Nayarits of his appointment, of his intention to take immediate possession, and of his desire to receive at once the promised allegiance. After a not very successful resort to their former dilatory tactics, they formally announced on January 13th their purpose to defend the mesa. Thereupon Flores, who had already sent out expeditions in different directions to close all avenues of escape, began active operations on the 14th. Dividing his force he marched in person with fifty soldiers and many Indians via Guainamarus, where he began the foundation of Santa Teresa,[1] with three hundred natives, making a long détour to attack the mesa from the west. Escobedo with a like force took a shorter way to the eastern base. This plan of attack by divided forces was not, as the Jesuit chronicler justly observes, a very wise one; but it resulted in no harm, save to the governor himself, who was perhaps deprived by it of the personal honors of the victory.
Escobedo had orders to march slowly so as to assault the mesa on January 17th, simultaneously with Flores from the opposite side; but he arrived on the 15th, and could not resist the temptation to begin operations at once. The Indians of the mesa del Cangrejo adjoining that of the Tonati were induced to offer no resistance, and to abide by the result if their neighbors were vanquished. On the morning of the 16th Escobedo's force began the ascent, and reached the summit late in the afternoon, having left the horses half way up, with a guard. Authority is not wanting to warrant the historian in giving to the Nayarits a valiant defence, terminated perhaps by a leap down the precipice of the few who escaped Spanish bullets. The Jesuit historian pictures a terrible conflict as Escobedo's men fought their way inch by inch up the narrow, steep, and tortuous trail, over suc-
- ↑ Called Santa Teresa de Miraflores, from Teresa, his wife's name, and Flores, his own. Mota-Padilla, Conq. N. Gal., 478. According to the Relacion, 17, he arrived here on the 15th; the pueblo was named Santa Gertrudis and the presidio Santa Teresa.
