Upon the death of Montezuma, Cortes, having lost all hope of bringing the Mexicans to an accommodation, saw no prospect of safety but in attempting a retreat, and began to prepare for it. A sudden motion, however, of the Mexicans engaged him in new conflicts. They took possession of a high tower in the great temple which overlooked the Spanish quarters, and placing there a garrison of their principal warriors, not a Spaniard could stir without being exposed to their missile weapons. From this post it was necessary to dislodge them at any risk, and Juan de Escobar, with a numerous detachment of chosen soldiers, was ordered to make the attack. He was thrice repulsed; which when Cortes perceived, he rushed himself with his drawn sword into the thickest of the combatants. Encouraged by the presence of their general, the Spaniards returned to the charge, and drove the Mexicans to the platform at the top of the tower. There a dreadful carnage began; when two young Mexicans of high rank, observing Cortes as he animated his soldiers, resolved to sacrifice their own lives in order to cut off the author of all the calamities which desolated their country. They approached him in a suppliant posture, as if they had intended to lay down their arms, and, seizing him in a moment, hurried him towards the battlements, over which they threw themselves headlong, in hopes of dragging him along with them to be dashed in pieces by the same fall. But Cortes, by his strength and agility, broke loose from their grasp, and the gallant youths perished in this generous though unsuccessful attempt to save their country. As soon as the Spaniards became mas. ters of the tower they set fire to it, and without further molestation continued the preparations for their retreat.

When the necessary preparations were made, they began to move, towards midnight, in three divisions. Sandoval led the van; Pedro Alvarado and Velasquez de Leon had the conduct of the rear; and Cortes commanded in the centre, where he placed the prisoners, among whom were a son and two daughters of Montezuma, the artillery, the baggage, and a portable bridge of timber, intended to be laid over the breaches in the causeway. They reached the first breach in it without molestation, hoping that their retreat was undiscovered. But the Mexicans had watched all their motions with attention, and had made proper dispositions for a most formidable attack. While the Spaniards were intent upon placing their bridge in the breach, and occupied in conducting their horses and artillery along it, they were suddenly alarmed with the tremendous sound of warlike instruments, and a general shout from an innumerable multitude of enemies: the lake was covered with canoes, flights of arrows and showers of stones poured in upon them from every quarter; the Mexicans rushed forward to the charge with fearless impetuosity, as if they hoped in that moment to be avenged of all their wrongs. The Spaniards, unable to sustain the weight of the torrent that poured in upon them, began to give way. In a moment the confusion was universal; horse and foot, officers and soldiers, friends and enemies, were mingled together; and while all fought, and many fell, they could hardly distinguish from what hand the blow came.

Cortes, with about a hundred foot soldiers and a few horse, forced his way over the remaining breaches in the causeway, and reached the main land; and having formed them as soon as they

The city of Mexico was built in the midst of a lake.

arrived, he returned with such as were capable of service to assist his friends in their retreat. He met with part of his soldiers who had broken through the enemy, but found many more overwhelmed by the multitude of their aggressors, or perishing in the lake: and heard the piteous lamentations of others whom the Mexicans, having taken alive, were carrying off in triumph to be sacrificed to the god of war. Before day, all who had escaped assembled at Tacuba; but when the morning dawned, and discovered to the view of Cortes his shattered battalions, his soul was pierced with such anguish, that while he was forming their ranks, and issuing some necessary orders, his soldiers observed tears trickling from his eyes, and remarked, with much satisfaction, that while attentive to the duties of a general he was not insensible to the feelings of a man.

In this fatal retreat many officers of distinction perished; all the artillery, ammunition, and baggage, were lost; the greater part of the horses and above two thousand of their Tlascalan allies were killed, and only a very small portion of the trea. sure which they had amassed was saved. Some interval of tranquillity was now absolutely necessary; not only that the Spaniards might give attention to the cure of their wounds, but in order to recruit their strength, exhausted by such a long succession of fatigue and hardships. During this period Cortes was not idle; he was considering of measures for retrieving his misfortunes. He drew a small supply of ammunition and two or three field-pieces from his stores at Vera Cruz. He dispatched an officer with four ships of Narvaez's fleet to Hispaniola and Jamaica to engage adven turers, and to purchase horses, gunpowder, and

other military stores. As he knew it would be vain to attempt the reduction of Mexico unless he could secure the command of the lake, he gave orders to prepare materials for building twelve brigantines, so that they might be carried thither in pieces ready to be put together, and launched when he stood in need of them.

While he was taking those necessary steps towards the execution of his measures, the spirit of discontent and mutiny broke out in his own army; they were unwilling to hazard the dangers of another campaign. The utmost he was able to effect was to prevail with them to defer their departure, for which they loudly called, for some time, on a promise that he would, at a more proper juncture, dismiss such as should desire it. At this juncture, two small ships arrived from Cuba with men and military stores; these had been sent by the governor to Narvaez, whose success against Cortes appeared to Velasquez as certain. The officer whom Cortes had appointed to command on the coast artfully decoyed them into the harbour of Vera Cruz, seized the vessels, and easily persuaded the soldiers to follow the standard of a more able leader than him whom they had been destined to join. Soon after, three ships of more considerable force came into the harbour. These belonged to an armament fitted out by Francisco de Gary, governor of Jamaica, who hoped to divide with Cortes the glory and gain of annexing the empire of New Spain to the crown of Castile. The men belonging to these ships abandoned also the master whom they were bound to serve, and enlisted under Cortes. Nor was it America alone that furnished such unexpected aid. A ship arrived from Spain, freighted by some private merchants, with mili

tary stores, in hopes of a profitable market in a country, the fame of whose opulence began to spread over Europe. Cortes eagerly purchased a cargo, which to him was invaluable, and the crew, following the general example, joined his army.

From these various quarters the army of Cortes was augmented with a hundred and eighty men and twenty horses; and it is not a little remarkable, that the two persons chiefly instrumental in furnishing him with supplies should be an avowed enemy who aimed at his destruction, and an envious rival who wished to supplant him. Having dismissed such of Narvaez's soldiers as remained with reluctance, he was able to muster 550 infantry, 40 horsemen, and a train of nine field-pieces. At the head of these, accompanied by 10,000 Tlascalans and other friendly Indians, Cortes began his march towards Mexico on the 28th of December, six months after his disastrous retreat from that city.

Nor did he advance to attack an enemy unprepared to receive him. Upon the death of Montezuma, the Mexican chiefs, in whom the right of electing the emperor was vested, had instantly raised his brother Quetlavaca to the throne, a man distinguished for his courage and capacity. He repaired what the Spaniards had ruined in the city, and strengthened it with such new fortifications as the skill of his subjects was capable of erecting. He summoned the people in every province of the empire to take arms against their oppressors, and, as an encouragement to exert themselves with vigour, he promised them an exemption from all the taxes which his predecessors had imposed. While this prince was arranging his plan of defence with a degree of foresight uncommon to an American,