SO we set out from Castilblanco and began our march with the scouts in advance, constantly on the alert, and the musketeers and crossbowmen in good order, as was necessary, and the horsemen in even closer order, and we all carrying our arms, as was always our custom. I will say nothing more about this, for it is no use wasting words over it, for we were always so much on the alert both by day and night that if an alarm had been given ten times over we should have been found ready every time.

In such order we arrived at a little town of Xalacingo, where they gave us a golden necklace and some cloth and two Indian women, and from that town we sent two Cempoalan chieftains as messengers to Tlaxcala, with a letter, and a fluffy red Flemish hat, such as was then worn. We well knew that the Tlaxcalans could not read the letter, but we thought that when they saw paper different from their own, they would understand that it contained a message; and what we sent to tell them was that we were coming to their town, and hoped they would receive us well, as we came, not to do them harm, but to make them our friends. We did this because in this little town they assured us that the whole of Tlaxcala was up in arms against us, for it appears that they had already received news of our approach and that we were accompanied by many friends, both from Cempoala and Zocotlan, and other towns through which we had passed. As all these towns usually paid tribute to Montezuma, the Tlaxcalans took it for granted that we were coming to attack Tlaxcala, as their country had often been entered by craft and cunning and then laid waste, and they thought that this was another attempt to do so. So as soon as our two messengers arrived with the letter and the hat and began to deliver their message, they were seized as prisoners before their story was finished, and we waited all that day and the next for an answer and none arrived.