There was abundance of food,--chicken, maize, bread, and cherries,--drinks of very good cocoa, and, more welcome still, many pieces of gold, some well worked, and a large quantity of the feathered drapery and jewels. Cortez represented himself as the friendly ambassador of Charles V, sent on a special mission of peaceful curiosity. His chief interest was concentrated on the gold, however, for he particularly inquired of the Aztec Teuhtlilli who spoke for Montezuma whether his master had gold. When he answered in the affirmative, Cortez bluntly said, “Send me some of it.” In return for the generous welcome given them the Spaniards amused themselves, in the days following their disembarkation at San Juan, by showing the natives their arms and bloodhounds and explaining how they meant to use them in their passage through the country. The news of the manners of the mysterious strangers threw Montezuma into a panic; he was more convinced than ever when he heard of the rapacity and cruelty of the Spaniards that Cortez was nothing less than Quetzalcohuatl, the description given being admirably suited to one of the principal divinities of the Aztec theology. To the king’s mind the sole remedy lay in incantations; he summoned therefore the most experienced experts to devise powerful enchantments to keep the whites from approaching the Aztec capital. The charms were inefficacious. At his wits’ end, the Aztec overlord sent peaceful directions to all his dependents. After the disembarkation at San Juan de Ulua the adventurers did not pass their time in idle dreams; they found abundance of occupation in collecting gold and precious stones, giving the natives in return objects of small value. Fresh embassies presented themselves to Cortez, not only with the usual presents, but giving useful information. Among them was a representative of Ixtlilxochitl, the lord of Texcoco, who spoke of the tyranny of Montezuma, who had killed his brother. He welcomed the Spaniards as allies who would help him to avenge the murder. Cortez saw in this an opportunity to encourage dissension among the natives, by taking advantage of which he could make himself master of both factions, and so control the country. He desired to found a settlement at the place at which they had first touched land. There was a division among his followers on this point; some of them regarding his purpose of making himself the captain general of the new colony as an act of disloyalty to Velasquez, the governor of Cuba. He met the situation by putting the most obstinate of his opponents in chains, and finally all the members of the expedition were won over by the generous promises he made, although there was complaint at his proposal to take for himself one-fifth of all the gold that might be gathered from the natives.