As two days had passed without our doing anything worthy of record, we suggested to Cortés, and it was agreed to, that as there was a town about one league distant from our camp which had sent no reply when summoned to make peace, that we should march against it by night and take it by surprise, not with intent to do it any harm, I mean not to kill or wound its inhabitants, or take them prisoners, but to carry off food and to frighten or talk them into making peace, according to the way they might act.

This town was called Tzumpantzingo, and was the capital of many other small towns, and the township where our camp was placed, which was called Tecoadçunpançingo, was subject to it, and all round about it was thickly peopled.

So one night, long before the approach of dawn, we rose early to go to that town with six of the best horsemen and the healthiest of the soldiers and ten crossbowmen and eight musketeers, with Cortés as our captain, although he was suffering from tertian fever, and we left the camp as well guarded as was possible.