[934] ‘Á la entrada de un puerto que se pasa para entrar á la provincia de Méjico por allí.’ Cortés, Cartas, 145. After the conquest it was moved to a more open site, three leagues south. Torquemada, i. 316.
[935] Calcozametl. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., iv. 372.
[936] Herrera reduces Cortés’ figure to 20,000.
[937] Bernal Diaz names Olid alone for the command, and Gomara adds Ordaz and Andrés de Tapia, while Herrera substitutes Ordaz and Ávila. The latter is probably wrong in giving them 300 soldiers, and Peter Martyr errs, through his printer, perhaps, in allowing only 3000 allies.
[938] Cortés writes that this occurred in a town of Huexotzinco province, and that here the Spaniards were alarmed by the report of collusion between the Huexotzincas, the Quauhquechollans, and the Aztecs. The leaders described the expedition as difficult. Cartas, 146. Gomara follows, naming the captain who brought the chiefs captive to Cortés. Hist. Mex., 169. Bernal Diaz points out very plausibly that Huexotzinco lay wholly out of the way; and, ignoring the accession of volunteers, he assumes that the report of a vast gathering of Mexican troops round Quauhquechollan was the cause for alarm, among the Narvaez party only. Olid appealed to their honor, and did all he could to encourage them, but failed. Hist. Verdad., 112-13. Clavigero believes, on the other hand, that Olid caught the alarm as readily as the rest. Storia Mess., iii. 154. The joining of Huexotzincas may have led to the belief that the march lay through their territory.
[939] Bernal Diaz states that Cortés did not go, but sent Olid a sharp letter, which roused him to proceed with the expedition. But our chronicler was sick with fever all this time, and has evidently not been well informed. Cortés’ description of the route and of different occurrences indicates that he must have been present.
[940] ‘Cayeron muchos dellos [enemy] muertos y ahogados de la calor, sin herida ninguna, y dos caballos se estancaron, y el uno murió.’ Cortés, Cartas, 149.
[941] ‘En Mexinca.’ Gomara, Hist. Mex., 169.
[942] ‘Y se les conservan el día de hoy,’ says Lorenzana, in Cortés, Hist. N. España, 160.
[943] ‘Dos tiros de ballesta el uno del otro.’ Cortés, Cartas, 150.