Twenty days after the orders had been issued for collecting the tribute, it was all brought to Mexico, on which Montezuma summoned Cortes into his presence, along with the captains and the soldiers who formed his usual guard, and addressed us as follows: "Being indebted to your great king, whom I much esteem for having sent you as his ambassadors to me from so great a distance, and as I am convinced by the prophecies transmitted to us by our ancestors, and confirmed by our gods, that he is destined to rule over us, take this gold, which is all I could collect on so short a notice, and also the treasure which I inherited from my ancestors which you have already seen; send all this to your emperor, and let it be recorded in your chronicles that this is the tribute from his vassal Montezuma. Besides all this, I shall give you for your monarch, a quantity of our most valuable jewels, which we call _calchihuis_[9], every one of which is worth two loads of gold, and three tubes for shooting darts or pellets, so richly adorned with jewels that he will be pleased with them. Accept all this as an instance of my good will, for it is the last of my treasure." We all immediately took off our helmets, and gave our hearty thanks to Montezuma for his munificent and liberal gift, which Cortes promised should be presented to the emperor with a just representation of the merits of the donor. We were employed for three days in taking to pieces the gold contained in the various ornamental articles in the concealed treasury, which was now delivered up to us by the command of Montezuma, in which we were assisted by the royal goldsmiths from the town of Escapuzalco. When separated and weighed, these articles weighed to the value of above 600,000 crowns, besides many other articles of value, and exclusive of gold in plates and bars, and in its rough state as brought from the mines. All this gold was melted down by the goldsmiths, and cast into bars of three fingers breadth, all of which were stamped with the royal arms, with our entire approbation. The rest of the present of Montezuma was worthy of great admiration, consisting of the jewels called _calchihius_ ornamented tubes covered with gold and jewels, beautiful embroideries of pearls and feathers, plumes of feathers, and an endless variety of rich manufactures; and it was unanimously agreed by us all not to take these rich ornaments to pieces.