[1152] Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 144-5.
[1153] Cortés exultantly claims that three fourths of the city is now captured. Cartas, 227; Sahagun, Hist. Conq. (ed. 1840), 181; Torquemada, i. 550.
[1154] ‘No se hartauan de pescado, que tuuierõ pocos dias: y demas de la hambre con q̄ peleauan, el sol, y el frio no les dio pequeño trabajo.’ Herrera, dec. iii. lib. i. cap. xix.
[1155] ‘Soliti sunt hostes in prælio cadentes intra suos ventres sepelire,’ explains Peter Martyr, dec. v. cap. viii., and with some truth.
[1156] Forty soldiers watched till midnight, when a similar number relieved them, and they again were relieved two hours before dawn; all three divisions camping on the spot. Often every man was kept awake by alarms. Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 142-3. The old soldier waxes eloquent over the hardships, for he served at this camp.
[1157] The Spaniards tried in vain to despatch him. Sahagun states that during these attacks fifteen soldiers were captured, and shortly after eighteen more, who were sacrificed in a temple of Tlacuchcalco ward, ‘donde agora es la iglesia de Santa Ana.’ Hist. Conq., 183, ed. 1840, 188-9. One repulse took place in Coyonacazco ward. Torquemada, i. 550-2. Spanish versions indicate no such losses, and they may probably belong to the later great defeat.
[1158] Such is in main the version of Bernal Diaz; the other accounts differ greatly. This author states that five Spaniards were captured, nearly all the men wounded, and two rowers killed, for the brigantines in seeking to aid had become fast on stakes and exposed to attack. Had the Mexicans not been so frightened by the horsemen the loss would have been very great. Hist. Verdad., 143-4. Cortés allows three or four captured. Cartas, 228; Clavigero, Storia Mess., iii. 196. Duran places the scene where rose afterward the San Hipólito hermitage. Hist. Ind., MS., ii. 500. But for Quauhtlizcatzin, the prince who led the Tezcucan auxiliaries, all the Spaniards would have been lost, exclaims Ixtlilxochitl, Hor. Crueldades, 36. Herrera assumes that the fault lay with Alvarado for neglecting to fill the channel. dec. iii. lib. i. cap. xx.
[1159] ‘No solo no le culpo, mas loole.’ Gomara, Hist. Mex., 203.
[1160] The most serious attacks took place on June 24th and 25th, as if oracles had impelled the Mexicans to seek the destruction of the Spaniards on the anniversary of their reëntry into the city after the Alvarado massacre. The Tlacopan camp lost ten soldiers and had a dozen severely wounded, including Alvarado. Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 142, 145.
[1161] Bernal Diaz seeks to convey the idea that he or his camp were opposed to the attempt, Id., 146, but had it succeeded, he would probably have declared the truth, that Cortés was urged on all sides to make the effort, as stated in Gomara, Hist. Mex., 203, Herrera, dec. iii. lib. i. cap. xx., and Cortés, Cartas, 228-9. Perhaps the general made objections chiefly to cover his responsibility in case of failure.