had, what it was to fight against Indians.

CHAPTER CXXVIII.

_How we come to the determination of leaving Mexico secretly at
night; and what further happened._

In this way our strength daily diminished, while that of the enemy
increased. Several of our men had been killed, and most of us were
wounded. Our courage was of no avail against such vast crowds, who kept
up a constant attack upon us both during day and night time. Our powder
was fast diminishing,[87] and provisions and water were beginning to
fail. Motecusuma was gone, and the peace we solicited was refused. All
the bridges on the causeways, along which we had to make good our
retreat, had been destroyed by the enemy; in short death was staring at
us on every hand. It was, therefore, at last determined, in a council of
war, that we should leave the city, and choose the night-time to effect
our purpose, when the enemy was generally less vigilant. To make more
sure, we resolved to despatch one of the chief papas we had taken with
many other prisoners, to the Mexicans on the evening preceding the night
we contemplated making our retreat, to request of them to allow us to
march quietly out of the city within the space of eight days, as we
intended to leave them all the gold we possessed.

On this our determination one of the soldiers named Botello had had
great influence. This man was an Italian by birth, and was remarkable
for his honesty and great intelligence. He had been at Rome, and many
believed he could conjure up the dead; some said he had a _spiritus
familiaris_, and many of us commonly called him the astrologer.

Botello had, four days previously, announced, that, by means of his
secret art, he had discovered that every one of us would be killed if we
did not leave Mexico on a certain night. He had likewise prophesied of
Cortes that great misfortunes awaited him; he would lose his property
and honour, but again rise to eminence and riches. Similar horoscopes
drawn by him were frequently mentioned by our men.

As we shall again have to mention this Botello, we must now see what
preparations were going on for our retreat; the first and most important
of which was, the construction of a moveable bridge, out of strong
beams, which was to serve in passing the canals where the former bridges
had been burnt down by the enemy. Four hundred Tlascallans, assisted by
150 of our men, were to take charge of this bridge; were to fix it in
the pr