Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/111

 our entrance could not be effected without great danger, as they were very united, strong, and desperate unto death. As the Spaniards observed such delay, and that for more than twenty days they had never ceased righting, they importuned me, in such manner as I have heretofore stated, to enter and take the marketplace, because, having gained that, the enemy would have little space left to them from which to defend themselves, and, if they did not surrender, they would die from hunger and thirst, having no water to drink save the salt water of the lake. When I excused myself, the treasurer of Your Majesty told me that the entire camp insisted upon it, and that I ought to do it. I answered him and other persons who were in favour of this plan, that their object and wish were excellent, and that I desired, to do it more than anybody else, but that I refrained for the reason his importunity forced me to say; which was that, although he and others approved of it, there might be others who, on account of the great danger would not. And finally, they forced me so much that I agreed to do what I could, after first consulting the people of the other camps.

The next day I conferred with some of the principal persons of our camp, and we agreed to notify the alguacil mayor and Pedro de Alvarado that we would enter the city on the following day, and make an effort to reach the market-place, and I wrote to them what they were to do on the Tacuba side, and, besides writing, I sent two of my servants to explain the whole business, that they might be better informed. The course they were to follow was this: The alguacil mayor was to come, with ten horsemen, one hundred foot soldiers, and fifteen musketeers, to Pedro de Alvarado' s camp, leaving in his own camp ten other horsemen, with whom he should arrange that they were to lie in ambush behind some houses at the hour of the next day's battle; and that he should remove all his baggage as though he were breaking up his camp,