ABSTRACT
As we felt weary after the battles we had fought, and many of the soldiers and horses were wounded and some died there, and it was necessary to repair the crossbows and replenish our stock of darts, we passed one day without doing anything worthy of mention. The following morning Cortés said that it would be as well for all the horsemen who were fit for work to scour the country, so that the Tlaxcalans should not think that we had given up fighting on account of the last battle, and that they should see that we meant to follow them up; for on the previous day we had halted without sallying forth to look for them, and it was better for us to go out and attack them than for them to come and attack us and thus find out our weakness. As the country was level and thickly populated, we set out with seven horsemen and a few musketeers and crossbowmen and about two hundred soldiers and our Indian allies, leaving the camp as well guarded as was possible. In the houses and towns through which we passed, we captured about twenty Indian men and women without doing them any hurt, but our allies, who are a cruel people, burnt many of the houses and carried off much poultry and many dogs for food. When we returned to the camp which was not far off, Cortés set the prisoners free, after giving them something to eat, and Doña Marina and Aguilar spoke kindly to them and gave them beads and told them not to be so mad any longer, but to make peace with us, as we wished to help them and treat them as brothers. Then we also released the two prisoners who were chieftains and they were given another letter, and were to tell the high Caciques who lived in the town—which was the capital of all the towns of the province—that we had not come to do them any harm or to annoy them, but to pass through their country on our way to Mexico to speak to Montezuma. The two messengers went to Xicotenga’s camp which was distant about two leagues among some towns and houses which I think they called Cuadçinpacingo, and when they gave him the letter and our message the reply that their captain Xicotenga gave them was, that we might go to his town where his father was living; that there peace would be made by satiating themselves on our flesh, and honour paid to his gods with our hearts and blood, and that we should see his answer the very next day.
