Bidding the men retire and keep secret what they had seen, Montezuma hastily summoned his privy council,[146] King Cacama of Tezcuco, his brother Cuitlahuatzin, lord of Itzapalapan, and laid before them the mystery. After sage consultations, attended by divinings and comparisons of signs, prophecies, and traditions, not unlike the means by which we of to-day likewise ascertain the unknowable, it was concluded that this commander was none other than the fair-hued god himself, who had returned to resume the throne, as he had said. Therefore resistance would be in vain; and the only proper course was to tender worthy reception and conciliate with gifts. The chiefs were sent back with orders for the governors of the coast districts[147] to report any arrival or strange occurrence. Following them was an embassy of five persons bearing rich presents, with instructions to bid the god welcome in the name of the emperor and of his court; yet they were to watch him closely. But the embassy was too late. Grijalva had gone.[148] FOOTNOTES [138] When Francisco Cortés entered the town, shortly after the fall of Mexico, he was met by a body of Indians with their hair tonsured like priests, and with crosses in their hands, headed by the chief in flowing white gown and scapulary. This, they explained, had been the practice of the shipwrecked crew, who had held up the cross as a recourse from all danger. _Frejes_, _Hist. Conq._, 63-4. This authority places implicit reliance in the story, and regards the strangers as a missionary party driven from the East Indies or China. _Jalisco_, _Mem. Hist._, 30-2. [139] See _Native Races_, iii. and v., 25-6, for the myths relating to Quetzalcoatl, and to their interpretation, in which occur the characters of the Messiah and the apostle Saint Thomas, with whom some pious chroniclers have identified him. The Saint Thomas idea is advocated in _Florencia_, _Hist. Prov. Comp. de Jesus_, 234.