the army and set out for Tlascala. Cortez immediately sent officers in pursuit of him, giving orders to hang him as a traitor, which command was carried into effect in a small town near Tezcoco. The real motive for this outrageous proceeding appears, when we find that Cortez seized upon his family of thirty wives, and his property, a large part of which was jewels and gold.
The captains, Alvarado and Olid, continued together with their forces as far as Chapultepec, where, after a hard fight with the Mexicans, they destroyed the only aqueduct, which supplied pure water to the capital. Then they retreated to the positions respectively assigned them: Alvarado to Tlacopan, and Olid to Coyoacan, while Sandoval proceeded by land, and Cortez by water, to Iztapalapa, which place they carried by storm. As soon as they were in possession of the city, they perceived signals of smoke arising, such as had been sent up by the Mexicans when they entered the valley, and a large fleet of canoes filled with warriors came out against them. A fresh breeze springing up at this time filled the sails of the brigantines, and the Spaniards bore down upon the canoes, overturning many of them and destroying many others with shot from the cannon."[1]
Captain Olid was posted on a branch of the main causeway that led from Iztapalapa to Mexico, and setting his forces in motion he joined with Sandoval at the junction of these roads, where there was a strong fortress in possession of the Mexicans. The two captains attacked this stronghold
- ↑ In some descriptions of the launching of the brigantines of Cortez, great stress is laid upon the employment of sails, as though the Indians were not acquainted with their use. But Bernal Diaz, in describing the first that came out to them from Yucatan, says, "five canoes full of Indians came out with oar and sail,"—y venian a remo y vela. And the canoe that Columbus saw off Guanaco in 1502—Elle marchait à voiles et à rames."—Brasseur de Bourbourg.
