immediately sent to the general of this determination, with orders to
cease from hostilities. Xicotencatl was much offended at this order, and
insisted on making another nocturnal attack on our quarters. On learning
this determination of their general, the council of Tlascala sent orders
to supersede him in the command, but the captains and warriors of the army
refused obedience to this order, and even prevented four of the principal
chiefs of the republic from waiting upon us with an invitation to come to
their city.

After waiting two days for the result of our message without receiving any
return, we proposed to march to Zumpacingo, the chief town of the district
in which we then were, the principal people of which had been summoned to
attend at our quarters, but had neglected our message. We accordingly
began our march for that place early of a morning, having Cortes at our
head, who was not quite recovered from his late illness. The morning was
so excessively cold, that two of our horses became so exceedingly ill that
we expected them to have died, and we were all like to perish from the
effects of the piercing winds of the _Sierra Nevada_, or Snowy Mountains.
This occasioned us to accelerate our march to bring us into heat, and we
arrived at Zumpacingo before daybreak; but the inhabitants, immediately on
getting notice of our approach, fled precipitately from their houses,
exclaiming that the _teules_ were coming to kill them. We halted in a
place surrounded with walls till day, when some priests and old men came
to us from the temples, making an apology for neglecting to obey our
summons, as they had been prevented by the threats of their general
Xicotencatl. Cortes ordered them to send us an immediate supply of
provisions, with which they complied, and then sent them with a message to
Tlascala, commanding the chiefs of the republic to attend him at this
place to establish a peace, as we were still ignorant of what had taken
place in consequence of our former message. The Indians of the country