The herald., 1895-03-17
CHAPTER XIII
OF Our March to TlasCaIa and of the
Great Battle We Had With All the
Powers of Tlascaa and How II Pleased
God TO Give Us the Victory Ovar Them

While this skirmish was taking place
there suddenly came to their assistance
about three thousand Tlascalan warriors,
who had been in ambush, who poured
shower of arrows on our men and closed
in upon them. At this moment we ar
rived with our artillery and firearms and
crossbows, and little by little we forced
them to low their backs; but they never
theless resisted for long time and fought
in good order.
In this encounter we had four men
wounded, and it appears to me that one
of them died afterward of his wounds
The Tlascaans lost about seventeen.
From these hills we passed into a plain
where there were houses and fields of
corn and maguey, from which latter they
make sort OF wine. We camped that night
on the banks of small stream, and as we
had no oil we dressed our wounds with
an ointment made from the fat OF fat
Indian who had been killed in the fight,
and made a good supper on species of
dog which the Indians raise in great
numbers.
The inhabitants of all the houses had
fed and had taken everything with them
UndU UncN CDulQ CuIfy Oll, CNCli VIC uoSo,
but in the night time the latter returned
to the houses, when we caught them and
found them very good eating, and that
night we kept good watch expecting an
attack.
The next morning after having recon-
mended ourselves to Cod we left this
place marching in order of battle but had
not gone far when we were attacked by
body of over six thousand OF the enemy,
who rushed to the attack, beating their
drums and shouting their war cries and
pouring on us a shower of arrows and
balls of burnt earth thrown with sling
and fighting like brave warriors. Cortes
ordered us to halt and sent forward three
prisoners we had taken the day previous
to ask of them and demand that they
should not make war on us. That we
wished to have them for brothers and
called on Diego de Godoy. the King S secre
tary, to bear witness, in case there should
be some quention hereafter, that he had
offered them peace. But after they had
heard our message they rushed more
! fiercely to the attack than before, so that
we could not endure it any longer, and
| Cortes. crying Santiago" charged at the
| head of our horse. Our firearms killed
and wounded great many and among
the rest three Captains, and forced them
to retreat until we came to place where
there were over forty thousand warriors
under their chief Captain, Xcotenga, in
ambush. The device of this Xicotenga
was a red and white banner. The ground
being bad at this place, we could not
make much use of our horse and passed
through it only after great difficulty, but
still in good order.
After passing it, we were still in great
danger from them, for the air was dark
with arrows and stones thrown with
sings, but we paid them back with our
horse and firearms, so that great num-
Der of them were slain. But we did not
dare to break orr squadron, for the SOL
J der who failed to protect himself. even for
a moment, was instantly wounded and
ran imminent risk of being taken or
| killed.
They surrounded us on all Sides so that
we could gain nothing by charging them
and we did not dare to break up our order
of battle, and our lives were in great dam
| ger but that the great mercy of God came
to our assistance and guarded us.
During the battle, while a cavalier
named Pedro Moron was charging the en-
envy with two other companions (for it
was Cortes order they should go in
threes) the Indians seized his lance so
that he could not get it away, and during
the struggle he was badly wounded and
! his mares throat was cut so that she fell