Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/79

 distance to the lake. More than eight thousand natives of Acolhuacan and Tesaico were employed daily for fifty days; for the channel of the canal was more than twelve feet deep and as many in width, all staked and walled. Thus, the water which flows through it would by its own force carry them to the lake, so that we could take the smaller vessels without danger, and with little labour to the water. It certainly was a very great work, worthy of admiration.

As soon as the brigantines were finished and put in the canal on the twenty-eighth of April of the said year, I made a review of all my people and found eighty-six horsemen, a hundred and eighteen bowmen and musketeers, seven hundred and odd foot soldiers with swords and shields, three heavy iron guns, fifteen small bronze field pieces and ten cwt. of powder. Having finished the review, I charged and recommended all the Spaniards to obey and comply with the ordinances which I had made respecting the conduct of the war, and to be merry, and keep up their courage inasmuch as they saw how Our Lord was leading us to victory over our enemies; for they well knew that when we entered Tesaico we had brought only forty horsemen, but that God had helped us even more than we had thought, for a ship had arrived with horses, men, and arms, as they had seen; and I said principally that the fact that we were righting to promote the spread of our faith and for the reduction to Your Majesty's service of so many revolted provinces, should fill them with courage and zeal to conquer or die. They all answered, demonstrating a willingness and desire for