We resumed our march early next morning, and arrived about eight o'clock at Xochimilco[10]. I can give no idea of the prodigious force of the enemy which was collected at this place to oppose us. They had broken down the bridges, and fortified themselves with many parapets and pallisades, and many of their chiefs were armed with the swords which we lost during our flight from Mexico, which they had polished very nicely. The attack at the bridge lasted above half an hour, several of our people getting across by swimming, in which attempt some were drowned, and we were assailed at once in front and rear and on both flanks. At length our cavalry got on firm ground, after losing several men, and we drove the enemy before us; but just at this time a fresh reinforcement of at least 10,000 Mexicans arrived, and received the charge of the cavalry with great intrepidity, and wounded four of our men. At this moment the good chesnut horse on which Cortes rode fell under him among a crowd of the enemy, who knocked him down, and great numbers gathering around were carrying him off, when a body of our Tlascalan allies came up to his rescue, headed by the valiant De Oli, and remounted him, after he had been severely wounded in the head. De Oli also received three desperate sword wounds from the enemy. As all the streets of the town were full of Mexican warriors, we had to divide into a number of separate bodies in order to fight them; but we who were nearest the place in which our general was in such danger, being alarmed by the uncommon noise and outcry, hurried there, where they found him and about fifteen of the cavalry in a very embarrassing situation, amid parapets and canals where the horse had no freedom to act. We immediately attacked the enemy, whom we forced to give ground, and brought off Cortes and De Oli. On first passing at the bridge, Cortes had ordered the cavalry to act in two divisions on purpose to clear our flanks: They returned at this time all wounded, and reported that the enemy were so numerous and desperate, that all their efforts wore unavailing to drive them away. At the time the cavalry came in, we were in an enclosed court, dressing our wounds with rags and burnt oil; and the enemy sent in such showers of arrows among us that hardly any escaped being wounded. We all now sallied out upon the enemy, both cavalry and infantry, and made considerable havoc among them with our swords, so that we drove them away and they gave over their attempt to storm our post. Having now some relaxation, Cortes brought our whole force to the large enclosures in which the temples were situated; and on some of us ascending to the top of one of the temples, where we had a commanding view of Mexico and the lake, we perceived about two thousand canoes full of troops coming to attack us. A body of ten thousand men were likewise seen in full march by land for the same purpose, and the enemy had already fully that number in and about the town. We