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56 Aguilar asked him what madness led them to attack us, told us that Melchior had come to their camp the night before and counseled them to fall upon us and fight us night and day, for, he said, we were so few in number that they in the end would conquer.

As soon as Cortes was sure that the Indians would renew their war upon us, he ordered all our horses brought ashore, and every one of us, the wounded not excepted, to have our arms ready for use. When the horses now stepped on land they were very stiff and full of fear, they had been so long on shipboard; but by the next day they had got back their old liveliness. The gentlemen who, with Cortes at their head, were to fight on horseback were thirteen in number. Mesa had charge of the artillery and Diego de Ordas of us foot-soldiers.

We formed in order under our ensign early next day and marched towards some bean fields, where the Indians had attacked our exploring parties. On account of bogs, which our horsemen could not pass, Cortes took a roundabout course. Our other troops, under Diego de Ordas as I said, came up with the Indians near a town while they were moving forward in search of us. They had their faces painted white and black, they wore quilted cotton cuirasses about their bodies and bunches of feathers on their heads, and they carried huge bows and arrows, lances, shields and broadswords. Among them were slingers