These, therefore, I leave to the maker of histories.

Let it be enough to say that the plan of Cortes was to destroy all her vassal and allied cities and peoples before he grappled with Mexico, queen of the valley, and this he set himself to do with a skill, a valour, and a straightness of purpose, such as have scarcely been shown by a general since the days of Caesar.
Iztapalapan was the first to fall, and here ten thousand men, women, and children were put to the sword or burned alive.

Then came the turn of the others; one by one Cortes reduced the cities till the whole girdle of them was in his hand, and Tenoctitlan alone remained untouched.

Many indeed surrendered, for the nations of Anahuac being of various blood were but as a bundle of reeds and not as a tree.

Thus when the power of Spain cut the band of empire that bound them together, they fell this way and that, having no unity.