We Were Even Forced To Abandon Our _Mantas_ Or
Turrets, Which The Enemy Had Demolished.
At length, by a desperate effort,
we forced our way up the steps, and in this assault Cortes shewed himself
a hero.
Our battle in this place was most desperate, every man among us
being covered with blood, and above forty of our number lay dead on the
spot. We reached with infinite difficulty the place where we had formerly
set up the image of the blessed Virgin, which was not to be found, as it
had been removed by order of Montezuma, either through fear or from
devotion to his idols. We set fire to the buildings, and burnt down a part
of the temples of Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca; and while some of us
were employed in setting fire to the buildings, and others fighting, in
which our Tlascalan allies seconded us most gallantly, above three
thousand Mexican nobles, headed by their priests, made a most severe
attack, and drove us down eight or ten of the steps. Others of the enemy
from the corridors, or within the railings and concavities of the temple,
assailed us on every side with arrows and other missiles, so that we were
unable even to maintain the ground we had gained. We were constrained
therefore to retreat, every man of us being wounded, and forty-six of our
number slain. We regained our quarters with the utmost difficulty, which
the enemy had almost gained possession of, as they had been continually
endeavouring to carry them by assault during our absence, or to set them
on fire. But they desisted in a great measure from the assault on our
arrival, yet continued to throw in perpetual showers of arrows, darts, and
stones. In the course of this most terrible engagement, we made two of the
chief priests prisoners, whom we carried along with us to our quarters. I
have often seen representations of this battle in Mexican paintings, both
at Mexico and Tlascala, in which the various incidents were represented in
a very lively manner. Our ascent to the great temple; the setting the
temple on fire; the numerous warriors defending it in the corridors, from
behind the rails, and in the concavities, and others on the plain ground,
in the courts of the temple, and on all sides of us; many of our men being
represented as dead, and all of us covered with wounds. In these paintings,
the destruction of our turrets is conspicuously represented as a most
heroic achievement.
The night which succeeded this unfortunate battle was passed by us in a
most melancholy state; repairing the breaches which had been made in the
walls of our quarters, dressing our wounds, burying our slain companions,
and consulting upon measures for extricating us from our present almost
hopeless situation. The followers of Narvaez heaped maledictions on Cortes
for leading them to Mexico, and Velasquez came in for an ample share of
their abuse, for having induced them to quit their peaceful habitations in
Cuba.
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