Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/306

282 to make the arrest, while I, with the remaining hundred and seventy (as in all we were two hundred and fifty men), followed on foot, without artillery or horses, so as to aid him if Narvaez and his companions should resist. On the same day, the alguacil mayor and I, with the rest of the people, arrived near the city of Cempoal, where Narvaez and his people were quartered. He learned of our coming, and canie out, with eighty horsemen, and five hundred foot-soldiers, leaving the rest of his force in his quarters, which were in the great mosque of that strongly fortified city. Having marched to within almost a league of where we were, and not finding us, he believed he had been deceived, so he returned to his quarters, holding all his people in readiness, and placing two sentinels almost a league outside the town.

As I wished to avoid all scandal, it seemed to me that there would be less if I went by night, unperceived if  Cortes Defeats Narvaez possible, directly to the quarters of Narvaez, which I and my men knew very well, and there seized him. For, once he was a prisoner, no trouble would arise, for the others wished to submit to justice, especially as most of them had been forced to come by Diego Velasquez, fearing that, unless they did, he might take away their slaves in the island of Fernandina. Thus it happened, on the feast of Pentecost, a little after midnight, I attacked the quarters. I had encountered the sentinels Narvaez had placed, and my vanguard captured one of them, from whom I informed myself of their position, but the other escaped; and in order that he should not arrive before me and give notice of my coming, I hastened as much as possible. The sentinel arrived, however, almost half an hour before me, and, when I approached, Narvaez and all his men were already armed, and had saddled their horses, and were well prepared, with two hundred men guarding each quarter. We moved so