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would gladly look upon them as brothers; nor should we
have done thus much if they themselves had not driven us to it. Besides
this, Cortes said many other kind things to gain their friendship.

The delegates arrived betimes in the chief town of Tlascalla, and
delivered their message in a full assembly of the caziques, whom they
found conversing with several old men and papas. Every one still
appeared very downcast on account of the unfavorable issue of the
battle, the loss of their chiefs, their sons and relations who had
fallen; and at first would not even listen to our messengers. At last
they came to the resolution to consult all the astrologers, papas, and
fortune-tellers, a species of conjurors whom they call _Tacalnaguas_.
These being assembled, they were desired to discover by their witchcraft
and enchantments, what sort of people we were, and whether it was
possible to overcome us if they continued to harass us night and day.
They were also to give a decisive answer as to whether we were really
teules, that is to say evil spirits, as the inhabitants of Sempoalla had
assured them; and lastly, what nourishment we took. All this they were
most minutely to investigate.

The soothsayers, conjurors, and papas, who were in great numbers,
immediately began their exorcisms and enchantments, after their fashion;
and they pretended to have discovered, by means of their art, that we
were human beings made of flesh and bone; that we ate dogs, fowls, bread
and fruits, as they did, if we could get them; and that we did not
devour the Indians, and much less the hearts of those we had slain. Our
friends of Sempoalla, namely, had told them all manner of foolish things
about us; not only that we were teules, but that we devoured the hearts
of the Indians; that the flashes of our bombards, shot off like
lightning; that our dog was a tiger or a lion, and that we let loose our
horses upon the Indians when we wished to kill them. But the worst thing
these soothsayers and papas affirmed was, its being impossible to
conquer us excepting during the night-time, for we were helpless as soon
as the sun, from which we received all our strength, had gone down.

This affirmation seemed a capital hint to the caziques, they therefore
sent orders to their captain-general, Xicotencatl, to fall upon us as
soon as possible with a large force during night-time. This, Xicotencatl
did not fail to do. He drew out ten thousand of his bravest troops,
marched towards our quarters, and fell upon us from three several points
at once, with the utmost fury. They made this attack with perfect
assurance, believing they had merely to show themselves and they should
be able to capture us immediately, and sacrifice us to their idols. But
the Almighty had ordered things differently. For, however silently they
approached, they found us perfectly upon our guard, as the outposts and
patrols had come running in at the first noise they heard and given the
alarm. As, moreover, we were accustomed to sleep in our clothes with our
weapons in our hands, the horses always ready bridled and saddled, and
our cannon loaded, we gave the enemy such a rough reception with our
muskets and crossbows, and cut among them so vigorously with our swords,
that they soon had enough of it and turned their backs. The country
before us was quite level, and the moon shone bright, so that our
cavalry were able to follow the flying enemy to a considerable distance.
Next morning we found about twenty of them dead and wounded, so that
their loss must have been considerable, and they experienced, no doubt,
that this fighting at night-time was not exactly so pleasant. It is also
said they were so exasperated against the soothsayers and papas, that
two of them were butchered for a sacrifice. In this night's combat we
lost one of our friends of Sempoalla, and two of our men besides a horse
were wounded. The number of prisoners we made were four. The kind reader
may well conceive that we were not a little overjoyed that this affair
terminated so fortunately. We fervently thanked God for the assistance
he had lent us, buried our friend of Sempoalla, dressed our wounds, and
lay ourselves down to rest for the remaining part of the night; but not
without previously taking every precaution to secure our camp as usual.
It was only the following morning we were able to discover our true
condition. There was not one among us who had not, up to this moment,
received one, two, or three wounds, and all were more or less weakened
by fatigues and hardships. Xicotencatl continued to hover around us, and
we had already lost fifty-five of our men, some of whom were killed on
the field of battle, others had died of disease and from excessive cold.
Twelve of our men were knocked up with fatigue, and even our
commander-in-chief himself and father Olmedo were suffering from fever.
But no one can wonder at this; for among all the hardships we had to
undergo, we never durst for one moment leave our heavy weapons out of
our hands; to all these discomforts was added the severity of the
weather, and particularly our great want of salt, which we could find no
means of obtaining. It was also natural that we should begin to think
what would be the final issue of this campaign, and if we once got out
of the present snare where we were next to bend our steps; for the idea
of penetrating into Mexico appeared to us perfectly laughable, when we
considered the great power of that state. If even we succeeded in making
the same good terms with the people of Tlascalla as we had done with the
Sempoallans, what would become of us if we ever came to an engagement
with the great armies of Motecusuma? We were totally ignorant as to how
matters stood in our fortress at Vera Cruz, and our men there knew as
little what had become of us. Certainly there were among us plenty of
valiant cavaliers and soldiers of great courage in battle, who showed no
less wisdom in our councils, nor did Cortes ever speak or do anything
without previously consulting them. With the historian Gomara it is
always thus: Cortes did this, Cortes did that, Cortes was there, Cortes
left there; just as if all this had been a mere nothing. If even, as
Gomara affirms, Cortes had had an iron frame, he could not possibly have
been everywhere, and have done everything himself. What good is it to
make use of such expressions? He could only say, that Cortes was an
excellent captain, as indeed he was, and this would have been enough! I
was forced to make this remark, for besides the protection which the
Almighty lent us in all our undertakings, his blessing was upon the arm
of us soldiers and the advice we gave Cortes, and it was only in this
way all things could have terminated so well.

I will not, however, detain the reader with this preamble of great
deeds, for it has little to do with the principal object of this
history. I am more pleased to relate, that we unanimously swore to
protect his person, and begged of him, that as Go

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