420 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



and two daughters of Montezuma (j), and a daughter 

 of prince Maxixcatzin. 



la fpite of his greatnefs of foul, Cortes could not 

 check his tears at the fight of fuch calamity. He fat 

 down upon a ltone in Popotla, a village near Tlacopan, 

 not to repofe after his toil, but to weep for the lofs of his 

 friends and companions. In the midft of fo many difafters, 

 however, he had at lead the comfort of hearing that his 

 brave captains Sandoval, Alvarado, Olid, Ordaz, Avila, 

 and Lugo, his interpreters Aguilar and Donna Marina, 

 were fafe, by means of whom he chiefly trufled to be 

 able to repair his honour and conquer Mexico. 



The Spaniards found themfelves fo dejected and 

 enfeebled with fatigue, and with their wounds, that if 

 the Mexicans had purfued them, not one of them could 

 have efcaped with life; but the latter had hardly arriv- 

 ed at the lafl: bridge upon that road, when they returned 

 to their city, either becaufe they were contented with 

 the flaughter already committed, or having found the 

 dead bodies of the king of Acolhuacan, the royal princes 

 of Mexico, and other lords, they were employed in 

 mourning for their death and paying them funeral ho- 

 nours. They would have obferved the fame conduct 

 with their dead relations or friends; for they left the 

 ftreets and ditches entirely clean that day, burning all 

 the dead bodies, before they could infect the air by cor- 

 ruption. 



At break of day the Spaniards found themfelves in 

 Popotla, fcattered about, wounded, wearied, and afflict- 

 ed. 



(j) Torquemada affirms, as a well certified point, that Cortes, a few days 

 after he took Cacamatzin, made him be ftrangled in prifon. Cortes, B. Diaz, 

 Betancourt, and others, fay that he was killed along with the other prifoners 

 on that memorable night. 



