CHAPTER XXVIII.
INVALUABLE FRIENDSHIP.
July-September, 1520.
Divers Disasters to the Spaniards — Mexico Makes Overtures to Tlascala — A Council Held — Tlascala Remains True to the Spaniards — Disaffection in the Spanish Army — Cortés again Wins the Soldiers to his Views — Renewal of Active Operations against the Aztecs — Success of the Spanish Arms — Large Reinforcements of Native Allies — One Aztec Stronghold after another Succumbs.
At Tlascala were certain invalid Spaniards, who praised the natives for their kind treatment, and for the almost universal sympathy exhibited with regard to the misfortunes at Mexico. The army now learned that disaster had also befallen the Spaniards in other parts of the country. The news of the flight had spread with marvellous rapidity, and Cuitlahuatzin's envoys had not failed to magnify the successes of his arms while urging throughout the country the extermination of the invaders. This advice had found ready acceptance in the provinces west and south of Tlascala, which had additional reasons for hostility in the assumption of the little republic since she became the ally of the strangers.
Shortly after the departure of the army from the coast a party of fifty men with five horses had followed with baggage and valuables. At Tlascala a portion of them, with two horses, under Juan de Alcántara senior, received the portion of treasure set aside during the late repartition for the coast garrison, estimated at sixty thousand pesos. With this they set out on their return to Villa Rica, accompanied by a few in-
