The news of the destruction of the Spaniards will be carried, with the speed of the wind, down to the coast; and the tribes there will instantly rise and fall upon the Spaniards.

Those who have been the most friendly with them will be the very first to take up arms against them, in order to make their peace with the Aztecs, and to avert their vengeance for the aid they have given the Spaniards.

Long before we could reach the coast, the Spaniards there would either be killed, or driven on board their ships." Cuitcatl could not deny the justice of Roger's reasoning.
"There is nothing to do," the latter went on, "but to wait--at any rate, until this battle has taken place.

Impossible as it seems, the Spaniards may yet extricate themselves from the toils; in which case I should join them.

If not, and I find my escape by the coast cut off, by the rising of the tribes there, the only thing that I can see is to take to the mountains; and to live there, as I did with Bathalda, on the proceeds of the chase.