Before the Spaniards appeared to us, first an epidemic broke out, a sickness of pustules. . . . Large bumps spread on people; some were entirely covered. . . . [The disease] brought great desolation. . . . They could no longer walk about, but lay in their dwellings and sleeping places, no longer able to move or stir. . . . Very many people died of them; . . . starvation reigned, and no one took care of others any longer. . . . The Mexica warriors were greatly weakened by it.

And when things were in this state, the Spaniards came. . . . The warriors fought in boats; the war-boat people shot at the Spaniards, and their arrows sprinkled down on them. . . . Many times they skirmished, and the Mexica went out to face them. . . .

When [the Spanish finished adjusting the guns], they shot at the wall. The wall then ripped and broke open. The second time it was hit, the wall went to the ground; it was knocked down in places, perforated, holes were blown in it. . . . [T]he warriors who had been lying at the wall dispersed and came fleeing; everyone escaped in fear. And then all the different people [who were on the side of the Spaniards] quickly went filling in the canals. . . . And when the canals were stopped up, some horse[men] came. . . . And the Spaniards did not move at all; when they fired the cannon, it grew very dark, and smoke spread. . . .

[In the fighting, the Aztecs captured fifty-three Spaniards and many of their allies.] Then [the Aztecs] took the captives. . . . Some went weeping, some singing, some went shouting while hitting their hands against their mouths. When they got to Yacacolco, they lined them all up. Each one went to the altar platform, where the sacrifice was performed. The Spaniards went first, going in the lead. . . . And when the sacrifice was over, they strung the Spaniards' heads on poles; they also strung up the horses’ heads. . . .

And the common people suffered greatly. There was famine; many died of hunger. They no longer drank good, pure water, but the water they drank was salty. Many people died of it, and because of it many got dysentery and died. Everything was eaten: lizards, swallows, maize straw, grass that grows on salt flats. And they chewed at . . . wood, glue flowers, plaster, leather, and deerskin, which they roasted, baked and toasted so that they could eat them, and they ground up medicinal herbs and adobe bricks. There had never been the like of such suffering.

Along every stretch of road, the Spaniards took things from people by force. They were looking for gold; they cared nothing for green stone, feathers, or turquoise. They looked everywhere with the women, on their abdomens, under their skirts. And they looked everywhere with the men, under their loincloths and in their mouths. And [the Spaniards] took, picked out the beautiful women, with yellow bodies. And some of the women covered their faces with mud . . . , clothing themselves in rags. . . .

And when the weapons were laid down and we collapsed, the year was Three House and the day count was One Serpent.

Source: James Lockhart, ed. and trans., We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993), 108–18. Copyright 1993 by the Regents of the University of California. Reprinted by permission.