Note 1165 — Chapter XXXIII · CONTINUATION OF THE SIEGE. June-July, 1521.

The claims to the honor of rescuing the general are conflicting. Gomara, followed by Herrera and Torquemada, names ‘Francisco’ de Olea. Bernal Diaz, who states that this soldier slew four of the captains holding Cortés, lets Lerma dispose of the remainder. After this came other soldiers and Quiñones. Cristóbal de Olea was quite young, 26 years of age, a native of Medina del Campo, muscular, and skilled in arms, and a general favorite. Bernal Diaz adds other particulars. Hist. Verdad., 146, 246. Ixtlilxochitl, on the other hand, claims for his namesake the credit of having done what Spaniards claim for Olea, aided by his Tezcucans, who kept the enemy at bay. This, he adds, is proved by a painting on the gate of the monastery of Santiago Tlatelulco. Hor. Crueldades, 38-9. Herrera briefly alludes to Ixtlilxochitl as coming up after Olea, and then relates with some detail that at the same time came the Tlascaltec, Tamaxautzin he calls him, a native of Hueyotlipan. He was afterward baptized as Antonio or Bautista, and became a good Christian, the first native to receive extreme unction. dec. iii. lib. i. cap. xx. Torquemada, i. 555, copies, but calls the man Teamacatzin. Both evidently prefer Tlascaltec to Tezcucan records. In fact, Ixtlilxochitl adds certain incredible particulars about the prowess of his wounded hero in pursuing the Mexican general into a temple, although such pursuit could not have taken place under the circumstances. See also Duran, Hist. Ind., MS., ii. 503, and Camargo, Hist. Tlax., 130. Cortés writes that he would have been lost but for Quiñones, and one of his men who lost his life to save him. Cartas, 233. A small chapel was erected in the convent de la Concepcion to commemorate the escape. See Saavedra, Indio Peregrino, canto 20.