Page:The Mastering of Mexico.djvu/297

Rh Cruz, giving reasons that we had neither horses, muskets, powder, crossbows nor thread to make bow strings—in short, that we had none of the necessities of war and out of our company only four hundred and forty men survived. Moreover, they protested, Mexican warriors held every pass and stronghold, and if we longer delayed ship-worms would eat our vessels as they lay in the harbor.

This protest our captain answered by far more weighty contradictions, and when we of his old troop begged him most earnestly not to permit followers of Narvaez to go, for it would hurt the cause of God and the interests of our emperor, and when they saw their efforts were fruitless, they finally consented to join us in the campaign, provided Cortes would permit them, when opportunity came, to return to Cuba. Still, their murmurs did not end, but day by day they complained—how dearly they had paid for Cortes' conquest in giving up the peace and security of comfortable homes.

Our captain had wished the caciques of Tlaxcala to furnish him with five thousand warriors on his march to Tepeaca and its towns, some twenty-eight miles away, against which we aimed to carry our arms. If our wish to take vengeance for the death of Spaniards was great, that of the caciques of Tlaxcala, because of the robbing of farms, was greater, and they sent four thousand warriors to join us who