Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/316

 town to which the guide was taking us, who assured us that the guide spoke the truth.

At about sunset, we distinguished a noise as of people, and, asking those women what it meant, they answered that a certain festival was being celebrated that day. I concealed all my people in the forest in the most perfect manner possible, and placed some scouts quite close to the town, and others on the road, to capture any Indians who might be passing; and thus we passed the night in a great downpour of rain and amid the greatest pest of mosquitoes imaginable. Such was the condition of the forest and the road, and so dark and tempestuous was the night that, two or three times when I attempted to reach the town, I failed to discover the way, although we were so near that we could almost hear the people talking to one another; thus we were forced to wait for daylight, when we fell upon them so opportunely that we found them all asleep. I had given orders that nobody should enter a house or utter a cry, but that we should surround the principal houses, especially that of the chief, and a large barracks in which the guide said all the warriors slept. Our good fortune willed it that the first house to which we came was that in which the warriors were gathered. It was already daylight, so that everything could be seen, and one of my men, seeing so many people in arms, and considering how few in number we were to attack such numerous opponents, even though they were asleep, began to cry for help, and to shout, "Santiago! Santiago!" which awakened the Indians. Some of them seized their weapons, and others did not, but, the houses having no walls, their roofs being supported merely by wooden posts, most of the Indians fled in every direction as soon as we entered the place, for it was too large to be entirely surrounded. I assure Your Majesty that had that man not shouted everyone of them would have been captured and it would have turned