struck him full in the face.[1] Previous lessons had not been in vain, for the foe soon wavered before the resolute advance, and when the foot and allies came up, the battle turned into a chase and slaughter. A large number of prisoners were also taken, and every village on the way was ravaged and burned by the auxiliaries.
Sandoval arrived most opportunely at San Estévan. "Three days' more delay," says Cortés, "and all there would have been lost." So reduced were the besieged by wounds, hunger, and fatigue, harassed day and night by the natives, that but for the resolute demeanor of a few of the veterans of Cortés they would have yielded.[2] The besiegers having now dispersed, two expeditions were sent out in pursuit, and to forage, with the injunction to secure every rebel of note. Sandoval remaining behind among the disabled, no restraint was placed on the troops in observing the order of Cortés to inflict severe punishment. Sacking, slaughtering, and burning went hand in hand,[3] the example being set by the Spaniards and eagerly excelled by the auxiliaries with the intensity customary among those cruel warriors. The captain himself set forth a few days later, marking his advance with comparative leniency, even where submission was tardy, yet he failed not to take prisoners all sturdy and prominent rebels, swelling the total of captured chiefs and notable men alone to fully four hundred.[4]
Sandoval now reported to Mexico the pacification of the province, and asked for instructions concerning
- ↑ Three horses and two young soldiers are said to have fallen, besides allies, whose losses are seldom thought worth while to mention.
- ↑ Bernal Diaz, who naturally seeks to give all the credit possible to his own set, names Navarrete, Carrascosa, and Alamilla among these veterans. He assumes that they had 28 horses left. Others place the garrison at 100 men with 22 horses. Gomara, Hist. Mex., 227. Cortés places the whole cavalry force now mustered, including Sandoval's, at 80. Cartas, 302.
- ↑ 'Quemando todas las casas, de modo que dentro de pocos dias lo saqucaron todo, y mataron una infinidad de indios.' Ixtlilcochitl, Hor. Crueldades, 653.
- ↑ Herrera specifies 60 chiefs and 400 rich and prominent natives. dec. iii. lib. v. cap. vii. Bernal Diaz refers to five as ringleaders, and states that wives and children were left, unmolested, those not guilty of murder being also set free.
