CONQUEST OF MEXICO. BOOK VI. SIEGE AND SURRENDER OF MEXICO. CHAPTER I. ARRANGEMENTS AT TEZCUCO.-SACK OF IZTA PALAPAN. ADVANTAGES OF THE SPANIARDS.-WISE POLICY OF CORTÉS.-TRANSPORTATION OF THE BRIGANTINES. 1521. THE city of Tezcuco was the best position, probably, which Cortés could have chosen for the head-quarters of the army. It supplied all the accommodation for lodging a numerous body of troops, and all the facilities for subsistence, incident to a large and populous town.* It furnished, moreover, a multitude of artisans and labourers for the uses of the army. Its territories, bordering on the Tlascalan, afforded a ready means of intercourse with the country of his allies, while its vicinity to Mexico enabled the general, without much difficulty, to ascertain the movements in that capital. Its "Así mismo hizo juntar todos los bastimentos que fuéron necesarios para sustentar el Exército y Guarniciones de Gente que andaban en favor de Cortés, y así hizo traer á la Ciudad de Tezcuco el Maiz que habia en las Troxes y Graneros de las Provincias sugetas al Reyno de Tezcuco."Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 91. |