[871] Sahagun also calls the mountain, or the slope, Tona. His confusing versions sometimes reverse all the names. Cortés places it two leagues from the last camp.
[872] ‘Detrás dél [hill] estaba una gran ciudad de mucha gente.’ Cortés, Cartas, 138. Zacamolco is also called a large town. There could hardly be two large towns so close together in a district like this, so that the other must have been Teotihuacan, ‘city of the gods,’ with its ancient and lofty pyramids, sacred to all Anáhuac, and one of the chief centres of pilgrimage. For description of ruins, see Native Races, iv. 529-44.
[873] ‘Con un golpe de piedra en la cabeza tan violento, que abollando las armas, le rompió la primera tunica del cerebro.’ So Solis defines the wound, which afterward grew dangerous. Hist. Mex., ii. 203. He supposes that it was received at Otumba.
[874] ‘Le comieron sin dexar [como dizen] pelo ni huesso.’ Gomara, Hist. Mex., 162. ‘La cabeza cupo a siete o ocho.’ The horse was Gamboa’s, on which Alvarado was saved after his leap. Herrera, ii. x. xii.; Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 107. Ixtlilxochitl says that Zinacatzin, of Teotihuacan, killed it—he whom we shall find leading the enemy on the morrow.
[875] ‘Y pareció que el Espíritu Santo me alumbró con este aviso,’ exclaims Cortés, Cartas, 139. Many a soldier carried a comrade on his back. Gomara, Hist. Mex., 163.
[876] According to Cortés, whose dates I have already shown to be reliable. He makes it a Saturday. Prescott makes it the 8th, a mistake which has been copied by several writers, including Brasseur de Bourbourg and Carbajal Espinosa.
[877] ‘Llanos de la provincia de Otupam.’ The battle taking place near Metepec. Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., 302-3. Plain of Otumpan, also called Atztaquemecan. Camargo, Hist. Tlax., 170. ‘Los Llanos de Apan.’ ‘El Valle de Otumba.’ Lorenzana, in Cortés, Hist. N. España, xiv. 148. Clavigero calls it the plain of Tonan, derived from Sahagun, who applies the name to the slope of the range bordering it.
[878] Following the intimation given by Sahagun, Torquemada states that the enemy came pouring in from rear and sides to surround the troops, i. 508.
[879] While they were halting, writes Ojeda, a big Indian with club and shield advanced to challenge any Spaniard to single combat. Ojeda responded, but in advancing against the man his negro slave followed him, and either the sight of two frightened the native or he sought to decoy them, for he retreated into a copse. Herrera, ii. x. xiii.
[880] Camargo, Hist. Tlax., 171-2; Torquemada, i. 509. Ixtlilxochitl spells the name Zihuatcatlzin, and Oviedo calls it Xiaquetenga, based probably on that of the Tlascaltec chief. Duran, Hist. Ind., MS., ii. 480. ‘La flor de Mexico, y de Tezcuco, y Saltocan.’ Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 108.