the previous day, was wounded in three
several places, and had, therefore, lent her to Moron. This Moron was a
capital horse soldier, and died a few days after; at least, I do not
remember to have seen him again after this battle.

We had fought for a good hour, and our firearms must have done
considerable destruction among the enemy who stood so crowded together.
Every man among us did his duty, and we fought away like brave warriors,
for in all truth we were placed in greater jeopardy this time than we
had ever been before. Numbers of the Indians lay dead on the field of
battle; among whom were eight of the principal chiefs, all sons of old
caziques, who dwelt together in the chief town of the country. At last
our enemies retreated in good order, which we were glad enough to see,
for we could scarcely stand any longer from over-fatigue, nor durst we
think of following the enemy. Add to which, the ground was greatly to
our disadvantage, partly on account of the number of straggling houses,
partly on account of a species of pits in which many of the inhabitants
dwelt. This battle was fought on the first two days of September, 1519,
near the village of Tehuacacinco, and we returned fervent thanks to God
for having rescued us from such great peril and for the victory we had
gained.

After the battle, we fell back to some temples, which were very high,
and large enough to serve us for castles. We dressed the wounds of our
men with the fat of Indians, as we had done on previous occasions. Five
of our horses were wounded, and fifteen men, of whom one subsequently
died. Upon this we took our suppers, and made a good meal off the number
of dogs and fowls which we found in the dwellings. Before, however, we
lay down to rest, we posted our sentinels, and continually patrolled
during the night: not before all these things were properly ordered did
we lie down, and slept till morning.

For the rest, we made fifteen prisoners, among whom were two of the most
distinguished personages; but we could never discover how many we killed
or wounded, as it was customary with the Tlascallans immediately to
carry off the wounded and dead from the field of battle.[24]

[24] (This note refers to the last sentence of the chapter.) To this
custom of the Tlascallans of carrying off their killed and wounded from
the field of battle, the historian de Solis partially attributes Cortes'
great success in these battles; for as a great number of the