Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/114

 not sally out to take at their backs the Spaniards, who were advancing along the street.

They sent to tell me at this time that they had advanced much and were not very far from the market-place, and in any case they wished to push on because they already heard the combat which the alguacil mayor and Pedro de Alvarado were waging on their side. I sent orders that they should on no account advance a step without leaving the bridges well filled up, so that, if they needed to retreat, the water would be no obstacle or embarrassment, for therein lay the danger; and they returned to tell me that all they had gained were well repaired and I might go myself and see if it was so. Dreading that they might go astray, and commit blunders respecting the filling up of the ditches, I went thither, and found that they had passed over a ditch in the street which was ten paces broad, with water flowing through it ten feet in depth, and that in passing they had thrown wood and maize and reed grass into it; as they had passed few at a time and with care, the wood and maize had not sunk, and they, in the joy of victory, were going ahead so recklessly that they believed the work had been very thoroughly done. The moment I reached that wretched bridge, I saw the Spaniards and many of our friends returning in full flight, and the enemy like dogs setting on them; and, seeing the impending mishap, I began to cry, Stop! Stop! but when I arrived at the water I found it full of Spaniards and Indians as though not one straw had been put into it. The enemy charged so furiously, killing amongst the Spaniards, that they threw themselves into the water with them, and their canoes came by the water streets and captured the Spaniards alive. As the affair came about so suddenly, and I saw the people being killed, I determined to remain there and die fighting; and the most that I and my men could do was to lend our hands to some unlucky Spaniards who were drowning and help them out; and