CHAPTER CCIV.

soldiers to counsel him, yet it was an astonishingly bold step on his part when he ordered Motecusuma's generals, who had killed Juan de Escalante with seven of his men, to be burned at the stake in front of the monarch's own palace. And then what a remarkably bold and hazardous undertaking it was first of all to lead Narvaez and his 1300 well-armed troops by the nose with a few small presents, and afterwards, with only 266 men, merely armed with pikes and swords, to attack, completely overthrow them, and take the commander himself prisoner! He displayed wonderful feats of courage in our attack upon the great temple of Huitzilopochtli, before our disastrous flight from the city, though certainly neither his courage nor ours, as it unfortunately turned out, was of any avail. Shortly upon this, at the memorable battle of Otumpan, where the flower of the Mexican army was drawn up against us to put us all to the sword, it was Cortes who made the first run at the Mexican general-in-chief who carried the imperial standard, and threw him to the ground, and in an instant the courage of the enemy began to flag; though it must be borne in mind he was courageously assisted by his brave officers Alvarado, Sandoval, Oli, Ordas, Dominiguez, Lares, and Tapia, besides other officers and soldiers who had no horses, but whose names I will not mention: even several of Narvaez's men fought bravely on this occasion. It was, however, Juan de Salamanca, of Ontiveros, who gave the Mexican general the finishing stroke, and tore away the splendid penache from his head, which he presented to Cortes. How dangerous was not our position in Iztapalapan? Near Xochimilco the Mexicans had already dragged him from his horse; and had it not been for our Tlascallan auxiliaries, and the brave Christobal de Olea, of Old Castile, he would have been carried off by the enemy. In that unfortunate combat on the causeway, where sixty-two of our men were taken prisoners and sacrificed to the Mexican gods, the enemy had already laid hands on our general and wounded him in the foot; but in that perilous moment it again pleased the Almighty that Olea should come up to his rescue, assist him on horseback, and thus save him from a horrible death. But, alas! this