; while the bosom of the lake, as far as the eye could reach,
was darkened by canoes crowded with warriors, whose spears and
bludgeons, armed with blades of "volcanic glass," gleamed in the morning
light.

The cavaliers found Alvarado unhorsed, and defending himself with a poor
handful of followers against an overwhelming tide of the enemy. His good
steed, which had borne him through many a hard fight, had fallen under
him. He was himself wounded in several places, and was striving in vain
to rally his scattered column, which was driven to the verge of the
canal by the fury of the enemy, then in possession of the whole rear of
the causeway, where they were reinforced every hour by fresh combatants
from the city. The artillery in the earlier part of the engagement had
not been idle, and its iron shower, sweeping along the dike, had mowed
down the assailants by hundreds. But nothing could resist their
impetuosity. The front ranks, pushed on by those behind, were at length
forced up to the pieces, and, pouring over them like a torrent,
overthrew men and guns in one general ruin. The resolute charge of the
Spanish cavaliers, who had now arrived, created a temporary check, and
gave time for their countrymen to make a feeble rally. But they were
speedily borne down by the returning flood. Cortes and his companions
were compelled to plunge again into the lake, though all did not escape.
Alvarado stood on the brink for a moment, hesitating what to do.
Unhorsed as he was, to throw himself into the water, in the face of the
hostile canoes that now swarmed around the opening, afforded but a
desperate chance of safety. He had but a second for thought. He was a
man of powerful frame, and despair gave him unnatural energy. Setting
his long lance firmly on the wreck which strewed the bottom of the lake,
he sprung forward with all his might, and cleared the wide gap at a
leap! Aztecs and Tlascalans gazed in stupid amazement, exclaiming, as
they beheld the incredible feat, "This is truly the _Tonatiuh_,--the
child of the Sun!"--The breadth of the opening is not given. But it was
so great, that the valorous Captain Diaz, who well remembered the place,
says the leap was impossible to any man. Other contemporaries, however,
do not discredit the story. It was, beyond doubt, a matter of popular
belief at the time; it is to this day familiarly known to every
inhabitant of the capital; and the name of the _Salto de Alvarado_,
"Alvarado's Leap,