Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/135

 the street in which we were, led straight to the causeway of Sandoval's camp, and, on the left side, another street in which water no longer flowed, led to the market; they still held only one against us, nor could we pass it that day, though we fought the Indians stoutly. God, Our Lord, gave us victory every day, and the worst always fell on them. It was late that day when we returned to our camp.

The next day, while preparing to return to the city about nine o'clock in the morning, we observed from our camp that smoke was rising from the two highest towers which were in Tatelulco, or the market-place of the city. This we could not understand, for it seemed something more than the incensing which the Indians usually made to their idols, so we suspected that Pedro de Alvarado's men had arrived there, and, although this was the fact, we could not believe it. Pedro de Alvarado's men certainly behaved very valiantly, for there were many bridges and barricades to capture and the greater part of the enemy always came to defend them; but as he saw that on our side we were hedging the enemy in, he did everything he could to enter the market-place, because their whole strength was centred there. However, he could arrive only within sight of it, and capture those towers and many others which adjoin the same market-place, forming an enclosure almost like that of many of the towers in the city; the horsemen had hard work and were forced to retreat with their horses wounded, and thus Pedro de Alvarado and his people returned to his camp. We could not, that day, capture a bridge and water street which still remained to be taken in order to reach the market-place, without filling up and levelling all the bad places, and on retiring they pressed us very hard, although at their cost.

We again entered the city on the morning of the following day, and, encountering no obstacle before