The herald., 1895-05-05

and they told Cortes that II our lord the
Emperor knew of the great services we
| had done him he would confer great
honors upon us. but that the Bishop of
| Burgos had misinformed him. and that
| no other King of Spain had ever had such
loyal service done him by his vassals as
we had done Don Carlos in conquering
| this country.
and two CAPTAINS. Pedro de Ircio and
Juan Jaramillo, and myself to mount the
penol and see what was on top. and when
he gave the order he said, Look you,
gentlemen, do not touch single grain of
maize. = And as | understood this he
meant that we should improve the oppor-
tunitv. When we reached the top OF the
ipenoi, which was much stronger than the
former one, we found level plain with
veryinarrow entrance and the whole COW
cred with Indian warriors and their
women and children, with all their house
hold effects; and we found about twenty
dead and great many wounded and not
drop of water to drink. They had all
the tribute with them which at this sea-
son they were to pay to Guatemoc. And
when / saw so many loads OF cloth ana
other spoils | commenced to load four
Tlascalans. friends of mine. and four 9th
er Indians who were guarding the bag
gage; and when Pedro de Ircio saw me he
said that l should not do it, and insist
ed that | should. but as he was Captain
he had his way. although told him that
Cortes had only said that we should not
take one grain of maize, and when we
went down from the penol Pedro de lrcio
said to Cortes. thinking it would please
him. 'sWe took nothing from them. but
Bernal Diaz del Castillo loaded eight IN
dians and would have carried away the
cargoes had it not been for me.
I And then Cortes, half angrily. said to
him. ''And why did you not permit him?
You should have taken the cloth which
those Indians have; but see you did not
understand nv orders and from Bernal
Diaz, who did understand me, you took
away the spoils which he was taking
from those dogs, and they remain laugh
ing at us, after killing and wounding SO
many of u.s. When Pedro de lrcio heard
this he wanted to 90 back to the penol
again, but Cortes said that the time Tor DO
ing it was now passed.
The people from the other pencils now
came in and asked for pardon. and Cor
ties granted it, and they admitted them
selves vassals of His Majesty. after
which, there being no water near us, we
marched to the town OF Guaztepeque,
where was the garden which have al
ready said was the finest in New Spain.
And even Cortes ana the treasurer, AL
derate, when they saw it said they had
seen no finer, even in CASTLE. We were
well received by the Caciqucs. who had
already given their obedience to Gonzalo
de Sandoval That night we camped in
the garden and the next morning we COM
menced our march to Cuernavaca. On
the road we were met by some squadrons
of MeXicans but their spies were so poor
that we came on them unawares, ana our
horse pursued them to their town. which
was called Tepuztlan. and here we had
good spoil of Indian women and other
things As all the men of the town had
fled, Cortes sent out to call the Caclques
to peace three times threatening that II
they did :ot come he would burn the
town. But they would not come in. and
in order to strike fear into the other towns
he ordered that half of the houses be
fired. Tie next day we again took up our
march for Cuernavaca or as we called 1T,
Cueruaboca. We found Cuernavaca i'll
possession of strong force OF warriors,
and indeed the place was very strong.
being surrounded by deep ravines. The
horse could not enter because the Indians
had broken down the bridges. We at
first considered it impossible to force an
entrance. but at that moment some lndi-
ans came to Cortes and told him that at
a distance of about half league there
was a place where the horses could enter,
and he Immediately went there while we
attempted an entrance along the sides OF
the ravines. And in one place. finding
some trees inclining across the ravine
where it was narrow, some of us attempt
ed the passage and although three SOL
dier lost their footing and fell OIL the
tree, still twenty or thirty of us got across
and good many of the Tlascalans.
| also came near falling. for it made my
head swim when looked down into the
ravine. We Immediately attacked the
enemy. and as they were not expecting
an attack from that direction, we took
them in the rear. At this moment, also.
Cristobal de OH and Pedro de Avarado
and Andres de Tapla. with some other
horsemen. charged them i'll front, and
Cortes now also arriving with the re-
mainder of the horse. the enemy broke
and fled to the mountains and ravines.
In this town we found a great booty, both
of pretty Indian women and cloth and
mantles. Cortes ordered that we should
remain still for that day. and we camped
in garden belonging to the lord OF the
town. Soon afterwards our scouts came
in to advise us that twenty OF the Indians
who looked like chiefs were coming to-
ward us. and that they looked as though
they came to ask for peace. When they
arrived where Cortes was they gave him
some pieces of gold, and begged that he
would pardon them for not coming to ask
for peace before. but tnat the King OF
Mexico had sent to them saying that
their town being fortress. they must
make war on us. and that he had at the
same time sent some squadrons OF Mex
lean warriors 10 assist them, but that
from what they had seen of us they were
satisfied that no fortress could Withstand
us. They begged that we would make
peace with them; and to this Cortes re-
plied THAT we were the vassals of a great
Emperor, and that those who served him
he rewarded. and that he would grant
them peace.