l to depart for Cuba,
and to see that Narvaez did not escape. If he considered the two
vessels of Narvaez which lay in the harbour there unfit for use, he was
to run them on shore, and immediately send him the sailors and as many
arms as he could spare.

These three messengers made all haste and soon returned with an answer
from Vera Cruz, which gave us the good news that they had enjoyed the
profoundest peace there, but had been apprized of our misfortune at
Mexico by the fat cazique of Sempoalla. They also informed us that Juan
de Alcantara and his companions had been murdered on their return.

Pedro Caballero sent word that all Cortes' commands should be attended
to. One of the two vessels was still in good condition, but with the
other he would act as he had been ordered and send the men to us, though
he had not over-sufficient hands, as many of the sailors were sick and
several had died.

All the reinforcement we received, on this occasion, consisted in seven
men, of whom three were sailors. They arrived in Tlascalla under the
command of a certain Lencero, to whom the tavern belonged, known to this
day by the name of Venta de Lencero. Every one of these men were in bad
health; five of them were covered with sore swellings, and the two
others limped helplessly about with their bellies enormously swollen, so
that the succours brought by Lencero became quite a byword among us.

I must now, however, relate something of a more serious nature. The
reader cannot have forgotten the younger Xicotencatl, who commanded the
whole armed power of Tlascalla against us, and who had always shown his
hatred of us. This feeling was again aroused in him when the news of our
flight from Mexico, and of the number of troops we had lost arrived in
Tlascalla; and how we were marching towards the latter place to seek
protection and assistance. Xicotencatl now, therefore, assembled his
relations and friends, with all those whom he thought would enter into
his views, and proposed that they should select some favorable
opportunity, either in the day or night-time to fall upon us unawares
and destroy us all. "He would," he said, "form a friendly alliance with
the Mexican monarch, for which the present moment was particularly
favorable, as the Mexicans had just elected a new monarch in the person
of Cuitlahuatzin. We had," he continued, "left quantities of cotton
stuffs and gold behind us in Tlascalla, and had brought an additional
quantity