the town.

Cortes sent three or four several times to the caziques of this
district, desiring them to come and sue for peace, otherwise we should
burn down their town and put them all to death. However, they each time
sent word that they had no wish to come, and we set fire to half the
houses of the town, in order to frighten the other towns of this
district into obedience. It was not till then that the caziques of
Yauhtepec, through which we had passed this day, made their appearance,
and declared themselves vassals of our emperor.

The next day we marched to Coadalbaca, which we often erroneously termed
Cuernavaca.[15] In this town lay a strong garrison of Mexicans, besides
the troops of the place itself, and it was rendered difficult of access
from a hollow eight fathoms deep, which lay in front of the town, and
through which a small stream of water flowed. There was no other way for
our cavalry to get into the town than by two bridges, but these had been
burnt down by the enemy, who were strongly entrenched on the other side
of this deep hollow, and incessantly annoyed us with their arrows,
lances, and slings. While they were thus attacking us Cortes received
information that a couple of miles further up there was a spot where our
cavalry could pass over. Our general, therefore, immediately repaired
thither with the horse, while the rest of us strove to get over in the
best way we could. We succeeded above our expectations, by climbing up
and along the branches of the trees which grew on each side of this
hollow, but this was attended by considerable danger, and three of our
men fell down into the water, one of whom broke his leg. My head grew
quite dizzy as I thus passed across the depth; but as soon as twenty or
thirty of us, with a great number of Tlascallans had reached the
opposite side, we fell upon the rear of the Mexicans before they were in
the least aware of it; for they had considered it an impossibility for
us to pass the hollow, and imagined in their astonishment, when they saw
us approaching, that we were much more numerous than was really the
case, particularly as Oli, Alvarado and Tapia, with the greater part of
our cavalry who had risked their lives by crossing a bridge which had
been almost burnt down, appeared there at the same time. We now fell in
a body upon the enemy, who instantly turned round and fled to the
mountains, and other parts of this deep hollow, where we could not
possibly follow t