The herald., 1895-05-12
PAGES 13 TO "a

! through us as we stood on that causeway
up to our knees in mud: and after such a
night to have to work all day filling aper-
lures made by tho Indians, and all the
time hungry also.
We had already taken possession OF
three causeways which led into Mexico.
and thereafter no provisions entered there
by, and we had broken the acqueduct of
Chapultepec. thus depriving them OF wa
ter, but the siege had not lasted long be-
fore we found that each night they re-
ceved by canoes all the supplies they
needed. We then ratrolled the lake each
night with two brigantines and yet, not
withstanding tn, two brigantines des-
troyed a great h.any canoes and each day
brought to our camp many of them laden
with provisions, still great many sue
ceeded in escaping and entering the city.
When the MeXicans saw that our brig
antines were cutting off their supplies
and destroying their canoes they armed
thirty large piraguas and hid them, full
of warriors. In some calebrakes in the
lake, so that they could not be seen. and
near this they sunk great trunks of trees
and placed huge stakes in the water, and
they sent two canoes TO approach the city
as though bringing provisions, and when
we saw the canoes two brigantines were
sent after them whereupon the ca
noes fled toward where the piraguas
were hidden, closely followed bv the brig
the stakes and sunken logs the hidden
piraguas dashed out on them and it was
only with extreme difficulty they escaped
capture, and nearly every man on board
was wounded and q cavalier named Por-
tillo who had been in the Italian wars,
was slain. and Pedro Barba the Captain
of one Of the brigantines died three days
afterward of his wounds.
In the meantime Cortes from his camp
was pushing the siege vigorously. and
was each day advancing farther along
the causeways. razing houses and filling
up the places of the bridges he captured.
and al this time he sent word 10 Pedro de
A!varado under no circumstance 10 fol-
low up attack any further than the
bridges he had flci and to throw down
all the houses as he advanced.tN in all
this work the Tlascalans were. ei great
service to us and always bore fAecl selves
like good warriors.
The Mexicans now changed their mode
of defending the causeways, and instead
OF defending each bridge they made groat
and deep breaches in the catiseways and
they planted stakes there so that the brig
antines could not pass through, and on
the farther side they erected defenscs from
behind which they fought.
One Sunday morning very early there
came upon us three great squadrons
which attacke, us so fiercely that it was
with great difficulty we withstood them.
for while one great squadron came on us
in front, where they had made the breach
in the causeway, the other two attacked
lis in the flank and rear but our Tlasca-
lars soon put to fight those who nad
taken us in the rear while we defended
ourselves against the other two squadrons
until they commenced to retreat, when
we followed them up closely. crossing the
breach l have already spoken of into Il
portion of the causeway that was lineo
with houses and temples. th'" enemy still
rpJTcltlnV
reached this place there sud " rushed
out from all sides a multituue of war
riors at the same time others pouring "a
cloud of missiles on us from the roo
TOPS 50 that we only succeeded
in holding our ranks by a miracle and
with great difficulty commenced to re
treat and when we reached the breach in
the causeway found it full of canoes laden
with warriors SO that we did not dare to
attempt the passags. but tried to go on
the outside, and this was also u portion
of their plan. for they had sunk holes
where we were fordlng, so that many sol.
diers fell in. and the canoct fell upon us
also, and hall swimming. half wadlng we
got across finally, put the Mexicans cap
tured five whom they took to Guate-
moe, and not one of the remainder es-
capped without Il wound. In this fight
the brigantnes could not aid us, because
of the stakes the Mexicans had placed in
water and indeed in trying they lost two
us escaped They had me in their hands
once. and when | felt their grasp | COM
mended myself to God and His Holy
Mother, and they gave me the strength to
deliver the good stabs with which | freed
myself, but when reached the causeway
| was so weak with exerton and my
wounds that [ fell and lay insensible
thanks De to God for His mercy TO me
that day. 1t was fortunate thing that
only one OF the horsemen went with us,
for he and his horse were slain. as would
have been all the rest had they accom-
panied us.
The Mexicans continued the attack all
that day and the following night and dll
through the night it looked each moment
as though we would be totally destroyed;
but with the aid of some pieces of artil-
lerv and the logged fight we made we
finally drove them Off
When Cortes learned of this battle he
was very angry with Pedro de Alvarado.
and ordered HIM un ler no circumstances
to again cross brencn until he had filled
it in; and to cause all the horsemen to
sleep on the causeway, which we had now
widened with the houses we had thrown
down.
We then set to work to fill in the breach
which we accomplished in four days, al
though it was a continual battle each day
ana we lost six men in the work.
The Mexican sentines were at this
time quite close to u.s. so that when they
changed their watches in the night we
could hear them, and they signaled and
notified each other by whistles and while
we were filling up the first breach they
had opened another farther on, and when
we reached the new breach it took days
constant fighting to maintain our posi-
ton, and in the evening we were COM
PEELED to retire.
We will now leave camp and turn
to that of Cortes where the fighting was
equally as severe as in our own. In one
of the canoes captured by the brigantines
which patroled the lake. they captured
two Indians who were officials of Guate-
moe, and they informed Cortes that the
Mexicans had formed another ambuscade
for our brigantines like the former one,
and that in this case forty piraguas were
hidden aud a great teeu OF canoes. And
when they told Cortes of the place where
the ambuscade was, he sent six brigan
tines by night to hiue near the place. al d
the following day he sent brigantine to
patrol the lake as usual. and the Mexi-
cans sent out canoe as on the former
occasion to lead the brigantine into
the ambuscade, but the brig
antines had orders to follow the canoe III
Til near the place where the piraguas
were, and then. as though nop daring to
I go any further, to put about and sail t..
ward where the brlgantines were hiddei,
and when the brigantine reached the placa
and turned, all the praguas rushed out