below filled, as far as eye could reach, with the spears and standards of the Aztec victors, whose forces had been augmented by levies from the territory of the neighboring Tezcoco. Cortéz presented a sorry array to be launched from the cliffs upon this sea of lances. But he was not the man to tremble or hesitate. He spread out his main body as widely as possible, and guarded the flanks by the twenty horsemen who survived the noche triste, and the disastrous march from Tacuba. He ordered his cavalry not to cast away their lances, but to aim them constantly at the faces of the Indians, whilst the infantry were to thrust and not to strike with their swords;—the leaders of the enemy were especially to be selected as marks; and he, finally, bade his men trust in God, who would not permit them to perish by the hands of infidels. The signal was given for the charge. Spaniard and Tlascalan fought hand to hand with the foe. Long and doubtfully the battle raged on both sides, until every Spaniard was wounded. Suddenly Cortéz descried the ensignia of the enemy's commanding general, and knowing that the fortunes of the day, in all probability, depended upon securing or slaying that personage, he commanded Sandoval, Olid, Alvarado, and Avila to follow and support him as he dashed towards the Indian chief. The Aztecs fell back as he rushed on, leaving a lane for the group of galloping cavaliers. Cortéz and his companions soon reached the fatal spot, and the conqueror driving his lance through the Aztec leader, left him to be dispatched by Juan de Salamanca. This was the work of a moment. The death of the general struck a panic into the combined forces of Tenochtitlan and Tezcoco, and a promiscuous flight began on all sides. At sunset, on the 8th of July, 1520, the Spaniards were victors on the field of Otumba, and gathering together in an Indian temple, which they found on an eminence overlooking the plain, they offered up a Te Deum for their miraculous preservation as well as for the hope with which their success reinspired them.[1]
The next day the invaders quitted their encampment on the battle field and hastened towards the territory of their friends, the Tlascalans. The Spaniards now presented themselves to the rulers of their allies in a different guise from that they wore when they first advanced towards Mexico. Fully equipped, mounted, and furnished with ammunition, they had then compelled the
- ↑ We have no accurate estimate of the numbers engaged in this battle, or of the slain.
