The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo Vol. 2

1/25/22, 8:50 PM The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo written by himself, containing a true an…
veteran Conquistadores had frequently cautioned the new recruits to adopt this mode of
attack, but many of them had neglected this good advice, and imagined they had done
enough by merely wounding theirantagonist. Four of the less experienced ones had paid
dearly forthis neglect, for the Indians wrested the lances out of their hands andwounded
them and their horses with their own weapons. In thisbattle, six or seven of the enemy had
boldly set upon each horse at atime, and laid hold of them with their hands; one of the men
they had already dragged by force from his saddle, and they would undoubtedly have
carried him off and sacrificed him to their idols if we had nothastened up to his assistance.
During this night we came to the determination of marching earlythe next day against the
town of Chiapa itself. And, indeed, it mightin every respect be termed a town, so fine an
appearance had the houses, besides being so regularly built. Its population amounted to
above 4000 souls, in which that of the many surrounding townshipsis not included, though
the whole of them were subject to Chiapa.Early next morning, accordingly, we marched
forward for this place and observed the utmost military precaution; but we had scarcely
advancedone mile when we came up with the united forces of this province.The enemy,
with surprising swiftness and accoutred in their most splendid war costume, fell upon us
from all sides at once under the most hideous yells, and fought with the ferocity of
infuriated lions.Our black artilleryman, (for he was every way entitled to the appellationof
negro,) in the dread of the moment had quite lost his senses,and forgot to fire the cannon;
but when at last, by hollowing out tohim at the top of our voices, he summoned sufficient
courage to fire it with a trembling hand, he wounded three of our own men, instead of
committing any destruction among the enemy's ranks. Our captain seeing how matters
stood, now ordered the cavalry to form themselvesin the small bodies above mentioned, the
rest of the troops to close ina firm body together and in that way to fall vigorously upon the
enemy; but their numbers were too great, and if there had not beenmany of us present who
were accustomed to Indian warfare, the restof the troops would have been in the greatest
consternation. We wereindeed astonished to find how firmly these Indians maintained their
ground. Father Juan kept constantly encouraging us to the attack, by saying, "That our
reward would lay with God and the emperor." Ourcaptain likewise animated us with the cry
of: "Forward! gentlemen, Santiago is with us!" And now we fell upon the enemy with
renewedcourage and compelled them to give way. From the very unfavorablestate of the
ground, which was covered with loose stones,our cavalry were unable to pursue the enemy
with any success; butwe kept as close at their heels as we possibly could, and marched with
less precaution, as we thought this day's work was at an end, and weoffered up thanks to
God for our victory. However, when we hadarrived near to some small hills we found even
larger bodies of mendrawn up in order of battle. Besides their usual weapons they had a
number of ropes with loops at the end, which they threw at the horsesin order to pull them
to the ground. Strong nets which they use forthe purpose of snaring the wild deer were also
fixed at certain distancesto catch our horse, and they had other smaller ropes with loops,
which were to be thrown about our necks to pull us towards them. The whole of these
troops in an instant fell upon us, pouring forth as they came along so vast a number of
stones, darts, and arrows, that almost everyman of us received a fresh wound. In this severe
engagement we losttwo Spaniards and five horses, and four of the cavalry soldiers hadtheir
lances wrested from their hands.
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During this battle we saw a very fat old Indian female marching upand down between the
enemy's ranks. She was, we were told, venerated as a goddess by these people. She had
divined to her countrymenthat we should be vanquished the moment she appeared among
them on the field of battle. This woman carried in her hands an idol,carved of stone; and an
earthen censer, in which she burnt incense; her body was daubed all over with various
colours, and raw cotton wassticking to the paint. Without evincing the least fear she walked
into the midst of our Indian allies while they were hotly engaged withthe enemy; but this
cursed witch met with very little respect fromthem, for they tore her limb from limb.
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