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…
eight distinguished Mexicans fell into our hands, from whom we learnt that
Quauhtemoctzin had despatched against us another considerable fleetof canoes, and other
large bodies of his troops by land. These troopshe had sent off with the perfect assurance
that, coming suddenly uponus, they would complete the victory, after we had been fatigued
bysuch constant fighting, and weakened by loss of men and the numberof our wounded.
When we heard this we were doubly on our guard, and our generaldetermined to abandon
the town on the following morning, and notwait for any further attacks. We therefore made
the best use of ourtime 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 othermatters. These houses stood in the lake, but it was possible to reachthem by
a causeway, and by passing over two or three bridges whichlay across the deep canals. The
Tlascallans communicated this to several of our men, who instantly repaired to these
houses, which theyfound 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 ofour 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 theplunderers, of whom they wounded
the greater part, and carried offfour 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 commandof 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, thenumber 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 townswhich had concluded
peace with Cortes, accompanied by the messagethat he hoped to kill us all before we could
escape to Tezcuco, andwith our hearts and our blood he would make a savoury offering to
hisidols.
[Pg 49]
Quauhtemoctzin then despatched a large fleet of canoes filled with troops, and a
considerable army by land, to Xochimilco, with strictcommands 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 wefought with the Mexicans
during these four days, I will confine myselfby stating that, with break of day, so vast a
number of Mexicans rushedall at once upon us from the inlets of the lakes, from the streets,
andfrom the mainland, that it was with the utmost exertions only we wereable to cut our
way through them to a large square which lay at ashort distance from the town, and where
the inhabitants usually held their markets. There we halted for a few minutes, with the
whole ofour 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 passby several dangerous points, where the whole
armed force of Mexicowas 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 powerto defend our baggage,
ourselves, and his person, if God lent us his protection;and that we considered it but a small
sacrifice which he requiredus to make. When he saw in what an excellent disposition we
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