cloth and other valuable articles, and this example was followed by others. While thus employed, a body of Mexicans came upon them unexpectedly in canoes, and besides wounding many of our men, they seized four soldiers alive, whom they carried off in triumph to Mexico; and from these men Guatimotzin learnt the smallness of our number, and the great loss we had sustained in killed and wounded. After questioning them as much as he thought proper, Guatimotzin commanded their hands and feet to be cut off, and sent them in this mutilated condition through many of the surrounding districts, as an example of the treatment he intended for us all, and then ordered them to be put to death. On the ensuing morning we had to sustain a fresh attack, as had regularly been the case during the four days we remained in Xochimilco, but which we now determined to quit. Before commencing our march, Cortes drew up the army in an open place a little way out of the town, in which the markets were held, where he made us a speech, in which he expatiated on the dangers we had to encounter in our march, and the strong bodies of the enemy we might expect to oppose our retreat, and then warmly urged us to leave all our plunder and luggage, that we might not be exposed to danger in its defence. We remonstrated, however, that it would be a cowardly act to abandon what we had so hardly won, declaring that we felt confident of being able to defend our persons and property against all assailants. He gave way, therefore, to our wishes, and arranged the order of our march, placing the baggage in the centre, and dividing the cavalry and crossbows between the van and rear guards, as our musketry was now useless for want of powder. The enemy harassed us by continual assaults all the way from Xochimilco to Cuyocan, or Cojohuacan, a city on the borders of the lake, near one of the causeways leading to Mexico, which we found abandoned, and where we took up our quarters for two days, taking care of our wounds, and making arrows for our crossbows. The enemy which had especially obstructed us on this march, consisted of the inhabitants of Xochimilco, Cuyocan, Huitzilopochco, Iztapalapa, Mizquic, and five other towns, all of considerable size, and built on the edge of the lake, near one another, and not far from Mexico. On the third morning we marched for Tlacopan or Tacuba, harassed as usual by the enemy, but our cavalry soon forced them to retire to their canals and ditches. During this march, Cortes attempted to lay an ambush for the enemy, for which purpose he set out with ten horsemen and four servants, but had nearly fallen into a snare himself. Having encountered a party a Mexicans who fled before him, he pursued them too far, and was suddenly surrounded by a large body of warriors, who started out from an ambuscade, and wounded all the horses in the first attack, carrying off two of the attendants of Cortes to be sacrificed at