In this extremity several of the officers and soldiers, among whom I was one, waited on Cortes, and advised him to release his prisoners and to make a fresh offer of friendship with the Tlascalans through these people.  He, who acted on all occasions like a good captain, never failing to consult with us on affairs of importance, agreed with our present advice, and gave orders accordingly.  Donna Marina, whose noble spirit and excellent judgment supported her on all occasions of danger, was now of most essential service to us, as indeed she often was; as she explained in the most forcible terms to these messengers, that if their countrymen did not immediately enter into a treaty of peace with us, that we were resolved to march against their capital, and would utterly destroy it and their whole nation.  Our messengers accordingly went to Tlascala, where they waited on the chiefs of the republic, the principal messenger bearing our letter in one hand, as a token of peace, and a dart in the other as a signal of war, as if giving them their choice of either.  Having delivered our resolute message, it pleased GOD to incline the hearts of these Tlascalan rulers to enter into terms of accommodation with us.  The two principal chiefs, named Maxicatzin and Xicotencatl the elder[8], immediately summoned the other chiefs of the republic to council, together with the cacique of Guaxocingo the ally of the republic, to whom they represented that all the attacks which they had made against us had been ineffectual, yet exceedingly destructive to them; that the strangers were hostile to their inveterate enemies the Mexicans, who had been continually at war against their republic for upwards of an hundred years, and had so hemmed them in as to deprive them of procuring cotton or salt; and therefore that it would be highly conducive to the interests of the republic to enter into an alliance with these strangers against their common enemies, and to offer us the daughters of their principal families for wives, in order to strengthen and perpetuate the alliance between us.  This proposal was unanimously agreed upon by the council, and notice was immediately sent to the general of this determination, with orders to cease from hostilities.  Xicotencatl was much offended at this order, and insisted on making another nocturnal attack on our quarters.  On learning this determination of their general, the council of Tlascala sent orders to supersede him in the command, but the captains and warriors of the army refused obedience to this order, and even prevented four of the principal chiefs of the republic from waiting upon us with an invitation to come to their city.