast jutting prom- THE CACIQUE'S SECRET. 39 ontory of rock that was thrust forth from the mount ain's face eastwardly. Here was an open space of an acre or more, in the centre of which was a low, altar- like structure of stone. At the end of the narrow path, being still within its shelter, I stopped to make a care ful survey of the ground before me ; for I realized that in what I was doing Death stood close at my el bow, and that, unless I acted warily, he surely would have me in his grasp. Coming out of the shadows of the woods and the deeper shadows of the sunken path to this wide open space, where the light of the brill iant sunset was reflected strongly from masses of rosy clouds over all the eastern sky, I could see clearly. In the midst of the opening, not far from the edge of the stupendous precipice, where the bare rock dropped sheer down a thousand feet or more, was a huge bowl der that had been cut and squared with ineffective tools into the rude semblance of a mighty altar. The well-worn path along which I had come told the rest of the story. Here was the temple, having for its roof the great arch of heaven, in which the Indians, whom the gentle Fray Antonio believed to be such good Christians, truly worshipped their true gods ; even as here their fathers had worshipped before them in the very dawning of the ancient past. A tremor of joy went through me as I realized what I had found. Here was positive proof of what I had strongly but not surely hoped for. The Aztec faith truly was still a living faith; and it followed al most certainly that, could I but penetrate the mys tery with which it was hedged about so carefully by 40 THE AZTEC TREASUBE-IIOUSB. them still faithful to it, I would find all that I sought of living customs, of coherent traditions wherewith to exhibit clearly to the world of the nineteenth century the wonderful social and religious structure that the Spaniards of the sixteenth century had blotted out, but had not destroyed. What my fellow - archaeologists had accomplished in Syria, in Egypt, in Greece, was nothing to what I could thus accomplish in Mexico. At the best, Smith, Rawlinson, Schliemann, had done no more than stir the dust above the surface of dead antiquity ; but I was about to bring the past freshly and brightly into the very midst of the present, and to make antiquity once more alive ! As I stood there in the dusk of the narrow path way, while the joy that was in my heart swelled it al most to bursting, there came to my ears the low moan ing of one in pain. The faint, uncertain sound seemed to come from the direction of the great stone altar. To discover myself in that place to any of the Indians, I knew would end my archaeological ambition very summarily ; yet was I moved by a natural desire to aid whoever thus was hurt and suffering. I stood irreso lute a moment, and then, as the moaning came to me again, I went out boldly into the open space, and crossed it to where the altar was. As I rounded the great stone I saw a very grievous sight: an old man lying upon the bare rock, a great gash in his forehead from which the blood had flowed down over his face and breast, making him a most ghastly object to look upon ; and there was about him a certain limpness that told of many broken bones. He turned his head THE CACIQUE'S SECRET. 41 at the sound of my footsteps, but it was plain that the blood flowing into his eyes had blinded him, and that he could not see me. He made a feeble motion to clear his eyes, but dropped his partly raised arm suddenly and with a moan of pain. I recognized him at a glance. He was the Cacique, the chief, and also, as I had shrewdly guessed, the priest of the village the very last person whom I would have desired to meet in that place. "Ah, thou art come to me at last, Benito !" he said, speaking in a low and broken voice. "I have been praying to our gods that they would send thee to me for my death has come, and it is needful that the one secret still hidden from thee, my successor, should be told. I was on the altar's top, and thence I fell." I perceived in what the Cacique said that there was hope for me. He could not see me, and he evidently believed that I was the second chief of the village, Benito an Indian who had talked much with me, and the tones of whose voice I knew well. Doubtless my clumsy attempt to simulate the Indian's speech would have been detected quickly under other circumstances, but the Cacique believed that no other man could have come to him in that place ; and his whole body was wrung with torturing pains, and he was in the very ar ticle of death. And so it was, my prudence leading me to speak few and simple words, and my good-luck still standing by me, he never guessed whose hands in his last moments ministered to him. As I raised his head a little and rested it upon my knee, he spoke again, very feebly and brokenly : " On my breast is the bag of skin. In it is the Priest-Cap- 42 TUB AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE. tain's token, and the paper that shows the way to where the stronghold of our race remains. Only with me abides this secret, for I am of the ancient house, as thou art also, whence sprung of old our priests and kings. Only when the sign that I have told thee of but tell ing thee not its meaning comes from heaven, is the token to be sent, and with it the call for aid. Once, as thou knowest, that sign came, and the messenger, our own ancestor, departed. But there was anger then against us among the gods, and they suffered not his message to be delivered, and he himself was slain. Yet was the token preserved to us, and yet again the sign from heaven will come. And then thou knowest ' But here a shiver of pain went through him, and his speech gave place to agonizing moans. When he spoke again his words were but a whisper. " Lay me in front of the altar," he said. " Now is the end." " But the sign ? What is it ? And where is the stronghold?" I cried eagerly; forgetting in the intense excitement of this strange disclosure my need for reti cence, and forgetting even to disguise my voice. But my imprudence cost me nothing. Even as I spoke an other shiver went through the Cacique's body ; and as there came from his lips, thereafter forever to be silent, a sound, half moan, half gasp, his soul went out from him, and he was at rest. When a little calmness had returned to me, I took from his breast the bag of skin stained darkly where his blood had flowed upon it and then tenderly and reverently lifted his poor mangled body and laid it be fore the altar. And so I came back along the hidden THE MONK'S MANUSCRIPT. 43 path, safely and unperceived, to the village : leaving the dead Cacique there in the solemn solitude of that great mountain -top, whereon the dusk of night was gathering, alone in death before the altar of his gods. III. THE MONK'S MANUSCRIPT. WHEN Pablo and I started, the day following, upon our return to Morelia, the village of Santa Maria was overcast with mourning. The Cacique was dead, they told us ; had fallen among the rocks on the mountain side, being an old man and feeble, and so was killed. And I was expressly charged with a message to the good Padre, begging him to hasten to Santa Maria that the dead man might have Christian burial. I confess that I found this request, though I promised faithfully to comply with it, highly amusing ; for I knew beyond the possibility of a doubt that if ever a man died a most earnest and devout heathen it was this same Cacique for whom Christian burial was sought ; and I felt an assured conviction that when the services of the Church over him were ended and whatever good was to be had for him from them secured he would be buried fittingly with all the fulness of his own heathen rites. But this matter, lying in what I already per ceived to be the very wide region between the avow ed faith and the hidden faith of the Indians, was no concern of mine ; yet I longed, as only a thoroughly 44 TIIK AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE. earnest