ce
sown.

Of all the disabilities under which we then labored, the most serious
was the lack of an adequate supply of arms. The great arsenal of the
Aztlanecas was in Culhuacan; and thus nearly the whole of the supply of
munitions of war in the valley was in the Priest Captain's hands.
Fortunately, the shipment of hardened gold that we had intercepted--by
landing at the pier whence in a few hours it would have been despatched
to the Treasure-house--gave us a good supply of raw material out of
which spear-heads, and the heads of darts, and swords could be made; and
night and day the forges blazed in Huitzilan while the manufacture of
these weapons went on. Of bows and arrows it was not possible to make
many in that short time, but of slings there was no difficulty in making
enough to supply our entire force--and among these people, who are
wonderfully skilful in the use of it, the sling is a most deadly
implement of war. We lacked time, also, to make any large number of
shields, and our deficiency in this respect was regarded by Tizoc, and
by all the military officers who were with us, as a most serious matter;
for not only would our men without shields be the more easily slain in
battle, but their fighting value would be lessened by their
consciousness that they were without this piece of furniture that all
savage races hold to be so necessary in war.

However, of defensive armor we had a good supply, for it chanced that in
the Citadel there was a great store of cotton cloth, suitable for making
long kirtles of many thicknesses of cloth quilted together; which
kirtles were arrow proof, and well protected a man from his neck
downward almost to his knees. Young was disposed to think but lightly of
this curious armor, but when Tizoc, to convince him of its utility,
demonstrated its power to resist a well-pointed arrow shot at very short
range he was forced to confess its entire applicability to the purpose
for which it was designed.

"Tell th' Colonel that I give in, an' think it a first-rate notion,
Professor," he said. "But if you can get it into his head, an' I'm
afraid you can't, just tell him that when this barelegged army of ours
gets fitted out with those little night-shirts they'll look for all th'
world like a lot o' fellows who've scrambled out of a hotel that's
caught fire in th' middle o' th' night. All that'll be wanted t' make
th' thing perfect 'll be a couple o' steam fire-engines, an' a crowd
with all t