l headlong down the mountain." To this he
answered, in the fulness of his courage, or because he thought he was
bound to speak as an officer in high command, "Here we have to do with
deeds, not words." I was obliged to swallow this reproach, and replied,
"Well, we shall see how well you will manage to get up here!" The words
were scarcely out of my mouth when other large pieces of the rock came
rolling down from the heights above, by which Pedro Barba was wounded,
and one of his men crushed to death. This seemed to deter Barba, and he
would not move a step further up.

The ensign Corral now called out to the soldiers to apprize Cortes that
it was impossible to ascend further, and that the descent was equally
dangerous. This information was conveyed from one man to the other until
it reached Cortes, who had even lost three men in the plain below, and
several others were severely wounded, by the lumps of rock which came
tumbling down. He had, however, not been able to see the perilous
situation we were in, from the winding of the rock, but had fully
expected to find that the greater part of us were either killed or
dreadfully wounded. He now immediately signified, by loud cries and a
few musket shots, that we should descend. This we accordingly did with
the utmost precaution, each one striving to assist his neighbour down
the steep rocks, until we all safely arrived in the plain beneath; our
heads were covered with wounds and blood, and the colours of our ensigns
were torn to rags. When Cortes saw the terrible condition we were in,
and was informed that we had lost eight men, he offered up thanks to the
Almighty that the rest of us had escaped so well.

Among other things that came to be spoken about were the few words which
passed between Pedro Barba and myself; indeed the latter mentioned it
himself; and the ensign Corral gave such a description of the terrible
masses of rock which came rolling down, that every one was astonished at
our escape, and the account of the great dangers we had had to brave was
noised about through the whole of our camp.

In the meantime a large body of Mexicans were lying in wait for us in a
spot where we could neither see nor imagine them to be. They had been
stationed there in case the other troops on the rock just mentioned
should require assistance; but when they were informed that our attempts
to storm this fortified rock had failed, both these bodies determined to
fall upon us from va