archaeologist could long, to be a witness of the funeral ceremony in which Fray Antonio most conspic uously would not take part. As this was hopelessly impossible for only by very slow advances, if ever, could I reach again by considerate investigation th<- point that in a moment I had reached by chance I came away from Santa Maria reluctantly, yet greatly elated by the discovery that I had made. So jealous was I in guarding the strange legacy that the Cacique had bequeathed to me that not until I was safe back in Morelia, in my room at the hotel, with the door locked behind me, did I venture to examine it. The bag, about six inches square, tightly sewed on all four of its sides, was made of snake-skin, and was pro vided with a loop of snake-skin so that it might be hung from the neck upon the breast like a scapulary. My hands trembled as I cut the delicate stitching of maguey fibre, and then drew forth a mass of several thicknesses of coarse gray-brown paper, also made of the maguey, such as the ancient Aztecs used. Being un folded, I had before me a sheet nearly two feet square, on which was painted in dull colors a curious winding procession of figures and symbols. My knowledge "!' such matters being then but scant, I could tell only that this was a record, at once historical and geograph ical, of a tribal migration ; and I saw at a glance that it was unlike either of the famous picture-writings which record the migration of the A/tecs from Culia- oan to the Valley of Mexico, and then about that val ley until their final settlement in TVnochtitlan. I was reasonably confident, indeed, that this record differed THE MONK'S MANUSCBIPT. 45 from all existing codices ; and I was filled with what I hope will be looked upon as a pardonable pride at having discovered, within three months of my coming to Mexico, this unique and inestimable treasure. My natural desire was to carry my precious codex at once to Don Rafael, that I might have the benefit of his superior knowledge in studying it (for he had con tinued very intelligently the investigation of Aztec picture-writing that was so well begun by the late Senor Ramirez), and also that I might enjoy his sym pathetic enjoyment of my discovery. As I raised the bag, that I might replace in it the refolded paper which I already saw heralded to the world as the Codex Palgravius, and reproduced in fac-simile in Pre- Columbian Conditions on the Continent of North America some glittering object dropped out of it and fell with a jingling sound upon the stone floor. When I examined eagerly this fresh treasure I found that it was a disk of gold, about the size and thick ness of a Mexican silver dollar, on which a curious figure was rudely engraved. The engraving obvi ously represented an Aztec name-device, the like of which, in the ancient picture-writings, distinguish one from another the several generations of a line of kings. This name-device was strange to me ; but, as I have said, I had not at that time studied carefully the Aztec picture-writings, and there were many names of kings which I would not then have recognized. But that the gold disk was the token concerning the meaning of which the dying Cacique had given so strange a hint, I felt assured. 16 THE AZTEC TRBASURE-HOUSB. JJc-ing still further gl:iM -in came happily to that end which is the happiest end attainable in God's service: a blessed martyrdom." Fray Antonio's voice trembled with deep feeling as he spoke, and I remem bered that Don Rafael had told me that this good brother, it was believed, himself longed for a death so glorious. "And being thus slain," Fray Antonio in a moment continued, "the mission stations which they had established were left desolate, with what they held save such few things as might be cared for by the savage murderers: remaining there within them. In later times, as the conquering Spaniards overspread the land, many of these stations were found, with noth ing to tell save nameless bones of those who had died there that God's will might be done. " It is my conjecture, therefore, that this parchment case was found how many years after the death of him who owned it, who can tell ? in one of the many stations that the savages thus ravaged ; that the sol diers, or whoever may have found it, brought it hither, the nearest important abiding-place of our Order; and that, being carelessly examined, it was carelessly thrown 52 THE AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE. aside when found to contain, apparently, only the little record of the work which our dead brother accom plished before God granted him his crown of earthly martyrdom and so made quick his way to heaven. Had the letter ever reached that 'first hand' for which the writer says he waits to send it by, it assuredly would have come to the knowledge of the gold-loving Spanish conquerors, and armies would have gone forth to answer it. But our dead brother, having written it and placed it in this fold of the parchment for safety until the chance to send it southward should come, was cut off from life suddenly ; and so, of the prodigious marvel of which knowledge had so strangely come to him, only this mute and hidden record remained." "But the letter itself?" I asked, with more energy than politeness. " What is the story that it contains? What is this mystery? Tell me of it first, and then explain as much as you please afterwards." Fray Antonio smiled at me kindly. " Ah, you too are becoming excited," he said. " But, truly, it is not fair that I should thus have kept you waiting. In deed, I am so full of it all that I forget that as yet you know nothing. Come out with me into the court-yard, where the light is stronger for the writing is very faint and pale and I will read you this letter in which so wonderful a story is set forth." Together we passed out through a little door in the rear of the sacristy into what had been the inner and smaller cloistered court-yard of the old convent a lovely place in which a fountain set in a quaint stone basin sparkled, and where warm sunshine fell upon the MONTEZUMA'S MESSENGEB. 53 rippling water and upon beds of sweet-smelling flow ers. And here it was, standing among the flowers in the sunshine, beside the quaint fountain, that Fray An tonio read to me the letter that in this strange fash ion had come to us from a hand dead for much more than three centuries, and that yet brought to us two a vital message that wholly was to shape our destinies. IV. MONTEZUMA'S MESSENGEB. THE letter was without date, but, being addressed to the Bishop Zumarraga, the phrase that occurred in it " this New Spain, wherein, Very Reverend Father, you have labored in God's service this year and more past" showed that 1530 was the year in which it was written. As to place, there practically was no clew at all. The writer referred repeatedly to " this mission of Santa Marta, in the Chichimeca country " but the mission had perished utterly but a little while after it was founded; and at that period the term Chichimeca country was used by the Spaniards in speaking of any part of Mexico where wild Indians were. Being shorn of a portion of its pious verbiage, and somewhat modernized in style, the ancient Spanish of this letter contained in effect these English words : "VEBY REVEBEND FATIIEB, This present letter will be sent forward to you by the first hand by which 54 mi; A7.TKC TREASURE-HOUSE. it may be hence transmitted ; and in your wisdom, with God's grace also guiding you, I doubt not that you will take measures for sending missionaries of our Order to the great company of the heathen whose whereabouts I am to disclose to you. And also, no doubt keeping the matter secret from the pestilent Oidores of the Audiencia you will communicate this strange matter through safe channels to our lord the King : that with our missionaries an army may go forth, and that so the great treasure of which I give tidings may be wrested from the heathen to be used for God's glory and the enriching of our lord the King. " Know, Very Reverend Father, that a month since, I being then abroad from this mission of Santa Marta, preaching God's word in a certain village of the Chi- chimecas that is five leagues to the northward, was so strengthened by God's grace that many of the heathen professed our holy faith and were baptized. And of these was one who among that tribe was held a cap tive. Which captive, as I found, was of the nation that dwelt in Tenochtitlan before our great captain, Don Fernando Cortus, reduced that city to submission. But little of earthly life remained to this poor captive when I, unworthily but happily, opened to him the way to life glorious and eternal ; for in the fight that happened when he was captured of which fight he alone of all his companions had survived he was sore ly wounded; and though in time his wounds had heal ed he remained but a weakly man, and the service to \vliii-h his captors forced him was hard. So it waw MONTEZUMA'S MESSENGER. 