CHAPTER X.

THE SIGN OF THE GOD OF THE FOUR WINDS.

T was in August, the height of the rainy season,
that the little Spanish army of four hundred men,
only fifteen of whom were mounted, took up their line
of march from Vera Cruz for the Aztec capital. They
carried with them but three heavy guns and the four
faleonets. The remainder of the troops, one horse,
and seven pieces of heavy artillery, were left for the
defence of their infant city. To drag their guns and
transport their baggage over the mountains, they
obtained from Cempoalla the services of a thousand
tamanes, or porters. An army of thirteen hundred
Totonac warriors also accompanied them.

The first day’s journey was through the perfumed
forest, filled with gorgeous blossoms and_brightly-
plumaged tropic birds of the Tierra Caliente. Then
they began to ascend the eastern slopes of the Mexican
Cordilleras, above which towers the mighty snow-
robed peak of Orizaba. At the close of the second day