36 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



they were not too diftant from the capital to be fpeedily 

 fummoned whenever it was requifite. 



Olid and Alvarado departed together with their troops 

 from Tezcuco, to go to their refpe&ive polls affigned 

 them by the general. Among the higher ranks of Tlaf- 

 calans who accompanied Alvarado, were the young Xi- 

 cotencatl, and his coufin Pilteudtli. In a quarrel which 

 happened, the latter was wounded by a Spaniard, who, 

 regardlefs of the orders publiftied by the general, or 

 the refpect due to that perfon, was near occafioning the 

 defertion of the Tlafcalans. This outrage difgufted 

 them extremely, and made them exprefs their diflatisfac- 

 tion in an open manner. Ojeda, their leader, endea- 

 voured to pacify them, and gave permiflion to Pilteu&li 

 to return to be cured in his native country. Xicotencatl, 

 who, on account of his rank as well as his relation to 

 Pilteu&li, was moil fenfible of the infult, finding no other 

 way to be revenged, fecretly abandoned the army, and, 

 with fome other Tlafcalans, took the road to Tlafcala. 

 Alvarado gave immediate advice of this to Cortes, who 

 ordered Ojeda to overtake and feize him ; and after 

 being taken made him be publicly hanged in the city of 

 Tezcuco (n), as Herrera and Torquemada fay, or in a 

 place near to it as Bernal Diaz affirms ; it having been 

 firfl publifhed by a herald, that the caufe of his con- 

 demnation was his having deferted, and excited the 



Tlafcalans 



(«) Cortes does not make mention of this event: it is probable he had par- 

 ticular motives for concealing it. Solis thinks it impoflible that Xicotencatl 

 was punifhed in Tezcuco ; " Becaufe Cortes would have riflced too much by 

 " the execution of fo violent a fentence under the eyes of fo many Tlafcalans, 

 " who would naturally have been fhocked and difgufted at fo ignominious a 

 « punifhment being inflicted on one of the firft men of their nation." But 

 Cortes rifked a great deal more, when he imprifoned Montezuma in his own 

 court, and under the eyes of a much fuperior number of Mexicans, who mufl 

 have been equally fenfible of the outrage done to the firft man of their nation. 



