[49] [There was, according to Bandelier, no such thing as a “body-guard.” Guards were unknown. This was evidenced when Montezuma was captured. No “body-guard” attempted his rescue. Bandelier’s conclusions should be kept steadily in mind in reading this chapter. The “distinct class of nobles, with large landed possessions,” were only the principal officers of the tribe, who were of course of the same “kin” as the so-called Aztec monarch. The great caciques, with thousands of vassals, were tribal officers leading tribal warriors. The “estates” were all held by the tribe, and were all subject to tribute.--M.] [50] Zurita enumerates four orders of chiefs, all of whom were exempted from imposts and enjoyed very considerable privileges. He does not discriminate the several ranks with much precision. Rapport, p. 47, et seq. [51] See, in particular, Herrera, Historia general de los Hechos de los Castellanos en las Islas y Tierra firme del Mar Océano (Madrid, 1730), dec. 2, lib. 8, cap. 12. [52] Carta de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, Hist. de Nueva-España, p. 110.--Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 2, cap. 89; lib. 14, cap. 6.--Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. p. 121.--Zurita, Rapport, pp. 48, 65.--Ixtlilxochitl (Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 34) speaks of thirty great feudal chiefs, some of them Tezcucan and Tlacopan, whom he styles “grandees of the empire”! He says nothing of the great _tail_ of 100,000 vassals to each, mentioned by Torquemada and Herrera. [53] _Macehual_,--a word equivalent to the French word _roturier_. Nor could fiefs originally be held by plebeians in France. See Hallam’s Middle Ages (London, 1819), vol. ii. p. 207. [54] Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., ubi supra.--Zurita, Rapport, ubi supra.--Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. pp. 122-124.--Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 14, cap. 7.--Gomara, Crónica de Nueva-España, cap. 199, ap. Barcia, tom. ii.--Boturini (Idea, p. 165) carries back the origin of _fiefs_ in Anahuac to the twelfth century. Carli says, “Le système politique y étoit féodal.” In the next page he tells us, “Personal merit alone made the distinction of the nobility”! (Lettres Américaines, trad. Fr. (Paris, 1788), tom. i. let. 11.) Carli was a writer of a lively imagination.