rge
cross to be cut. Our general had for some time appeared in low spirits,
and very pensive. The thoughts of our fatiguing march, the number of
Spaniards who had fallen ill, the still greater number of our Mexican
troops that died away, and perhaps also the regret he felt for having
put Quauhtemoctzin and the king of Tlacupa to death without any trial,
constantly preyed upon his mind, and left him no peace either night or
day; so that he would rise up from his bed in the depth of night to
stroll about, which also happened to be the case in this township. He
got up in the dark from his bed, in order to pass into an adjoining
large apartment, where a number of idols stood, and where the Indians
were accustomed to hold their meetings. It seems that he forgot the two
steps which led down into it, so that he fell rather heavily, and
bruised his head severely. This wound he had secretly dressed, nor did
he himself ever mention the accident to any one.

The next morning, very early, we again broke up our quarters, and our
guides led us exactly in the direction they had previously described,
and we arrived, without anything happening to us worthy of mention, in
front of a morass, which lay at the foot of very high mountains, where
we encamped for the night. With break of day we again continued our
march, and arrived about the hour of high mass, at a township which lay
in the midst of this extensive morass. This town had every appearance of
having been recently built, and indeed we found that the houses had only
been erected a few days before our arrival. It was surrounded by a
double entrenchment, formed of the trunks of large trees, encircled by
other huge poles stuck in perpendicularly, The approaches were secured
by a deep fosse, and they were protected by a double inclosure of a
circular form: one of which was supplied with a regular battlement,
small towers and loop-holes; the other was very high and strongly built
of large stones, and was likewise provided with a battlement. As the
other side was covered by the morass this place might, in every sense of
the word, be called a fortress.

When we entered the town we did not meet with a single inhabitant, but
were surprised to find in the houses quantities of boiled turkeys and
other fowls, dressed according to Indian fashion, with hot peppers and
maise cakes, which they call tamales. We were perfectly astonished at
this great abundance, and we made all manner of speculatio