172 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. VI. 
against the traders of Anahuac was then, as ever, the prelude to 
hostilities. On every side they fell upon their caravans ; they plundered 
their merchandise, scattered their escorts, tracked them into the woods 
and mountains, and massacred in cold blood those in the towns who had 
been unable to escape the first impulse of revenge. Then appeared a 
remarkable instance of what constancy joined to skill and valour can 
accomplish. A caravan leaving Tlatilolco arrived in the south, a short 
distance from the shores of the Pacific, on the way to some one of the 
towns on the coast of Anahuac-Ayotlan, whither it was drawn by the 
great fairs in which such caravans annually took part. In face of the 
danger that threatened them, the Tlatilolcas made a resolute determina- 
tion ; the city of Quauhtenanco, which they had just entered, was strong 
and capable of being easily defended. They were but few in number, 
but their courage made up for numbers, and they were well aware of the 
kind of enemies they had about them. Without hesitating a single 
instant they threw themselves upon the inhabitants at unawares, disarmed 
them, and made themselves masters of the place ; the chiefs were kept 
in sight in a palace, and their persons answered for the future good be- 
haviour of their vassals, until their situation could be made known in 
Mexico and relief be sent to them. 
“ During this interval the insurrection spread over all the provinces 
of Mixteca and Zapotecapan. After a succession of sanguinary engage- 
ments, Cocyoéza was restored to the possession of most of the towns of 
the kingdom of Tehuantepec; the garrison of this capital, reduced by 
starvation, was obliged in its turn to surrender, and there soon remained 
to the Mexicans no more than the isolated fortresses of Huaxyacac and 
Teotitlan, with the place Quauhtenanco where the brave Pochtecas of 
Tlatilolco continued to defend themselves with rare heroism. The 
adjoining towns joined forces in vain to drive them from their position, 
where it was felt that their presence was a blot on the honour of the 
country ; Izoatlan, Xochitlan, Amaxtepec, Atlan, Omitlan, and Mapach- 
tepec exhausted themselves before its walls, without succeeding in 
making a breach. All these efforts only served to make more illustrious 
the heroism of this handful of traders; for four consecutive years, they 
succeeded in maintaining themselves in spite of their enemies, and in 
thwarting their designs ; they not only repelled them with incredible 
vigour, but, more than once in their sorties, they succeeded in capturing 
from among their assailants famous chiefs whom they fattened in order 
to drag them afterwards to the altars of the inhuman divinities of 
Tenochtitlan. 
“The news of these events came to Ahuitzotl in the midst of his 
