Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/212

 scattered amongst the neighbouring villages, all of whom were ignorant of any such revolt, seeing that the natives had, until then, served them willingly. Having satisfied myself by this news that a rebellion existed in that province, and having heard of the death of those Spaniards, I sent, with the greatest possible haste, a Spanish captain in command of fifty horsemen and one hundred foot soldiers, crossbowmen and musketeers, with four pieces of artillery, much powder, and ammunition, and two native chiefs of this city each with fifteen thousand of their warriors. I ordered the captain to march without stopping anywhere to the town of Santistevan del Puerto to obtain news of the inhabitants there, as perhaps they had been besieged; and if so, to help them. This was done with all haste, and, after entering the province, the captain fought the Indians at two places; and God, our Lord, having given him the victory, he continued his march to the said town, where he found twenty-two horsemen and one hundred foot soldiers who had been besieged there. They had defended themselves with certain pieces of artillery against six or seven attacks, although they could not have held out much longer as it had been done only with the greatest difficulty; and had the captain I sent been delayed three days more not one of them would have been left alive, for they were already dying of hunger. They had sent one of the adelantado's brigantines to Vera Cruz to let me know their condition by that way (as they could not send news by any other messenger) and also to bring them provisions, which afterwards was done, although they had already been succoured by my people. My captain there learned that Francisco de Garay's people, left in a town, called Tamequil, in all about a hundred foot soldiers and horsemen, had been killed, without one escaping, with the exception of an Indian from the island of Jamaica. He managed to escape through the forest,