where Christoval de Ali then was. But I will say no more on that subject. When we first arrived at Villa Rica, and commenced building the fortress, the first man who struck a spade in the ground to lay the foundation was Cortes, and in all our battles he was in the midst of us. The first which I will here mention were the battles in Tabasco, where he commanded the cavalry and fought bravely. I have already stated how he labored in constructing the fortress in Villa Rica. And then his sinking the thirteen vessels-which was done by the advice of our valiant captains and brave soldiers, and not as Gomara relates it. In the three battles with the Tlascalans he showed himself an able and valiant captain. And again: our entry into the city of Mexico with only four hundred soldiers, is worthy of admiration ; and the audacity of seizing Montezuma in his palace, surrounded as he was by so many of his guards, which was also done by the advice of all our captains and soldiers. Another thing which should not be forgotten was the burning before the palace of Montezuma some of his captains who were concerned in the killing of our captain, Juan Escalande, and seven soldiers. I do not remember the names of these Mexican captains, but it is a matter of no consequence. And what an act of daring courage was it to march against Pamphilo Narvaez, the captain sent by Diego Velasquez, with thirteen hundred men, ninety of them cavalry, and as many more armed with muskets, when we had only two hundred and sixty-six men without horses, muskets, or cross-bows, and no other weapons than pikes, swords, and daggers, and by all the arts and stratagems of war we defeated Narvaez and made him prisoner. I will pass on to our second entry into the city of Mexico, when we went to the relief of Pedro Alvarado, when we ascended into the lofty temple of their idol, Huichilobos. There again Cortes showed himself a most valiant man; but neither his prowess nor our own availed us anything. Then again: in the very celebrated battle of Atumba, where all the flower of the bravest Mexican warriors were awaiting us with the hope of destroying us all, when Cortes attacked the standard-bearer of Guatemuz and forced him to lower his banner, and thereby struck down the spirit of the Mexican squadrons which had been fighting most valiantly. In this, next to God, he received the most important aid from our brave captains Pedro Alvarado, Gonzalas de Sandoval, Christoval de Ali, Diego de Ardas, and Andres de Tapia. There were other brave soldiers, but as they had no horses, I do not name them. Some of the soldiers of Narvaez also did us good service. He who killed the Mexican standard-bearer was Juan de Salamanca, a native of Ontiveros, and he took from him a rich plume, which he gave to Cortes. I will pass on to the battle of Iztapalapa, in which Cortes was engaged with us, and where also he bore himself like an able captain. And then again at Suchimelico, where the Mexican squadrons pulled him from his horse, and he was rescued by some of our Tlascalan friends, but more than all by our brave soldier, Christoval de Olea, a native of old Castile. Let the reader take notice there was one named Christoval de Ali, but this was Christoval de Olea. I mention this that it may not be said by any one that I have made a mistake. Cortes also showed himself a very brave man in our second siege of Mexico when the Mexicans defeated him on the narrow causeway, and carried off and sacrificed sixty-two of our soldiers, and had wounded Cortes in the leg, and had him in their clutches, and were carrying him also to the sacrifice, when it pleased God that by his own strength and good fighting, and the timely aid of this same Christoval de Olea, who had before rescued him at Suchimelico, Cortes was enabled to mount his horse, and his life was again saved. But the brave Olea was himself left dead on the causeway; and even now while I am writing, my heart melts at the remembrance of him, and it seems to me that I see him with his noble presence and great soul, just as when he so often aided us in battle, and it makes me sad, for he was a native of my own country, and the kinsman of my kinsmen. I shall mention no more of the heroic actions of our Marquis Del Valle, for they were so numerous that I should not soon come to an end in relating them. I will now speak of his temper and disposition. He was very fond of games at cards and dice, and when he was engaged in such games he was very affable and pleasant, and would indulge in jests and pleasantries, as is usual with those who game. He was extremely vigilant in all our campaigns during the conquest, and would often go the rounds at night and challenge the sentinels, and would go into the quarters of the soldiers, and if he found any of them sleeping with their armor or sandals off, he would reprimand them, saying "that it was a mean sheep that felt the weight of its own wool." When we went to Honduras I observed one thing which I had never noticed before, which was, that after he had eaten, if he did not sleep a short time he became sick at the stomach. To avoid this we placed an awning under a tree or some other shade, and however hot the sun might be shining, or hard it might be raining, he would take a short sleep and then resume the march. During the wars of the conquest he was very thin and had a small stomach, but after his return from Honduras he became quite fat. I noticed also that his beard was again brown, although before it had been somewhat grey. I would notice also that he was extremely * The only liberty which I have taken with the original, is to transfer to this paragraph one line which occurs a few pages afterwards. In all other respects the translation is literal and exact. liberal in the expenditure of money until his second return from Castile, in the year 1540, but that after that he was considered parsimonious. He had a law-suit with one of his servants whose name was Ulloa, because he refused to pay him his wages. And we may observe that after he had completed the conquest of New Spain he had many troubles and difficulties, and expended much money in the expeditions which he undertook He did not succeed either in his expedition to California, nor in that to 'Hiqueras, nor in anything else after he finished the conquest of the country, perhaps because his rewards were reserved for him in heaven, and such I believe was the case, for he was a worthy gentleman, and very much devoted to the Virgin and to St. Peter and all the other saints. May God pardon him his sins and me mine, and grant me a happy end, which is of more importance than all our conquests and victories over the Indians. How they had concerted a plan in this city of Cholula to destroy us all by the orders of Montezuma; and what was done in the matter. ALTHOUGH We had been received with all the solemnity and good-will which I have described, it afterwards appeared that Montezuma had sent orders to his ambassadors who were there with us, to make arrangements with the Cholulans, that in conjunction with a squadron of twenty thousand men which he had sent, that they should make war upon us, and that