The Infidel; or, the Fall of Mexico. Vol. II.Bird, Robert Montgomery
History
The Infidel; or, the Fall of Mexico. Vol. II.
Bird, Robert Montgomery
Mexico -- History -- Conquest, 1519-1540 -- Fiction
The effects of this battle upon the Spaniards were disastrous in the
extreme. The assault, as has been mentioned, and as was anticipated, was
made upon all the causeways at once; and, on all, successfully repelled,
though an ambuscade was only attempted upon the dike of Iztapalapan. It
seemed as if the Mexicans, thinned as their numbers had been, by so many
conflicts, and now the remainder absolutely perishing under want and
pestilence, had collected all their energies for one final blow. It was
first successful in the quarter attacked by the Captain-General, in
consequence of his surprising infatuation; and victory soon after
followed in the others. The Spaniards fled, so completely broken and so
utterly defeated, that the priests, in the wild hope of completing their
destruction at once, even drew the sacred horn from the tabernacle of
Mexitli, and added its dreadful uproar to the thunder of the great
tymbal. This was always regarded by the Mexicans as the voice of the god
himself, and was never sounded without filling them with a delirium of
fury, utterly inconceivable. It was not more maddening to the infidels
than frightful to the Spaniards; who remembered the horrors of the Noche
Triste, augmented, if not altogether caused by its unearthly roar. The
Spaniards were driven back to their strong and defensible stations at
the gates; the dikes were lost; and had not famine now fought for them,
they must have given up the siege in despair. Nearly an hundred
Spaniards, and many thousand Indian allies, were killed; the fleets of
canoes and piraguas were destroyed, and several brigantines wholly
ruined.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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