Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/355

 

Spaniards had been three weeks beneath the hospitable roofs of the Tlascaltecs, and now they departed amid expressions of good-will mingled with grief. A crowd as large as that which had welcomed their arrival followed them for a considerable distance, and this included all the available warriors of the districts, who would gladly have joined the handful of heroes in their quest for wealth and glory amongst the hated Aztecs. Cortés did not think it well, however, to trammel his movements, or to intrude on his various hosts with too large a force of undisciplined and unmanageable men, whom he had not learned to trust, and only about five thousand were allowed to attach themselves to his army.

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