The "General History of the Things of New Spain" contains this account of an Aztec eyewitness present at the slaughter:

"Having bided their time, having waited for an opportune moment, the Spaniards came forth to slay us.... They first struck a drummer; they severed both his hands and cut off his head, which fell to the ground some distance away.... They hacked at the shoulders of others, splitting their bodies open; or at their shanks, or at their thighs, or at their abdomens, breaking out their entrails, which dragged as they tried to run.... Some of us, playing dead, crawled in among the bodies of the slain and escaped - unless the Spaniards saw one breathe and stabbed him. The blood of the young warriors ran like water; it gathered in pools. A foul stench arose from and spread about the carnage."