charge. A northward course was taken, though the aim and destination were divulged to but a few, owing to the distrust still entertained of the Tezcucans.
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.