Note 792 — Chapter XXIV · FIGHT UPON THE TEMPLE SUMMIT. June, 1520.

Cortés, Cartas, 130-1. According to Bernal Diaz the sally with the engines was directed against the temple, which he appears to place at some distance. It was held by 3000 or 4000 Indians, ‘all chiefs,’ and cost the Spaniards 46 lives, every man being beside wounded. They returned hard pressed by the enemy. ‘Se mostrò Cortes mui varõ, como siẽpre.’ Hist. Verdad., 103-4. ‘Murieron todos quinientos Indios, como valientes.’ Gomara, Hist. Mex., 157. ‘En trecientos caualleros que alli estauan no quedaron seys viuos.’ Herrera, loc. cit. This author describes on a later occasion the capture of a tower attached to Montezuma’s own palace, from which missiles fell with telling effect. Cortés goes with 200 men to reduce it, and is hotly received; yet the Indians, relying upon the execution to be made by some loose beams which are to be rolled down upon the assailants at a favorable moment, allow the Spaniards to rush forward and gain the tower, putting almost every occupant to the sword. This story is probably a version of the temple fight.