But when Cortes found how the aspect of affairs had changed at Tezcuco, that no one stirred a foot to give the splendid reception he had boasted of, that none of the principal personages showed themselves, that even the worst of provisions were brought him with great reluctance, and found this ill feeling towards us show itself even more strongly in Mexico, and that although he had returned with additional troops, the inhabitants no longer furnished him with provisions, his pride turned into moroseness and anger, so much so that when Motecusuma sent two of his grandees to announce that he was desirous of paying Cortes a visit, as he had something to communicate to him, he said, "He might go to the devil! since he would not allow any weekly markets to be held, nor any provisions to be sent us."
When our other chief officers, Leon, Oli, Avila, and Lugo heard this, they said to him, "Moderate your anger, general, and remember what great honours this monarch has heaped upon us, the kindnesses we have received from him, and how amiable his disposition is: for, had he not existed, the Mexicans would long ago have feasted on our bodies; nor ought you to forget that he has sought your alliance by offering you his daughter in marriage."
These words carried with them the idea of a reproach, and, consequently, only served the more to embitter his feelings, and he burst out as follows: "Why should I stand upon any further ceremony with this dog? Did he not secretly connive with Narvaez, and now refuses us provisions?"
"Our opinion is," returned the other officers, "that he does nothing more than his present situation would prompt him to do, and that he acts most prudently."
Cortes, however, relied upon the strength of his troops, and would not allow his anger to be pacified in any way, but commissioned the two Mexican grandees to tell their master that he must issue immediate orders for the re-opening of the markets, otherwise he should find himself obliged to take other steps. Both these Mexicans had understood the reviling language used by Cortes against their monarch, and also how our other officers had remonstrated with him on that account. They knew these officers well; for they had by turns been captains of the guard which was placed over their monarch's person, and knew they were greatly attached to him. They therefore repaired, either in the bitterness of their hearts, or because the attack upon us had already been determined upon, and related to Motecusuma what they had heard; and scarcely a quarter of an hour had elapsed before one of our men came running up heavily wounded. He had been at Tlacupa, a town near Mexico, to fetch thence some women belonging to Cortes' household, and the daughter of Motecusuma, whom Cortes had given in charge of the king of Tlacupa, her relative, when we marched against Narvaez. This man also related that he had found the town of Tlacupa and the high road filled with warriors. They took the women away and wounded him in two different places. If he had not escaped out of their hands, they would have thrown him into a canoe, and have sacrificed him to their gods. They had also destroyed one of the bridges over the causeway.
When Cortes and some of us soldiers heard this, we began to look very serious, for those among us who had been several times engaged with the Indians knew, from experience, with what vast crowds they always entered the field of battle, and, although our numbers had been greatly augmented, and that there was little doubt but we should defend ourselves courageously, yet we were well aware of our dangerous position. We soldiers also knew that we should run great risk of losing our lives either from hunger or from the advantages which the enemy would have over us in such a strongly fortified city. Cortes, after questioning the man who had come from Tlacupa, despatched Ordas with 400 men, mostly armed with crossbows and muskets, and a few horse, to see what truth there was in his statement. He recommended him, however, to avoid, if possible, all hostilities, and to settle the affair amicably. Ordas had scarcely reached half-way down the causeway when he was met by a vast body of Mexicans, who, with those posted on the tops of the houses, attacked him so furiously that eight of his men were killed at the first onset, and most of them wounded, Ordas himself in three several places. He found it impossible to move on any further, and he therefore gradually retreated to our quarters. On his retreat he lost another excellent soldier named Lezcano, who had done wonders with his broadsword.
If the body of warriors was vast which had fallen upon Ordas, that which at the same instant attacked our quarters was by far more so; and so vigorously did they assail us with lances, arrows, and stones, that, in an instant, forty of our men were wounded, twelve of whom subsequently died. The numbers who attacked us in front, from behind, and from the tops of the houses, were so vast that Ordas was unable, for a length of time, to cut his way through. Our cannon, muskets, crossbows, and lances, did, certainly, great havoc among the enemy's ranks, who, in fact, rushed in upon our weapons; yet they continued the combat with the same fury, and closed their ranks more firmly, nor could we drive them back a single inch. It was only after a good deal of hard fighting that Diego and his men were able to regain our quarters, though with twenty-three soldiers less than when he had left it, and the rest all wounded: add to which, the enemy's numbers were every moment increasing; nor did they spare abusive language, calling us old women, ragged scoundrels, and such like beautiful names. But the loss we sustained at present was nothing to what we subsequently suffered. They even carried their audacity so far as to throw fire into our quarters, while one body attacked us in front and another from behind, so that we should soon have been suffocated by the flames and smoke if we had not succeeded in putting out the fire by throwing quantities of earth on it, and by pulling down the apartments from which the fire was spreading.
