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 304 near being the scene of a second disaster, for the Mexicans, feigning retreat, drew him along the causeway into an ambuscade, and then fell so furiously upon his troops that he only extricated them with the greatest difficulty. The Mexicans ironically invited them to enter their capital, assuring them that their priests were waiting to sacrifice them, and boasting that they would no longer find a Montezuma to deal with, but a king unaffected by bribes or threats. Cortez retreated to Tezcoco, followed. by the Mexicans most of the way, who heaped insults upon his troops and attributed their return to cowardice.

The province of Chalco, lying south of Tezcoco, and southeast of Mexico, being rich and populous, was the scene of continual warfare between the rival forces, each struggling desperately for its possession. Several times its capital, the city of Chalco, had been the field of bloody strife between the Spanish and Mexican soldiers, for no sooner were the latter driven out than the indefatigable Guatemotzin again covered the lake with his war-canoes. At last Cortez resolved upon a general invasion of the province, and marching swiftly through the cities of Chalco and Tlalmenalco, he swept his army southward towards the vale of Cuernavaca. He everywhere encountered a determined resistance. At one point, in assailing a garrison entrenched on the top of a steep and rocky hill, the whole army was kept for a time powerless by reason of the great rocks which the Indians rolled down upon the heads of the assaulting party. At another engagement the slaughter was so great that the waters of a small stream near which it took place were tinged with blood for the space of an hour.

In the valley of Cuernavaca, nearly forty miles distant from Mexico, they found a city considered impregnable from the strength of its natural defences; surrounded on