Cortes immediately ordered out a detachment of 400 men under Ordas, to see what was the matter, and to endeavour to pacify the people; but he had hardly proceeded the length of a street, when he was assailed by immense numbers of the natives, some in the street, and others from the terraced tops of the houses, who killed eight of his men on the first discharge of missiles, and wounded mostly the whole of his men, himself in three places. Finding it impossible to proceed, Ordas retreated slowly towards our quarters, and soon after lost another soldier, who did astonishing feats of valour with a two-handed sword. The streets were so crowded with enemies, and we were so incessantly attacked in front and rear, and from the roofs, that for a long while he was unable to force his way. Neither the effect of our fire-arms, nor the most efficacious use of our other arms could deter the natives from closing in upon us hand to hand, and foot to foot; but at length Ordas forced his way back, having lost in all twenty-three of his men. Our quarters were attacked by prodigious multitudes at the same moment that the attack on Ordas began, and they poured in such incessant discharges of missile weapons, that they soon wounded above forty-six of our men, of whom twelve afterwards died. Even after the retreat of Ordas, the enemy continued their attacks, and at length set fire to various parts of the buildings forming our quarters, thinking to burn us alive or to stifle us with smoke; and we were reduced to the necessity of tearing down some parts of the building, and to throw earth upon other parts, to extinguish the fire. All the courts and open places of our quarters were thickly strewed with arrows, stones, and darts, which had been thrown at us; and we were occupied the whole day and night, in repelling the incessant assaults, repairing the breaches in our defences, dressing our wounds, and preparing for future assaults. At dawn of the ensuing morning, we sallied out with our whole force, determined to conquer or to impress them with respect. The Mexicans met us with the utmost resolution, and though we fought almost in despair, their numbers were so immense, and they continually brought up such strong reinforcements of fresh troops, that even if we had all been Hectors or Orlandos, we could not have forced them to give ground. It is quite impossible to give any adequate idea of the obstinacy and violence of this battle. Though in every reiterated charge we brought down thirty or forty of the enemy, it had no effect, as they returned upon us with more violence and desperation than before; our musketry and cannon made no impression that was not instantly replaced; and if at any time they gave ground, it was only to draw us farther from our quarters, to make our destruction more sure. In the midst of all this, the stones and darts which were launched upon us from the terraces of the house tops did us astonishing injury. Some of our soldiers who had been in the wars of Italy declared, that neither among Christians or Turks, nor even in the French artillery, had they ever seen such desperate fighting as now among these Indians. We were at length forced to retreat to our quarters, which we reached with infinite difficulty, after losing ten or twelve of our men killed, and almost every one of us severely wounded.
After our return, we were busily occupied in preparing for a general sally on the next day after but one, with four military engines of strong timber like towers, each of which was calculated to contain twenty-five men under cover, with portholes for the artillery, and for muskets and crossbows. During this interval we had likewise to repair the breaches which the Mexicans had made in our walls, and to resist their attempts to scale them, often in twenty places at once. The Mexicans constantly used the most injurious language against us; saying that the voracious animals in the great temple had been kept fasting for two days, that they might be ready to devour our bodies, when we were sacrificed to their gods. They assured us at the same time that our allies were to be put into cages to fatten, and that they would soon recover our ill got treasure. Sometimes they adjured us in the most plaintive terms to restore their king to liberty, and they annoyed us without ceasing by flights of arrows, constantly shouting and whistling. On the ensuing morning at day-break, having first recommended ourselves to GOD, we sallied out from our quarters with the turrets, such as I have seen in other places, and called mantas or burros. Our column was headed by a party of musketeers and crossbow-men, and our cavalry on our flanks, occasionally charging the enemy. Our purpose was to assail the great temple, which by its elevation and strong enclosures, served as a citadel to the Mexicans, and we advanced therefore in that direction, accompanied by our turrets; but the enemy resisted all our efforts with the most determined obstinacy. I will not attempt to relate all the circumstances of this desperate battle, or the difficulty which we had to encounter in driving the enemy from a very strong house which they occupied. The arrows of the Mexicans wounded many of our horses, notwithstanding that they wore defensive armour; and when our cavalry attempted at any time to charge or to pursue the enemy, they threw themselves into the canals, while others sallied out from the houses on both sides with long lances, assailing our people in the rear and on both flanks. It was utterly impossible for us to burn the houses, or to pull them down, as they all stood singly in the water, communicating only by means of draw-bridges; and it was too dangerous for us to attempt reaching them by swimming, as they showered vollies of stones upon us by slings, and threw large stones upon our heads from the terraces of their house tops. Even when a house was set on fire, it was very long of taking effect; and even when we succeeded, the flames could not communicate to the other houses, as they were all separated by canals, and their roofs were terraced, not thatched.
At length we reached the great temple, into which four thousand of the Mexicans immediately rushed, independent of other large bodies who were previously stationed there for its defence. They defended their temple with the most obstinate valour, and for some time prevented us from being able to ascend, our turrets, musketry, and cavalry, being of no avail to force them to give ground. The pavements of the temple courts were so smooth, that the horses fell when our cavalry attempted to charge. They opposed us in front from the steps of the great temple, and assailed us with such fury on both flanks and in the rear, that though our guns swept off a dozen or fifteen of them at every discharge, and though in each charge of our infantry we killed many of them with our swords and lances, they continually filled up the chasms we had made among them, and their numbers and resolution were so great that we could not make any permanent or effectual impression. We were even forced to abandon our mantas or turrets, which the enemy had demolished. At length, by a desperate effort, we forced our way up the steps, and in this assault Cortes shewed himself a hero. Our battle in this place was most desperate, every man among us being covered with blood, and above forty of our number lay dead on the spot. We reached with infinite difficulty the place where we had formerly set up the image of the blessed Virgin, which was not to be found, as it had been removed by order of Montezuma, either through fear or from devotion to his idols. We set fire to the buildings, and burnt down a part of the temples of Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca; and while some of us were employed in setting fire to the buildings, and others fighting, in which our Tlascalan allies seconded us most gallantly, above three thousand Mexican nobles, headed by their priests, made a most severe attack, and drove us down eight or ten of the steps. Others of the enemy from the corridors, or within the railings and concavities of the temple, assailed us on every side with arrows and other missiles, so that we were unable even to maintain the ground we had gained. We were constrained therefore to retreat, every man of us being wounded, and forty-six of our number slain. We regained our quarters with the utmost difficulty, which the enemy had almost gained possession of, as they had been continually endeavouring to carry them by assault during our absence, or to set them on fire. But they desisted in a great measure from the assault on our arrival, yet continued to throw in perpetual showers of arrows, darts, and stones. In the course of this most terrible engagement, we made two of the chief priests prisoners, whom we carried along with us to our quarters. I have often seen representations of this battle in Mexican paintings, both at Mexico and Tlascala, in which the various incidents were represented in a very lively manner. Our ascent to the great temple; the setting the temple on fire; the numerous warriors defending it in the corridors, from behind the rails, and in the concavities, and others on the plain ground, in the courts of the temple, and on all sides of us; many of our men being represented as dead, and all of us covered with wounds. In these paintings, the destruction of our turrets is conspicuously represented as a most heroic achievement.