At this period an order was issued for bringing in all our prisoners to be marked, being the third time since we came to the country. If that operation were unjustly conducted the first time, it was worse the second, and this time worse than ever; for besides the two fifths for the king and Cortes, no less than thirty draughts were made for the captains; besides which, all the handsome females we had given in to be marked, were stolen away, and concealed till it became convenient to produce them. As the brigantines were entirely finished, and the canal for their passage into the lake was now sufficiently wide and deep for that purpose, Cortes issued orders to all the districts in our alliance, near Tezcuco, to send him, in the course of ten days, 8000 arrow-shafts from each district, made of a particular wood, and as many copper heads. Within the appointed time, the whole number required was brought to head-quarters, all executed better than even the patterns. Captain Pedro Barba, who commanded the crossbows, ordered each of his soldiers to provide two cords and nuts, and to try the range of their bows. Cortes ordered all the cavalry to have their lances new-headed, and to exercise their horses daily. He sent likewise an express to the elder Xicotencatl at Tlascala, otherwise called Don Lorenzo de Vargas, to send 20,000 of the warriors of Tlascala, Huixotzinco and Cholula; and he sent similar orders to Chalco and Tlalmanalco; ordering all our allies to rendezvous at Tezcuco on the day after the festival of the Holy Ghost, 28th April 1521. And on that day, Don Hernandez Ixtlilxochitl of Tezcuco, was to join us with all his forces. Some considerable reinforcements of soldiers, horses, arms, and ammunition had arrived from Spain and other places, so that when mustered mustered on the before-mentioned day by Cortes, in the large enclosures of Tezcuco, our Spanish force amounted to the following number: 84 cavalry, 650 infantry, armed with sword and buckler, or pikes, and 194 musketeers and crossbow-men, in all 928 Spaniards. From this number he selected 12 musketeers or crossbow-men, and 12 of the other infantry, for rowers to each of the vessels, in all 312 men, appointing a captain to each vessel; and he distributed 20 cannoneers through the fleet, which he armed with such guns as we had that were fit for this service. Many of our men had been formerly sailors, yet all were extremely averse from acting as rowers on the present occasion; for which reason the general made inquiry as to those who were natives of sea-ports, or who had formerly been fishers or seafaring men, all of whom he ordered to the oars; and though some of them pled their gentility as an exemption, he would hear of no excuse. By these means he obtained 150 men for this service, who were in fact in a much better situation than we who bore the brunt and danger of the war on land, as will appear in the sequel. When all this was arranged, and the crews