ade the best use of our time to
dress our wounds and repair our weapons.

During this interval, it appears that some prisoners of Xochimilco
pointed out to the Tlascallans several houses belonging to rich
individuals, in which were hidden many valuable things, such as
manufactured cotton interwoven with feathers, women's shifts, gold, and
other matters. These houses stood in the lake, but it was possible to
reach them by a causeway, and by passing over two or three bridges which
lay across the deep canals. The Tlascallans communicated this to several
of our men, who instantly repaired to these houses, which they found
quite unprotected, and, as they had been told, filled with various
articles of value. They stowed away as much as they possibly could, and
returned with a rich booty to our head-quarters. When others of our men
saw these rich spoils, they likewise paid a visit to these dwellings,
and were busily engaged in emptying some wooden cases, which were full
of different things, when a large fleet of Mexican canoes arrived with a
numerous body of troops, and suddenly fell upon the plunderers, of whom
they wounded the greater part, and carried off four alive to Mexico. It
was indeed a wonder that the rest escaped. Two of the four Spaniards
were Juan de Lara and Alonso Hernandez; the two others belonged to the
company which stood under the command of Andreas de Monjaraz, but I have
forgotten their names.

These unfortunate men were brought into the presence of Quauhtemoctzin,
who questioned them about the smallness of our army, the number of our
wounded, and the object of our present expedition: and when he thought
he had gained sufficient information, he ordered their arms and legs to
be chopped off, and to be sent to those towns which had concluded peace
with Cortes, accompanied by the message that he hoped to kill us all
before we could escape to Tezcuco, and with our hearts and our blood he
would make a savoury offering to his idols.

Quauhtemoctzin then despatched a large fleet of canoes filled with
troops, and a considerable army by land, to Xochimilco, with strict
commands not to allow one of us to escape alive out of that town.

Not to fatigue the reader with a description of the many battles we
fought with the Mexicans during these four days, I will confine myself
by stating that, with break of day, so vast a number of Mexicans rushed
all at once upon us from the inlets of the lakes, from the streets, and