The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-04-21
CHAPTER xxx
If the Great War Made Upon Us by the
Mexicans. and Of the Terrible Battles We
Fought With Them, and Many Things
That Happened at This Time

When Cortes saw that. tho Indians
of Tezcuco had not come out to receive
us, nor even offered us food, and that
none of the chiefs came to speak with
us, and that everyuhi ng was in such bad
state; and finding in Mexico the same
condition of things-that they did not
hold any fairs, but everything was in re-
bellion; that when he had heard the story
of Pedro de Alyarado and of the fierce
attacks made on him, and also because it
appears that on the march from the coast,
in order to impress the Captains of Mar
vaez with his great power and wealth, he
had told them how the Indians of the
different towns would come forth to re-
ceive us and give us. food and presents
and make feasts for us, and how i'll Mex
leo he commanded absolutely Montezuma
and all his Captains, and how Montezu-
ma was accustomed to make him great
presents of GOLD, and seeing now how
contrary to his expectations everything
was, and that they did not even bring us
food, he was very fretful and sad. AT this
moment the great Montezuma sent two of
his principal men to request him to &C
and see .lim as he desired to speak with
him, and to this Cortes replied: II will
not see the dog, who will not even hold a
market nor send us food And when our
Captains, who were Juan Velasquez de
Leon and Cristobal de Oil, Alonzo de
Avila and Francisco de Lugo, heard this
reply they said ;-.'~agg- .,-.... -
''Senor, temper your anger. Remember
all the honors paid us by this King, who
is so good that if it had not been for him
we would all have been dead and they
would have eaten us, and who has even
given us his own daughters.
And when Cortes heard this he became
more angry at these words of reprimand,
and he said: What obligation am | un-
der to this dog who was dealing secretly
with Narvaez, and who will not even send
us food?' TO which our Captains again
replied that 1t is still our opinion that
you should temper your anger, and this
is good counsel"
At this time the Mexicans would give
us no food nor would they sell anything,
| and they were grown bold and insulting.
Cortes then turned to the principal men
of Montezuna and told them to tell their
| lord to Immediately order market to be
held. and that if not he would know what
measures to take.
The chiefs well understood the menac-
ing and naughty message which Cortes
sent to their lord. and also the reprimand
which our Captains had given him pre-
/ yiouslY, and they told Montezuma of the
manner in which they understood it, and
because of his anger thereat or because
the thing had been already concerted, a
quarter Of an hour had elapsed when a
soldier badly wounded came running in
from a town called Tacuba, and told how
he had been bringing in some Indian wo-
men and among others daughter of
Montezuma belonging to Cortes, who had
I been left in charge of the lord of Tacuba
when we went against Narvaez.
And the soldier said that all the road
by which he came and the whole city was
full of Indian warriors armed with all
sorts of arms, and that they had taken
away the Indian women from him and
had wounded him twice and had seized
him to put him in a canoe to carry him
off for sacrifice and would have done so
had he not abandoned the women, and
that they had broken one of the bridges
When Cortes heard this. and some of
us also, We knew it was serious matter,
for those of us who were accustomed to
fight the Indians knew what great multi
tudes of warriors they were accustome ed
to gather together, and that. notwith-
standing that we fought we'll and had
now more soldiers than in former bat
ties we We're yet in great risk of our lives
and that hunger and hard fighting stared
us in the face, especially in such strong
city. Cortes instantly ordered Diego de