his protection; and that we considered it but a small sacrifice which he required us to make. When he saw in what an excellent disposition we were, he commended us all to God, and arranged the order of march. The wounded and our baggage were placed in the centre, one half of the cavalry formed the vanguard, and the other half the rearguard; and the crossbow-men and Tlascallans were distributed in a similar manner: for we purposely collected our chief strength around the baggage, as the Mexicans invariably made their first attack upon this. Our musketeers were of no use to us, as all their powder was consumed.
In this way we began to move forward; but as soon as the Mexicans found we were leaving the square, they concluded it was from fear, as was indeed the case; they sallied out upon us, wounded two of our men, and attacked our centre with great intrepidity to make themselves master of our baggage; but they were unable to make any impression on the close order of our ranks.
During the whole of our march to Cojohuacan, which lay about eight miles from Xochimilco, we had continual skirmishes with the Mexicans, who took every favorable opportunity of annoying us with lances, stones and arrows, and then suddenly retreated beyond the canals, where we could not follow them. In this manner we reached Cojohuacan, at ten o'clock in the morning, and found the town quite deserted by its inhabitants.
I must here observe that there are a number of towns lying round about Mexico, all at about eight miles distance from each other. Of these, Xochimilco, Cojohuacan, Iztapalapan, Chohuilobusco, Quauhnahuac, Mizquic, and three or four other towns, are half-built in the lake itself, and none of these towns lie at a greater distance from each other than from six to eight miles, which accounts for the Mexicans being able to assemble so vast a body of troops against us in Xochimilco.
When we arrived in this deserted town, we dressed our wounds, furnished ourselves with arrows, and rested for the remaining part of the day; and indeed we required some repose, for we knew we should have to fight many more battles before we reached Tezcuco.
The next morning very early we again continued our march, and took the road towards Tlacupa, which lay about eight miles further on. Large bodies of the enemy fell upon us at three different places along our route, but we each time repulsed them, and pursued them to their canoes in the inlets and canals.
On one occasion during this march, Cortes left the main body with ten of the cavalry, among which were four of his grooms, to lay an ambuscade for the Mexicans, who every now and then came suddenly upon us from the inlets of the lake. Cortes attacked and routed a body of Mexicans, who, after a short stand, fled with precipitation, and were pursued by our general; in doing which he fell himself into a more terrible ambush, from which the enemy suddenly burst upon him, and wounded two of his men; and he, with all those who accompanied him, would undoubtedly have been killed or taken prisoners if he had not instantly retreated. The enemy, however, succeeded in capturing two of his grooms, who were brought before Quauhtemoctzin, and afterwards sacrificed to his gods.
The main body of our army had, in the meantime, arrived with flying colours in Tlacupa, while only Cortes, with the ten horse, remained behind, and we began to fear that some misfortune had befallen him; wherefore Alvarado, Oli, and Tapia immediately turned back with a strong body of horse in the direction we had seen him take. They soon came up with the two grooms who had escaped from the enemy, and who related how they had been indebted for their lives to a precipitate retreat; and that Cortes was following behind, as he was obliged to ride at a gentle pace, his horse having been wounded. It was not long before our general came up, to the great joy of all; but he appeared excessively grieved at the loss of his two grooms, almost to shedding tears.
Just as Cortes entered Tlacupa, it began to rain very fast; for which reason we rested here for a couple of hours in a large square of the town. Our general, with several other officers, the treasurer Alderete, (who fell ill here,) father Melgarejo, and several soldiers, including myself, ascended to the top of the great temple of this town, from which we beheld the neighbouring city of Mexico, with the numerous other towns which stood in the lake. When father Melgarejo and Alderete beheld all this splendour at once, they could scarcely find words to express their astonishment; but when they contemplated the great city of Mexico more minutely, and saw the numerous canoes hurrying up and down this immense lake laden with merchandize or provisions for the city, or occupied in fishing, they were actually terrified, and exclaimed to each other that our arrival in New Spain could not be by the power of man alone, and that it was through the great mercy of Providence that our lives were still preserved. They had once before remarked, said they, that no monarch had ever been rendered such signal services by his subjects as we had rendered to our emperor; but now they were more convinced than ever, and would duly inform his majesty of what they had seen.
Father Melgarejo then consoled our general for the loss of his two grooms, which so greatly afflicted him. While we soldiers were thus gazing upon the city of Mexico, we again by degrees recognized those spots which had become so memorable to us, and we pointed out to each other the great temple of Huitzilopochtli, the Tlatelulco, and the causeways, with the bridges over which we made our disastrous retreat. At this moment Cortes sighed more deeply than he had previously done for the loss of his two grooms, whom the enemy had carried off alive. And it was from this day our men began to sing the romance, which commences —
"En Tacuba esta Cortes
Con su esquadron esforsado,
Triste estava y mui penoso
Triste y con gran cuidado,
La una mano en la mexilla
Y la otra en el costado," etc.
As our general was thus standing in deep contemplation, the bachelor Alonso Perez, who was appointed fiscal after the conquest of New Spain, and lived in Mexico, stepped up to him and said, "General, you should not thus give way to grief; it is ever so during war time, and men will certainly never have occasion to sing of you as they did of Nero, —
'Mira Nero de Tarpeya19
A Roma como se ardia,
Gritos dan niños y viejos,
Y el de nada se dolia.'"
To which Cortes replied, "How often have I not offered peace to that city! But it is not that circumstance alone which causes my grief; I am likewise thinking of the dreadful scenes we have to go through before we can subdue this place; though, with the assistance of God, we shall accomplish this also."
I must now, however, quit these discourses and romances; indeed the time was ill suited for such things. Our officers now deliberated whether or not we should march a short distance along the causeway, which lay near to Tlacupa; but as we had no powder left, and only a few arrows, besides that most of our men were wounded, and as a similar attempt which Cortes had made a month earlier on this same causeway had ended so disastrously, it was resolved we should continue our march, lest the Mexicans should fall upon us this very day, or during the night. From the near vicinity of the metropolis it was easy for Quauhtemoctzin to send a body of troops against us at any moment. We therefore broke up our quarters here, and marched straight forward to Escapuzalco, which we found entirely deserted by its inhabitants. From this place we came to Tenayucan, or the town of Serpents, as we called it; (the reader will remember what I related in a former chapter respecting the origin of this name.) The inhabitants of this place had likewise fled. We next came to Quauhtitlan, and the rain came down in torrents during the whole of the day, so that we could scarcely drag one foot after the other, from the weight of our arms and of our clothes, which were completely drenched with water.
It was perfectly dark when we entered this township, which was also deserted by its inhabitants. The rain came down in torrents during the whole night, which created a great deal of mire and dirt. The inhabitants and Mexicans, who had fled to places where we could not get at them, kept hooting at us from the evening until next morning, without intermission. Owing to the extreme darkness of the night, and the heavy rain which was falling, we neither posted sentinels nor made any rounds; there was nothing but disorder to be seen
The following is a free translation of the first six lines:
Of the four following lines Bernal Diaz only gives the first two, the last two I have taken from Las Casas, (Brevissima Relacion de la destrucyon de las Indias.) These lines were most likely applied to Cortes after the attack he made upon the Cholullans:
