Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/82

 more than thirty thousand men of the people of Guajucingo, Churultecal, and Calco. This division was to go to the city of Iztapalapa for the purpose of destroying it, and afterwards to advance over a causeway in the lake, protected by the brigantines, in order to join with the garrison at Cuyoacan, so that after I entered the lake with the brigantines, the alguacil mayor might fix his headquarters wherever it seemed to him most convenient. For the thirteen brigantines with which I was to enter the lake, I left three hundred men, almost all of whom were sailors and well drilled, so that in each brigantine were twenty-five Spaniards; and each small vessel had a captain, a pilot, and six archers and musketeers.

According to the foregoing order the captains, who were to command the forces in the cities of Tacuba and