( >«3 ) 



to the Duke of Albuquerque, by whom (he has four or five fons all 

 worthy cavaliers ; Donna Leonora herfelf being an excellent lady, the 

 true defcendant of fuch a father, who was in right of Donna Louifa, 

 great lord, or as it were fovereign, in Tlafcala. 



Cortes now obtained in a converfation with Xicotenga the elder 

 and Maxicatzin, confiderable information relative to Mexico. They 

 told him, that Montezuma had an army of a hundred thoufand war- 

 riors ; that the enmity between the Mexicans and Tlafcalans had fub- 

 fifted above a hundred years, the latter having formed an alliance for 

 mutual protedion with the people of Guaxocingo, and that all the dif- 

 tridls which Montezuma had brought under his fubjedlion were dilTa- 

 tisfied with his tyranny, and inclined to favor his enemies. They faid 

 that the people from whom the Tlafcalans had fufiered moft, were thofe 

 of Cholula, from which city, the troops of Montezuma could come 

 by furprife upon the Tlafcalan territory; that the Mexican garrifons 

 occupied all the cities of the neighbouring ftates, who were obliged to 

 pay tribute to their monarch, in gold, manufacftures, and victims for 

 facrificci and in fhort, that his wealth and power were immenfe. They 

 informed him alfo of the great ftrength of the city of Mexico, of the 

 lake, and the caufeways with their wooden drawbridges. They farther 

 defcribed that city as built principally in the water, fo that there was no 

 pafTmg from one houfe to another except by drawbridges or in canoes, 

 and that all the houfes were terraced at top, and defended by parapets. 

 The arms of the Mexicans they defcribed as confifting of double-headed 

 darts thrown by a kind of fling, lances with double-edged blades of 

 an ell in length, made of ftone, and (harper than a razor, two-handed 

 fwords of the fame material and conftru(5tion, and fhields. The Tlaf- 

 calan chiefs then produced for our infped:ion large cloths of nequen, 

 whereon were painted reprefentations of their various battles. The dif- 

 courfe afterwards turned upon themfelves and their nation. They faid 

 that their anceftors had told them, that in former times the country was 

 inhabited by men and women of great ftature, and wicked manners, 

 whom their anceftors had at length extirpated; and in order that we 



Q might 



