[4] From the circumstance of the gold, it is probable Yuste and his
    companions had been slain on their retreat from Mexico, not on their
    way there as stated in the text.  From this and other similar incidents,
    of parties of Spaniards having been slain in different places after
    the retreat from Mexico, it is highly probable that several detached
    parties made their escape, who missed forming a junction with Cortes. 
    He, it will be recollected, made a detour round the west and south
    sides of the lake; and it is probable that they had turned to the east,
    as the nearest and most direct way to Tlascala and Villa Rica.—­E.

[5] Clavigero, II. 146, exaggerates the armed escort to 30,000 Tlascalan
    warriors, commanded by three chiefs, Chichimecatl, Ayotecatl, and
    Teotlipil.  Diaz calls the two last, Teuleticle and Teatical; but
    though his facts are fully more to be depended upon, Clavigero may be
    accounted better versant in Mexican orthography.—­E.

[6] Clavigero, II. 146, quotes Diaz as saying that it extended six miles
    from front to rear.  This may very likely have been the case, but Diaz
    nowhere specifies the length of the line.—­E.

[7] Clavigero says, 350 Spanish infantry, 25 horsemen, and 30,000
    Tlascalans, with six small cannon.—­E.

[8] Clavigero, II. 147, says that Cortes endeavoured at this time, but in
    vain, to come to an amicable agreement with the court of Mexico.—­E.

[9] In this expedition Cortes appears, by the information of Clavigero,
    II. 152, to have crossed the southern mountains of the Mexican vale,
    and to have reduced Huastepec, Jautepec, Quauhnahuac, and other towns
    belonging to the Tlahuicas, who were subject to the Mexican empire;
    thus judiciously using his endeavours to strengthen his own party and
    to weaken that of the Mexicans, before proceeding to assail the
    capital of that powerful empire.—­E.

[10] This beautiful city was the largest in the vale of Mexico, after the
    capital and the royal residences of Tezcuco and Tlacopan, and was
    famous for its floating gardens, whence it derived its name,
    signifying flower gardens in the Mexican language.—­Clavig.  II. 155.

[11] Diaz mentions a poem circulated at the time, as beginning in
    reference to the melancholy of Cortes on this occasion, somewhat in the
    following strain: 

      In Tacuba was Cortes, with many a gallant chief;
      He thought upon his losses, and bow’d his head with grief.

[12] Clavigero, II. 159, carries the number of allies which joined Cortes
    on this occasion, to more than 200,000 men.  In his enumeration of the
    several divisions of the army appointed for the investment of Mexico,
    Diaz makes the Indian allies very little more than 24,000 warriors.—­E.