Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 10, 2025
On arriving at the camp, he found the troops much dispirited. Numbers had been killed and wounded, and no less than sixty-two Spaniards, with a multitude of allies, had fallen into the hands of the enemy. Indeed, the column around Alderete had been almost entirely destroyed, and two guns and seven horses had been lost.
He had received a message from Alderete saying that he was getting on fast, and that he was but a short distance from the great square. Fearing that this officer, eager to be the first to gain the marketplace, was not taking proper precautions to secure his retreat; Cortez, with a small body of troops, retraced his steps, and turned up the street by which Alderete's column had advanced.
This modest account of the brave soldier scarcely does justice to the situation, his peril and his courage. Therefore, I supplement it by Helps' description of the same day of desperate fighting: "The impatience of the soldiers grew to a great height, and was supported in an official quarter by no less a person than Alderete, the King's Treasurer.
During the voyage to the Tierra Firma, the ship was set on fire by accident, by his sister who was accustomed to read in bed; and of the whole number on board, Alderete and three soldiers alone escaped to Porto Bello. Overcome with grief and disappointment at this melancholy catastrophe, Alderete died soon after in the small island of Taboga in the gulf of Panama.
On learning the death of Valdivia, as formerly related, Philip II. gave charge of the government and conquest of Chili to Alderete, the agent who had been sent by Valdivia into Spain, and furnished him for this purpose with six hundred regular troops.
Alderete commanded the force that advanced by the main central avenue. This was a raised causeway, with canals running on either side of the road. Tapia and a brother of Alvarado commanded one of the other columns, while Cortez led the third.
Alderete had, as Cortez supposed, pressed on the retreating Aztecs with too great eagerness. He had carried the barricades which defended the breach, and had given orders that the chasm should be filled up. But in their eagerness to be first in the square, the Spaniards had pressed on, none caring to stop to see that the allies carried out the order.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking