of the goldsmiths, which was also deserted, and thence to Tacuba or Tlacopan, to which our troops had to cut their way through considerable bodies of the enemy. Our troops halted here for the night, and were assailed next morning by several successive bodies of the enemy, who had formed a plan to draw us into an ambuscade, by pretending to take flight along the fatal causeway of Tacuba, where we had suffered so much on our retreat from Mexico. This partly succeeded, as Cortes and his troops pursued them along the causeway across one of the bridges, and were immediately surrounded by prodigious numbers of the enemy, some on the land and others in canoes on the water. Cortes soon perceived his mistake, and ordered a retreat, which was made with the utmost firmness and regularity, our men constantly keeping a-front to the enemy and giving ground inch by inch, continually fighting. In the confusion of this surprise, Juan Volante, who carried the colours, fell from the bridge into the lake, and the Mexicans were even dragging him away to their canoes; yet he escaped from them and brought away his colours. In this unfortunate affair, five of our soldiers were slain, and a great many wounded. Cortes halted for five days at Tacuba[8], during which there were many skirmishes with the enemy, and then marched back to Tezcuco, the Mexicans continuing to harass him by frequent attacks; but having drawn them on one occasion into an ambuscade, in which they were defeated with considerable slaughter, they desisted from any farther attack. On arriving at our head-quarters in Tezcuco, the Tlascalans, who had enriched themselves with plunder during the expedition, solicited permission to go home that they might secure their acquisitions in their own country, which Cortes readily consented to.