He
Desired Them To Recal The Inhabitants, Which They Readily Promised,
Requesting Him Not To Injure Their Idols In A Temple Close To Some
Buildings In Which Cortes Was Quartered, Which He Agreed To, Yet
Expostulated With Them On The Absurdity Of Worshipping Compositions Of
Clay And Wood.
They seemed as if it would have been easy to induce them to
embrace the doctrines of our holy faith; and soon brought us twenty loads
of fowls and maize.
On being examined by Cortes about the bearded men with
horses, they said that these people dwelt at a place called _Nito_, at the
distance of seven suns, or days journey from their village, and offered to
guide us to that place. At this time Cortes was exceedingly sad and
ill-humoured, being fretted by the difficulties and misfortunes of his
march, and his conscience upbraided him for the cruelty he had committed
upon the unfortunate king of Mexico. He was so distracted by these
reflections, that he could not sleep, and used to walk about at night, as
a relief for his anxious thoughts. Going in the dark to walk in a large
apartment which contained some of the Indian idols, he missed his way and
fell from a height of twelve feet, by which he received a severe contused
wound in his head. He endeavoured to conceal this circumstance from
general knowledge, and got his wounds cured as well as he could, keeping
his sufferings to himself.
After leaving this place, we came in two days to a district inhabited by a
nation called the _Mazotecas_, where we found a newly built town,
fortified by two circular enclosures of pallisades, one of which was like
a barbican, having loop-holes to shoot through, and was strengthened by
ditches.
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