Page:The Mastering of Mexico.djvu/335

Rh On a Wednesday of May, 1521, we set out from Texcoco, turning to the right or north. By vespers of the fourth day we had come to Tacuba, like other towns we had passed, deserted. Here, at Tacuba, we quartered ourselves and here our Tlaxcalan friends that very afternoon went through every house in the town and brought in plenty to eat. So close is Tacuba to Mexico that we could plainly hear the Mexican warriors crowding the causeways, and the lake in their canoes, and yelling at us, derisively challenging us to come out and fight. They wished to provoke us to sally at night, when they would have the advantage.

Next morning, having commended ourselves to God, with the two divisions headed by Alvarado and Olid united, we marched about two miles and broke the pipes of the aqueduct of Chapultepec—the reader recalls that these carried water to Mexico. On this errand we fell in with many warriors, for the Mexicans understood that we were now beginning our operations against the city. We put our opponents to flight, however, and carried out our purpose of breaking the pipes. From that time on to the end of the siege no more water flowed into Mexico from Chapultepec.

As soon as we had destroyed the conduits our officers agreed to advance from Tacuba along the causeway in endeavor to gain one of the bridges.