some food for which we were obliged to pay.  Immediately on our arrival being announced at Tlascala, our friends Maxicatzin, Xicotencatl, Chichimecatl, the chief of Huexatcinco, and others, came to wait upon Cortes, whom they embraced, yet kindly blamed him for having neglected their advice to distrust the treachery of the Mexicans.  They wept for the losses we had sustained, yet rejoiced at our escape, and praised our valiant actions; assuring us that they were assembling 30,000 of their warriors to have joined us at Obtumba.  They were rejoiced to see Donna Marina and Donna Luisa, and lamented the loss of the other ladies.  Maxicatzin in particular bewailed the fate which had befallen his daughter and Velasquez de Leon, to whom he had given her.  They invited us to their city, where we were kindly received, and where we reposed in peace and safety after our many and severe hardships.  Cortes lodged in the house of Maxicatzin, Alvarado in that of Xicotencatl, and the other officers were distributed among the houses of the nobles, all the soldiers being likewise supplied with comfortable quarters and abundant food.  Here in the midst of our friends, we recovered from our wounds and fatigues, all except four who died.

Soon after our arrival, Cortes made inquiry after certain gold to the value of 40,000 crowns, the share belonging to the garrison of Villa Rica, which had been sent here from Mexico; and was informed by the Tlascalan chiefs, and by a Spanish invalid left here when on our march to Mexico, that the persons who had been sent for it from Villa Rica had been robbed and murdered on the road, at the time we were engaged in hostilities with the Mexicans.  Letters were sent to Villa Rica, giving an account of all the disastrous events which had befallen us, and desiring an immediate supply of all the arms and ammunition that could be spared, and to send us a strong reinforcement.  By the return of the messengers, we were informed that all was well at Villa Rica and the neighbourhood, and that the reinforcement should be immediately sent.  It accordingly arrived soon after, consisting in all of seven men, three of whom were sailors, and all of them were invalids.  They were commanded by a soldier named Lencero, who afterwards kept an inn still known by his name; and for a long while afterwards, a Lencero reinforcement was a proverbial saying among us.  We were involved in some trouble by the younger Xicotencatl, who had commanded the Tlascalan army against us on our first arrival in their country.  This ambitious chieftain, anxious to be revenged upon us for the disgrace he had formerly sustained, on hearing of our misfortunes and our intended march to Tlascala, conceived a project for surprising us on our march and putting us all to death.  For this purpose, he assembled many of his relations, friends, and adherents, to whom he shewed how easily we might all be destroyed, and was very active in forming a party and collecting an army for this purpose.