Cortes Ordered All The Cavalry To Have
Their Lances New-Headed, And To Exercise Their Horses Daily.
He sent
likewise an express to the elder Xicotencatl at Tlascala, otherwise called
Don Lorenzo de Vargas, to send
20,000 of the warriors of Tlascala,
Huixotzinco and Cholula; and he sent similar orders to Chalco and
Tlalmanalco; ordering all our allies to rendezvous at Tezcuco on the day
after the festival of the Holy Ghost, 28th April 1521. And on that day,
Don Hernandez Ixtlilxochitl of Tezcuco, was to join us with all his forces.
Some considerable reinforcements of soldiers, horses, arms, and ammunition
had arrived from Spain and other places, so that when mustered mustered on
the before-mentioned day by Cortes, in the large enclosures of Tezcuco,
our Spanish force amounted to the following number: 84 cavalry, 650
infantry, armed with sword and buckler, or pikes, and 194 musketeers and
crossbow-men, in all 928 Spaniards. From this number he selected 12
musketeers or crossbow-men, and 12 of the other infantry, for rowers to
each of the vessels, in all 312 men, appointing a captain to each vessel;
and he distributed 20 cannoneers through the fleet, which he armed with
such guns as we had that were fit for this service. Many of our men had
been formerly sailors, yet all were extremely averse from acting as rowers
on the present occasion; for which reason the general made inquiry as to
those who were natives of sea-ports, or who had formerly been fishers or
seafaring men, all of whom he ordered to the oars; and though some of them
pled their gentility as an exemption, he would hear of no excuse.
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