Note 251 — Chapter VIII

Cortés tells the affair coolly enough to the emperor. “And that night I kept such guard that of the spies—as well those who came across the water in canoes as those who descended from the sierra to watch for an opportunity of accomplishing their design—fifteen or twenty were discovered in the morning that had been killed by our men; so that few returned with the information they had come to get.” Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 74.{*}

{*} [Cortés cannot be blamed for adopting such precautions as any good general would have thought it culpable to neglect; while his repeated warnings to the natives not to approach the camp after sunset show his anxiety to impress them with a sense of the danger. “Sabed,” he said to the chiefs, “que estos que conmigo vienen no duermen de noche, é si duermen es un poco cuando es de dia; é de noche están con sus armas, é cualquiera que ven que anda en pié ó entra do ellos están, luego lo matan; é yo no basto á lo resistir; por tanto, haceldo así saber á toda vuestra gente, é decildes que despues de puesto el sol ninguna venga do estamos, porque morirá, é á mí me pesará de los que murieren.” Relacion hecha por el Señor Andrés de Tápia sobre la Conquista de México.—K.]