On Receiving This Last Letter From The General, Sandoval Pressed On For
Naco, But Was Obliged To Halt At A Place Called _Cuyocan_, In Order To
Collect The Stragglers Who Had Gone In Quest Of Provisions.
We were also
impeded by a river, and the natives on every side were hostile.
Our line
of march was now extremely long, by the great number of invalids,
especially of the Mexicans, who were unable to keep up with the main body;
on which account Sandoval left me at this place, with the command of eight
men at the ferry, to protect and bring up the stragglers. One night the
natives attacked my post, setting fire to the house in which we were
lodged, and endeavoured to carry away our canoe; but, with the assistance
of some of our Mexicans who had come up, we beat them off; and, having
collected all the invalids who had loitered behind, we crossed the river
next day, and set but to rejoin Sandoval. A Genoese, who had been sometime
ill, sunk at length through weakness, occasioned by poverty of diet, and
died on the road, and I was obliged to leave his body behind. When I made
my report to Sandoval, he was ill pleased at me for not having brought on
the dead body; but I told him we had already two invalids on every horse,
and one of my companions said rather haughtily, that we had enough of
difficulty to bring on ourselves, without carrying dead men.
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