The herald., 1895-05-05

ried the gourd full of water until we met
Cortcs, who had already recon- menced his
march, and | told him of how we had
found the water near by. and | gave him
the gourd. We then marched to the houses
where we found the water.
We camped there that night. The next
morning we commenced our march very
early. and at about oclock we arrived
at Suchimilco. | cannot describe the
multitude of warriors we found there
awaiting us. some on the plain and
others at a bad ford where they had bro
ken the bridge and near which they had
erected barricades. Many OF the Indians
were armed with long lances with points
made OF the swords which they had cap
tured the night of the slaughter in Mex
ico.and many of the Captains were armed
with the swords of those they had slain.
The whole earth seemed to be covered
with warriors and we fought over half an
hour before we could win the ford. 1t
seemed for long time as If our cross
bows and arquebuses and our desperate
charges should avail us nothing. And.
worse than all: great squadrons of them
attacked us III the rear. Seeing this We
finally charged across the ford. and ON
that occasion good many of our soldiers
drank mora water than they desired. and
some of them swallowed SO much that they
were swollen. In this charge we had two
Anen killed and many wounded and when
we reached firm ground on the opposite
side all again came hand to hand with the
enemy in a narrow street. In the mean
time Cortes and the horse succeeded in
crossing in another place. and when they
crossed were Immediately attacked by over
TO- 900 Mexicans who had come over to
the assistance of the people of Suchim-
ico. And they fought with dctermina-
ton and met the horse with their long
lances and badly wounded four OF them
in the first charges And the horse OF
'nrtn IA, tt,,Lt
fell.
Instantly the Mexicans seized him and
tried to carry him off alive, but at this
moment some Tlascalans and u brave sol
dier named Cristobal Olca, II native of Old
CASTLE, from the vicinity OF Medina del
Campo. by sheer cutting and stabbing
forced their way to where he was. and re-
leasing him for moment gave him II
chance to mount again. althouh badly
wounded and bareheadei. Olca received
three serious stabs in the affray. All OF
us who were near fought our way at once
to the spot. and as in that city each
street was full of warriors. we were forced
to divide up in different parties and each
soldier followed the banner of his own
Captain, as such had been the orders of
Cortes. When, however, we heard the
shouts ana yels of the enemy where
Cortes was lighting we knew that we were
needed there and fought our way to
where he was but when we got to the
place he had already been Joined by some
fifteen other horsemen and they were
fighting near an aqueduct, behind which
the Indians were making stubborn de-
fense. When we arrived we soon dis
lodged them. and as Cortes and Cristobal
de Olea were both badly wounded we ad
vised them tn retire and dress their
wounds. And when the enemy saw us
retiring they Thought we were flying
through fear and commenced Co attack
lis with great fury. At that moment
there came up Pedro de Alvarado and
Cristobal de Oil and Andreas de Tapia
with the remainder of che horse. OH
was bleeding from the face, and Pedro de
Alvarado and all of them were wounded,
but they forced the Indians back to their
defenses again.