always treated with the utmost respect and attention, as no officer and soldier, even Cortes, ever came into his presence or even passed him, without taking of his helmet. He always treated us in return with much courtesey. The Mexican officers who were publickly executed, were four in number. Of these Quauhpopoca was the principal, two of the others were named _Coatl_ and _Quiabuitl,_ but I have forgot the name of the fourth[7]. As soon as this punishment was made known throughout the provinces of the Mexican empire, it occasioned universal terror among the natives, and the people of Tontonacapan immediately returned to submission to our garrison at Villa Rica.--Let me now pause, and request my readers to consider the train of our heroic acts which I have already related. _First_, we destroyed our ships, by which we cut off all hope of retreat. _Secondly_, we entered the city of Mexico, in spite of the many alarming warnings we had received. _Thirdly_, we made Montezuma, the sovereign of that great and populous empire, a prisoner, in the midst of his own palace and capital, surrounded by numerous guards. _Fourthly_, we publickly burnt his officers in front of his palace, and put the king in irons during the execution. I now frequently revolve upon these great events in my old age, which still appear as fresh in my memory as if they had only happened yesterday. I say to myself, it was not we who did those mighty things, but we were guided therein by the hand of God. For without his direction, how was it to be conceived that so small a number as we were, not amounting to four hundred and fifty men, should have dared to seize and put in irons, and publickly burn his officers for obeying his orders, in a city larger and more populous than Venice, and 1500 leagues from our own country.