55 that I had but little more than time to put him in the way leading to heaven before his spirit gladly forsook its weary body and went thence from earth. "That he truly was a convert to our holy faith I am well assured, by the signs of a spirit meet for re pentance which he showed in his own person; and still more by his strong longing, most earnestly expressed, that this same glorious faith of freedom should be preached to a certain great company of his people, whereof he most secretly told me, who still remain bound in the bondage of idolatry. And it is what he told me of these, Very Reverend Father, and of the marvellous hidden city wherein they dwell, and of the mighty treasure which there they guard, that I desire now to bring to your private knowledge, before it shall be known of by the Oidores, and through you to our lord the King. Here now is the whole of the mystery that he recited: " In very ancient times, he said, his people came forth from seven caves which are in the western re gion of this continent, and wandered long in search of an abiding-place. And in the course of ages it came to pass that a certain wise king ruled over them to whom was given the gift of prophecy. Which king, by name Chaltzantzin, foretold that in the later ages there should come an army of fair and bearded men from the eastward, who would prevail over the people of his race: slaying many, and making of the remain der slaves. Being sorely troubled by thought of what he thus foresaw, he set himself to provide a source of strength whereon his descendants in that later time 56 THE AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE. might draw in the hour of their peril and so save themselves from cruel death and from yet crueler slavery. To which end, in a certain great valley that lies securely hidden among the mountains of this con tinent, he caused to be built a walled city; and this city he then peopled with the very bravest and strong est of his race. And he made for those dwelling there a perpetual law that commanded that all such as showed themselves when come to maturity to be weak or mal formed in body, or coward of heart, then should be put to death; to the end that their natural increase ever should be of the same stout stuff as themselves, and also that there might be no lack of victims for the sac rifices which are acceptable to their barbarous gods. And thus he provided that in the time of need there should be here a strong army of valiant warriors, ready to come forth to fight against the fair-faced bearded men, and by conquering them to save safe the land. " And yet more provision did King Chaltzantzin make for the strengthening and the saving of his race in the later ages. Within this walled city of Culhua- can he caused to be builded a great treasure - house, wherein he garnered such store of riches as never was gathered together in one place since the beginning of the world. And his order was that if even the power of the army which should go forth from that city suf ficed not to conquer the foreign foemen, then should this vast treasure be used to buy his people's ransom, that they might not perish nor be enslaved. " Having set all which great matters in order, King Chaltzantzin came forth from the Valley of Aztlan, MONTEZUMA'S MESSENGER. 57 leaving behind him the noble colony that he had there founded; and so with his people wandered va grant even as their gods had commanded that they should go until by a sign from heaven they should be shown where was to be their lasting home. And that the fulfilling of his purpose might be made the more sure, he brought his people forth from that valley by most perilous passes and through strait ways so that they might not return thither ; and that they who re mained might not follow, he closed the way behind him with mighty bars. " In the fulness of time this wise king died, and oth ers reigned in his stead ; and at last the ages of wan dering of the Aztec tribe were ended by the sign com ing from heaven whereby they knew that the Valley of Anahuac was to be their abiding home. There built they the city of Tenochtitlan : which city the valiant captain, Don Fernando Cortes, conquered this short time since and by conquest of it verified pre cisely the prophecy that King Chaltzantzin uttered in very ancient times. " But the captive Indian told me, further, that before the coming of the Spaniards there was seen the sign of warning that King Chaltzantzin had promised should tell when the danger that he had so well prepared for should be near ; which sign was the going out of the sacred fire that the priests guarded on a certain high hill. Meantime, all knowledge of their brethren hid den in the Valley of Aztlan for their help in time of peril was lost to the Aztec tribe in dim tradition; for the King had commanded, in order that his people 58 THE AZTBC TRKASUKK-UOUSB. might not fall into weakness through trusting in the strength of others for protection, that no open record of the colony that he had founded should be preserved. Therefore was this matter a secret known only to a few priests whose blood was of the royal line ; in whose keeping, also, was the token that King Chalt- zantzin had commanded should be sent to the walled city of Culhuacan when its warriors were to be called forth, and a map whereby the way thither was made plain. And so it was that, when the sacred fire ceased burning, the priests were alert for the threatened dan ger ; and when the landing of the Spaniards ' fair- faced and bearded men, coming from the eastward ' was known to them, they warned their king, Monte- zuma, that the prophecy was fulfilled, and that the time for sending for the army and the treasure had come. " For the bearer of this message was chosen a priest of the blood royal, with whom went also a younger priest, his son. And with these went a guard, whereof the captive Indian was one, that they might be carried in safety through the region where the wild Indians were. But the valor of the guard was useless, for the wild Indians set upon them in such prodigious num bers in a place not far from where is this present mission of Santa Mart a that all of that company, save only this single Indian who was wounded and made captive, was overpowered and slain. Yet among the slain, the Indian said, was not found the body of the priest's son ; nor was there found on the priest's body tin- token that lie had been the lu-aivr of, nor the map MONTEZUMA'S MESSENGER. 