426 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



and all the other chiefs made offers to the fame pnrpofc 

 Cortes returned them thanks for their kind wifhes and 

 offers, and laying hold of the flandard which he had 

 taken the day before from the Mexican general, he 

 prefented it to Maxixcatzin, and gave to the other 

 lords fome other valuable fpoils. The Tlafcalan women 

 conjured Cortes to revenge the death of their fons and 

 relations, and vented their grief in a thoufand impreca- 

 tions againft the Mexican nation. 



After repofing three days in this place, they pro- 

 ceeded to the capital of the republic, diftant about fif- 

 teen miles, for the more fpeedy cure of their wounded, 

 of whom, however, eight foldiers died. The concourfe 

 of people at their entry into Tlafcala was great, and 

 perhaps greater than when they made their firft entry 

 into that city. The reception which Maxixcatzin gave 

 them, and the care he took of them, were becoming 

 his generofity of mind, and demonftrative of the fin- 

 cerity of his friendfhip. The Spaniards acknowledged 

 themfelves every day more and more obliged to that 

 nation, the friendship of which, by being properly culti- 

 vated, proved the mod effectual means not only for the 

 conquefl of the capital of the Mexican empire, but alfo 

 of all the provinces which oppofed the progrefs of the 

 Spanifh arms, and for the fubduing of the barbarous 

 Chichimecas and Otomies, by whom the conquerors 

 were long haraffed. 



While the Spaniards were repofing after their fa- 

 tigues and recovering of their wounds in Tiafcala, the 

 Mexicans were employed in repairing the evils done to 

 their capital and their kingdom. The loffes and injuries 

 which they had fuftained in the fpace of one year, were 

 truly heavy and didreffing j for, befides immenfe fums 



of 



