HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



435 



Cholula, that it was imagined their number amounted 

 to a hundred and fifty thoufand. 



The firft expedition was againft Zacatepec, the place 

 of the confederacy of the Tepejacans. The inhabitants 

 of it laid in ambufcade for the Spaniards. They fought 

 on both fides with great courage and obftinacy, but at 

 laft the Spaniards were vi&ors, and a confiderable num- 

 ber of the enemy left dead on the field From 

 thence the army marched againft Acatzinco, a city ten 

 miles to the fouthward of Tepejacac, into which the 

 Spaniards entered triumphant, after gaining a battle little 

 lefs difficult than that of Zacatepec. From Acatzinco 

 Cortes fent detachments to burn feveral places in that 

 ^neighbourhood, and to fubjecl others to his obedience; 

 and when it appeared to be time to attack the principal 

 city, he fet out with all his army for Tepejacac, where 

 he entered without any refinance from the citizens. 

 Here he declared many prifoners taken in that province 

 to be flaves, and made the mark of a feal upon them 

 with a hot iron, according to the barbarous cuftom of 

 that century, allotting the fifth part of them to the king 

 of Spain, and dividing the reft among the Spaniards and 

 the allies. He founded there, according to the manner 

 of fpeaking of the Spaniards in thofe days, a city which 

 he called Segura della Frontera, the founding of which 

 confifted in eftablifliing Spanilh magiftrates there, and 

 creeling a fmall fortification 



The 



(a) Several hiftorians fay, that the night after the battle of Zacatepec the al- 

 lies of the Spaniards had a great fupper <sf human flefh; part roafted on fpit» 

 of wood, part boiled in fifty thoufand pots. But this appears a complete fable. 

 It is not probable that Cortes, or Bernal Diaz, mould have omitted an event in 

 their relatiorit of fo remarkable a nature, particularly Diaz, who is, generally too 

 prolix and tedious in his recital of fucha&s of inhumanity. 



(b) The city of Tepejacac, or Tepeaca, as the Spaniards call it, is ftill ex 

 ifting; but the name of Segura delto Frontera was foon forgotten. Charles V. 



gave 



