Colonial Savages and Heroic Tricksters: Native Americans in the American Tradition

Once the city was free from them (the Aztec survivors) Cortes went out to inspect (the city). We found the houses full of corpses, and some poor Mexicans still in them who could not move away. Their excretions were the sort of filth that thin swine pass which have been fed on nothing but grass. The city looked as if it had been plowed up .... There was no fresh water to be found; all of it was brackish .... There had been no live births for a long time, because they had suffered so much from hunger and thirst and continual fighting. (407)