CHAPTER LXIII.

_Of the terrible battles we fought with the Tlascallans, and what

further happened._

The next morning, after we had commended ourselves to God in prayer, we

broke up our quarters. Each company marched in close order, and our

cavalry were to be particularly upon their guard; were either to advance

suddenly, or fall back upon us, according as circumstances might be, and

at all events to watch that our ranks were nowhere broken, and that no

one strayed from his own company.

After we had marched onwards for some time we came up with two large

bodies of the enemy, amounting to about 6000 men. They set up a most

terrific noise with their drums and trumpets, and yelled awfully. They

then let fly their arrows, threw their lances at us, and upon the whole

were most daringly valiant. Cortes now ordered us to halt, and

despatched three Indians, whom we had made prisoners the day before, to

the enemy, requesting them to stay hostilities, as we were very desirous

of looking upon them as brothers and friends. At the same time he

ordered one of our warriors, Diego de Godoy, who was the royal

secretary, to pay particular attention to everything that should take

place, in order that if any reproach were made us for having destroyed

any of the Indians, he might give evidence, and be able to prove that we

on our side had shown every disposition for peace.

The prisoners went off with this message to the enemy, but not the

slightest notice was taken of it; on the contrary, they attacked us so

furiously that we could no longer look idly on. "Forward! St. Jacob is

with us! On to the enemy!" cried Cortes; and in an instant we greeted

the Indians so sharply with our firearms, that numbers were immediately

killed and wounded; among the former three chiefs. After this first

volley they fell back to about the distance of a musket-shot, where they

took up their position. Here an army of above 40,000 warriors, commanded

by their general-in-chief Xicotencatl, lay in ambush. Their standards

bore his colours, white and variegated. As the ground here was full of

deep cavities our cavalry were completely useless, until by using the

greatest precaution they managed to pass over these. This was not done

without considerable risk, for the enemy plied their bows and lances

with great dexterity, having, moreover, the advantage of the higher

ground. The stones from their slings were no less annoying; but all this

only lasted until we had gained the level ground. For now we richly

rewarded them for their pains, and killed great numbers. Yet we durst

not venture to open our ranks; for the instant any one stepped out to

assist any other soldier or officer he was that moment dangerously

wounded. We were, therefore, obliged to keep our ranks firmly closed,

and by degrees had to contend with more than twenty different divisions,

which was, indeed, pretty hot work. Besides all this the Indians kept

continually throwing sand in our faces to blind us. Here, indeed, the

great mercy of God alone could save us. The chief object of the enemy

was to capture one of our horses, in which they did not altogether fail;

for, as Pedro de Moron on his well-trained mare, attended by three

others of our cavalry, was attempting to break through the enemy's

ranks, the Indians wrenched the lance out of his hand, and fell

furiously upon him with their broad swords, wounding him severely. They

gave his mare such a terrific cut with the same weapon in the neck, that

the animal instantly fell down dead. If Moron's three companions had not

immediately hastened to his assistance, he would have shared his horse's

fate; for this gave our whole company time to come up.

I must again repeat, that the worst was, we had to keep ourselves so

close together in order not to run the danger of being cut off, which of

course greatly encumbered our movements. Nevertheless, we were obliged

to open our ranks to rescue the mare and Moron whom they were already

dragging off half dead. The mare we were obliged to relinquish, though

we managed to cut the girth asunder in order at least to save the

saddle. In this battle we had nine wounded. As for the enemy I believe

on this occasion we killed four of their chiefs. We pushed forward

shoulder to shoulder, and made considerable havoc with our swords. The

enemy retreated, carrying off the dead mare, which was subsequently cut

into pieces to be sent into every township of Tlascalla. As we

afterwards learnt, the horse's shoes, the Flanders hat, and the letter

we sent them, were brought as an offering to their idols. The mare

belonged to Juan Sedeno, who, on the previous day, was wounded in three

several places, and had, therefore, lent her to Moron. This Moron was a

capital horse soldier, and died a few days after; at least, I do not

remember to have seen him again after this battle.

We had fought for a good hour, and our firearms must have done

considerable destruction among the enemy who stood so crowded together.

Every man among us did his duty, and we fought away like brave warriors,

for in all truth we were placed in greater jeopardy this time than we

had ever been before. Numbers of the Indians lay dead on the field of

battle; among whom were eight of the principal chiefs, all sons of old

caziques, who dwelt together in the chief town of the country. At last

our enemies retreated in good order, which we were glad enough to see,

for we could scarcely stand any longer from over-fatigue, nor durst we

think of following the enemy. Add to which, the ground was greatly to

our disadvantage, partly on account of the number of straggling houses,

partly on account of a species of pits in which many of the inhabitants

dwelt. This battle was fought on the first two days of September, 1519,

near the village of Tehuacacinco, and we returned fervent thanks to God

for having rescued us from such great peril and for the victory we had

gained.

After the battle, we fell back to some temples, which were very high,

and large enough to serve us for castles. We dressed the wounds of our

men with the fat of Indians, as we had done on previous occasions. Five

of our horses were wounded, and fifteen men, of whom one subsequently

died. Upon this we took our suppers, and made a good meal off the number

of dogs and fowls which we found in the dwellings. Before, however, we

lay down to rest, we posted our sentinels, and continually patrolled

during the night: not before all these things were properly ordered did

we lie down, and slept till morning.

For the rest, we made fifteen prisoners, among whom were two of the most

distinguished personages; but we could never discover how many we killed

or wounded, as it was customary with the Tlascallans immediately to

carry off the wounded and dead from the field of battle.[24]

[24] (This note refers to the last sentence of the chapter.) To this

custom of the Tlascallans of carrying off their killed and wounded from

the field of battle, the historian de Solis partially attributes Cortes'

great success in these battles; for as a great number of the enemy were

constantly occupied in this work, they naturally offered a less

formidable front, and considerable openings were made in their ranks.

(p. 147.)