Many of our companions were drowned at this place, and many were forced into canoes and hurried away to be sacrificed.  It was horrible to hear the cries of these unfortunate captives, calling upon us for aid which we were unable to give, and invoking the blessed Virgin and all the saints in vain for deliverance.  Others of our companions escaped across those gaps in the causeway, by clambering over the confused mass of dead bodies and luggage by which they were filled, and were calling out for assistance to help them up on the other side; while many of them, thinking themselves in safety when they got to the firm ground, were there seized by the Mexicans, or killed with war clubs.  All the regularity which had hitherto guided our march was now utterly lost and abandoned.  Cortes and all the mounted officers and soldiers galloped off along the causeway, providing for their own immediate safety, and leaving all the rest to save ourselves as we best might:  Nor can I blame them for this procedure, as the cavalry could do nothing against the enemy, who threw themselves into the water on both sides of the causeway when attacked, while others, by continual flights of arrows from the houses, or with long lances from the canoes on each side, killed and wounded the men and horses.  Our powder was all expended, so that we were unable to do any injury to the Mexicans in the canoes.  In this situation of utter confusion and derout, the only thing we could do was by uniting together in bands of thirty or forty, to endeavour to force our way to the land:  When the Indians closed upon us, we exerted our utmost efforts to drive them off with our swords, and then hurried our march to get over the causeway as soon as possible.  Had we waited for each other, or had our retreat been in the day, we had all been inevitably destroyed.  The escape of such as made their way to land, was due to the mercy of God who gave us strength to force our way; for the multitudes that surrounded us, and the melancholy sight of our companions hurried away in the canoes to instant sacrifice, was horrible in the extreme.  About fifty of us, mostly soldiers of Cortes, with a few of those who came with Narvaez, stuck together in a body, and made our way along the causeway through infinite difficulty and danger.  Every now and then strong parties of Indians assailed us, calling us luilones, their severest term of reproach, and using their utmost endeavours to seize us.  As soon as we thought them within reach, we faced about and repelled them with a few thrusts of our swords, and then resumed our march.  We thus proceeded, until at last we reached the firm ground near Tacuba, where Cortes, Sandoval, De Oli, Salcedo, Dominguez, Lares, and others of the cavalry, and such of the infantry as had got across the bridge before it was broken down, had already arrived[6].