s no law. Cortes and the other officers by whom he was surrounded
were highly delighted, and drank their fill; we then continued our
march, and reached the small village before sunset. There was still some
water left in the houses, but not sufficient for the whole of our
troops, so that several of the men, in order at least to moisten their
mouths, chewed a kind of thistle, the sharp prickles of which wounded
their tongues and lips. The small detachment of horse now also returned,
and informed our general that they had found the wells where we were to
encamp for the night, but these were still a good way off, and the whole
neighbourhood was beating to arms.

We encamped near the wells for the night, ordered the pickets and
outposts as usual, and otherwise took every precaution. I myself formed
one of the night watch, and, if I still remember rightly, it blew a
strong gale of wind, and some rain was falling.

The next morning very early we marched towards Xochimilco, and arrived
in front of that town about eight in the morning. Here an immense body
of the enemy stood ready to oppose us, part of whom were stationed in
the open fields, and the rest in front of a bridge which had been
destroyed, and near which large entrenchments had been thrown up. At the
end of their pikes they had fastened the swords we had lost on our
unfortunate retreat from Mexico, and many of the chiefs were armed with
our own broadswords, which had been beautifully polished. The whole of
the Mexicans appeared to be well-armed, and the entire plain was filled
with warriors.

The conflict for the possession of the bridges lasted about half an
hour, yet, with all our firing and hard fighting, we were not able to
force them. Our situation became truly perilous, for large bodies now
fell upon our rear, so that the only choice we had left was to cross the
water at all hazards. In this we fortunately succeeded, partly swimming,
and partly wading through. Several of our men, while thus crossing over,
drank so much water that their stomachs swelled out to an enormous size.
In crossing this water, we lost two men, and had several wounded;
nevertheless, we succeeded, by dint of our swords, to drive the enemy
before us along a causeway which led to the main land. Cortes, who was
advancing with the cavalry from another quarter, fell in with a body of
more than 10,000 Mexicans, who were coming to the assistance of the
town. The Mexicans, on this occasion, recei