hem. A short time afterwards Cortes arrived with the
remaining cavalry, and we now took possession of the town without any
further opposition. Here we took many fine Indian females prisoners, and
otherwise made a rich booty, particularly of large sized mantles. Our
general now allowed us to rest for the remainder of the day, and we all
quartered ourselves comfortably in a garden belonging to the chief of
the town.

We had not been long here before our outposts brought intelligence that
twenty Indians were approaching, who, to judge from their bearing, must
either be caziques or men of distinction, and seemed to be coming with
some message or to sue for peace. They proved, indeed, to be the
caziques of the town, who approached Cortes with the utmost veneration,
handed over to him a present in gold, and begged pardon for their recent
behaviour towards us. In excuse for not having come earlier to demand
peace of us, they said that Quauhtemoctzin had secretly commanded them
to treat us as enemies, and that they had not been able to avoid this as
their town formed one of the fortifications of the country, and was
occupied by a Mexican garrison. They were now, continued they,
convinced, that there was no fortification we could not take, and it was
therefore their sincere wish to become friendly with us.

Cortes was very kind to these caziques, and spoke to them of our
emperor, and of his mercy to all those who willingly obeyed him; and it
was in his name he now acknowledged them as his subjects. I still
remember the extraordinary expression these caziques made use of on this
occasion; namely, that our gods in punishment for their not having sued
earlier for peace, had given their gods authority to chastise their
persons and deprive them of their property.[16]

CHAPTER CXLV.

_The terrible thirst we suffered on our further march; our dangerous
position at Xochimilco, and the many battles we fought there with
the Mexicans, until our return to Tezcuco._

From Cuernavaca we marched towards Xochimilco, a large town lying about
eleven miles from Mexico,[17] and of which the greater part was built in
the water. On our march we adopted our usual military precautions, and
arrived at a forest of pine trees, without being able to obtain a single
drop of water all the way. Our arms were very heavy, and the day, which
had been exceedingly hot, was now far spent, and we were almost parched
with thirst, yet we had s