Page:The Mastering of Mexico.djvu/313

Rh bow-cords, muskets, powder and other arms, but also with three horses and thirteen soldiers. Great was our delight! Cortes sent at once to bargain for all the arms and powder, in fact, for the whole cargo of the ship. If before this we were in good spirits for our start for Texcoco, now we felt the more elation on having this timely succor. All the passengers on board, and even the sailing master, came to our camp, where we gave them warmest welcome.

When our captain found himself so rich in muskets, powder, crossbows and horses, and saw how impatient we all were, officers and soldiers alike, again to attack the great city of Mexico, he asked the caciques of Tlaxcala to send ten thousand warriors to join us in our campaign. He was making them a speech about the matter when an elder cacique assured him that not only ten thousand warriors, but many more were at his service. We began our march a day or two after Christmas of the year 1520.

Our enemies, the Mexicans, had barricaded the mountain passes between Tlaxcala and Texcoco with felled trees and otherwise, but our Indian friends cleared away the trees and filled up holes so that our horsemen could pass, and when on the second day we descended from the heights and saw before us the lake of Mexico and its great cities standing in the midst of waters, we thanked God for allowing