( 42 ) 



On the next morning, after mafs, our general detached Captain 

 Alonzo de Avila with one hundred foldiers, to march by the narrow, 

 road already mentioned, with inftrud:ions, that as foon as he heard. the 

 difcharge of the artillery, he fhould attack the town on one fide, whilq 

 the main body did the fame upon another. This being arranged, Cortes 

 with his troops proceeded in the veffels towards the fhore near the town 

 As foon as thofe of the enemy who were in canoes amongft the man- 

 groves perceived that we were proceeding to the attack, they all fallied 

 out, and fuch a prodigious number of them collected at our point of dif- 

 embarkation, that nothing was to be feen around us but armed hofts, 

 nor heard except their trumpets, horns, and timbrels. . 



Cortes obferving this, ordered a halt, and that the firing fliould 

 not commence, for he wifhed to proceed in a fiiridtly juftifiable manner. 

 He therefore ordered Diego de Godoy a royal notary, formally to re-, 

 quire them to permit us to fupply ourfelves with wood and water, and 

 fpeak to them as we were in duty bound upon what concerned the fer- 

 vice of our God and King, warning them, that in cafe of violence they 

 were anfwerable for all the mifchief that refulted. All this, being duly 

 explained to them produced no eflPed:, they feemed as determined to op- 

 pofe us as they were before. They made with their drums the fignals, 

 for a general attack, and to clofe upon us, and thefe were immediately, 

 followed by difcharges of arrows. Their canoes then proceeded to fur- 

 round us, and we were compelled to fight them up to our middles in 

 water. We were detained a confiderable time here, partly owing to the 

 attacks of the enemy with their lances and arrows, partly to the depth; 

 of the mud on the fliore, from which we could not extricate ourfelves 

 but with great difficulty ; and Cortes in particular, was obliged to leave 

 one of his bulkins behind him in it, and come to land barefooted. We 

 were juft at that time in very great difficulty, but as foon as we got to 

 the dry land, with our general at our head, calling upon St. Jago, we 

 fell upon the enemy, and forced them to give a little ground. They then 

 fell back behind fome <:ircular works conftrudied of large timber, until 

 we alfo drove them fjom thence, and entered by certain fmall gateways 



into 



