they had satiated themselves on our flesh and had honored their gods with our hearts and blood. Tired out with battles, we did not relish this haughty answer.
Cortes now made the most careful enquiries about the forces of Xicotenga, and we learned that he had many more troops than when he attacked us before—five chiefs, each commanding ten thousand men. They had brought out their banner and standard—a large white bird like an ostrich, with wings outspread as if on point of flight. Besides this, each cacique had his own particular colors and Insignia, just as do our dukes and earls In Spain. We were human beings and feared death, and when we heard these facts, and learned from other Indian captives that they were true, we spent the whole of the night in repenting our sins and in offering fervent prayers that the Almighty would save us from defeat.
Next morning, September 5th, 1519, we equipped ourselves for battle, and we had not gone quarter of a mile when we saw the fields covered with warriors bearing on their heads huge feather crests, waving their colors and making terrific noises with' horns and trumpets. The pen that would seek to describe what we here saw would find a difficult task. It was a battle of as fearful and doubtful event as well could be—a plain six miles in breadth swarming with warriors, and in the midst four hundred
