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120 made of flesh and blood, that, as they did, we ate dogs, fowls, bread and fruit, if we could get them, but we did not devour the flesh of those we had slain. The worst things these priests and wizards said of us was that we were very valiant during the day, but became helpless as soon as the sun went down.

This last finding furnished a capital hint to the caciques; and Xicotenga did not fail to draw out ten thousand of his bravest troops and fall upon us by night. They implicitly believed they should capture and sacrifice us to their gods. But silently as they approached, and furiously as they charged, they found us on guard, and we gave them so rough a reception with our muskets and cut them so vigorously with our swords, that they soon turned their backs, our cavalry pursuing by the bright light of the moon.

It was on the following morning that we saw our true condition. Not one among us who had not one, two or three wounds, and all were weakened by fatigue and hardship. Fifty-five of us had died in battle or from disease and the great cold, and Cortes and the Padre de Olmedo were suffering from fever. Naturally we began to think what would be the final outcome of our undertaking. If the Tlaxcalans, whom we thought peacefully minded toward us, could reduce us to such straits, what would become of us when we met the great armies of against