that I am like other men, and that my houses are of lime, stone, and timber. It is true that I am a powerful sovereign, and have great riches, which I have inherited from my ancestors. You will now treat these reports with the same contempt that I do the ridiculous stories which I have been told of your having command over the elements." To this Cortes replied, that the accounts of enemies were never to be depended on; and made a handsome compliment to Montezuma on his power and grandeur. Montezuma then ordered in a rich present, giving Cortes a quantity of gold, with ten loads of rich stuffs to be divided between him and his captains, and to each of us five soldiers, he gave two gold collars, each worth ten crowns, and two loads of mantles. The gold given on this occasion was worth about a thousand crowns, and the whole was given with so much affability and indifference, as made him appear truly munificent. Cortes now took leave, it being the hour of dinner, and we retired impressed with high respect for the liberality and princely munificence of Montezuma. The great Montezuma appeared to be about forty years of age, of good stature, well proportioned, and rather thin. His face was rather long, with a pleasant expression, and good eyes, and his complexion rather fairer than the other Indians. His hair was short, just covering his ears, and his scanty beard was thin, black, and well arranged. His person was very clean and delicate, as he bathed every evening; and his manners were a pleasing compound of gravity and good humour. He had two lawful wives, who were princesses, and a number of mistresses; but his visits to these were conducted with such secrecy as only to be known by his most familiar servants; and he lay under no suspicion of unnatural vices, so common among his subjects. The clothes he wore one day were not used for four days after. His guard consisted of two hundred nobles, who had apartments adjoining his own. Certain persons only among these were permitted to speak to him, and when they went into his presence, they laid aside their ordinary rich dresses, putting on others quite plain but clean, entering his apartment barefooted, with their eyes fixed on the ground, and making three profound reverences as they approached him. On addressing him, they always began, Lord! my Lord! great Lord! and when they had finished, he always dismissed them in few words; on which they retired with their faces towards him, keeping their eyes fixed on the ground. I observed likewise, that all the great men who waited upon him on business, always entered the palace barefooted and in plain habits, never entering the gate directly, but making a circuit in going towards it.