The combat continued the whole day until late at night, during which time they continued to throw such quantities of stones and lances into our quarters, that the place was literally covered with them. In the meantime we had to dress our wounds, to repair the damage done to our buildings, and get some rest till the next morning. As soon as day began to dawn, Cortes determined to sally out with the whole of his troops, including those of Narvaez and the cannon, either to beat the enemy out of the field altogether, or at least to give them a greater proof of our power than we had been able to do on the previous day. The Mexicans, it seemed, had also determined to do their utmost, and they not only fought with uncommon bravery but came in overwhelming numbers, so that every instant they poured in fresh men to the attack. Indeed ten thousand Trojan Hectors, and as many Rolands, would in vain have tried to break through the enemy's ranks! At this moment even, that battle is fresh in my memory; but no words can describe the unyielding stubbornness of the foe. All the volleys from our heavy guns and muskets were to no purpose; it was in vain we rushed forward upon them, and killed from thirty to forty of their numbers at a time; their ranks still remained firmly closed, while their courage seemed to increase with every loss. Whenever we did drive them back into the streets to some distance, they had merely retreated in order that we should follow them, and by so doing be drawn further away from our quarters, when they hoped more easily to surround us, and so render our escape impossible. And sure enough by these retrograde movements they invariably made the greatest destruction among our ranks. Neither did it avail us anything whenever we set fire to any of the houses; for, as I have above mentioned, it was only possible to pass from one house to another by means of wooden drawbridges. If the latter were drawn up we had to wade through deep water to gain another house. But our men suffered most from those of the enemy's troops who pelted them with stones and lances from the housetops. Indeed I cannot imagine how I thus coolly relate all that passed. Three or four of our men who had previously served in the Italian wars, swore over and over again that they had never witnessed such furious fighting, neither in the wars with the king of France, nor even in those with the grand Turk himself. Indeed it was no easy matter for us to retreat to our head-quarters, so desperately did they assail us under the most horrible sound of drums, pipes and trumpets, accompanied by the most obscene and abusive language. This day we lost ten or twelve men, and none of us escaped without a wound. We passed the night in deliberations and in preparing for another attack. We now resolved that after the lapse of two days as many of us as were healthy should sally out with two moving towers. These we had strongly put together of wood, and were so constructed, that under each of them twenty-five of our men could stand to move them along. These towers contained loopholes, from which our heavy guns could be fired; besides that there was space enough for a number of musketeers and crossbow-men. At the side of these towers marched a strong body of musketeers and crossbow-men, as also the whole of our horse, who were from time to time to charge the enemy at full gallop. The construction of these towers and the repairing of several small breaches which the enemy had made in our quarters, occupied us the whole of the following day, so that we could not sally out till the next.
The enemy, however, continued their attacks upon our quarters, not merely from ten or twelve, but from twenty different points at once; so that what with the constructing of the towers, repairing the breaches, and beating off our assailants who had fixed ladders to our quarters, we had enough to do. The whole of us, they cried out, were to be sacrificed to their gods, our hearts were to be torn from our bodies, the blood was to be drawn from our veins, and our arms and legs were to be eaten up at their festivals. The remaining parts of our bodies would be thrown to the tigers, lions and serpents, which they kept in cages; these had not been fed for these two days, in order that they might devour our flesh the more greedily. Our gold and other things would be their booty, and they told the Tlascallans they should be locked up in cages where they fattened people for their sacrifices. Only deliver us up our monarch Motecusuma,—added they with great vehemence; while their noise and their attacks continued through the whole night.
As soon as day had fully broken forth, we commended ourselves to the Almighty, and sallied out with our war-towers. This time again we killed a great number of the enemy; but with all our fighting we could not force them to yield ground, and if they had fought courageously the two previous days, they stood the more firm this time, and fought desperately. We however determined, if it were even to cost us all our lives, to push forward to the great temple of Huitzilopochtli. I will not detail the severe struggle we had against one house in particular, which was very strongly fortified, nor the critical position our horse were placed in. For whenever our cavalry galloped in upon the enemy's ranks, our horses were assailed by so many arrows, stones and lances, that they were immediately covered with wounds; while their riders, however courageously they fought, could make but little impression upon the foe. If they pushed further on, the Mexicans either jumped into the canals or into the lake, where the cavalry could not follow them, and where a whole forest of lances stared them in the face: equally fruitless were all our attempts to set fire to their houses, or pull them down, as they stood, in the midst of the water, and were connected to each other by drawbridges only. If at times we did succeed in firing a house, it took a whole day in burning down, nor did the fire spread, from the buildings being at too great distance from each other, and their being surrounded by water, so that all our efforts that way completely failed. At last we succeeded in fighting our way up to the foot of the great temple, but at that instant a body of above four thousand of the enemy rushed up the steps for its defence; besides that, other troops were already stationed on the top of this building, armed with long lances, stones and arrows. For a length of time the guns of our towers and the attacks of our cavalry could make no impression on the enemy, while our horses were scarcely able to step firmly on the smooth pavement of the court yards, but every moment slipped out and fell down. Though our cannon mowed down ten or fifteen of the enemy at a time, and a great many others were cut down by our sabres, yet their numbers were so vast that we could not beat them back, we therefore now determined to quit our towers, which were almost broken into pieces; and leaving them at the foot of the temple, we began fighting our way up the steps of the building.