The impression has prevailed that Corts was treated by the Spanish Government with base ingratitude It is not at all unlikely that the Mexican chieftain was party to a plan to exterminate the Spaniards while they were floundering through the forests and swamps but even if this were so his execution was not necessary By restraint the same object might have been achieved But Corts had an exaggerated conception of the power and influence of Cuauhtemotzins office as he had in the case of Montezuma