450 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



" Their numbers were such that we could not make 

 any effectual impression or ascend the steps. At length 

 we forced our way up. Here Cortez showed himself 

 the man that he really was. What a desperate engage- 

 ment we then had ! Every man of us was covered with 

 blood." 



" They drove us down six, and even ten of the steps ; 

 while others who were in the corridors, or within side 

 of the railings and concavities of the great temple, shot 

 such clouds of arrows at us that we could not main- 

 tain our ground," " began our retreat, every man of us 

 being wounded, and forty-six of us left dead on the 

 spot. I have often seen this engagement represented 

 in the paintings of the natives both of Mexico and Tlas- 

 cala, and our ascent into the great temple." 



Again, he speaks of arriving at a village and taking 

 up their "quarters in a strong temple;" "assaulting 

 them at their posts in the temples and large walled en- 

 closures." 



At Tezcuco " we took up our quarters in some build- 

 ings which consisted of large halls and enclosed courts." 

 " Alvarado, De Oli, and some soldiers, whereof I was 

 one, then ascended to the top of the great temple, which 

 was very lofty, in order to notice what was going on in 

 the neighbourhood." 



" We proceeded to another town called Terrayuco, 

 but which we named the town of the serpents, on ac- 

 count of the enormous figures of those animals which we 

 found in their temples, and which they worshipped as 

 gods." 



Again : "In this garden our whole force lodged for 

 the night. I certainly never had seen one of such mag- 

 nificence ; and Cortez and the treasurer Alderete, after 

 they had walked through and examined it, declared that 



