ABSTRACT
The next day, after commending ourselves to God, we set out with all our ranks in good order, the horsemen well instructed in the way they should charge through the enemy and return to us, and to see that the enemy should not be permitted to break our ranks and separate us one from the other. As we thus marched on, two armies of warriors approached to give us battle. They numbered six thousand men [and they came on us] with loud shouts and the din of drums and trumpets, as they shot their arrows and hurled their darts and acted like brave warriors. Cortés ordered us to halt, and sent forward the three prisoners whom we had captured the day before, to tell them not to make war on us as we wished to treat them as brothers. He also told one of our soldiers, named Diego de Godoy, who was a royal notary, to watch what took place so that he could bear witness if it should be necessary, so that at some future time we should not have to answer for the deaths and damages which were likely to take place, for we begged them to keep the peace.
