Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/130

10 and other evidences of human sacrifice discovered about the altars of the temples filled their souls with horror. And as they were viewing these monuments of a superior culture, the troops of armed natives increased, and the priests of the temples, producing a bundle of reeds, set fire to it, signifying to the visitors that unless they took their departure before the reeds were consumed every one of them would be killed. Remembering their wounds at Catoche, the Spaniards took the hint and departed.

They were soon caught in a storm and severely shaken; after which they began to look about for water, which had by this time become as precious to them as the Tyrian mures tincture, of which each shell-fish gave but a single drop. They accordingly came to anchor near a village called Potonchan, but owing to a sanguinary battle in which they were driven back, Córdoba named the place Bahía de Mala Pelea. In this engagement the natives did not shrink from fighting hand to hand with the foe. Fifty-seven Spaniards were killed on the spot, two were carried off alive, and five died subsequently on shipboard. Those whom the natives could not kill they followed to the shore, in their disappointed rage, wading out into the sea after them, like the bloodthirsty Cyclops who pursued the Trojan Æneas and his crew. But one man escaped unharmed, and he of all the rest was selected for slaughter by the natives of Florida. Córdoba received twelve wounds; Bernal Diaz three. The survivors underwent much suffering before reaching Cuba, for the continued