ough
our jackets were thickly quilted with cotton, they wounded the greater
part of our men; nor did they desist from the attack till night came on;
but they had the great advantage over us, that they could relieve their
troops from time to time, by pouring in fresh men, and could shower
innumerable quantities of stones, arrows, and lances, upon our
brigantines, from the tops of the houses. Indeed I cannot find a more
appropriate expression than shower, although they alone can feel its
full force who were present on the occasion. If we did at times succeed,
with the utmost exertion, to force an entrenchment or a bridge, and we
omitted to station a strong detachment to guard it, the enemy returned
in the night, made another opening in the causeway, threw up larger
entrenchments, and dug deep pits, which immediately filled with water,
and these they covered slightly over, that we might sink down into them
in the midst of the battle of the following day, when the canoes would
hasten up to profit by the confusion, and carry off our men prisoners.
For this purpose numbers of canoes were lying wait in places where they
were out of the reach of our brigantines, though they were always ready
at hand, if their assistance was required. But the enemy had provided
in another artful way to render our brigantines useless in certain spots
of the lake, by driving numbers of stakes into the water, whose tops
were just below the surface; so that it was often impossible for our
vessels to avoid them, and they consequently stuck fast, and left our
troops open to the attacks of the canoes.

I have before mentioned of what little use the cavalry was to us in our
operations on the causeway; for whenever they did drive the Mexicans
before them up to the bridges, the latter leaped into the water, and
retreated behind the entrenchments which they had thrown up on the
causeway itself, where other bodies of the enemy stood ready to receive
them armed with extremely long lances, with which, and various kinds of
projectiles, they severely wounded our horses; so that the owners of the
horses were very unwilling to risk them in such unequal conflict; for at
that time the ordinary price of a horse was from 800 to 1000 pesos.

When night came on, and released us from the attacks of the enemy, we
returned to our encampment, and attended to our wounds, which we dressed
with bandages steeped in oil. There was likewise a soldier among our
troops, named Jua