DISPOSITION OF FORCES TO ATTACK THE CITY. 



65 



around the northern head of the lake of Tezcoco, whilst Sandoval, 

 supported by Cortez with the brigantines, passed around the 

 southern portion of it, to complete the destruction of the town of 

 Iztapalapan, which was deemed by the conqueror altogether too 

 important a point to be left in the rear. In the latter part of May, 

 1521, all these cavaliers got into their assigned military positions, 

 and it is from this period that the commencement of the siege of 

 Mexico is dated, although Alvarado had previously had some con- 

 flicts with the people on the causeway that led to his head quarters 

 in Tacuba, and had already destroyed the pipes that fed the water- 

 , tanks and fountains of the capital. 



At length Cortez set sail with his flotilla in order to sustain 

 Sandoval's march to Iztapalapan. As he passed across the lake 

 and under the shadow of the " rock of the Marquis," he descried 

 from his brigantines several hundred canoes of the Mexicans filled 

 with soldiers and advancing rapidly over the calm lake. There 

 was no wind to swell his sails or give him command of his vessels' 

 motion, and the conqueror was obliged to await the arrival of the 

 canoes without making such disposition for action as was needful 

 in the emergency. But as the Indian squadron approached, a 

 breeze suddenly sprang up, and Cortez, widening his line of 

 battle, bore down upon the frail skiffs, overturning, crushing and 

 sinking them by the first blow of his formidable prows, whilst he 

 fired to the right and left amid the discomfitted flotilla. But few 

 of these Indian boats returned to the canals of the city, and this 

 signal victory made Cortez, forever after, the undisputed master 

 of the lake. 



The conqueror took up his head quarters at Xoloc, where the 

 causeway of Cojohuacan met the great causeway of the south. 

 The chief avenues to Mexico had been occupied for some time, as 

 has been already related, but either through ignorance or singular 

 neglect, there was the third great causeway, of Tepejacac, on the 

 north, which still afforded the means of communication with the 

 people of the surrounding country. This had been altogether 

 neglected. Alvarado was immediately ordered to close this outlet, 

 and Sandoval took up his position on the dyke. Thus far the 

 efforts of the Spaniards and auxiliaries had been confined to 

 precautionary movements rather than to decisive assaults upon the 

 capital. But it soon became evident that a city like Mexico might 

 hold out long against a blockade alone. Accordingly an attack 

 was ordered by Cortez to be made by the two commanders at the 

 other military points nearest their quarters. The brigantines sailed 

 9 



