As soon as the seven men who wished to return to Cuba had calmed down, we set out with the force of horsemen and foot soldiers already mentioned, and slept that night at the town of Cempoala. Two thousand Indian warriors divided into four commands, were all ready to accompany us, and on the first day we marched five leagues in good order. The next day, a little after dusk we arrived at some farms near to the town of Cingapacinga, and the natives of the town heard the news of our coming. When we had already begun the ascent to the fortress and houses which stood amid great cliffs and crags, eight Indian chieftains and priests came out to meet us peacefully and asked Cortés with tears, why he wished to kill and destroy them when they had done nothing to deserve it; that we had the reputation of doing good to all and of relieving those who had been robbed, and we had imprisoned the tax gatherers of Montezuma; that these Cempoala Indians who accompanied us were hostile to them on account of old enmities over the land claims and boundaries, and under our protection they had come to kill and rob them.