up a great kingdom for Spain between Mexico and the Gulf.
The Aztecs, meanwhile, were busy at home as well as abroad. They had selected as "chief-of-men" Guatemozin, an Aztec warrior of the old school ready to die rather than to yield an inch to the invaders of his country. So soon as the failure of the embassy to the Tlascalans was known the Aztecs began to garrison their frontier, fortify their island-city, mend their broken dykes, replace their bridges and rebuild their temples and houses, whose roofs were so important in street-fighting. They had learned much by experience. New instruments of warfare were contrived, in order to defeat the horsemen. Spanish swords lost in those bloody battles on the causeways were fastened on long poles, the better to reach and to cut the horses, which, with the cannon, had made the Spaniards almost invincible.
With the road to Villa Rica clear behind him, Cortez now bent all his energies to the reconquest of Mexico. He resolved to build thirteen boats in such a way that they could be taken apart and carried in pieces over the mountains, to be used in the lake in the siege of the doomed city. Martin Lopez w r as put in charge of a large force of Indian carpenters, and the woods were soon ringing with the strokes of Spanish axes.
Meanwhile, Cortez sent to Cuba for all else he needed to carry on the war, but before the men and stores arrived he had twice been reinforced by the crews of vessels which had been sent from that island on the same errand which brought Narvaez. In both cases Cortez had the satisfaction of enlisting under his banner men who had crossed the sea to carry him in chains to Spain. Another large company, which came to plant a hostile colony, were
