Note 750 — Chapter XXIII · UPRISING OF THE AZTECS. May-June, 1520.

‘Llegò aquel dia [the first] à la Rinconada, el segundo caminò siete Leguas ... llegò à Tlaxcalla à diez y siete de Junio.’ Torquemada, i. 492. Herrera tells a long story of suffering from hunger and thirst during the march through the desert. Marquez and Ojeda were sent ahead to Tlascala for supplies, and came back with 1200 carriers laden with fowl, bread, fruit, and other refreshments. Cortés, among others, was found starving, and a number were discovered on the road almost dead. All, it seems, were rescued. dec. ii. lib. x. cap. vii. There are several reasons for believing that Herrera, who is somewhat confused about this period, has confounded the present march with the flight from Mexico to Tlascala of a month later, when the people were really starving. This seems confirmed by the erroneous statement that the troops arrived at Tlascala July 17th, the time, according to Herrera’s own later statement, when they reached that place after the flight. The account also intimates that the starving army was met among the Otomí settlements, where food could readily be obtained, without the necessity for Marquez and Ojeda to go ten leagues farther, to the capital, to obtain it. These and other discrepancies are overlooked by all who refer to the march. Prescott dwells in particular on the suffering from thirst, forgetful of the statement on a previous page that the rainy season had begun about three weeks before, and that water must have been abundant along the whole route. Solis finds that the effeminate followers of Narvaez endured the suffering remarkably well. Hist. Mex., ii. 109.