On my return to Mexico, I assisted in putting down the insurrection of the Zatopecs and Minges.
I do not mention several other hostile rencontres, for I should find neither any end to them, nor to the numerous perils I encountered. Neither must I omit to mention that I was among the first who stood before Mexico when we were about to commence the siege. Cortes himself did not take up his station till five days after. I was also one of those who destroyed the aqueduct of Chapultepec, by which the Mexicans were deprived of fresh water.
If we sum up all this together, it will be found that I have, at least, been in 119 battles and hostile rencontres: not that I exactly wish to praise myself by stating this; but it is truth what I have written, and my history is not a book of old traditions, or account of things that happened in ancient times among the Romans; neither does it contain poetical fictions, but a faithful narrative of the important and remarkable services which we rendered to the Almighty, to our emperor, and to the whole of Christianity.
Praise and thanks be to the Lord Jesus Christ, who preserved me in so many perils, and that at present I have the power to write all this with such clearness! And I can, indeed, boast that I have been in as many battles as historians relate of the emperor Henry the Fourth.