ammunition, two heavy guns,and other effects.[1] Gayly they bent to the burden wherein lay enginery so portentous for the destruction of the hated Aztecs. The caravan set forth, escorted by a large force of warriors, and halted at Hueyotlipan to await the Spanish convoy. After a time the Tlascaltecs became impatient, and regardless of warnings proceeded. While encamped near the border an alarm was raised, and tumultuously the warriors rushed to arms to protect a portion at least of the train which had cost such labor and embodied such hopes. The next moment a cheer was heard. It was Sandoval and his men.
With this new protection many of the Tlascaltec escort could be dismissed, and the remaining twenty thousand were redistributed, the rear being assigned to the leading chief, Chichimecatl, and the flanks to Axotecatl and Teotepil.[2]
It was a strange sight in those parts, this serpentine procession as it wound its way across the Tezcucan border, along the narrow defiles of the mountains,[3] extending two miles from front to rear, it is said. A
- ↑ Ojeda, who appears to have rendered great service as interpreter and in controlling the Tlascaltecs, was soon after rewarded with what he terms a generalship over all the auxiliaries under Cortés. Herrera makes a special later expedition of 5000 Tlascaltecs convey the guns and other effects, carried in wooden beds by relays of twenty natives for each. dec. iii. lib. i. cap. vi.
- ↑ The names are written in different ways by different authors. The former is probably identical with the chief of Atlihuetzian, who afterward killed his two sons for becoming Christians, says Clavigero, Storia, Mess., iii. 176. Chimalpain culls them brothers. Hist. Conq., ii. 26. Camargo, followed by Herrera, assumes that the original native force was 180,000. Gomara and Ixtlilxochitl allow 20,000 to have been retained, besides carriers; others give each of the chiefs 10,000 men, while Bernal Diaz, who as a rule seeks to ignore the value of native aid, reduces the number to 8000 warriors and 2000 carriers. Chichimecatl became quite indignant at finding himself removed from the van. He was a lord of Tlascala, and had ever been accustomed to posts of honor and danger. 'For this very reason,' replied Sandoval, 'have I placed you in the rear, for there the foe will be most likely to attack.' Though mollified in the main, Chichimecatl still grumbled, and considered his army sufficient to guard the rear without the aid of the Spanish force attached to his. Sandoval no doubt took the van, though Bernal Diaz states that he joined the rear. Hist. Verdad., 124. Cortés implies that the change was owing to the risk, in case of attack, to have in the van the cumbersome timber under Chichimecatl's care. Cartas, 184-5. Chimalpain supposes that the chief carried his points. Hist. Conq., ii. 27.
- ↑ North of Telapon, as the easiest route, is the supposition of Orozco y Berra, in Noticias Mex., 256.
