FLIGHT OF THE SPANIARDS TO TACUBA. 



49 



munition wagons, heavy guns, bales of rich cloths, chests of gold, 

 artillery, and the bodies of men or horses, were piled in heaps on 

 the highway or rolled into the water. Forty-six of the cavalry 

 were cut off and four hundred and fifty of the Christians killed, 

 whilst four thousand of the Indian auxiliaries perished. 1 The 

 General's baggage, papers, and minute diary of his adventures, 

 were swallowed in the waters. The ammunition, the artillery, and 

 every musket were lost. Meanwhile Montezuma had perished 

 from his wounds some days before the sortie was attempted, and 

 his body had been delivered to his subjects with suitable honors. 

 Alvarado, — Tonatiuh, the " child of the sun," as the natives 

 delighted to call him, escaped during the noche triste by a miracu- 

 lous leap with the aid of his lance-stafF over a canal, to whose 

 edge he had been pursued by the foe. And when Cortez, at 

 length, found himself with his thin and battered band, on the 

 heights of Tacuba, west of the city, beyond the borders of the 

 lake, it may be said, without exaggeration, that nothing was left 

 to reassure him but his indomitable heart and the faithful Indian 

 girl whose lips, and perhaps whose counsel, had been so useful in 

 his service. 



1 These numbers are variously stated by different authorities. — See Prescott, vol. 

 2d, p. 377. 



7 



