OPERATIONS AT CHALCO AND CUERNAVACA. 



59 



By this time the brigantines were nearly completed, and the 

 canal dug by which they were to be carried to the waters of the 

 lake, for, at that time, the town of Tezcoco was distant from its 

 margin. He dared not trust these precious materials for his future 

 success beyond the shelter of his citadel in Tezcoco, since every 

 effort had been already made by hostile and marauding parties to 

 destroy them ; and he was therefore obliged to undergo the trouble 

 of digging this canal, about half a league in length, in order to 

 launch his vessels when the moment for final action arrived. 



Nor was his heart uncheered by fresh arrivals from the old 

 world. Two hundred men, well provided with arms and ammuni- 

 tion, and with upwards of seventy horses, — coming most probably 

 from Hispaniola, — found their way from Vera Cruz to Tezcoco, 

 and united themselves with the corps of Cortez. 



In the meantime the Emperor again directed his arms against 

 his recreant subjects of Chalco, which he seemed resolved to 

 subdue and hold at all hazards, so as effectually to cut off the most 

 important land approach to his capital. Envoys arrived in the 

 Spanish camp with reports of the danger that menaced them, and 

 earnest appeals for efficient support. This time, Cortez resolved 

 to lead the party destined for this service, and, on the 5th of April, 

 set out with thirty horsemen, three hundred infantry and a large 

 body of Tlascalans and Tezcocans, to succor a city whose neu- 

 trality, at least, it was important, as we have already shown, 

 should eventually be secured. He seems to have effected, by his 

 personal influence in Chalco and its neighborhood, what his lieu- 

 tenant Sandoval had been unable to do by arms, so that, he not 

 only rendered a large number of loyal Aztecs passive, but even 

 secured the co-operation of additional auxiliaries from among the 

 Chalcans and the tribes that dwelt on the borders of their lake. 



Cortez was not, however, content with this demonstration 

 against his near neighbors, but, resolved, now that he was once 

 more in the saddle, to cross the sierra that hemmed in the vale 

 of Anahuac, on the south, and to descend its southern slopes on a 

 visit to the warmer regions that basked at their feet. Accordingly 

 he prosecuted his southern march through large bodies of harass- 

 ing skirmishers, who hung upon the rear and flanks of his troop, 

 and annoyed it with arrows and missiles, which they hurled from 

 the crags as his men thrided the narrow defiles of the mountains. 

 Passing through Huaxtepec and Jauhtepec, he arrived on the ninth 

 day of his march, before the strong town of Guauhnahuac, or 

 Cuernavaca, as it is now known in the geography of Mexico. It 



