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After suppressing some attempts at mutiny amongst the soldiers, in which those who had come with Narvaez were the most to blame, Cortès again marched forwards, and, with the help of the Tlascalans, first attacked the people of Tepeaca and of other neighbouring provinces, a measure which had the advantage of exercising anew his own troops in war, and of training his allies.
Roger learned that the principal road from the coast ran from Cempoalla, a large town near the sea, but that this lay a long distance to the north, and that the route they were traveling ran nearly due west to Tepeaca, and thence northwest to Pueblo, after which the towns lay thickly, all the way to the lake.
It contained a number of paintings and signs, of which Roger could make nothing, but the merchants informed him that it expressed the satisfaction of the King of Tezcuco, at the news that had been sent him of the arrival of a strange white personage in the land; that the priests would consult the auguries, and decide whether it boded well or ill for the country; and in the meantime that they were to journey on to Tepeaca, where they would be met by an envoy, charged to receive the white stranger and to conduct him to Tezcuco.
Here they halted for some hours near a post house, a courier being sent on to Tepeaca, to inform the king's envoys that they had arrived thus far; and to ask whether they should proceed at noon, when the slaves had rested, or make their entry into the town in the morning. In a little over four hours the answer was received.
Seen through the clear mountain air it seemed but three or four miles away, and Roger had difficulty in believing the merchants, when they assured him that it was fully twenty. This was Tepeaca. The slaves, wearied as they were, quickened in their pace; and in two hours they emerged from the mountain gorges onto the temperate plateau.
As they approached Tepeaca the road was lined with people, the news of the approach of the wonderful white man having spread rapidly. As Roger passed they bowed to the ground, with the same respect that they paid to their own chiefs.
In each city through which they passed, and several of these were of vastly greater size and importance than Tepeaca, Roger was received with the same welcome and rejoicings that had greeted him there. The houses were decorated with flowers and garlands, dense crowds lined the streets, processions came out to meet him; banquets were given in his honor, and everything seemed gay and joyous.
The banquet was similar, but on a vastly greater scale, to that of which Roger had partaken at Tepeaca.
Not even in Genoa or Cadiz were there such stately buildings, while those of London were insignificant in comparison. The crowd in the streets were quiet and orderly and, although they looked with curiosity and interest on the white stranger, of whose coming they had heard, evinced none of the enthusiasm with which he had been greeted at Tepeaca. This was natural enough.
The force of the native allies which joined them was estimated at from one hundred and ten thousand, to one hundred and fifty thousand; and consisted not only of the Tlascalan troops, but of those of Cholula, Tepeaca, and other neighboring towns; who, after their defeat by Cortez, had submitted themselves to the Spanish rule.
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