to the number of about 6000 men in two bodies, who immediately attacked us with great spirit, discharging their arrows, shouting, and sounding their martial instruments.  Cortes halted the army, and sent three prisoners to demand a peaceable conference, and to assure them we wished to treat them as brothers; ordering at the same time the notary Godoy, to witness this message officially.  This message had no effect, as they attacked us more fiercely than before, on which Cortes gave the word, St Jago, and on them.  We accordingly made a furious onset, slaying many with the first discharges of our artillery, three of their chiefs falling on this occasion.  They now retreated to some uneven ground, where the whole army of the state of Tlascala, 40,000 in number, were posted under cover, commanded by Xicotencatl, the general in chief of the republic.  As the cavalry could not act in this uneven ground, we were forced to fight our way through as well as we were able in a compact column, assailed on every side by the enemy, who were exceedingly expert archers.  They were all clothed in white and red, with devices of the same colours, being the uniform of their general.  Besides the multitudes who discharged continual flights of arrows, many of them who were armed with lances closed upon us while we were embarrassed by the inequality of the ground; but as soon as we got again into the plain, we made a good use of our cavalry and artillery.  Yet they fought incessantly against us with astonishing intrepidity, closing upon us all around, so that we were in the utmost danger at every step, but God supported and assisted us.  While closely environed in this manner, a number of their strongest warriors, armed with tremendous two-handed swords, made a combined attack on Pedro de Moron, an expert horseman, who was charging through them accompanied by other three of our cavalry.  They seized his lance and wounded himself dangerously, and one of them cut through the neck of his horse with a blow of a two-handed sword, so that he fell down dead.  We rescued Moron from the enemy with the utmost difficulty, even cutting the girths and bringing off his saddle, but ten of our number were wounded in the attempt, and believe we then slew ten of their chiefs, while fighting hand to hand.  They at length began to retire, taking with them the body of the horse, which they cut in pieces, and distributed through all the districts of Tlascala as a trophy of victory.  Moron died soon after of his wounds, at least I have no remembrance of seeing him afterwards.  After a severe and close conflict of above an hour, during which our artillery swept down multitudes out of the numerous and crowded bodies of the enemy, they drew off in a regular manner, leaving the field to us, who were too much fatigued to pursue.  We took up our quarters, therefore, in the nearest village, named Teoatzinco, where we found numbers of subterraneous dwellings.  This battle was fought on the 2d September 1519.