59 that showed the way. For a time the Indian had hoped that the younger priest had escaped out of the fight alive, and had carried to them who dwelt in the walled city of Culhuacan the message of summons; but as the years went onward and nothing came of it, this hope had died within his heart. " This, Very Reverend Father, is the strange story told me by this Indian ; who spoke with the urgent sincerity of one devout in the Christian faith who knew by sensible perception that his death was near at hand. Eagerly he begged that to these Gentiles, his brethren by blood, might be sent in their secret fastnesses the blessed Word whereby they would be delivered from the chains of their idolatry into the freedom of Christian grace. And, surely, the treasure that they ward very well may be wrested from these heathen that it may be used in part in this land in God's service, and that in part it may go to the just enriching of our lord the King. " Nor is the matter one that is difficult of accom plishment. For a token which shall give us the right of entry into this walled city of Culhuacan we need only the Word of God and a sufficient force of men well armed with swords and matchlocks. Nor is it any bar to our quest that the map showing the way thither has been lost. The Indian told me that this way is so plainly marked that one who had found it could not lose it again. For at spaces of not more than a league or two apart, upon flat places of the rock convenient for such purpose, was cut the same figure that the token of summons had engraved upon it; and, 60 THK AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE. with this, an arrow pointing towards where the next carving would be found : and so these si^ns wi-nt on ward, the heathen priest had told him, even to the very entrance of the Valley of Aztlan. And that this matter might be made sure to me, he led me to a spot but a league to the westward of this mission of Santa Marta and there showed me one of these signs, with the pointing arrow carved also on the rock beside it of all of which the drawing here made is an indifferent good copy. And by that guiding arrow we went on ward to another like carving at a little less than two leagues away to the northward. Therefore, Very Rev erend Father, I, of my own knowledge, am a witness to a part, at least, of the truth of what that Indian told. And with all my heart do I add mine own entreaty to his simple pleadings for the salvation of the souls of his brethren ; and also do I venture to entreat that among those who go to carry the Word of God to this hidden heathen host I may be one ; so that I, though all unworthy of such honor, shall have a part in ren dering to God so glorious a service. "The more urgently do I ask this favor because here, in this mission of Santa Marta, it is but too clear to me that I am laboring in a barren field. Some hun dreds of the heathen I have indeed baptized; but among all these who have professed our Christian faith scarce a score show outward and visible signs of a true regeneration. Many, I am sadly sure, still prac tise in secret their old idolatry and find little more than mere amusement in the rites of our most holy Church. When they tire of this novelty, which, in MONTKZUMA'S MESSENGER. 61 the case of folk of such light natures no doubt will be in a little while, they will return openly to their idola try; and it probably may happen that they then will sacrifice me to their heathen gods. That, in one way or another, they do intend to kill me, and that soon, I feel quite sure. I am but twenty -three years old, Very Reverend Father; and that is an early time in life to end it. No doubt, also, in killing me they will use torture. And I long fervently to live, not only for the pleasure of it, but also that I may do good service to God, and to our Father Saint Francis, by saving many heathen souls. Therefore I beg that when the army marches to the reduction of this hidden city that I may be one of our brethren who will go with it, to hold by tender preaching of God's goodness and mercy such heathen as may remain alive after our soldiers shall have conquered that city with the sword. " I commend you, Very Reverend Father, to the care of Our Lord in all things, and pray that he may guard your most illustrious and very reverend person, and protect you in all matters of your temporal and spirit ual estate. And I am the least worthy of your serv ants, FRANCISCO DE LOS ANGELES." " Of a truth," said Fray Antonio, as he ceased read ing, " this brother of mine adhered closely to the truth when he subscribed himself the least worthy of the bishop's servants. Were it not here in his own hand, I should refuse to believe that one of our Order at that time in New Spain had any thought of saving his own life when God's work was to be done." 62 THE AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE. For myself, I must own that my heart was deeply touched by the very humanity of this poor Brother Francisco's cry for help that came up out of the dead depths of the past ; and that was the more keen and pitiful because the cruel death at the hands of the bar barous Indians that he so dreaded assuredly had over taken him. His could not have been a strong nature, and it was the weaker because of his youth; but, after all, it was the nature that God had given him, and there mnst have been a strain of strength in it, else he never would have braved the dangers which overcame him in the end. And he was " but twenty-three yeare old " ! Yet when I sought to lead Fray Antonio's mind to such consideration of the matter he replied, sternly: "This weak brother failed in his duty. To him God gave an opportunity to die gloriously for the Faith; but, instead of accepting that noble reward joyfully, his strongest wish was that he might find a way by which he might escape alive. Had all professors of the Christian creed so conducted themselves, that creed long since would have perished from off the earth. Semen est sanguis Christianorum is well said of Tcr- tullian the Carthaginian, and, later, of the blessed Saint Jerome." As Fray Antonio thus spoke he so drew up his slight figure, and in his sweet voice was a ring of such com manding sternness, that he was for tho moment tr.m- formed. II i TO was a man wholly different from the gentle scholar whom I liad already lranir-1 to love. In the glimpse that I thus had of his umlcrlyinu eluir MONTEZUMA'S MESSENGER. 63 acter I saw vivified again the spirit of the early Chris tian Church; and I understood, as I never had under stood before, of what stuff they were made who heard pronounced upon them the sentence, " To the lions !" and joyfully accepted their cruel fate, defiant of 'what man might do to them because of the perfection of their faith in the merciful forgiveness and upholding steadfastness of their Christian God. But in a moment a look of sadness and regret came into Fray Antonio's face, and he added, sorrowfully: "God forgive me for thus judging my brother, who long since was judged ! Who can say that when the hour of trial came he did not meet his death as bravely as any martyr of them all ? And who can say," he went on, but speaking softly, as one communing with his own soul, " how I myself But God gives strength." And then he ceased to speak aloud, but his lips moved silently as though in prayer. As I close my eyes I see him again as clearly as I saw him then standing be side the old stone fountain, amid the flowers, in the gladness of the bright sunshine; in his eyes a strange, far-away look, as though the future for a moment had been opened to him ; and on his strong, fine face a sternly resolute expression, which yet was softened by the traits which were so strong within him of holiness and gentleness and love. I cannot know what Fray Antonio prayed for, there in the old convent garden; but I can guess, and I am well persuaded that his prayer was heard. Truly, I think that it was some thing more than chance that led us thus at first to talk, not of the wonder that was in Brother Fran- E 64 THE AZTKC TKKA8URE-HOUSK. Cisco's letter, but of Brother Francisco himself and of his end. And then the subject-matter in chief of the letter claimed our attention. In itself this was sufficiently marvellous; but what increased the marvel of it was the conviction, strong within us both, that if the hid den city of Culhuacan ever had existed at all it existed still. Our belief was so entirely logical that, assuming the truth of the story told by the Indian captive, it admitted nowhere of a doubt. That the city had been hidden for a long period, through at least several hun dreds of years, from the Aztecs themselves, and that no knowledge of it had been conveyed to them by wild Indians who had come by chance upon the valley wherein it was, was evidence enough of the security of its concealment. There was nothing surprising, conse quently, in the fact that the Spaniards had not discov ered it when they first overran Mexico, nor that it had remained unknown to the Mexicans of modern times. As is well known, there are to this day prodigious areas in Mexico which remain utterly unexplored. In the region west of Tampico ; in the north-western States of Sinaloa, Durango, and Sonora; or in the far south ern States of Oajaca and Chiapas, a valley as great as that in which the City of Mexico now stands might lie utterly hidden and unknown. And if, as the Indian's narrative implied, this particular valley had been se lected deliberately because it was so hidden and so in accessible, and if the described precautions had been taken to isolate its inhabitants, it very well might have continued to be lost in its deep concealment through MONTEZUMA'S MESSENGEB. 