they should attack us by day and by night, and that they should send as many of us as they could tied to Mexico. He also sent them many presents of clothes and jewels, and a drum of gold. He also promised the Papas (priests) of that city, that they should have twenty of us to sacrifice to their idols. Everything was thus arranged, and the warriors whom Montezuma sent had arrived, and were quartered in some small houses about half a league from the city of Cholula; others were concealed in the houses in the city, all prepared with arms in their hands. They had also erected breastworks on the azoteas (roofs of the houses), and had dug ditches across the streets to obstruct the passage of our horses. Some of the houses were even filled with large rods, to scourge us with, and collars and cords made of dressed skins with which to tie us, and take us to Mexico; but our Lord God was pleased to order things better, and all their calculations were reversed. We were all in our quarters, as I have before stated; and, although they furnished us with abundance of excellent provisions, and seemed to be altogether friendly, we did not omit any of those precautions which it had always been our good custom to observe. The third day they brought us nothing to eat, nor did any of the caciques or papas make their appearance; and if any of the Indians came to see us, they kept at a distance, and would not approach near to us, and were laughing as at some jest. When our captain saw this, he directed our interpreters, Donna Marina and Aguilar, to tell the ambassadors of Montezuma to order the caciques to bring us something to eat. All that they brought us was wood and water, and the old men who brought them said that they had no maize. They also stated that other ambassadors from Montezuma had that day arrived, and joined those who were already there; and they said, without any concealment or respect for us whatever, that Montezuma had ordered that we should not go to his city, for he had nothing for us to eat, and that they desired to return immediately to Mexico with our answer. Although this conversation was not agreeable to Cortes, he replied in bland words to the ambassadors, and said, that he wondered greatly that so great a lord as Montezuma should adopt so many different resolutions, and begged that they would not return until the next day, for that he then intended to go and see him, and would do whatever he ordered. And it seems to me that he also gave them some strands of beads. The ambassadors said that they would wait. Our captain then ordered us to assemble, and said to us-"These people seem to be very much excited, and it behooves us to be very much on the alert, or some evil will befall us." He then sent for the principal cacique, whose name I do not remember, or that he should send him some of the head men of the city. He replied, that he was sick, and could not come, and that he would not send the others. Our captain seeing this, ordered that we should induce, by kind words, two of the papas to come to him, many of whom were then assembled in an idol temple near to our quarters; we brought two of them without offering them any disrespect whatever. Cortes ordered that a chalchihui stone, very much like emeralds, and held in great estimation amongst them, should be given to each of them, and asked them, in the kindest manner-"Why it was that the caciques and papas were frightened at his sending for them, and had refused to come to him." As it appeared, one of these papas was a very distinguished person amongst them, and had power and authority in nearly all the idol temples of that city-something like a bishop amongst them-and was held in great reverence by them. He replied that the papas had no fears of us, and that he would go and see the caciques and head men, and that, after he had talked to them, he did not doubt that they would come. Cortes told him to go at once, and that his companion should remain until he returned. The papa went and summoned the cacique and head men, and they immediately came with him to the quarters of Cortes. He then asked them, through our interpreters, Donna Marina and Aguilar, what had caused their fears, and why they had not brought us the usual supplies of provisions and told them that if they were displeased with our remaining in their city, that we would depart the next morning for Mexico, to see and converse with their Lord Montezuma, and that they must have temames (porters) ready to carry our baggage and cannon, but that they must immediately bring us something to eat. The cacique was so confused that he did not know what to say. He said, that as to food, they would seek for it, but that their Lord Montezuma had ordered them not to supply us with any, nor to allow us to advance any farther. Whilst engaged in this conversation, three friendly Indians of Cempoal said privately to Cortes, that they had discovered near our quarters some ditches cut across the street, and so covered over with wood and earth, that they could not be seen but upon close examination; that they had removed the earth from the top of one of these ditches, and found it full of stakes with very sharp points, for the purpose of killing our horses as they attempted to cross them; and that on the azoteas they had constructed a kind of breastwork of clay, and had large supplies of stones also. All of which was certainly well arranged. At this moment eight of our Tlascalan friends, who had not been allowed to enter the city of Cholula, came to Cortes and said, "Look you, Malinche, there is something wrong going on in this city, for we know that they have this night sacrificed, to the God of war, seven persons, five of them children, that he may give them the victory over you,-we have also noticed that they have removed all their property, and their women and children out of the city." As soon as Cortes heard this, he ordered them to go forthwith to their Tlascalan captains and tell them to be prepared and ready at a moment's warning, whenever he should send for them. He then turned to the Caciques and Papas and told them to have no fears, nor be in any degree disturbed; that they should obey and not break their faith with him, and that if they did he would chastise them; that he had already told them that we desired to depart in the morning, and that he required that they should supply him with two thousand warriors as the Tlascalans had done. They replied that they would supply him both with the warriors which he required, and the Tamemes to carry his baggage and cannon; and asked permission to go and make the necessary preparations; and were very happy when they left us, for they calculated that with the warriors whom they were to supply us, and the squadrons which Montezuma had sent, and which were then waiting outside of the city, that not one of us could escape alive, by reason of the ditches across the streets over which the horses could not pass, and the breastworks and other defences which they had erected. They directed their Mexican allies to be well prepared, for that we were to depart the next day with two thousand warriors which they were to |