, and striking whenever they saw an opportunity; and the
troops were glad, indeed, when they again reached Tezcuco. By this
time the canal was finished and the ships were put together; and
after discovering and punishing another conspiracy against his
life, Cortez gave orders for the fleet to advance. Solemn mass was
held, and then the vessels, in the sight of an enormous concourse
of people, dropped down the canal, one after the other, and reached
the lake.

Cortez mustered his men, and found that he had eighty-seven horse;
eight hundred and eighteen foot, of which one hundred and eighteen
were musketeers or crossbow men; three large iron field pieces, and
fifteen light brass guns. Three hundred of the men were told off to
man the ships.

The Indian confederates arrived punctually: fifty thousand
Tlascalans, and a vast number of levies from the other tribes.

The army was divided into three corps. One was to take up its post,
under Alvarado, at Tlacopan. Another, under Olid, was to aid in
capturing the causeway; while Sandoval had command of the third,
whose movements were to be determined by circumstances. Cortez
himself took charge of the fleet.

A quarrel arose between a Spanish soldier and a Tlascalan chief,
who was a relation of Xicotencatl; who at once left the army, and
started for Tlascala. He had always been bitterly hostile to the
Spaniards; and Cortez saw that, unless the movement was stopped, it
might become very serious. He sent a party of natives after him,
with instructions to prevail upon him, if possible, to return. He
refused to do so. Cortez dispatched a body of cavalry in pursuit,
arrested him in Tlascala, brought him down to Tezcuco, and there
hung him in the sight of his own countrymen.

The divisions of Alvarado and Olid met with no resistance in
establishing themselves at Tlacopan. They cut the reservoir that
supplied the city with fresh water, the great lake being salt. The
next day the two divisions marched on to the causeway to make
themselves masters, if possible, of the first bridge.

The natives pursued their former tactics, desperately defending
barricades thrown across the causeway, and attacking the invaders
with a crowd of missiles from canoes. After a long and obstinate
fight, the Spaniards and their allies were obliged to fall back,
with considerable loss; and Olid drew off with his division to his
station commanding the other causeway.

Iztapalapan having been again occupi