The smallest was soon set aside as useless. There was some trouble in obtaining rowers, owing in a great measure to the employment in Spain of criminals in that capacity. Hidalgos shrank from anything that could be regarded as common labor, and even ordinary sailors refused to handle a branded implement. In this dilemma a list was made of all natives of seaports, and of those known to be able fishermen, and finally the selected number were ordered to take the oar, regardless of caste.

So says Cortés, Cartas, 208. Bernal Diaz as usual implies a smaller number by stating that Cortés sent to ask for only 20,000 men from the republics. Hist. Verdad., 137-8. The Cholultecs, he says, who had maintained a neutral attitude since the massacre there, sent a small force under their own captain. Gomara allows 60,000 allies to come; Vetancurt 90,000, of whom 60,000 are Tlascaltecs; Clavigero limits the arrival to 50,000 Tlascaltecs, the whole number of allies swelling gradually to over 200,000, while Herrera makes that number arrive within two days; Ixtlilxochitl names thirteen chiefs, who commanded the 50,000 Tlascaltecs (a misprint gives 5000), and some of those leading the 10,000 Huexotzincas; he also allows 10,000 Cholultecs; of his own Tezcucans he claims over 200,000 to have come, 50,000 each being furnished by the provinces of Tezcuco, Otumba, Tziuhcohua, and Chalco, with Tepeaca, Quauhnahuac, etc.; 8000 chiefs or nobles joined besides from Tezcuco, and 50,000 laborers in addition, it seems. Hist. Chich., 313; Hor. Crueldades, 20.