When daylight appeared, our camp was assailed by the whole of the Mexican troops from different points at once; but as we were never unprepared for an attack, our cavalry rushed out towards the land side, and we others, with the Tlascallans, towards the lake, and fell so vigorously on the Mexicans that we soon killed three of their chiefs, and numbers of their troops died of their wounds the day following. The Tlascallans behaved with uncommon bravery, and took five Mexican chiefs whom they brought in prisoners, from whom we learnt the exact number of troops which Quauhtemoctzin had ordered against us.
On our side we had only one killed, but a great number of wounded.
This battle, however, had not yet terminated; for our cavalry, in pursuing the enemy, came up with the 10,000 warriors whom Quauhtemoctzin had despatched to the assistance of the others. Several of the officers who commanded these troops wore our Spanish swords, of which they were not a little vain; and they said it was by our own swords we were to be vanquished.
Our few horse durst not encounter so large a body of the enemy, and therefore drew off to one side, until they should be joined by Cortes with the rest of the troops. When our general was informed of their critical position, he instantly sallied out, with the rest of our cavalry, who had remained in the courtyard on account of their wounds, and all our foot, with the Tlascallan troops. A most terrible and obstinate conflict now ensued; but at length, by dint of heavy blows and thrusts, we repulsed the enemy, with considerable loss. On this occasion eight distinguished Mexicans fell into our hands, from whom we learnt that Quauhtemoctzin had despatched against us another considerable fleet of canoes, and other large bodies of his troops by land. These troops he had sent off with the perfect assurance that, coming suddenly upon us, they would complete the victory, after we had been fatigued by such constant fighting, and weakened by loss of men and the number of our wounded.
When we heard this we were doubly on our guard, and our general determined to abandon the town on the following morning, and not wait for any further attacks. We therefore made the best use of our time to dress our wounds and repair our weapons.
During this interval, it appears that some prisoners of Xochimilco pointed out to the Tlascallans several houses belonging to rich individuals, in which were hidden many valuable things, such as manufactured cotton interwoven with feathers, women's shifts, gold, and other matters. These houses stood in the lake, but it was possible to reach them by a causeway, and by passing over two or three bridges which lay across the deep canals. The Tlascallans communicated this to several of our men, who instantly repaired to these houses, which they found quite unprotected, and, as they had been told, filled with various articles of value. They stowed away as much as they possibly could, and returned with a rich booty to our head-quarters. When others of our men saw these rich spoils, they likewise paid a visit to these dwellings, and were busily engaged in emptying some wooden cases, which were full of different things, when a large fleet of Mexican canoes arrived with a numerous body of troops, and suddenly fell upon the plunderers, of whom they wounded the greater part, and carried off four alive to Mexico. It was indeed a wonder that the rest escaped. Two of the four Spaniards were Juan de Lara and Alonso Hernandez; the two others belonged to the company which stood under the command of Andreas de Monjaraz, but I have forgotten their names.
These unfortunate men were brought into the presence of Quauhtemoctzin, who questioned them about the smallness of our army, the number of our wounded, and the object of our present expedition: and when he thought he had gained sufficient information, he ordered their arms and legs to be chopped off, and to be sent to those towns which had concluded peace with Cortes, accompanied by the message that he hoped to kill us all before we could escape to Tezcuco, and with our hearts and our blood he would make a savoury offering to his idols.
Quauhtemoctzin then despatched a large fleet of canoes filled with troops, and a considerable army by land, to Xochimilco, with strict commands not to allow one of us to escape alive out of that town.
Not to fatigue the reader with a description of the many battles we fought with the Mexicans during these four days, I will confine myself by stating that, with break of day, so vast a number of Mexicans rushed all at once upon us from the inlets of the lakes, from the streets, and from the mainland, that it was with the utmost exertions only we were able to cut our way through them to a large square which lay at a short distance from the town, and where the inhabitants usually held their markets. There we halted for a few minutes, with the whole of our baggage, to arrange the order of our march.
Previous to quitting this place, Cortes addressed a few words to us, in which he reminded us of our perilous position, having still to pass by several dangerous points, where the whole armed force of Mexico was lying in wait for us. It would, therefore, be desirable, he said, to leave behind as much of our baggage as we could possibly spare, for it would only encumber our movements in battle.
To this we one and all replied, that we were men who had the power to defend our baggage, ourselves, and his person, if God lent us his protection; and that we considered it but a small sacrifice which he required us to make. When he saw in what an excellent disposition we were, he commended us all to God, and arranged the order of march. The wounded and our baggage were placed in the centre, one half of the cavalry formed the vanguard, and the other half the rearguard; and the crossbow-men and Tlascallans were distributed in a similar manner: for we purposely collected our chief strength around the baggage, as the Mexicans invariably made their first attack upon this. Our musketeers were of no use to us, as all their powder was consumed.
In this way we began to move forward; but as soon as the Mexicans found we were leaving the square, they concluded it was from fear, as was indeed the case; they sallied out upon us, wounded two of our men, and attacked our centre with great intrepidity to make themselves master of our baggage; but they were unable to make any impression on the close order of our ranks.
During the whole of our march to Cojohuacan, which lay about eight miles from Xochimilco, we had continual skirmishes with the Mexicans, who took every favorable opportunity of annoying us with lances, stones and arrows, and then suddenly retreated beyond the canals, where we could not follow them. In this manner we reached Cojohuacan, at ten o'clock in the morning, and found the town quite deserted by its inhabitants.
I must here observe that there are a number of towns lying round about Mexico, all at about eight miles distance from each other. Of these, Xochimilco, Cojohuacan, Iztapalapan, Chohuilobusco, Quauhnahuac, Mizquic, and three or four other towns, are half-built in the lake itself, and none of these towns lie at a greater distance from each other than from six to eight miles, which accounts for the Mexicans being able to assemble so vast a body of troops against us in Xochimilco.
When we arrived in this deserted town, we dressed our wounds, furnished ourselves with arrows, and rested for the remaining part of the day; and indeed we required some repose, for we knew we should have to fight many more battles before we reached Tezcuco.
The next morning very early we again continued our march, and took the road towards Tlacupa, which lay about eight miles further on. Large bodies of the enemy fell upon us at three different places along our route, but we each time repulsed them, and pursued them to their canoes in the inlets and canals.
On one occasion during this march, Cortes left the main body with ten of the cavalry, among which were four of his grooms, to lay an ambuscade for the Mexicans, who every now and then came suddenly upon us from the inlets of the lake. Cortes attacked and routed a body of Mexicans, who, after a short stand, fled with precipitation, and were pursued by our general; in doing which he fell himself into a more terrible ambush, from which the enemy suddenly burst upon him, and wounded two of his men; and he, with all those who accompanied him, would undoubtedly have been killed or taken prisoners if he had not instantly retreated. The enemy, however, succeeded in capturing two of his grooms, who were brought before Quauhtemoctzin, and afterwards sacrificed to his gods.
The main body of our army had, in the meantime, arrived with flying colours in Tlacupa, while only Cortes, with the ten horse, remained behind, and we began to fear that some misfortune had befallen him; wherefore Alvarado, Oli, and Tapia immediately turned back with a strong body of horse in the direction we had seen him take. They soon came up with the two grooms who had escaped from the enemy, and who related how they had been indebted for