1,500 men killed,[1] 2,500 muskets, and all his artillery, ammunition, and baggage trains. The resources of Yucatan were now exhausted; and efforts were confined to self-defence, which were only partially successful. Many a thriving town was burned, and large tracts were desolated.[2]
In 1864 José Salazar Ilarregui was appointed by Maximilian comisario of Yucatan, and attempted to pacify the Indians by kind words and pacific overtures. He sent an agent to them, who, after having brought back a few peaceable Indians, returned and entered the hostile territory, where he was soon put to death.[3] Hostilities were now prosecuted with renewed vigor, and dreadful atrocities were committed.[4] Ilarregui, finding his peace policy useless, despatched the imperialist general Galvez against the Indians, with 1,000 government troops and 400 Yucatecs. Galvez advanced as far as Xonot, six leagues from Tihosuco, and occupied it. But he was soon besieged and compelled to retreat, having lost 400 men and three pieces of artillery and his ammunition. Tihosuco then fell int. the enemy's hands; the military line of defense was withdrawn fifteen leagues;[5] and to this day the Indians are unsubdued.
But this war of races was not the only scourge from
- ↑ The wounded had to be abandoned, and were all put to death. Mendiolea, in Id., 79.
- ↑ The devastations of the Yucatan Indians were unsurpassed even by those of the Apaches in the northern part of the republic. In the three districts of Valladolid, Espita and Tizimin the population in 1846 was 97,468; in 1862 it had been reduced to 35,469. In the former year there were 49 thriving towns, 19 of which had been totally destroyed by 1802. Out of 693 flourishing haciendas and ranchos, 335 were devastated and abandoned during the same period.
- ↑ He was 'macheteado,' which consisted in slowly nicking or crimping the victim's limbs and body ever with cuts given with h machete, care being taken not to deal a fatal, wound, or cause too great a loss of blood. The cuts were so skilfully arranged with regard to circulation that no more blood flowed from a dozen wounds than from one, each successive cut always stopping the supply to the preceding wound inflicted.
- ↑ 'De nuevo quemaron á los hombres y clavaron en estacas á las mugeres, cortándoles el seno.' Id., 80.
- ↑ All through this devastating warfare the Indians were well supplied with fire-arms and ammunition from Belize. The British government made no attempt to stop such traffic, and the colonial government openly connived at it.
