upwards of seventy horses,—coming most probably from Hispaniola,—found their way from Vera Cruz to Tezcoco, and united themselves with the corps of Cortéz.
In the meantime the Emperor again directed his arms against his recreant subjects of Chalco, which he seemed resolved to subdue and hold at all hazards, so as effectually to cut off the most important land approach to his capital. Envoys arrived in the Spanish camp with reports of the danger that menaced them, and earnest appeals for efficient support. This time, Cortéz resolved to lead the party destined for this service, and, on the 5th of April, set out with thirty horsemen, three hundred infantry and a large body of Tlascalans and Tezcocans, to succor a city whose neutrality, at least, it was important, as we have already shown, should eventually be secured. He seems to have effected, by his personal influence in Chalco and its neighborhood, what his lieutenant Sandoval had been unable to do by arms, so that, he not only rendered a large number of loyal Aztecs passive, but even secured the co-operation of additional auxiliaries from among the Chalcans and the tribes that dwelt on the borders of their lake.
Cortéz was not, however, content with this demonstration against his near neighbors, but, resolved, now that he was once more in the saddle, to cross the sierra that hemmed in the vale of Anahuac, on the south, and to descend its southern slopes on a visit to the warmer regions that basked at their feet. Accordingly he prosecuted his southern march through large bodies of harrassing skirmishers, who hung upon the rear and flanks of his troop, and annoyed it with arrows and missiles, which they hurled from the crags as his men threaded the narrow defiles of the mountains. Passing through Huaxtepec and Jauhtepec, he arrived on the ninth day of his march, before the strong town of Guauhnahuac, or Cuernavaca, as it is now known in the geography of Mexico. It was the capital of the Tlahuicas, and an important and wealthy tributary of the Aztecs. Here too he encountered hostile resistance which he