65 an almost infinite range of years. That it never had been found since the Spaniards came into Mexico we were absolutely certain, for the outcry over so great a wonder would have echoed throughout the whole of the civilized world. Finally, in the name of the city, Culhuacan, we had a substantial fact which connected the extraordinary story that had come to us so strange ly with matters within our own knowledge. For this name not only is given in the Aztec traditions as that of the sacred spot in which their god Huitzilopochtli spoke to them, but survives until this present day in the name of the village that lies at the foot of the sa cred mountain, in the Valley of Mexico, called by the Aztecs the Hill of Huitzachtla, and by the Spaniards the Hill of the Star on which, at the end of each cycle of fifty-two years, the sacred fire was renewed. Surely it was no accident that had caused the name Culhuacan to be given to this village on this sacred spot; rather must it have been so named by the elect few to whom the secret was known as a perpetual re minder to them of the reserve of men and treasure upon which they could draw should danger threaten their country and their gods. " No doubt," said Fray Antonio, " what is here told of a secret record, known only to the priests, supplies one of the lapses in the pictured history of the Aztec migration; but as we know not which break in the his tory is thus filled in, we have no clew whatever as to the whereabouts of this hidden place. Nor have we any clew as to the whereabouts of the mission of Santa Marta, whence we might go onward, guided by the 5 66 THE AZTEC TKKASUBE-HOUSE. carvings upon the rocks, until we found at last the place we sought. The mission of Santa M.uta, where my brother Francisco long ago ministered, might have been anywhere in all Mexico ; and being so small a mission, and enduring for so short a period, it is not likely that any record of it anywhere has been pre served. Had we but the map and the token of which my brother writes, our way would be clear ; without these guides it well may be a toilsome way and long. Yet do I know," Fray Antonio continued, earnestly, "that I shall find this hidden city. In my soul is a strong and glad conviction that God has called me to the most glorious work of carrying to the heathen dwelling there the message of His saving love. He has worked one miracle already to call me to this duty; !n His own good time and way I doubt not that He will work another miracle by which I may be set in the way of its accomplishment." As Fray Antonio spoke of the map of the A/tec migration, a hope came into my heart that, as I con sidered it, seemed surely to be a certainty. In the ex citement of listening to this strange letter concerning which not the least strange matter was, that between the writing and the reading of it had passed three hun dred and fifty years I had forgotten my own discov eries, and that my purpose was to show him the pict ured paper and the curious piece of gold. But as he spoke of the migration this matter was called to my mind suddenly; and then in an instant the conviction thrilled through me that the clew which would lead us to the hidden city was in my possession. THE ENGINEER AND THE LOST-FREIGHT MAN. 67 "God already has worked that other miracle," I cried, joyfully. " Here is the token, and here is the map that shows the way!" and, so speaking, I opened the snake-skin bag that I had taken from the breast of the dead Cacique and drew forth its precious contents. For myself, I needed no additional proof that here was all that was needful to guide us to the hidden city. Yet was I glad that in so grave a matter we should have added to absolute conviction the weight of abso lute proof. And this we had most clearly; for Fray Antonio, cooler than I, compared the drawing in the letter with the engraving upon the piece of gold, and found the two to be essentially identical, save that the engraving lacked the sign of the arrow pointing the way. " And now," I cried, enthusiastically, " for such dis coveries in archaeology as the world has never known!" "And now," said Fray Antonio, speaking slowly and reverently, "for such glorious work in God's service as has been granted but rarely to man to do!" V. THE ENGINEER AND THE LOST-FREIGHT MAN. THAT the weight of a strange destiny was pressing upon us, neither Fray Antonio nor I for a moment doubted. It was something more than chance, we be lieved, that had brought us together, and that there after, by such extraordinary means, had put into our 08 THE AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE. hands, in places far asunder, yet at almost precisely the same moment, these two ancient papers ; either of which, alone, would have been meaningless; but the two of which, together, pointed clearly the way to a discovery so wonderful that the like of it was not to be found in all the history of the world. At the moment that I comprehended how great an adventure was before me, and what honorable fame I was like to get out of it, I determined that I would keep the whole matter secret from my fellow-arch ;e- ologists until I could tell them, not what I intended doing, but what I actually had done for I had no de sire to divide with any one the honors that fairly would be mine when I published to the world the result of my investigation of this hidden community that had sur vival, uncontaminated, from prehistoric times. Having this strong desire within me, it was with great pleas ure that I acceded to Fray Antonio's request that our project of discovery should not be published abroad. His motive for secrecy, as I presently perceived, was bred of the one single strain of human weakness that ever I found in him. Even as I was determined that no other archaeologist should share with me the honor of discovering this primitive community, so was Fray Antonio determined that to him alone should belong the glory of carrying into that region of dens heathen darkness the radiant splendor of the Christian faith. If this were sin on his part, it certainly was a win that he shared with many saints long since in Paradise. K\ ii the blessed Saint Francis himself, when, at the Council of Mats, he portioned out among his followers THE ENGINEER AND THE LOST-FREIGHT MAN. 69 the heathen world that they might preach everywhere Christianity, reserved for himself Syria and Egypt ; in the hope that in one or the other of these countries he might crown his labors by suffering a glorious martyr dom. And perhaps in this matter Fray Antonio was not unmindful of the example set him by the great founder of the Order to which he belonged. But while we were thus firmly decided to keep to ourselves the honors that so great an archaeological discovery and so great a Christian conquest must bring to us severally, we perceived that it would not be the part of prudence to essay our adventure