rious points at once.

When Cortes received notice of their approach, he ordered the horse and
the whole of our troops to march against them. The ground we occupied
was quite level, and fertile meadows stretched along between the hills.
The enemy now retreated before us, and we pursued them until they took
up a strong position on another rock, without our being able to do them
much harm, as they continually fled to places where we could not
possibly get at them.

We therefore returned to our former position, in front of the first rock
we had attempted to ascend; but as not a single drop of water had passed
our lips the whole day, and as our horses were equally parched with
thirst, and the few wells here contained nothing but muddy water, for
the best were in the enemy's possession, we broke up our encampment, and
formed another, about six miles further on, at the foot of a mountain,
as before; but here also we found but little water.

Near this rocky mountain there stood several black mulberry trees and
about ten or twelve houses, and we had scarcely rested a few minutes
when the wild war-whoop of the Indians resounded from the mountain top,
and we were immediately greeted with a shower of arrows and lances,
while large masses of the rock came rolling down, as before. Here the
enemy were in greater numbers than on the former occasion, and their
position much stronger, as we soon discovered. All the firing of our
musketeers and crossbow-men was to no purpose, for the enemy was beyond
their reach, and too well protected by their entrenchments. An attempt
to ascend the rock was attended with no better success; twice had we
essayed this from the houses just mentioned, and some few of us had
reached a good way up; but we found it even more terrific than the
former rock; so that we did not exactly gain much honour in this affair,
and were forced to cede the victory to the Mexicans and their allies.

We encamped for the night beneath the mulberry trees, but were almost
dying with thirst. The following morning our crossbow-men and musketeers
were ordered to take up their position on a very steep rock, which lay
near to us, and to direct their fire at the enemy in their entrenchments
on the rock opposite.

Francisco Verdugo and Julian de Alderete, who were excellent
crossbow-men, joined this small detachment, which was placed under the
command of Pedro Barba. While these were on their way thither, the rest
of our troops onc