174 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. VI. 
further precaution, he had had all the ground capable of cultivation over 
this vast enclosure planted with maize and frijol (beans), and had put 
fish in abundance into the natural ponds that were found on the summit 
of the most lofty of the chain. Seen from the city, from which it is 
only some fifteen miles distant, this portion of the mountain, bearing in 
the country the name Guiengola, has the form of a truncated cone, level 
at the summit ; it is a table land surrounded by frightful precipices, and 
generally enveloped in clouds. There may be seen even to-day the 
fine ruins of the fortress of Cocyoéza, and the remains of the palace in 
which that prince awaited the arrival of the Mexicans and the Acolhuas. 
“ After having sacked the temples of Yopaa, these continued their 
march to Tehuantepec. On their descent from the mountains, they 
saw themselves at once assailed by a myriad of invisible enemies ; 
projectiles of all kinds were shot at them, and masses of stone rolled 
down upon them from the mountain tops. Already harassed by a long 
march, the end of which they had been looking forward to, when they ~ 
arrived in the plain of Dani-Guivedchi, they not only found themselves 
deceived in the most cruel way, but instead of rest and the pleasures 
they had hoped for in this happy country, instead of enemies half 
conquered by the terror of their name and fleeing in dismay at their 
very aspect, they found hosts of warriors filling all the defiles, perfectly 
sheltered behind their ramparts, whence they were able at any moment 
to fall upon and crush them, without leaving them time to place them- 
selves in the attitude of defence. Henceforth sides were changed. 
From aggressors, as they thought themselves, they were now compelled 
to look to their own safety ; far from thinking of attacking Tehuantepec 
they had not hands enough to set to work trenching the plain, so as to 
shelter themselves from the fury of the Zapotecs. This was the work 
of the first who came safe and sound from the gorges of Guiengola, but, 
owing to the advance guard’s ignorance of the preparations of Cocyoéza, 
a large number perished before they could escape from these drea dful 
precipices. 
“Once delivered from this danger, the Mexican army did not find 
much amelioration of its circumstances; on all sides it was surrounded 
by enemies, and was incapable of acting with any chance of success, 
whether it determined to besiege Tehuantepec or return on the road to 
Anahuac. Decimated by unexpected assaults, of which it had been the 
object since its arrival, deprived of provisions which it had expected to | 
find in the capital, harassed incessantly by a powerful enemy that 
allowed no relief to reach it and allowed it no rest night or day, it looked 
forward, not without dread, to the moment when it should fall altogether 
