After scuttling the ships Cortez returned to Cempoala to arrange for the expedition. The chieftains of the pueblo advised that the route by the way of Tlaxcala should be taken because the people of that place were their friends and mortal enemies of the Aztecs. A start was made on the 16th of August with 400 Spaniards, 15 horses, and 5 pieces of artillery. In all the chronicles of the expedition there is a discreet reserve as to the number of Indian allies. It seems to have been a fixed policy to obscure this point. But the native contingent must have been very large, for at each pueblo where the expedition sojourned one hears of the acquisition of native warriors; at Ixtacamaxtitlan, a small place, the chief gave 300 soldiers. On reaching Tecoac in Tlaxcala the invaders found that the attitude of the people was distinctly hostile; in a preliminary skirmish thirty warriors preferred to die rather than yield. The inhabitants of the pueblo were then cut to pieces, as they refused to retire or surrender. This was on the last day of August; the next day there was a hot battle, in which the Spaniards seem to have been saved by their native allies from destruction. Diaz del Castillo says that Cortez thanked them profusely, and adds that the Spaniards were panic-stricken by the wild shouts of their opponents. There was soon after another battle, where the escape of the Spaniards was due to the existence of dissensions in the Indian camp; the people of the pueblo refused to stand by one another. Much damage was done in the second ranks of their warriors by the fire of the artillery, but fifty of the Spaniards were wounded, and one was killed, together with all the horses. Cortez estimated his enemies at 149,000, plainly an impossible figure.