without any companions at all. Some portion of the country through which we were to pass we knew to be fre quented by very dangerous tribes of Indians, against the assaults of which two lonely men neither of whom had any knowledge whatever of the art of war could make but a poor stand. And even should we escape the wild Indians, we knew that we might get into many evil straits in which our lives might be ended, yet through which a larger company might pass in safety. And for my own part, I must confess that I had a strong desire to have with me some of my own countrymen. For the gallantry of the Mexicans, which gallantry has been proved a thousand times,! have the highest respect; yet is it a natural feeling among Anglo- Saxons that when it comes to facing dangers in which death looms largely, and especially when it comes to a few men against a company of savages, and standing back to back and fighting to the very last, Anglo-Saxon hearts are found to be the stanchest, and Anglo-Saxon 70 THE AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE. backs to be the stoutest which can be thus ranged together. But in our own case I did not ;it all see whence such an Anglo-Saxon contingent was to be ob tained. We had been talking over this matter of a fighting force one afternoon in Fray Antonio's sacristy where our many colloquies were held, for we moved with a thoughtful deliberation in setting agoing our advent ure and we had come almost to the determination of organizing a little force of Otomi Indians, and calling upon two brave young gentlemen of Fray Antonio's ac quaintance to join us as lieutenants. Although I was willing to adopt this plan, since no other was open to us, I was far from fancying it ; both for the reason which I have already named, and also for the reason and this Fray Antonio admitted was not without foun dation in probability that our young allies would be more than likely, by their indiscreet disclosures, to make our purpose fully known. Therefore, it was in no very pleasant frame of mind, our conference being ended, that I returned to my hotel. As I entered the hotel court-yard I heard the sound of Pablo's mouth-organ, and with this much laughter and some talk in English; and as I fairly caught sight of the merrymakers, I heard said, in most execrable Spanish, "Here's a medio for another tune, my boy; and if you'll make the donkey dance again to it, Til give you a real" That I might see what was going forward without interrupting it, I stepped behind one of the stone pil lars that upheld the gallery; and for all that my mi mi THE ENGINEER AND THE LOST-FREIGHT MAN. 71 was in no mood for laughter just then, I could not but fall to laughing at what I saw. Over on the far side of the court-yard, with Pablo and El Sabio, were two men whose type was so unmis takable that I should have known them for Americans had I met them in the moon. One was a tall, wiry fellow, with a vast reach of arm, and a depth of chest and width of shoulders which showed what powerful engines those long arms of his were when he set them in motion. His face was nearly covered by a heavy black beard, and his projecting forehead and his reso lute black eyes under it gave him a look of great ener gy and force. The other was short and thick-set, with a big round head stockily upheld on a thick neck, and with a good-humored face, which, being clean-shaven, was chiefly notable for the breadth and the squareness of the jaws. He had merry blue eyes, and his crown he was holding his battered Derby hat in his hand was as bare as a billiard ball. Below timber-line, as he himself expressed it, he had a brush of close-cut sandy- red hair. I had encountered both of these men when I first came to Morelia, and during two or three weeks I had seen a good deal of them, for we had met daily at our meals; and the more that I had seen of them the better was I disposed to like them. The tall man was Rayburn, a civil engineer in charge of construction on the advanced line of the new railway; the other was Young, the lost-freight agent of the railroad company whose duty, for which his keen quickness peculiarly well fitted him, was that of looking up freight which had gone astray in transit. Both of these men had 72 THE AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE. lived long in rough and dangerous regions, and both as I then instinctively believed, and as I came later to know fully were as true and as stanch and as brave as ever men could be. What they were laughing at, there in the court-yard, was an extraordinary performance in which the JM r formers were Pablo and El Sabio. With a grin all over the parts of his face not engaged in the operation of his mouth-organ, Pablo was rendering on that instru ment a highly Mexicanized version of one of the airs from Pinafore that he had just acquired from hearing Young whistle it. To this music, with a most pained yet determined expression, the Wise One was lifting his feet and swaying his body and nodding his head in a sort of accompaniment, his movements being directed by the waving of Pablo's disengaged band. The long ears of this unfortunate little donkey wagged in re monstrance against the unreasonable motions demand ed of his unlucky legs, and every now and then he would twitch viciously his fuzzy scrap of a tail ; but his master was inexorable, and it was not until Pablo's own desire to laugh became so strong that he no longer could play the mouth-organ that El Sabio was given rest. As he ended his dancing I must say that there was on El Sabio's face as fine an expression of con tempt as the face of a donkey ever wore. " Hello, Professor !" Young called out, as he caught sight of me, " have you given up antiquities an' gone into th' circus business? This outfit that you've got here will make your fortune when you get it back into th' States. If you don't want to nin it yourself, I'll THE ENGINEER AND THE LOST-FREIGHT MAN. 73 run it for you on th' shares ; an' I guess Rayburn '11 be glad t' go along as clown. He'd make a good clown, Rayburn would. You see, we're both of us out of work, an' both lookin' for a job." " What do you mean by being out of work ?" I asked, when I had shaken hands with them. " What's become of the railroad ?" "Oh, th' railroad's got into one of its periodical bust-ups," Young answered. " A row among the bond holders, an' construction stopped, an' working expenses reduced, an' pretty much all hands bounced, from th' president down. I guess Rayburn an' I can stand th' racket, though, if th' company can. I've been wantin' t' get out of this d d Greaser country for a good while, an' I guess now I've got my chance. I must say, though, I wish it had come a little less sudden, for I haven't anything in particular in sight over in God's country, an' Rayburn hasn't either. So if you want to start your circus we're ready for you right away. Where did you get that boy-an'-donkey outfit from, anyway? They're just daisies, both of 'em an' no mistake !" " I don't know that you can count on me for a clown, Professor," Rayburn said, "but I might go along as door-keeper, or something of that sort. But I don't believe that Young and I will need to go into the cir cus business. We are out of work, that's a fact ; but the company has done the square thing by us paid us up in full to the end of next month and fitted us out with passes to St. Louis. We're all right. Young is heading straight for home, but I rather think that I'll 74 THE AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE. take a turn around the country and see what the civil ized parts of it look like. Ever since I came down here, nearly, I've been at work in the wilds. I want to see some of the old temples and things too. You can put me up to that, Professor. Where's a good ruin to begin on ?" From the moment that I laid eyes on these two men, as I came into the court - yard, my mind was made up that I would do my best to induce them to join with Fray Antonio and me in our search for the hid den city; and I had