Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/115

 some came out wounded and others half drowned and others without weapons. I sent them on ahead. Such was the number of the enemy that they surrounded me and some other ten or fifteen who had remained with me.

Being entirely occupied in helping those who were drowning, I had not observed or thought of my own danger, and already certain Indians had grasped  Perilous Position of Cortes me and would have carried me away had it not been for a captain of fifty whom I always had with me, and another youth of my company, who, after God, gave me my life, and, in giving it me, as a valiant man he there lost his own. Meanwhile, the Spaniards who had been routed were retreating by the causeway, and as it was small, and narrow, and on a level with the water which those dogs had intentionally prepared in this manner, and as many of our own friends, who had also been routed, were also going by it, the road was so encumbered, and there was such a delay in advancing, that the enemy had time to come up from both sides and take and kill as many as they chose. And that captain who was with me, called Antonio de Quinomes, said to me, "Let us go away from here and save yourself, as you know that without you none of us can escape"; but seeing that he could not prevail upon me to go, he grasped me by the arms, to force me to retire. Although I would have rejoiced more in death than in life, by the importunity of that and of my other companions, we began to withdraw, fighting with our swords and bucklers against the enemy, who surrounded us. At this moment a servant of mine rode up on horseback and cleared a little space, but immediately a lance thrown from a low roof struck him in the throat, and overthrew him.

In the midst of this great conflict, waiting for the people to pass that small causeway and reach safety while we held back the enemy, a servant of mine