nes, by which three of our men
were wounded; but we soon put them to flight, and they were so closely
pursued by the Tlascallans that they lost twenty killed, and seven or
eight were taken prisoners. We were now able to destroy the aqueduct
without any further opposition, and the city of Mexico was deprived of
this source of obtaining water during the whole of the siege.

As soon as we had destroyed this aqueduct, our officers determined to
make an attempt upon one of the bridges on the causeway leading from
Tlacupa. We had scarcely begun to move along the causeway when numbers
of canoes, filled with troops, advanced swiftly from both sides, while
other large bodies of the enemy came marching up the causeway against
us, so that we were quite astounded at the very sight. In the first
encounter thirty of our men were wounded and three killed.
Notwithstanding all this, we fought our way up to the first bridge.
According to what we afterwards heard, it was the wish of the Mexicans
that we should pass over the bridge; for we had no sooner done so than
we were assailed by such terrific crowds, as to be unable to move. What
indeed could we do on a causeway which was no more than eight paces in
breadth, where we were attacked on all sides at once? Our crossbow-men
and musketeers certainly kept up a continued fire on the canoes, but the
enemy received but a trifling loss this way, for they had raised boards
alongside of their canoes, by which their troops were sheltered from our
fire. Those of the enemy's troops which attacked us on the causeway
itself we certainly drove back each time into the water, but fresh
troops kept pouring in too fast for us to gain much advantage this way.
Here our cavalry was of no manner of use to us, while the horses were
greatly exposed to the attacks of the enemy on each side of the
causeway, and many were consequently wounded. If our cavalry attempted
to pursue the enemy into the water, the latter had provided against this
by palisades, behind which they retired, and stretched out against them
their long lances, to which they had fastened the swords we
unfortunately lost on our retreat from Mexico.

In this way the battle continued for upwards of an hour, the enemy each
time returning to the attack with such excessive fury that, at length,
we could stand our ground no longer: nor was this all, for we now saw
another large fleet of canoes approaching with a fresh body of men, who
were ordered to f