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…
near perishing in the attempt, particularly the division under Cortes, as the reader will
shortly see.
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CHAPTER CLII.
How the Mexicans defeated Cortes, and took sixty-two of his menprisoners,
who were sacrificed to their idols; our general himselfbeing wounded in the
leg.
Cortes, finding at length that it was impossible to fill up all thecanals, gaps, and openings in
the causeway, and that the Mexicansalways destroyed at night what we had completed in
the day, reopening the apertures we had filled up, and throwing up new entrenchments,
called the principal officers of his division together, to deliberate on thepresent state of the
siege. He told them the men would not be ableto continue this fatiguing mode of warfare
much longer, and he thereforeproposed to them that the three divisions should fall upon the
city at the same moment, and fight their way up to the Tlatelulco, andthere encamp with the
troops. Cortes at the same time wrote to Alvarado and Sandoval, desiring them also to
deliberate on this point with their officers and soldiers. From that place, he added, they
would be able to attack the enemy in the streets, and not have to encounter such severe
engagements, or make those dangerous retreats every evening, nor haveeverlastingly to toil
in filling up the openings and canals.
As it always happens in such cases, opinions were very different. Some pronounced this
plan to be altogether unadvisable, and were for pursuing the present plan of operation,
which was, to pull down thehouses as we advanced, and fill up the openings. Those of us
whowere of this opinion gave as our principal reason for so thinking, thatif we fortified
ourselves in the proposed way on the Tlatelulco, the causewaysmust fall into the hands of
the Mexicans, who, with the vast number of men at their command, would undoubtedly
reopen thehollows we had filled up, and make other fresh apertures in the causeways.In
this great square we should night and day be assailed bythe enemy; while our brigantines
would not be able to come to ourassistance, on account of the stakes driven in the water. In
short, we should be surrounded on all sides, and the Mexicans would be masters of the
town, of the lake, and of the surrounding neighbourhood.
This, our opinion, [23] we took care to draw up in writing, to avoid arecurrence of what took
place on our unfortunate retreat from Mexico.
Cortes indeed listened to our reasons for objecting to his plan, butnevertheless determined
that the three divisions, including the cavalry,should make an attempt on the following day
to fight their way up tothe Tlatelulco, and that the Tlascallans, with the troops of Tezcuco,
andof the towns which had recently subjected themselves to our emperor,should cooperate
with us; the latter were more particularly to assist uswith their canoes.
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The following morning, accordingly, after we had heard mass, andcommended ourselves to
the protection of God, the three divisions salliedforth from their respective encampments.
On our causeway we had forced a bridge and an entrenchment, after some very hard
fighting, for Quauhtemoctzin sent out terrific masses to oppose us; so that we had great
numbers of wounded, and our friendsof Tlascalla above one thousand. We already thought
victory was onour side, and we kept continually advancing.
Cortes, with his division, had fought his way across a very deep opening, of which the
opposite sides were merely connected by anextremely narrow path, and which the artful
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