ABSTRACT
The cavalier's route led him through a country for the most part friendly; and at Chalco his little body of Spaniards was swelled by the formidable muster of Indian levies who awaited there his approach. Hernando Cortes had set sail with his flotilla, intending to support his lieutenant's attack by water. Thus strengthened, Cortes prepared to make another attack upon the capital, and that before it should have time to recover from the former. Orders were given to his lieutenants on the other causeways to march at the same time, and co-operate with him, as before, in the assault. Marching into the great square, he selected, as the first to be destroyed, the old palace of Axayacatl, his former barracks. Cortes determined to support it by such active assaults on the city as should still further distress the besieged and hasten the hour of surrender. The troops under Cortes were scarcely in a better situation.
