Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/144

 they numbered in all more than forty thousand men; and such were the shrieks and the weeping of the women and children that there was none whose heart did not break; and we had more trouble in preventing our allies from killing and inflicting tortures than we had in fighting with the Indians, for no such inhuman cruelty as the natives of these parts practice was ever seen amongst any people. Our allies obtained very great plunder, which we could not prevent, because we were about nine hundred Spaniards, and they more than one hundred and fifty thousand men, and no attention or diligence was sufficient to prevent them from robbing, although we did everything possible to stop it. One of the reasons why I refused to go to extremes in those previous days was that, by taking them by assault, they would probably throw what they had into the lake, and if they did not do so our allies would steal everything they found; and, for this reason, I feared that but a small part of the great wealth existing in the city, as shown by what I had before obtained for Your Highness, would be secured for Your Majesty. As it was already late, and we could no longer endure the stench of the dead which had lain for many days in those streets (the most pestilential thing in the world), we returned to our camps.

That afternoon, I arranged that, as on the next day following we should again enter the city, three large field pieces should be prepared which we would take to the city, because, as I feared that the enemy were so compact that they could not turn round, the Spaniards in charging might be crushed by mere numbers, and therefore I wanted to do them some damage with the field pieces in order to force them out towards us. I ordered the alguacil mayor likewise to be prepared to enter, the next day, with the brigantines, through the canals of a large lake extending amongst some houses