Ojeda, who appears to have rendered great service as interpreter and in
controlling the Tlascaltecs, was soon after rewarded with what he terms a
generalship over all the auxiliaries under Cortés. Herrera makes a special
later expedition of 5000 Tlascaltecs convey the guns and other effects, carried
in wooden beds by relays of twenty natives for each. dec. iii. lib. i. cap. vi.
The names are written in different ways by different authors. The
former is probably identical with the chief of Atlihuetzian, who afterward
killed his two sons for becoming Christians, says Clavigero, Storia Mess., iii. 176. Chimalpain calls them brothers. Hist. Conq., ii. 26. Camargo, followed
by Herrera, assumes that the original native force was 180,000. Gomara and
Ixtlilxochitl allow 20,000 to have been retained, besides carriers; others give
each of the chiefs 10,000 men, while Bernal Diaz, who as a rule seeks to ignore
the value of native aid, reduces the number to 8000 warriors and 2000 carriers. Chichimecatl became quite indignant at finding himself removed from the van. He was a lord of Tlascala, and had ever been accustomed to posts of honor and
danger. ‘For this very reason,’ replied Sandoval, ‘have I placed you in the
rear, for there the foe will be most likely to attack.’ Though mollified in the
main, Chichimecatl still grumbled, and considered his army sufficient to guard
the rear without the aid of the Spanish force attached to his. Sandoval no
doubt took the van, though Bernal Diaz states that he joined the rear. Hist. Verdad., 124. Cortés implies that the change was owing to the risk, in case
of attack, to have in the van the cumbersome timber under Chichimecatl’s
care. Cartas, 184-5. Chimalpain supposes that the chief carried his points.