On the Tecama Plain, four miles from Tezcuco, a hostile force approached, probably by accident. After routing them the army encamped. The following day they proceeded to Xaltocan,2 a prominent
town situated on an island in the northern end of the lake bearing that name. Once the capital successively of a Toltec, Otomí, and Chichimec principality, it had succumbed to the vicissitudes of political revolution and wars, and was at present one of the chief strongholds belonging to the tripartite power in the valley. It was approached by a causeway provided with breastworks and drawbridges.
The intention of the army had been surmised, so that preparations were made in every direction to resist an entry, and the water swarmed with canoes. In advancing along the causeway a tempest of stones, arrows, and darts came upon them from both sides, while hampered on a narrow road, hemmed in by the waters, and able to do little against the floating