They Took Out From A Sack A Fowl, Some Bread, And A Quantity Of
Cherries, Which They Began To Eat Deliberately, As If To Impress Us With
The Belief That They Had Abundance Of Provisions.
When Cortes found that
the proposed conference was only a pretext to gain time, he sent a message
of defiance to Guatimotzin and retired.
For four days after this, we were
not attacked by the enemy; but numbers of famished Mexicans used to
surround our quarters every night. Cortes pitied their wretched situation,
and ordered us to refrain from hostilities, always hoping that the enemy
would offer terms of accommodation. One of our soldiers, named Sotela, who
had served in Italy, was always boasting of the great battles he had seen,
and of the wonderful military engines which he was able to construct, and
particularly that he could make a machine for throwing stones, by which he
would destroy the whole of that part of the city which Guatimotzin
occupied, in a very few days. Cortes was at last induced to listen to him,
and all kinds of materials were brought for him to construct his engine.
Stone and lime was procured; the carpenters were set to work to prepare
timber; two strong cables were made; and a number of large stones were
brought, which the machine was to project. When all was ready, a stone was
placed in the engine, and it was played off against the quarters of
Guatimotzin. But instead of taking that direction, the stone flew up
vertically into the air, and returned exactly to the place whence it was
launched.
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