The capital had no sooner fallen and the ruins been searched in vain for the abundant treasures which the conquerors imagined were hoarded by the Aztecs, than murmurs of discontent broke forth in the Spanish camp against Cortéz for his supposed concealment of the plunder. There was a mingled sentiment of distrust both of the conqueror and Guatemozin; and, at last, the querulousness and taunts rose to such an offensive height, that it was resolved to apply the torture to the dethroned prince in order to wrest from him the secret hiding place of his ancestral wealth. We blush to record that Cortéz consented to this iniquity, but it was probably owing to an avaricious and mutinous spirit in his ranks which he was unable at the moment to control. The same Indian stoicism that characterised the unfortunate prince during the war, still nerved him in his hours of abject disaster. He bore the pangs without quivering or complaint and without revealing any thing that could gratify the Spanish lust of gold, save that vast quantities of the precious metal had been thrown into the lake,--from which but little was ultimately recovered even by the most expert divers. * * * * * The news of the fall of Mexico was soon spread from sea to sea, and couriers were despatched by distant tribes and princes to ascertain the truth of the prodigious disaster. The independent kingdom of Michoacan, lying between the vale of Anahuac or Mexico and the Pacific, was one of the first to send its envoys, and finally even its king, to the capital;--and two small detachments of Spaniards returned with the new visitors, penetrating their country and passing with them even to the waters of the western ocean itself, on whose shores they planted the cross in token of rightful possession. They returned by the northern districts, and brought with them the first specimens of gold and pearls from the region now known as California. * * * * * It was not long, however, before Cortéz resolved to make his conquest available by the reconstruction of the capital that he had been forced reluctantly to mutilate and partly level during the siege. The ancient city was nearly in ruins. The massive relics of idolatry, and the huge stones of which the chief palaces had been constructed, were cast into the canals. The desolation was complete on the site of the ancient imperial residence. And the Indians, who had served in the work of dilapidation, were even compelled by their Spanish leader and his task masters to be the principal laborers in the toil of building up a city which should surpass in splendor the ancient pride of Anahuac.