Upwards of 1200 of our Tlascalan allies were also killed; as were Juan de Alcantara and two more who had been sent from Chempoalla for the share of the gold assigned to the garrison of Villa Rica, who were robbed and murdered. Upon the whole, all who were concerned in the treasure came to bad fortune; and thus a much greater proportion of the soldiers of Narvaez perished in the flight from Mexico than of our veterans, as they had avariciously loaded themselves with gold on that unhappy night[12]. [1] We are not writing the history of the conquest of Mexico, yet may be allowed to say that Cortes committed a gross military error, in entering Mexico without establishing a strong communication of posts between that insulated city and the land, along one of the causeways; which he might easily have done along the shortest causeway of Tacuba or Tlacopan, or by the aqueduct of Chapoltepec.--E. [2] It is to be noticed that the lake in which the city of Mexico was built contained water so salt as to be unfit for drinking.--E. [3] This prince, whom Diaz names Coadlavaca, was brother to Montezuma, prince of Iztapalapan, and Tlachcocoatl, or grand general of the Mexican army.--E. [4] The expression in the text, of having nearly reached the firm land, is rather obscure, and may possibly mean that they had nearly forced their way along one of the causeways leading from the insular city to the continental shore of the lake.--E. [5] Tlaltelulco was the name of that division of the city of Mexico through which the Spaniards marched in their way towards the causeway of Tacuba, and was probably used to summon the inhabitants of that quarter to the attack.--E. [6] Clavigero, II. 116, says that the miserable remnant of the Spaniards assembled in Popotla, a village near Tacuba or Tlacopan. Diaz is often negligent of dates, but we learn in a subsequent passage, that this disastrous retreat from Mexico was on the 1st of July 1520.--E. [7] This place is about nine miles W.N.W. from Mexico, and only about a mile and a half from Tacuba. Its Mexican name, according to Clavigero, was Otoncalpolco. It is almost in an opposite direction from the road to Tlascala, but was probably chosen on purpose to avoid the populous hostile vale of Mexico, and to get as soon as possible among the hills, and among some of the conquered tribes who bore the Mexican yoke with impatience. Clavigero says that the Spaniards procured at this place some refreshments from a tribe of Otomies, who inhabited two neighbouring hamlets.--E. [8] The distance from where they now were to Tlascala was between 80 and 90 miles in a straight line; but as they chose a very circuitous route, by the west and north of the lakes in the vale of Mexico, before turning south-eastwards to Tlascala, their march must have much exceeded that distance.--E.