o this the brigantines had arrived, transported by the
Tlascalans, eight thousand bearers loaded with timbers and appliances,
"a marvellous sight to see," wrote Cortes to the king. "I assure your
Majesty that the train of bearers was six miles long." It is related by
a subsequent historian, in 1626, that tallow being scarce for the
shipwrights' purposes, it was obtained from the dead bodies of Indians
who had fallen in the fights; presumably by boiling them down.[18]

[Footnote 18: This obtaining of _sebo humano_, or "human tallow," by
the Spaniards seems to have been practised in Peru also, according to
stories told me by the natives of the Andes, and recorded in my book,
"The Andes and the Amazon."]

Plans were then laid for an attack upon the island-city. But before
this it was necessary to subjugate some troublesome Indians to the
west, and the expedition to Cuernavaca was successfully carried out. A
remarkable incident of this was the surprise attack upon the enemy in
an impregnable position, by the crossing of a profound chasm by means
of two overhanging trees, which were utilised as a natural bridge by
some Tlascalans and the Spaniards, who passed the dangerous spot by
this method. Return was then made to Xochimilco on the fresh-water lake
of that name, adjoining at that time that of Texcoco on the south. The
name of this place in the Aztec tongue signifies "The Field of
Flowers," for there were numbers of the singular _chinampas_, or
floating-gardens, which were a feature of the aquatic life of the
Mexicans, existing upon this lake.

The siege operations were conducted vigorously both by land and water.
Again before the eyes of the Spaniards stretched that fatal
causeway--path of death amid the salt waters of Texcoco for so many of
their brave comrades upon the _Noche Triste_ of their terrible flight
from Tenochtitlan. And there loomed once more that dreaded _teocalli_,
whence the war-drum's mournful notes were heard. Guarded now by the
capable and persistent Guatemoc, the city refused an offer of treaty,
and invited the destruction which was to fall upon it. From the
_azoteas_, or roofs of their buildings and temples, the undaunted
Mexicans beheld the white-winged brigantines, armed with those belching
engines of thunder and death whose sting they well knew: and saw the
ruthless hand of devastation laying waste their fair town of the lake
shore, and cutting off their means of life.

But the Spaniards had ye