inhabitants of Tabasco, a district that lay within his territory, had risen in revolt, and taking with him sixty men he started thither, directing his son Francisco to proceed with the remainder to Salamanca.
Here again this effeminate commander makes a mistake in applying to his purpose means just too weak for its accomplishment. The Tabascans could not be pacified by so slender a force; so he sent Gonzalez Nieto with two vessels to Salamanca, ordering every Spaniard there to come to his aid. And well was it for his people at Salamanca that their help was needed, for they were besieged and in a pitiable condition, hemmed in, as Cogolludo tells it, on the spot where they had landed; they had been compelled to make constant sorties for food, and obtained so little that their commander himself and five others were all who had strength left to watch over the living skeletons of Francisco's command.
Before the end of 1535 not a single Spaniard was left in Yucatan. Nor was Montejo more successful in Tabasco, until being joined by Diego de Contreras with a small band of veterans, and receiving other reënforcements, he succeeded in subjugating this portion of his territory. He then resolved once more to attempt the conquest of the peninsula. In 1537 men and supplies were obtained in New Spain, whence Montejo sailed for the Rio Champoton, whence he proceeded at the head of one hundred men toward Acalan, a town which Cortés had told him held commercial intercourse with the farthest limits of Central America. Falling sick by the way, he intrusted the command to Ávila, who on approaching the town sent messages of peace by certain of his captives. But the recollection of the visit of Cortés was yet fresh in the minds of the natives,[1] and on his arrival the contador found the place deserted. The following day many of the natives returned, whereupon their caciques were placed in irons, in the hope of extorting
- ↑ See Hist. Cent. Am., i. 546-7, this series.
