HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



17 



his anceftors, taken the moft dangerous poft ; and San- 

 doval was obliged to make ufe of arguments and entrea- 

 ties to pacify him. Cortes, arrayed in his moft fplendid 

 apparel, and accompanied by all his officers, came to 

 meet them, and embraced and thanked thofe Tlafcalan 

 lords for their kind fervices. Six hours were fpent in 

 entering into Tezcuco in the bell order, and with the 

 cry of Castile ! Castile ! Tlafcala ! Tlafcala I in the midft 

 of the noife of the military mufic. 



The general Chichimecatl was hardly arrived, when, 

 without taking any reft after the fatigue of his journey, 

 he requefted Cortes to employ him and his troops againfl 

 the enemy. Cortes, who waited for nothing elfe than 

 the arrival of the auxiliary troops of Tlafcala, to exe- 

 cute an expedition which he had been meditating for 

 fome time, after leaving a ftrong garrifon in Tezcuco, 

 and giving the proper orders for the completing of the 

 brigantines, fet out on his march in the beginning of 

 fpring 1 52 1, with twenty-five horfes, and fix fmall 

 pieces of artillery, three hundred and fifty Spaniards, 

 thirty thoufand Tlafcalans, and a part of the Tezcucan 

 nobility; and becaufe he was afraid that the Tezcucans, 

 whom he did not altogether truft, might give fecret ad- 

 vice to the enemy and fruftrate his defigns, he left Tez- 

 cuco without publifhing the object of his expedition. 

 The army travelled twelve miles towards the north, 

 and remained that night under the open /ky. The next 

 day it proceeded to attack Xaltocan. a ftrong city fitu- 

 ated in the middle of a lake, with a road leading to it, 

 cut like thofe of Mexico, with feveral ditches. The 

 Spanifh infantry, aflifted by a considerable number of 

 the allies, pafled the ditches, through a thick fhower 

 of darts, arrows, and ftones, by which many were 

 Vol. III. D wounded; 



