ABSTRACT
The occupants of the airy pinnacles took advantage of their situation to shower down stones and arrows on the troops as they defiled through the narrow passes of the sierra. Small bodies of the enemy were seen occasionally at a distance, but they did not venture to attack the army on its march, which, before noon, brought them to Cojohuacan, a large town about two leagues distant from Xochimilco On the ninth day of their march the troops arrived before the strong city of Quauhnahuac, or Cuernavaca, as since called by the Spaniards. Hernando Cortes, with a few followers, disengaging him from the tumult, remained near the entrance of the city. Tacuba was the point which Cortes had reached on his former expedition round the northern side of the Valley. He had reconnoitred the several approaches to the capital, and inspected with his own eyes the dispositions made on the opposite quarters for its defence.
