Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/70

 to observe their strategy and agility. Six horsemen and myself, who were readier than the others charged  Narrow Escape of Cortes amongst them and frightened by the horses they fled, we following them through the city, killing many, though we found ourselves in a great conflict because they were so daring that many of them ventured to face the horsemen with their swords and shields. While we were pell-mell amongst them and in a great confusion, the horse I rode fell through sheer fatigue, and as some of the adversaries saw me on foot they rushed upon me. While I defended myself against them with my lance, an Indian of Tascaltecal,Cortes searched in vain for this Indian who saved his life, but, as he could never be found dead or alive, he finally declared that he was persuaded that it was not an Indian but his holy patron St. Peter who had rescued him. Clavigero pertinently notes that, in this battle as in many others, the Indians might easily have killed Cortes had they not determined to take him alive and sacrifice him. Bernal Diaz attributes the rescue of Cortes to a Castilian soldier, Cristobal de Olea, who led a body of Tlascalans to his relief, but makes no mention of any one particular Tlascalan. Cortes may, however, be supposed to know better, and he refers to Olea as "a servant of mine who helped raise the horse." Olea received three frightful wounds from the deadly maquahuitl, a weapon which the Mexicans wielded with great address.

The fighting in and around Xochimilco lasted from the 1 5th of April until the morning of Friday the 20th, when the Spaniards arrived in Tlacopan (Tacuba), and, though Cortes says little about the events of those days, his men suffered considerably. While a small division was engaged in pillaging some storehouses near Xochimilco, the Mexicans attacked them; wounding a number and taking Juan de Lara, Alonso Hernandez, and two other soldiers of Andres de Monjaraz's company prisoners. These men were carried in triumph to Temixtitan where, after being questioned by Quauhtemotzin, they were sacrificed and their arms and legs taken to be exhibited in the neighbouring provinces as a forecast of the fate awaiting the remainder of the white men (Bernal Diaz, cap. cxlv.).

Cortes wished to leave behind the spoils taken at Xochimilco rather than be cumbered with them, but yielded to the clamours of his men, who declared they were able to defend what they had taken. The arrival in Tlacopan was marked, as Cortes relates, by the capture of two more Spaniards, Francisco Martin Vendabal and Pedro Gallego, when he saw me in danger, rushed to help