who had led in the slaughter of the Spaniards, and who had fled on finding the people intimidated. They were soon brought in, and the leading cacique was summarily burned in the main square of Tochtepec as a warning to his assembled vassals. The rest were pardoned after a salutary suspense.
While examining the mineral resources of the new conquest, Sandoval despatched Captain Briones with a hundred infantry and some allies to subdue Tiltepec and other towns in the adjoining Zapotec territory. Briones was a voluble fellow, as we have seen, lately
commander of one of the lake brigantines, who had made a good impression on the officers by a boastful exhibition of scars from the wars in Italy.[1] The Zapotecs were made of sterner stuff than the Tochtepecans, inured as they were to danger among their
- ↑ 'La jactancia suele vivir muy cerca de la cobardía,' hints Salazar, somewhat unjustly. Hist. Conq., 83. He figures even more prominently in Honduras. See Hist. Cent. Am., i. 525 et seq.
