[1129] Many captives had been secured during recent raids on Chalco and Tezcuco, and other parts, so that there was no lack. The native victims numbered 4000, it is said. Herrera, dec. iii. lib. i. cap. xvii. ‘All boys,’ says Oviedo, iii. 515. ‘Yo bien creo que fuerõ muchas, mas no tantas.’ Gomara, loc. cit. The limbs of the Spaniards were sent to different provinces to frighten the inhabitants. Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 135.
[1130] Ixtlilxochitl states in one place that his namesake remained at Tezcuco to raise troops and to arrange for regular trains of supplies for the Spanish camps. In another relation he allows him to accompany Cortés with 16,000 canoes. Hor. Crueldades, 21; Relacion, 314. The canoes which now attended the fleet appear to have served chiefly as transports.
[1131] Owned even under republican rule by the heirs of Cortés, as a tetzontli quarry.
[1132] Cortés, Cartas, 211. Bernal Diaz raises the number to 4000, Peter Martyr to 5000, while Vetancurt assumes that the 500 were merely the van. Teatro Mex., pt. iii. 158.
[1133] Oviedo writes that they were sacrificing boys to propitiate the gods. iii. 516. ‘La flota q̄ les parecio no dar batalla con tan pocas y cansadas,’ observes Gomara, Hist. Mex., 194.
[1134] Alvarado advanced as far as the first wide bridge, but lost three men. Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 141.
[1135] Probably behind the great southern levee. See Native Races, ii. 564.
[1136] Gomara calls it wrongly Xaltoca, and Robertson confounds it, singularly enough, with Tezcuco. Hist. Am., ii. 114.
[1137] Cortés, Cartas, 216-17. The greater number of the allies came daily from their camp at Coyuhuacan to join Cortés as warriors and sappers. Digging and similar work was done chiefly by Tezcucans. Herrera states that the vessels of Flores and Ruiz de la Mota were placed at a broken causeway between the camps of Alvarado and Sandoval. dec. iii. lib. i. cap. xvii.
[1138] ‘Asserrador ... trabajò mas que mil Indios.’ Herrera, dec. iii. lib. i. cap. xviii.