All the timber for our vessels being in readiness, and every thing prepared for our expedition against Mexico, it was debated in our council of war in what place we should establish our head-quarters, in order to prepare our measures for investing that city. Some strongly recommended Ayotcingo as most convenient for that purpose, on account of its canals. Cortes and others preferred Tezcuco, as best adapted for making incursions into the Mexican territory, and that place was accordingly fixed upon. We accordingly began our march from Tlascala immediately after the junction of our last reinforcement from Villa Rica, consisting of the soldiers who came with Medel and De Burgos. [1] A long digression is here omitted, in which Diaz severely reprehends the account given by Gomara of this and other transactions in his history of the conquest of Mexico, altogether uninteresting to the English reader.--E. [2] Clavigero, II. 132, mentions about this time an expedition against Tochtepec, a considerable town on the river of Papaloapan, in which Salcedo and a detachment of 80 Spaniards were entirely cut off.--E. [3] This must have been a very considerable treasure. On one occasion, Clavigero reckons a load of gold at 800 ounces. The eighty Tlascalans might therefore carry off 64,000 ounces, which at £4 the ounce, is worth £256,000 Sterling, and of considerably more efficacious value in those days than a million is now.--E. SECTION XII. _Transactions of Cortes and the Spaniards from their March against Mexico, to the Commencement of the Siege of that City_.