listened very gladly to what they told me, for it showed me that I should not have to ask them to abandon profitable work in order to join in our doubtful enterprise. So we talked lightly about the circus and other indifferent matters for a while ; and then we had a lively supper together at La Sole- dad (which always seemed to me a very original name for a restaurant), and then I brought them to my room to smoke their cigars. It was while they were in the comfortable frame of mind that is begotten of a good meal and subsequent good tobacco over there in Morelia we smoked the Tepic cigars, which are excellent that I opened to them the great project that I had in hand. I told them frankly the whole story : of my strange adventure in the Indian village, of the paper and the gold token which the Cacique unwittingly had given me, of the letter that Fray Antonio had found, and of how our joint discoveries set us clearly in the way of finding an Aztec community that certainly had existed un changed, save for such changes as had been developed THE ENGINEER AND THE LOST-FREIGHT MAN. 75 within itself, since a time long anterior to the Spanish conquest of Mexico. I dwelt with enthusiasm, and I think forcibly, upon the inestimable gain to the science of archaeology that would result from the investiga tions that we intended to make ; and I touched also upon the scientific value that would attach to a care ful and accurate description of the effect produced upon this primitive community by Fray Antonio's preaching ; for this would be, as I pointed out, the first occasion in the history of the world when a rec ord would be made, from the stand-point of the un prejudiced ethnologist, of the reception accorded by a heathen people to the doctrine of Christianity. In a word, I presented the case most glowingly so glow ingly, in fact, that my own heart was quite fired by it and ended by urging them earnestly to join us in a work that promised so greatly to increase the sum of human knowledge touching the most interesting sub jects that can be presented to the consideration of the human mind. And I am pained to state that I dis covered, when I finished my appeal, that Young was sound asleep ! Rayburn did not go to sleep, and he did take a cer tain amount of interest in what I said, but I was dis couraged by his very obvious failure to respond to my enthusiasm. " You see, Professor," he said, " the fact of the mat ter is that I can't spare the time. I might take a month or two, but you seem to think that a year is the least time in which any substantial results can be accom plished. I can't give a year, or anything like a year, 76 THE AZTEC TEE ASUKE-HOUSE. to what, so far as I am conccnu-d, will be sheer idle ness. I've got a mother and sister at home on Cape Cod who depend on me for a living, and I must get to work again. You see, there is glory enough in all this, and glory that I should like to have a share in ; but glory is a luxury that I can't afford. I've got to go to work at something that has money in it." The sound of Rayburn's voice had the effect on Young of waking him up. He listened, in a sleepily approving way, to Rayburn's practical comment, and then, giving a prodigious yawn, added, on his own ac count : " Yes, that's about the size of it. We're neither of us here for our health, Professor ; what we're after is spot cash. If there was any money in your scheme I'd take a hand in it quick enough ; but as there isn't Well, not this evening, Professor; some other evening." " No money in it !" I answered. " Why, haven't I told you that there is stored in this hidden city the greatest treasure that ever was brought into one place since the world began ?" " No, I'll be d d if you have !" Young replied, with great energy and promptness. " Not a word, un less it was while I was asleep. What's he said about a treasure, Rayburn? I'm awake now, an' I'll keep awake if there's anything like that to be talked about." " You certainly haven't said anything about a treas ure so far, Professor," Rayburn said. "I'd like to hear about it myself. If there is a treasure-hunting expedition mixed up with this scientific expedition of yours, that puts a new face on the whole matter. I can't afford the luxury of scientific investigation pun* THK ENGINEER AND THE LOST- FREIGHT MAN. 77 and simple, but if there is money in it too, that is quite another thing. So tell us about your prospect, Professor, and if the surface indications are good you can count on me to go in." I confess that I was a trifle disappointed upon find ing how eagerly these young men sought information in regard to a matter that I considered so unimportant that I had forgotten even to mention it. But I reflect ed that, after all, the motive by which they were in duced to join in our adventure was immaterial, while our need for the strength that their joining m it would give us was so pressing that upon gaining them for allies very likely depended our eventual success. Be ing moved by which considerations, I dilated upon the magnitude of the hidden treasure with such vehemence that presently their eyes were flashing, and the blood had so mounted into their brains that their very fore heads were ruddy and their breath came short. And I must confess that my own pulses beat quicker and harder as I talked on. Of this treasure I had not be fore thought at all, being so thoroughly taken up with the scientific side of the discovery that I hoped to ac complish; but now I was moved profoundly by thoughts of what I could do for the advancement of science had I practically limitless wealth at my command. And especially was I thrilled by the thought of the mag nificent form in which my own magnificent discover ies could be given to the world. Compared with my Pre-Columbian Conditions on the Continent of North America, Lord Kingsborough's great work, both in form and in substance, would sink into hopeless insig- 78 THE AZTEC TBEASUBK-HOUSE. nificance. And in all that I said of the vastness of the hidden treasure I felt certain that I was keeping well within the bounds of truth, for I had the positive as surance that in the Aztec treasure-house in that hid den valley the ransom of a nation was stored. " Will you go with us?" I asked, when I had brought my glowing description to an end. "Well, I should smile, Professor," was Young's char acteristic answer. " You can count me in now, and no mistake !" said Rayburn, and added, " By Jove, Palgrave, I mean to take a part of my share and buy the whole of Cape Cod !" And so the make-up of our party was decided upon. Fray Antonio joined it for the love of God; I joined it for the love of science; and Young and Rayburn joined it for the love of gold. In regard to the boy Pablo, he could not strictly be said to have joined it at alL He simply went along. VI. THE KING'S SYMBOL. FRAY ANTONIO was well pleased when I told him of the stout contingent that I had secured ; and when he had seen Rayburn and Young, and had talked with them though his talk with Young did not amount to much, for Young's Spanish was abominable he was as thoroughly satisfied as I was that for our purposes we could not possibly have found two better men. THE KING'S SYMBOL. 