They waited there for a response, a couple days and no one returned. But these locals in Xalacingo explained that the Tlaxcalans were expecting a fight. They had guessed, it was surmised, that the word they heard about the advancing europeans, was just another form of trickery from Motechuhzoma, come to extract their goods and livelihood again, in just another form. So they were ready for that.
There was the exchange of gifts and the hospitality shown by the locals to the europeans. Cortes explained about religion, promised to help the locals and asked for twenty chiefs to go with them.
"Trusting in our good fortune, commending ourselves to God, we left the next day for Tlaxcala. As we were going on our way, our two messengers who had been taken prisoner appeared, ... so frightened by what they had seen and heard that they could hardly speak of it." pp [113-4]The messengers had been captured and despite their entreaties, the Tlaxcala would not hear any arguments. The messengers were told that they would 'kill and eat the flesh of those you call teules' because they were not to be fooled by the 'treachery and lies' of Motecuhzoma. Further on, the europeans found a strong fortress built with hardened mortar. This was explained as necessary to defend against the forces of Montezuma that the Tlaxcalans were constantly at war with. Here they stopped briefly.
"We rested awhile, and this information and the fortress gave us much to think about. Cortes said: "Gentlemen, let us follow our banner, which is the sign of the holy cross, and with it we will be victorious." And all of us to a person replied that, trusting in our fortune we should go, that God is the true strength." [p. 115]When they continued, scouts were seen and scouts were sent with orders to try to capture those found on the road. Five horsemen were also sent ahead. By now, their friends from Cempoala were telling them 'for sure, there will be an ambush'. There was a skirmish, then the ambush came. Diaz says there were 3000 waiting,
"... and they began to shoot arrows at our horsemen who were now all together, showered arrows and fire-hardened spears on them, and worked marvels with their two-handed swords. In that instant we arrived with our artillery, escopetas, and crossbows. Little by little the Indians began to turn away, although they stayed a good while fighting in good order." [p. 117]
Diaz reports four men wounded and later, that one of those died. The Tlaxcalans left seventeen dead and many more wounded. There he also noted, the ground was flat and there were many houses and maize fields and maguey plants. They stayed near a stream and treated their wounds 'with grease from a fat Indian, killed and opened there'. The europeans ate dogs from the neighborhood that they had captured and killed that night. Diaz called it a 'good dinner', that the dogs 'made very good eating.'
"We were very alert the entire night, with sentries, good patrols, scouts, and the horses saddled and bridled for fear the Tlaxcalans might attack us." [p. 117]
This conflict continued but this is how Diaz ends his chapter lxii, and this story, is likely to have occured, on either the first or second of September, 1519.
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All quotes from Bernal Díaz de Castillo: The True History of the Conquest of New Spain translated with an introduction and notes by Janet Burke and Ted Humphrey, Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Co, Inc. 2012
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