Note 835 — Chapter XXVI · LA NOCHE TRISTE. June 30, 1520.

One authority states that Cortés was nearing Tlacopan, when Olid and others called out to him that the fugitives were accusing the captains of abandoning them, and urged that they should turn back. ‘It is a miracle to have escaped,’ was his reply, ‘and fewer will be left if we return.’ Saying this he headed a dozen horsemen and a few foot-soldiers and galloped back. Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 106. But Cortés was not the man to wait in such a case till entreaty came. ‘Yo con tres ó cuatro de caballo,’ he says, ‘y hasta veinte peones, que osaron quedar conmigo, me fuí en la rezaga.’ Cartas, 135. He takes the palm from all American conquerors, exclaims Oviedo, iii. 326.