they came upon a
pueblo very large and new, in which the houses had been but recently
completed. The place was surrounded with very thick stockades of logs
and of very sturdy planks. Before the entrance were deep trenches. This
wall encircled the town in two rings, both very high. One was like a
barbican, having towers and loopholes for the archers. In another
place, but near the town, on some lofty rocks, were their watch-towers
of stone, worked by hand and provided with adequate railings. On
another side was a deep marsh, and all these things served to make the
pueblo a great fortress.

"The Spaniards entered the town without hindrance and found it deserted
and lonely. The Indians, its inhabitants, receiving news that the
Spaniards were coming, had withdrawn to some large marshes some
distance from the pueblo. On inspecting the town and entering the
houses our men found in all and each one of them a great quantity of
turkeys all prepared and dressed for eating by those Indians. Besides
these things they also found much corn-bread and other supplies such as
drinks, and a dish made of meat mixed with corn-bread called by those
Indians _tamales_. They were all amazed at seeing such a novelty, and
they were, at the same time, delighted to see so much good food, as
they had suffered so much from hunger and lack of nourishment."

The Spaniards Suspect Treachery. "All this set them to thinking,
because it was such a new state of affairs, and they were puzzled to
know the plans of the Indians of that town, as much because of the
novelty of the situation as because they found in the middle of the
village a house full of lances, bows, arrows, _macanas_, and other arms
used by those Indians in their wars. And going out to see if any troops
were to be found outside of the village, they found no one, nor was
there, in the _milpas_ or farms, a single grain of maize or any other
vegetable; so that the Spaniards were all the more confounded, and they
marveled, asking one another what it could mean.

"While the Spaniards were in this suspense, fifteen Indians came from
outside the town who, as it was learned afterward, were very important
men; and when they arrived they went into the presence of Don Fernando
Cortes. Placing their hands upon the ground, and kissing the earth with
great humility, and half weeping, they begged Cortes to favor them by
not burning their village, for they had come there but recently to
fortify themselv