Indeed our line was already half broken; all the commands of Cortes and our other officers to restore order and form again were fruitless, the Indians continually rushing upon us in such vast crowds that we could only make place with sword in hand to save our line from being broken. Our only safety was owing to the great number of the enemy itself; for they stood so closely crowded that each shot we fired must have done great execution among them. They left themselves altogether no room to manœuvre in, while many of the chiefs, with their men, were not even able to mix at all in the engagement. Besides this, disagreements and inimical feelings had arisen out of the previous battle between the commander-in-chief Xicotencatl and another chief, the son of Chichimeclatecl. Xicotencatl had accused the latter of not having done his duty, who, in reply, said, he had discharged it better than he; so that in this battle neither lent the other any assistance, and Chichimeclatecl had even commanded Huexotzinco not to take any part in the combat. To all this must be added, that the enemy had been taught in the former battle to fear our horse, cannon, swords, and crossbows, not to forget the courage we displayed. It must likewise be borne in mind that a merciful God had lent us extraordinary powers during the engagement. As Xicotencatl met with no obedience from two of his principal officers—we, on the contrary, fighting on the more bravely, and killing great numbers of their men, who, as well as the wounded, were immediately hurried from the field of battle, so that we never came to see any of their killed—the Indians at length grew exasperated against those two chiefs who had thus left them in the lurch, and now fought with less vigour. It is, however, probable that one of their chief commanders had fallen, for they retreated in good order: our cavalry, indeed, pursued them a short distance in full gallop, but were soon compelled to return, from fatigue.
As soon as we had got rid of this vast crowd, we returned most fervent thanks to the Almighty. We had, however, only lost one man, but, on the other hand, sixty of us were wounded, with all our horses. I myself carried off two wounds, one of which was on my head from the stone of a sling, and the other by an arrow piercing my ankle; but neither of them were so bad as to compel me to leave the battle, or disable me from doing duty. This, however, was the same case with the majority of my comrades; for, if a wound was not dangerous, they still continued to perform duty, as the number of those who came off whole would have been too small to make head against the enemy. We now returned to our quarters, overjoyed at our victory, and offered up fervent thanks to God. We buried our dead in one of the subterranean dwellings, that the Indians might not discover us to be mortal as well as themselves, but still continue to fancy us gods: we, therefore, heaped up a quantity of earth over the spot, that even the stench of the decomposing body might not betray the dead. The fat of the Indians, as before, served us to dress our wounds. Oh, the distress we suffered here! We had neither oil for our wounds nor salt to our food. To all this was added the misfortune of having nothing to shelter us from the keen wind, which blew across the Sierra Nevada, and made us shake again with cold. We, nevertheless, kept up our spirits, and this night we slept more soundly than on the previous one, as we had better regulated our outposts and the patrols.
CHAPTER LXVI.
How we sent a message next day to the caziques of Tlascalla to bring about peace between us, and the determination they came to upon this.
In the last battle we had taken three distinguished personages prisoners. These Cortes sent with the two others whom we had previously taken, and once before despatched with a message to the caziques of Tlascalla, desiring them in our name to make peace with us, and allow us to march through their country to Mexico, as we had before requested of them. If they still refused, we would exterminate them all. It would, however, grieve us if they drove us to such extremities, as we were well inclined, and would gladly look upon them as brothers; nor should we have done thus much if they themselves had not driven us to it. Besides this, Cortes said many other kind things to gain their friendship.
The delegates arrived betimes in the chief town of Tlascalla, and delivered their message in a full assembly of the caziques, whom they found conversing with several old men and papas. Every one still appeared very downcast on account of the unfavorable issue of the battle, the loss of their chiefs, their sons and relations who had fallen; and at first would not even listen to our messengers. At last they came to the resolution to consult all the astrologers, papas, and fortune-tellers, a species of conjurors whom they call Tacalnaguas. These being assembled, they were desired to discover by their witchcraft and enchantments, what sort of people we were, and whether it was possible to overcome us if they continued to harass us night and day. They were also to give a decisive answer as to whether we were really teules, that is to say evil spirits, as the inhabitants of Sempoalla had assured them; and lastly, what nourishment we took. All this they were most minutely to investigate.
The soothsayers, conjurors, and papas, who were in great numbers, immediately began their exorcisms and enchantments, after their fashion; and they pretended to have discovered, by means of their art, that we were human beings made of flesh and bone; that we ate dogs, fowls, bread and fruits, as they did, if we could get them; and that we did not devour the Indians, and much less the hearts of those we had slain. Our friends of Sempoalla, namely, had told them all manner of foolish things about us; not only that we were teules, but that we devoured the hearts of the Indians; that the flashes of our bombards, shot off like lightning; that our dog was a tiger or a lion, and that we let loose our horses upon the Indians when we wished to kill them. But the worst thing these soothsayers and papas affirmed was, its being impossible to conquer us excepting during the night-time, for we were helpless as soon as the sun, from which we received all our strength, had gone down.
This affirmation seemed a capital hint to the caziques, they therefore sent orders to their captain-general, Xicotencatl, to fall upon us as soon as possible with a large force during night-time. This, Xicotencatl did not fail to do. He drew out ten thousand of his bravest troops, marched towards our quarters, and fell upon us from three several points at once, with the utmost fury. They made this attack with perfect assurance, believing they had merely to show themselves and they should be able to capture us immediately, and sacrifice us to their idols. But the Almighty had ordered things differently. For, however silently they approached, they found us perfectly upon our guard, as the outposts and patrols had come running in at the first noise they heard and given the alarm. As, moreover, we were accustomed to sleep in our clothes with our weapons in our hands, the horses always ready bridled and saddled, and our cannon loaded, we gave the enemy such a rough reception with our muskets and crossbows, and cut among them so vigorously with our swords, that they soon had enough of it and turned their backs. The country before us was quite level, and the moon shone bright, so that our cavalry were able to follow the flying enemy to a considerable distance. Next morning we found about twenty of them dead and wounded, so that their loss must have been considerable, and they experienced, no doubt, that this fighting at night-time was not exactly so pleasant. It is also said they were so exasperated against the soothsayers and papas, that two of them were butchered for a sacrifice. In this night's combat we lost one of our friends of Sempoalla, and two of our men besides a horse were wounded. The number of prisoners we made were four. The kind reader may well conceive that we were not a little overjoyed that this affair terminated so fortunately. We fervently thanked God for the assistance he had lent us, buried our friend of Sempoalla, dressed our wounds, and lay ourselves down to rest for the remaining part of the night; but not without previously taking every precaution to secure our camp as usual. It was only the following morning we were able to discover our true condition. There was not one among us who had not, up to this moment, received one, two, or three wounds, and all were more or less weakened by fatigues and hardships. Xicotencatl continued to hover around us, and we had already lost fifty-five of our men, some of whom were killed on the field of battle, others had died of disease and from excessive cold. Twelve of our men were knocked up with fatigue, and even our commander-in-chief himself and father Olmedo were suffering from fever. But no one can wonder at this; for among all the hardships we had to undergo, we never durst