of
Alvarado was said to have taken place. At that time, indeed, none of us
took notice whether he leaped well or not; for every one had enough to
do to escape from the hands of the merciless enemy. I am, however,
inclined to believe that this leap was nothing more than what Alvarado
told Cortes himself, how he had made his bridge over the canal by
clambering over the baggage, dead bodies, and drowned horses; for the
water was too deep in that place for him to have swung across the
opening by means of his lance, and the width of the canal too great,
however nimble Alvarado may have been, for him to have leaped across. It
would have been an impossibility I am sure to have crossed it by means
of his lance or by leaping. I myself can speak from eyewitness; for the
following year when we marched against Mexico, and surrounded the town
on all sides, I often came in contact with the enemy at that bridge
which now bears the name of Alvarado's leap. At that time the Mexicans
had blocked up the passage with palisade and breastwork, and I very
frequently spoke with my fellow-soldiers about the circumstance, but
none of them ever thought such a leap possible. What people thought of
it at the time itself the reader will see from the following anecdote.

Among Garay's troops there was a certain Ocampo who came to Mexico: this
man possessed much wit and was always writing pasquils, or libelling
some one or other. Among other things he wrote a good deal of scandal
and falsehood respecting our officers, and accused Alvarado, that he had
left Leon with upwards of 200 men and the whole of our cavalry which
composed the rear-guard, in the lurch, and that in order to save his own
life he had taken the Alvarado's leap indeed, in accordance with the old
proverb: Leap and save your life![88]

As I have above mentioned, we had certainly reached Tlacupa, but had not
escaped all danger there, for here again great numbers of Mexicans, with
the troops of Tlacupa, Escapuzalco, Tenayuacan, and of the surrounding
districts, continually assailed us; but it was from the maise
plantations they did us most injury, and here we lost three more of our
men, who had been previously wounded. The best thing we could therefore
do was to quit this terrible neighbourhood as soon as possible. Some few
of the Tlascallans knew a bye-road to Tlascalla, and they safely
conducted us to a row of houses which stood on a rising ground, and here
we quartered ourselves in a