ment so constructed as to make it difficult to capture. We halted to inspect the work and Cortes asked the villagers for what purpose it stood there. They answered that because the great Montezuma was continually warring against the Tlaxcalans, they had built the fort to protect their territory. We rested here, at this entrance to a hostile country, till Cortes cried, "Let us follow our standard bearing the sign of the cross, gentlemen. Through that we shall conquer." To which we one and all returned, "Forward! whatever may happen. In God is our strength! "
Continuing our march cautiously, we had not gone far before our scouts saw about thirty Indian spies, who carried lances, shields, and broad swords edged with flint and sharper than ours of steel, and wore feathers in their hair. Cortes ordered some of our horsemen to try and capture one without wounding him. When the thirty found our horsemen coming towards them and beckoning to them with their hands, they began to retreat slowly and so to mass themselves that our men could not capture one. They also struck at our horses and wounded them, and by this action so heated the blood of our men that they killed five of the thirty. Upon this a swarm of more than three thousand warriors rushed furiously from ambush, pouring a shower of arrows and fire-hardened darts upon our horsemen. Our
