ther happened.

After we had thus formed an alliance with the thirty townships of the
Totonaque mountains, which had revolted from Motecusuma and submitted of
their own free will to the sceptre of our sovereign, we immediately
hastened to profit by the circumstance and found Villa Rica de la Vera
Cruz. The spot we made choice of lay at about two miles distance from
the fortress of Quiahuitzlan, in the valley beneath. We first of all
marked out the ground for the church, the market, the magazines and
other public buildings belonging to a town. We then set off part of the
ground to form a fortress, and nothing could exceed the assiduity with
which the walls of the foundation were carried up, the woodwork
completed, the turrets and loopholes constructed with the parapets.
Cortes himself put the first hand to it, carried a basket filled with
stones and earth on his shoulders, and worked at the foundations. The
caziques and all of us followed his example, and every part of the work
was carried on with like vigour. Some were mixing mortar, fetching
water, burning chalk, baking bricks and tiles, others prepared the food
and cut wood. The smiths hammered hard at the nails and other ironwork.
In short, from the highest to the lowest showed the greatest activity,
while the Indians lent us such efficacious aid, that in a short time the
church and other buildings were quite finished, and the fortress nearly
so.

In the meantime Motecusuma received the intelligence at Mexico, that
his tax-gatherers had been imprisoned by our allies; that the latter had
renounced obedience to him, and that all the Totonaque townships had
revolted. He was excessively enraged against Cortes and the whole of us,
and ordered one of his powerful chiefs to make war upon the tribes which
had revolted, and extirpate them to a man. Against us he would march in
person at the head of an immense army, commanded by many generals. While
preparations for this purpose were being made, the two prisoners whom
Cortes had liberated arrived in Mexico. When Motecusuma learnt that
Cortes had restored them to liberty, and himself sent them to Mexico
with the commission to offer his services to their monarch, the Almighty
softened down the hardness of his heart, and he resolved to make
inquiries as to what our intentions were. To this end he despatched two
of his young nephews, accompanied by four aged men, who were caziques of
distinction, to our quarters, sending with t