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…
likewise the case inQuauhtitlan, where we took up our quarters the next night.
Tenayucan and Escapuzalco, through which we marched the dayfollowing, were also quite
deserted. Our Tlascallan friends spreadthemselves all through these townships, and entered
into every houseduring the fore part of the evening, from which they brought in quantities
of provisions. We adopted every military precaution for thenight, as we were not far distant
from Mexico, and could plainly hear the Mexicans, who were lying in crowds in their
canoes on the lakeand along the causeways, hooting and yelling fearfully throughout the
whole of the night, and challenging us to the combat. Their object,was to induce us to fall
upon them in the dark, when they would have had a great advantage over us. We had,
however, received a sufficient warning by our former misfortune, and very wisely kept
ourselves asquietly as possible until next morning, which was a Sunday.
After father Juan Diaz had said mass, we commended ourselves to the protection of the
Almighty, and both divisions marched forward to cut off the aqueduct of Chapultepec,
which lies about two miles from Tlacupa, and supplies Mexico with water. On our way
thither, we fellin with several bodies of Mexicans, who had received intelligence thatthis
was to be the commencement of our operations against Mexico.The enemy had in every
way the advantage ground over us, and attacked us vigorously with lances, arrows, and
stones, by which three of ourmen were wounded; but we soon put them to flight, and they
were soclosely pursued by the Tlascallans that they lost twenty killed, andseven or eight
were taken prisoners. We were now able to destroy the aqueduct without any further
opposition, and the city of Mexico wasdeprived of this source of obtaining water during the
whole of thesiege.
As soon as we had destroyed this aqueduct, our officers determined to make an attempt
upon one of the bridges on the causeway leadingfrom Tlacupa. We had scarcely begun to
move along the causeway when numbers of canoes, filled with troops, advanced swiftly
from both sides, while other large bodies of the enemy came marching up the causeway
against us, so that we were quite astounded at the very sight.In the first encounter thirty of
our men were wounded and three killed.Notwithstanding all this, we fought our way up to
the first bridge.According to what we afterwards heard, it was the wish of the Mexicans
that we should pass over the bridge; for we had no sooner done sothan we were assailed by
such terrific crowds, as to be unable to move. What indeed could we do on a causeway
which was no more than eight paces in breadth, where we were attacked on all sides at
once? Our crossbow-men and musketeers certainly kept up a continuedfire on the canoes,
but the enemy received but a trifling loss thisway, for they had raised boards alongside of
their canoes, by which their troops were sheltered from our fire. Those of the enemy's
troopswhich attacked us on the causeway itself we certainly drove back eachtime into the
water, but fresh troops kept pouring in too fast for usto gain much advantage this way. Here
our cavalry was of no mannerof use to us, while the horses were greatly exposed to the
attacks ofthe enemy on each side of the causeway, and many were consequentlywounded.
If our cavalry attempted to pursue the enemy into thewater, the latter had provided against
this by palisades, behind which they retired, and stretched out against them their long
lances, to which they had fastened the swords we unfortunately lost on our retreat from
Mexico.
[Pg 64]
In this way the battle continued for upwards of an hour, the enemyeach time returning to
the attack with such excessive fury that, at length,we could stand our ground no longer: nor
was this all, for we now sawanother large fleet of canoes approaching with a fresh body of
men,who were ordered to fall upon our rear. We therefore determined toretreat back along
the causeway, for which purpose we ordered theTlascallans to move off first, that we might
effect our retreat in perfectgood order. Here the Tlascallans had greatly embarrassed us in
ourmovements, who, it is well known, never can fight standing in thewater.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32475/32475-h/32475-h.htm 49/282