424 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



Spanifh foldier, who, having armed herfelf with a lance 

 and fhield, ran among the enemy, wounding and killing 

 them with an intrepidity very extraordinary in her fex. 

 Of the Tlafcalans, Bernal Diaz fays, that they fought 

 like lions, and amongft them Calmecahua, captain of the 

 troops of Maxixcatzin, particularly diftinguilhed himfelf. 

 He was not, however, lefs remarkable for his. bravery 

 than for his longevity, living to the age of one hundred 

 and thirty years. 



The lofs of the enemy was undoubtedly great in this 

 defeat, but greatly lefs than feveral authors reprefent it, 

 who make it amount to twenty thoufand men ; a num- - 

 ber rather incredible, according to the miferable ftate to 

 which the Spaniards were reduced, and the want of ar- 

 tillery and other fire-arms. On the contrary, the lofs 

 of the Spaniards was not fo fmall as Solis reports it (#), 

 for almoft all the Tlafcalans perifhed, and many of the 

 Spaniards in proportion to the number of their troops, 

 and all of them came ofT wounded. 



The Spaniards, tired at length with purfuing the fu- 

 gitives, renamed their march towards Tlafcala by the 



eaftern 



(«) Solis, in order to exaggerate the victory of Otompan fays, that amongft 

 the troops under Cortes fome were wounded, cf whom two or three Spaniards 

 died in Tlafcala: but this author, folely attentive to the ornament of his ftyle, 

 and the panegyric of his hero, took little note of numbers. He affirms, that 

 Cortes, after the defeat of Narvaez, carried eleven hundred men with him to 

 Mexico, who with other eighty that, according to his account, remained with 

 Alvarado, make eleven hundred and eighty. 3n the engagements, preceding 

 the defeat of the Spaniards at Mexico, he makes no mention of any death. In 

 the defeat he reckons two hundred only to have been killed; and, in his ac- 

 count of their journey to Tlafcala, he fpeaks of no other but the two or three 

 who died in Tlafcala of the wounds they had received at Otompan. Where 

 then are, or how have the other five hundred men and upwards difappeared, 

 which are wanting to make up the number of eleven hundred and eighty We 

 have a very different idea given us of the battle of Otompan from thofe who 

 were prefent at it, as appears from the letters of Cortes, and the Hiftory of 

 Bernal Diaz. 



