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Show •' • • ' r t o I o : I t : t I I I' : ; t : ~· t ,' ,' ,' ,' I.' •. . ... ,• ... .. . • I I t I ... . . t t t If .... 1 r 11 I 1 'r I I I •,' ·~· '• 0 ; t : .'~ o t I : : ••• •• - . f t I .:I It I 0 1 t t • t t II I S T 0 R Y 0 F ME X I C 0. 102 BOOK IX. ~ pa!ft!d along without paying any attention t?w~rds him. The k~r~g, icrccd to the heart at feeing himfdf [o chfdamfull~ treated, r. tu ctl p 1 · . ·tmcJ' t where his affliction was fiill increaicd by the mfor-to liS apat I ' • 1 d . ·a··u mation brought by his fervants that t~e S~am{h general 1a exptc e himfelf in words moll: injurious to hts maJdl:y (e). . Cortes reprimanded the captain ~lvarado w~th great fcvcnt~, an~ would certainly have in flitted upon ]urn the pumlhm~nt he defe1 vcd, 1f t 1l t! C·lr CUtnl1l1;. ,lnCe s of the t1' me and the perfon had permitted. He forcf.t w. the great fl:orm which was now to pour upon them, and he thought 1t would have been imprudent to have created himfelf an ene.my, upor1 an occafion of fo much danger, of one of the bra veil: captams he had in his army. With the new troops which Cortes brought to Mexico, he .had an army of nine thoufand men, but there not being ~ccom.m~datton ~ot· them all in the quarters, they occupied fome of thofe bu1ldmgs wluch were within the enclofure of the greater temple, and the nearefi to the quarters. From their multitude alfo the fcar~ity of provifions, al.ready, occafioned by the want of a market, was augmented, for the .l\1extcans, in hatred to the Spaniards, would no longer hold any. Cortes therefore fent to tell Montezuma, with il:rong threats, that he iliould give orders for a market to be held, that they might provide themfelves with every thing necel1ary. Montezuma anfwered, that the perfons of the gt·eateO: authority to whom he could truil: the execution of fuch an order, were all, as he was, in prifon; that fome of them mull: be fet at liberty, that his wiili might be accompli!hed. Cortes let the prince Cuitlahuatzin, the brother of Montezuma, ~ut of confinement, not (~) The hinorian Solis is not difpofed to believe that this mark of contempt was {hewn uy Cortes to Montez.uma; and in order to vindicate that general, he wrongs B. Dinr., who affirms, it as having been an cyc. witncfs l nnd Herrera, who rcloctes it on the fupport of good rlocuments. He undcferv cdly accufes n. Dinz of pqrtiality againfi Cortes ; nnd of Her rem he faya, that it is to be fufpellcd that he chofe to adopt the account of B. Dinz, for the purpofe of making ufe of a fentencc of Tacitus; ambition, he adds, dangtrDus to bijlorians, but to none more than Solis himfclf; for every impnrrial and well-informed perfon in the hiOory of Mexico will perceive, in rending the works of Solis, that this author, in !lead of adjulllng the fentcncea to the relation, on the contrary, udj•Jlla the relation to the fentenc~•· LnOiy, ns he adduces no better rcnfims thnn thofc offered by B. Diaz, we ought to give more credit to the latter as nn eye-witncfs of the fa,~. fol,'efeeing \ HISTORY OF ME X I C 0. forcfeeing that the liberty of that pdnce would be the caufe of ruin to the Spaniards. Cuitlahuatzin never returned to the quarters, nor rcefiabliflwd the market, either becaufe he would not favour the Spaniards, or becaufc the Mexicans would not confent to it, but compelled hirn to cxercife•his poil: of general. In fact, it was he who from that time <:;ommanded the troops, and directed all the hoil:ilities againfl: the Spaniards, until at latl:, by the death of his brother, he was eletl:ed · ~ing of Mexico. . On the day on which Cortes entered into Mexico, there was no movement made by the people; but the day after they began to fling and fhoot fo many il:on.es at the Spaniards, that they appeared, as Ccrtcs iays, like a te::mpdl: ; and to many arrows, that they covered the pavemcn t of the court and the terra(.;es of the palace; and the number of the afi~mlters was fo great, that they covered all the ground of the il:rects. Cortes did not think it proper to il:and who1ly upon his defence, left that fhould be afcribed to cowardice, and infpire the enemy with more courage. He made a £11ly out upon them with four hundred men, part Spaniards and part Tlafcalans. The Mexicans retired with little lofs, and Cortes, after having made fire be fet to fome of the houfes, returned to his quarters; but finding that the enemy continued their hoil:ilities, he made the captain Ordaz go out with two hundreo foldiers againft them. The Mexicans affected to be put into confufion, r.,ld to fly, in order to draw the enemy to a diil:ance from their quarters, in which they fucceeded; for fuddenly the Spaniards found themfelves furrounded by the Mexicans on all fides, and attacked by a body of troops in f~ont and another behind, but in fuch a tumultuous manner, that their diforder impeded their action. At the fame time appeared a numerous rabble on the tops of the houfes, who kept up a conftant lhower of arrows and il:ones. The Spaniards found themfelves now in imminent danger, and this occafion was certainly one of thofe on which the brave Ordaz difplayed his ikill and courage. The conteft was moil: bloody, but with no great lofs to the Spaniards, who, with their guns and crofi- bows cleared the terraces, and with their pikes and fwords repelled the multitude which deluged the .ftreets, and at bft vrere able to retire to their quat ters, leaving many Mexicans, though not more thcln eight of their own people, killed ; but they were lOJ nooK rx. ~ S ~ cT. XVI. 1\ . ion be· tween the l\1cxic:~nsanc.l the Spaniards in the cnpital. |