After Waiting Two Days For The Result Of Our Message Without Receiving Any Return, We Proposed To March To Zumpacingo, The Chief Town Of The District In Which We Then Were, The Principal People Of Which Had Been Summoned To Attend At Our Quarters, But Had Neglected Our Message.

We accordingly began our march for that place early of a morning, having Cortes at our head, who was not quite recovered from his late illness.

The morning was so excessively cold, that two of our horses became so exceedingly ill that we expected them to have died, and we were all like to perish from the effects of the piercing winds of the _Sierra Nevada_, or Snowy Mountains. This occasioned us to accelerate our march to bring us into heat, and we arrived at Zumpacingo before daybreak; but the inhabitants, immediately on getting notice of our approach, fled precipitately from their houses, exclaiming that the _teules_ were coming to kill them. We halted in a place surrounded with walls till day, when some priests and old men came to us from the temples, making an apology for neglecting to obey our summons, as they had been prevented by the threats of their general Xicotencatl. Cortes ordered them to send us an immediate supply of provisions, with which they complied, and then sent them with a message to Tlascala, commanding the chiefs of the republic to attend him at this place to establish a peace, as we were still ignorant of what had taken place in consequence of our former message. The Indians of the country began to entertain a favourable opinion of us, and orders were given by the Tlascalan senate that the people in our neighbourhood should supply us plentifully with provisions.

At this time some of the soldiers resumed their mutinous complaints, particularly those who had good houses and plantations in Cuba, who murmured at the hardships they had undergone and the manifold dangers with which we were surrounded. Seven of their ringleaders now waited on Cortes, having a spokesman at their head, who addressed the general in a studied oration, representing, "That above fifty-five of our companions had already perished during the expedition, and we were now ignorant of the situation of those we had left at Villa Rica. That we were so surrounded by enemies, it was hardly possible to escape from being sacrificed to the idols of the barbarians, if we persisted in our present hopeless enterprize. Our situation, they said, was worse than beasts of burden, who had food and rest when forced to labour, while we were oppressed with fatigue, and could neither procure sleep or provisions. As therefore the country now seemed peaceable and the enemy had withdrawn, the present opportunity ought to be taken for returning immediately to Villa Rica, on purpose to construct a vessel to send for reinforcements from Cuba; adding, that they lamented the destruction of our shipping, a rash and imprudent step, which could not be paralleled in history," Cortes answered them with great mildness; "That he was satisfied no soldiers ever exhibited more valour than we, and that by perseverance alone could we hope to preserve our lives amidst those great perils which God hitherto delivered us from, and that he hoped for a continuance of the same mercy.

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