leading to Mexico, which we found abandoned, and where we took up our quarters for two days, taking care of our wounds, and making arrows for our crossbows.  The enemy which had especially obstructed us on this march, consisted of the inhabitants of Xochimilco, Cuyocan, Huitzilopochco, Iztapalapa, Mizquic, and five other towns, all of considerable size, and built on the edge of the lake, near one another, and not far from Mexico.  On the third morning we marched for Tlacopan or Tacuba, harassed as usual by the enemy, but our cavalry soon forced them to retire to their canals and ditches.  During this march, Cortes attempted to lay an ambush for the enemy, for which purpose he set out with ten horsemen and four servants, but had nearly fallen into a snare himself.  Having encountered a party a Mexicans who fled before him, he pursued them too far, and was suddenly surrounded by a large body of warriors, who started out from an ambuscade, and wounded all the horses in the first attack, carrying off two of the attendants of Cortes to be sacrificed at Mexico, the rest of the party escaping with considerable difficulty.  Our main body reached Tacuba in safety, with all the baggage; but as Cortes and his party did not appear, we began to entertain suspicions of some misfortune having befallen him.  On this account, Alvarado, De Oli, Tapia, and I, with some others, went to look for him in the direction in which we had last seen him.  We soon met two of his servants, who informed us of what had happened, and were shortly afterwards joined by Cortes, who appeared extremely sad, and even shed tears.

When we arrived at our quarters in Tacuba, which were in some large enclosed courts, it rained very heavily, and we were obliged to remain exposed for about two hours.  On the weather clearing up, the general and his officers, with many of the men who were off duty, went up to the top of the great temple of Tacuba, whence we had a most delightful prospect of the lake, with all its numerous cities and towns, rising as it were out of the water.  Innumerable canoes were seen in all directions, some employed in fishing, and others passing with provisions or merchandize of all kinds.  We all gave praise to God, who had been pleased to render us the instruments for bringing the numerous inhabitants of so fine a country to the knowledge of his holy name; yet the bloody scenes which we had already experienced in Mexico, filled us with melancholy for the past, and even with some apprehension for the future.  These recollections made Cortes exceedingly sad, regretting the many valiant soldiers he had already lost, and the brave men whom he might still expect to fall before he could be able to reduce the great, strong, and populous city of Mexico to submission[11].  Our reverend Father Olmedo, endeavoured to console him, and one of our soldiers observed, that such was the fortune of war, and that our general was in a very different situation from Nero, when he