The Horses Of Our Cavalry
Were All Wounded, And When At Any Time They Made A Charge Upon The Enemy,
They Were Almost Immediately Stopt By Barriers And Parapets Which The
Enemy Had Drawn Across The Causeway For The Purpose, And From Whence They
Defended Themselves With Long Lances.
Likewise, when the infantry advanced
along the causeway, instead of abiding our attack, the enemy threw
themselves into the water and escaped by swimming or into their canoes,
returning incessantly to the attack.
We were thus engaged for more than an
hour to no useful purpose, the enemy continually increasing in number, by
reinforcements from every part of the lake; and our allies, instead of
being serviceable, only encumbered the causeway and hindered our movements.
Finding that we were unable any longer to resist the multitude of enemies
who assailed us perpetually from the water, and almost with entire
impunity, we determined to retreat to our quarters in Tacuba, having eight
of our men slain and above fifty wounded, and were closely followed up and
much harassed by the enemy during our retreat. De Oli laid the blame of
the disaster of this day on the rashness of Alvarado.
Next day[1], though we were all extremely solicitous for the two captains
to remain together, De Oli proceeded with his division to take possession
of Cojohuacan, according to the orders he had received from Cortes; but
this separation was assuredly extremely ill judged; as, if the enemy had
known the smallness of our numbers at the two stations, they might have
fallen upon and destroyed us separately, during the four or five days that
we remained divided before the arrival of Cortes with the brigantines. In
all that time we never ventured to make any more attempts against the
Mexican causeways, but the enemy frequently sent bodies of their troops to
the main land to make attacks on our quarters, on which occasions we
always drove them away.
Sandoval with his division did not leave Tezcuco until the fourth day
after the feast of Corpus Christi[2], when he marched through a friendly
country by the south side of the lake, and arrived without interruption in
front of Iztapalapa. Immediately on his arrival, he commenced an attack on
the enemy, and burnt many of the houses in that part of the town which
stood on the firm land; but fresh bodies of Mexican warriors came over in
canoes and by the causeway of Iztapalapa to relieve their friends in the
town, and made a determined resistance against Sandoval. While the
engagement was going on, a smoke was observed to arise from a hill above
the town, which was answered by similar signals at many other points
around the lake, which were afterwards found to have been made to apprize
the enemy of the appearance of our flotilla on the lake. On this, the
efforts of the enemy against Sandoval were much relaxed, as their canoes
and warriors were recalled to oppose our naval force; and Sandoval was
thus enabled to take up his quarters in a part of the town of Iztapalapa;
between which and Cojohuacan the only means of communication was by a
causeway or mound dividing the lake of Chalco from that of Mexico or
Tezcuco, which passage was at that time impracticable in the face of the
enemy.
"Before proceeding to the narrative of the siege of Mexico, it may be
proper to give some account of the situation of the city of Mexico, and
the mounds or causeways by which it communicated with the land at the
several posts which were occupied by Cortes for its investment[3]. The
city of Mexico was built partly on an island and partly in the water, at
the west side of a considerable salt lake, named sometimes the lake of
Tezcuco, and sometimes the lake of Mexico, and appears to have been about
a mile from the firm land. It communicated with the land by three mounds
or causeways; that of Tepejacac on the north, about three miles long,
measuring from the great temple in centre of Mexico; that usually called
of Iztapalapa on the south, nearly five miles in length; and that of
Tacuba or Tlacopan on the west, about two miles long, likewise measuring
from the temple; but at least a mile may be abstracted from each of these
measurements, on account of the extent of the city from the great temple
to the commencement of the causeways. About the middle of the southern
causeway called that of Iztapalapa, another causeway branched off
obliquely to the south-east, to the town of Cojohuacan; and at the place
where these two causeways united stood the town of Xoloc, partly on the
sides of the causeways, but chiefly in the water intersected by canals and
ditches. Besides these three grand causeways for communicating with the
land, there was a smaller mound about two miles south from the causeway of
Tacuba, from a town named Chapoltepec, along which the aqueduct, or pipes,
for supplying Mexico with fresh water was carried; but this appears to
have been too narrow for allowing any passage, at least the Spaniards do
not seem to have availed themselves of it, in their long and arduous
endeavours to force their way into Mexico. Near the south-west angle of
the salt lake of Mexico, it communicated by a narrow neck or strait with
the fresh water lake of Chalco; and at their junction a mound or causeway
had been constructed across, to prevent the admixture of the salt and
fresh lakes, having a town called Mexicaltzinco at the eastern extremity
of this mound. Iztapalapa stood in the western end of the peninsula,
between the lakes of Mexico and Chalco, but on the borders and in the
waters of the former. The whole fertile vale of Mexico or Anahuac, around
these two lakes, and some others to the north of the great lake, was
thickly planted with cities, towns, and villages, and highly cultivated,
containing and giving subsistence to a prodigious population.
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