Spanish invalid left here when on our march to Mexico,
that the persons who had been sent for it from Villa Rica had been robbed
and murdered on the road, at the time we were engaged in hostilities with
the Mexicans. Letters were sent to Villa Rica, giving an account of all
the disastrous events which had befallen us, and desiring an immediate
supply of all the arms and ammunition that could be spared, and to send us
a strong reinforcement. By the return of the messengers, we were informed
that all was well at Villa Rica and the neighbourhood, and that the
reinforcement should be immediately sent. It accordingly arrived soon
after, consisting in all of _seven_ men, three of whom were sailors, and
all of them were invalids. They were commanded by a soldier named Lencero,
who afterwards kept an inn still known by his name; and for a long while
afterwards, _a Lencero reinforcement_ was a proverbial saying among us. We
were involved in some trouble by the younger Xicotencatl, who had
commanded the Tlascalan army against us on our first arrival in their
country. This ambitious chieftain, anxious to be revenged upon us for the
disgrace he had formerly sustained, on hearing of our misfortunes and our
intended march to Tlascala, conceived a project for surprising us on our
march and putting us all to death. For this purpose, he assembled many of
his relations, friends, and adherents, to whom he shewed how easily we
might all be destroyed, and was very active in forming a party and
collecting an army for this purpose. Although severely reproached by his
father for this treacherous design, he persevered in his plan; but the
intrigue was discovered by Chichimecatl, his determined enemy, who
immediately communicated the intelligence to the council of Tlascala,
before whom Xicotencatl was brought prisoner to answer for his treacherous
intentions. Maxicatzin made a long speech in our favour, representing the
prosperity which their state had enjoyed ever since our arrival, by
freeing them from the depredations of their Mexican enemies, and enabling
them to procure salt from which they had been long debarred. He then
reprobated the proposed treachery of the younger Xicotencatl, against men
who certainly were those concerning whom the prophecy had been handed down
by their ancestors. In reply to this, and to a discourse from his father
to the same purpose, the young man used such violent and disrespectful
language, that he was seized and t