Page:Guatimala or the United Provinces of Central America in 1827-8.pdf/267

Rh feats, equal to any that marked the career of Cortes. We are told that the king of the Quichés, joined by various other states, mustered on the plain of Tzaccaha 232,000 warriors, who defended by entrenchments, and surrounded by fosses, lined with poisoned stakes, were completely routed by the comparatively insignificant force of the Spaniards, and in six successive actions were defeated with tremendous slaughter.

The mind sickens, at following the bloody track of these remorseless conquerors, and shrinks from the contemplation of the multitude of these poor wretehes, who unaccustomed to the use of gunpowder, were penned up as sheep for the slaughter, and mown down by thousands. The rest of the war consisted only of a repetition of similar scenes, and by the middle of the year the country might be considered as subdued.

The account of the city of Utatlan, the capital of the Quiché kingdom, quoted by Juarros from Fuentes, an ancient historian, would if it may be depended upon, lead us to believe that the Indians of Guatimala were little if at all inferior to those of Mexico or Peru.

He describes the city as being “surrounded by a deep ravine, that formed a natural fosse, leaving only two very narrow roads or entrances to it, both of which were so well defended by the castle, as to render the city impregnable. The centre