24 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



force which was levying againfl: their ftate, came to im- 

 plore the affiftance of the Spaniards ; fhewing to Cortes, 

 painted on a cloth, the cities which were arming againfl: 

 them by order of the king, and the routes which they 

 were to take. While Cortes was preparing his troops 

 for this expedition, mefiengers arrived at Tezcuco from 

 Tuzapan, Mexicatlzinco, and Nauhtlan, cities fituated 

 on the coafl: of the Mexican gulf beyond the colony of 

 Vera Cruz, to offer obedience in the name of their chiefs 

 to the king of Spain. 



On the fifth of April Cortes fet out from Tezcuco, 

 with thirty horfes, three hundred Spanifh infantry, and 

 twenty thoufand allies, leaving the command of that 

 place and the care of the brigantines to Sandoval. He 

 went flraight to Tlalmanalco, and from thence to Chi- 

 malhuacan (g), where he increafed his army with other 

 twenty thoufand men, and who, to revenge themfelves 

 on the Mexicans, or from the hopes of fpoil, or from 

 both motives, came from different places to ferve in that 

 war. Directing his way according to the route marked 

 in the Chalchefe paintings, he travelled through the 

 fouthern mountains towards Huaxtepec ; he faw near to 

 the road a fteep mountain, the top of which was occupi- 

 ed by a vaft number of women and children, and the 

 fides by innumerable warriors, who, trufting to the na- 

 tural ftrength of that place, made game of the Spaniards 

 with howling and whittling. Cortes, unable to endure 

 this mockery, attacked the mountain on three fides ; but 

 they were hardly begun to afcend with the greateft diffi- 

 culty 



(g) There were, and ftill are, two places of this name ; the one fituated up- 

 on the border of the lake of Tezcuco, clofe to the peninfula of Iztapalapan, and 

 called fimply Chimdhuacan ; the other, which is in the mountains to the fouth- 

 ward of the vale of Mexico, is called Chimdhuacan Chalco ; and it wa* to this 

 laft place that Cortes went. 



