Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/312

288 of them we could hardly move about. I sallied forth against them on two or three sides, where they fought us very valiantly, and in one place, where a captain had gone out with two hundred men, they killed four, and wounded him and many others, before he could retreat. On the other side, where I was engaged, they wounded me, and many other Spaniards. We killed few of them, for they retreated to the other side of the bridges, and from the roofs and terraces did us much injury with stones. Some terraces we captured and set on fire; but they were so many and so strong, and so filled with people, well supplied with stones and other kinds of weapons, that we were not strong enough to take them all, nor to defend ourselves against their attack at their pleasure. They attacked the fort so violently, and set fire to it in so many places, that on one side a great part was destroyed without our being able to prevent it, until we stopped it by breaking the walls, and pulling down a part which put out the fire. Had it not been for the strong guard of musketeers and archers with some field pieces I placed there, they would have scaled that part without our being able to resist them. Thus we fought all that day until night was well advanced, and even throughout the night they kept up their cries and yells. During the night, I had those breaches caused by the fire repaired, and all the rest of the fort which seemed weak to me; and I distributed the watch and the guards, for on the next day we would have to fight stoutly; and I cared for more than eighty wounded.

At dawn the following day, the enemy opened the battle more stoutly than the day before, there being such a number of them that the artillery  Death of Montezuma had no need to aim but just to shoot into the mases of Indians. Although the artillery did much damage, for thirteen arquebuses were playing, besides muskets and archery which were also doing service