[368] Cortés, according to Bernal Diaz, ordered the troops who took possession of the second fortress “not to meddle with a grain of maize belonging to the besieged.” Diaz, giving this a very liberal interpretation, proceeded forthwith to load his Indian _tamanes_ with everything but maize, as fair booty. He was interrupted in his labors, however, by the captain of the detachment, who gave a more narrow construction to his general’s orders, much to the dissatisfaction of the latter, if we may trust the doughty chronicler. Ibid., ubi supra. [369] “Adonde estaua la huerta que he dicho, que es la mejor que auia visto en toda mi vida, y ansí lo torno á dezir, que Cortés, y el Tesorero Alderete, desque entonces la viéron, y passeáron algo de ella, se admiráron, y dixéron, que mejor cosa de huerta no auian visto en Castilla.” Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 144. [370] This barbarous Indian name is tortured into all possible variations by the old chroniclers. The town soon received from the Spaniards the name which it now bears, of Cuernavaca, and by which it is indicated on modern maps. “Prevalse poi quello di _Cuernabaca_, col quale è presentemente conosciuta dagli Spagnuoli.” Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. iii. p. 185, nota. [371] The stout-hearted Diaz was one of those who performed this dangerous feat, though his head swam so, as he tells us, that he scarcely knew how he got on. “Porque de mí digo, que verdaderamete quando passaua, q lo ví mui peligroso, é malo de passar, y se me desvanecia la cabeça, y todavía passé yo, y otros veinte, ó treinta soldados, y muchos Tlascaltecas.” Hist. de la Conquista, ubi supra. [372] For the preceding account of the capture of Cuernavaca, see Bernal Diaz, ubi supra,--Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 21,--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 93,--Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 3, lib. 1, cap. 8,--Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 4, cap. 87,--Rel. Terc. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, pp. 223, 224. [373] “Una Tierra de Pinales, despoblada, y sin ninguna agua, la qual y un Puerto pasámos con grandíssimo trabajo, y sin beber: tanto, que muchos de los Indios que iban con nosotros pereciéron de sed.” Rel. Terc. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 224. [374] The city of Cuernavaca was comprehended in the patrimony of the dukes of Monteleone, descendants and heirs of the _Conquistador_.--The Spaniards, in their line of march towards the north, did not deviate far, probably, from the great road which now leads from Mexico to Acapulco, still exhibiting in this upper portion of it the same characteristic features as at the period of the Conquest. [375] Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. iii. p. 187, nota.