79 In the course of this conference we made short work of our preparations for departure. Rayburn's experi ence in fitting out engineering parties had given him precisely the knowledge required for putting our own little party promptly and effectively in the field ; and in this matter, and in all practical matters connected with the expedition, he took the lead. He and Young already possessed the regulation frontier outfit of arms a Winchester rifle and a big revolver which they increased by another big revolver apiece; and I armed myself similarly with a pair of revolvers and a Win chester: concerning the use that I should make of which, in case need for using them arose, I had very grave doubts indeed. Fray Antonio declined to carry any arms at all ; and after he had accidentally dis charged one of my pistols, which he had picked up to examine, so that the ball went singing by my ear and actually cut through the brim of Young's hat, there was a general disposition to admit that the less this godly man had to do with carnal weapons the safer would it be for all the rest of us. Young's hat was a battered Derby, and about as unsuitable a hat for wear in Mexico as possibly could be found ; but for some unknown reason he was very much attached to that hat, and he was so wroth over having a hole shot through it in that unprovoked sort of way that he manifested a decided coolness towards Fray Antonio for several days. In the matter of armament, the happiest member of our party was Pablo. He was a handy boy, and when he had demonstrated his ability to manage a revolver F 80 THE AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE. by doing some very creditable shooting with mine (at a mark that I had stuck up in the corral, in order that I might gain ease in the use of this unknown weapon), I delighted him inexpressibly by buying him a pistol for his very own. I think that Pablo, upon becoming the possessor of that revolver, at once grew two inches taller. The way that he strutted as he wore it, and lu> eager thrusting forward of his left hip, so that this gallant piece of warlike furniture might be the most conspicuous part of him, were a joy to witness. For a time his mouth-organ was entirely neglected; and coming quietly into the corral one day, I found him engaged in exhibiting the revolver to El Sabio ; who regarded it with a slightly bored expression that I do not think Pablo took in good part. Rayburn decided that our expedition could be made more effectively with a small force than with a large one. He argued that unless we took into the Indian country a really powerful body of men, we would be safer with a very few : for a few of us would feel keenly the necessity of keeping constantly on guard ; could be more easily managed and held together in running away ; and in case a fight was forced upon us we would fight more steadily because each of us would know surely that he could rely upon the support of all the rest. Which reasoning we perceived to be so sound that we promptly accepted it. Rayburn added to our company, therefore, only throe men : two Otomf Indians of whom Fray Antonio gave a good account, and Dennis Kearney, \vho had served as axeman on the recently disbanded engineering corps. THE KING'S SYMBOL. 81 He was a merry soul, this Dennis, with a stock of Irish melodies in his head that would have made the fortune of an old-time minstrel. He and Pablo took to each other at once though, since neither of them spoke a word of the other's language, music was their only channel of communication and Pablo presently pre sented us with a rendering on his mouth-organ, from a strictly Mexican stand -point, of "Rory O'More" that quite took our breaths away. While Pablo played, Dennis would stand by with his head cocked on one side, and with an air of attention as closely critical as that which El Sabio himself exhibited ; and when Pab lo went wrong, as he invariably did in his attempted bravura passages, Dennis would stop him with a wave of his hand, and an " Aisy now, me darlint ! That's good enough Mexican, but it ain't good Irish at all, at all," and then would show him what good Irish was by singing " Rory O'More " in a fashion which made the old stone arches ring with a volume of music that could have given odds to an entire brass band. Poor Dennis ! Only the other day I heard an organ-grinder grinding forth " Rory O'More," and the memory of the last time I heard Dennis sing that song, and of what heroic stuff that merry - hearted rough fellow then showed himself to be made, came suddenly over me, and there was a choking in my throat, and my eyes were full of tears. Well, it was a good thing or a bad thing, as you please to put it that we could not see far into the future that morning when we packed our mules in the corral of the hotel, and set out upon the march that 6 82 TUB AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE. was to lead us through such perilous passages before we reached its end. That I might fill to the brim the cup of Pablo's hap piness for my conscience pricked me a little that I suffered him to go with us I had bought him the rain coat of palm leaves for which his heart so long had pined. What with this and his revolver, and the de light of going upon a journey (for he had very fully developed that love of travel which is so strong in his race), his wits seemed to be completely addled with joy. He insisted upon putting on his absurd rain-coat at once ; and he did so many foolish things that even El Sabio looked at him reproachfully this was when he tried to place on that small donkey's back some of the heavy pack-stuff destined for the back of one of the big mules and we got along much better with his room, as he presently enabled us to do, than we did with his company. When the time for starting came, we had quite a hunt for him ; and we might not have found him at all had we not been guided by the sound of music to the sequestered spot to which he had re tired in order to give vent to his pent-up feelings by playing on his mouth-organ " Pop goes the weasel " an air that Young had been whistling that morning and that had mightily taken Pablo's fancy. We made rather an imposing cavalcade as we filed forth from the great gate of the hotel, and took our way along the Calle Nacional, the principal street of the city, towards the Garita del Poniente. Fray An tonio and I rode first; then came Raylmrn and Young, followed by Dennis Kearney; then the two pack-mules, THE KING'S SYMBOL. 83 beside which walked the two Otomi Indians ; and closing the procession came Pablo, wearing his rain coat, with his revolver strapped outside of it, and rid ing El Sabio with a dignity that would have done hon or to the Viceroy himself. Pablo certainly was in the nature of an anti-climax; but I would not have told him so for the world. Fray Antonio wore the habit of his Order, this privilege having been specially granted to him by the Governor of the State as a safeguard for all his expeditions among the Indians. It was understood, indeed, that he now was going forth on one of his mis sionary visits among the mountain tribes, and simply rode with us, so far as our ways should lie together, for greater security. I had announced that I was go ing among the Indians again in order to increase my knowledge of their manners and customs; and Ray- burn to whom the rest of the party was supposed to belong had stated that he was taking the field in or der to make a new reconnoissance along the line of the projected railway. It was in order to maintain these several fictions that we went out by the western gate, and that we continued for two days our march west ward before turning to our true course. Of our progress during the ensuing fortnight it is not necessary that I should speak, for beyond the ordi nary incidents of travel no adventures befell us. Dur ing this period we went forward steadily and rapidly ; and at the end of it we had covered more than three hundred miles, and had come close to where suppos ing our rendering of the Aztec map to be correct, and that we had rightly collated it with the dead monk's 84 THE AZTEC TRKASUKK-UOl M . letter the mission of Santa Mart a had stood three cen turies and a half before. Tlu-iv was no possibility that any trace of thin mission would be found ; but every rock that we came to was most eagerly siTiitini/.eil, I'M on any one of them might we find the King's symbol engraved. For two or three days we had been travelling through a region very wild and desolate. Far away along the western horizon rose a range of mountains whose bare peaks cut a jagged line along the sky. The country between us and these far-away mount ains was made up of many parallel ranges of rocky hills ; which ranges were separated by broad, shallow valleys, where cactus and sage-brush covered the