Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/38

Having been seven or eight days in the city of Tesaico without hostilities or any encounter, fortifying our
Destruction
of
Iztapalapan quarters, and ordering everything necessary for our defence, and for attacking the enemy, and, seeing they did not attack me, I sallied out from the city with two hundred Spaniards, amongst whom were eighteen horsemen, thirty archers, ten musketeers, and three or four thousand friendly Indians. I followed the shore of the lake till we reached the city called Iztapalapa, which is two leagues by water from the great city of Temixtitan, and six from Tesaico; it contains about ten thousand households, and half, or even two-thirds, of it is built on the lake. Its lord, Montezuma's brother, whom the Indians, after the latter's death, had selected as sovereign, was the leading one in making war on us, and expelling us from the city. For this reason, as well as because I had learned that the people of Iztapalapa were very badly disposed towards us, I determined to march against them. When their people perceived me, about two leagues before arriving there, some warriors immediately appeared on land, and others in canoes on the lake; thus we advanced over those two leagues, skirmishing, both with those on land and with those on water, till we reached the said city. Almost two-thirds of a league outside the town, they had opened a causeway, which was like a dyke between the fresh and salt-water lakes, as Your Majesty may see from the map of the city of Temixtitan I have sent. When the dyke was opened the water of the salt lake began to rush with great impetus into that of the fresh-water lake, although the two lakes are more than half a league apart; while we, not noticing the trap in our eagerness for victory, passed all right and continued our approach, until we entered, mixed up with the enemy, into the city. As they were already warned of our approach, all the houses on land