Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/246

226 As it was, the natives did rise in several directions, notably in Oajaca, Goazacoalco, and Pánuco regions, attacking the Spaniards not only on the road and in the mines, where isolated, but in the settlements. Quite a number were killed, and many under the most atrocious tortures that gradually accumulated wrongs could exact or invent. Some were kept without food until famished; then one of their legs or arms was cut off and cooked and eaten before their eyes. Some were flayed alive, or roasted over slow fires; others were used as targets.

The absence with Cortés of so many of the influential conquerors tended to increase the alarm, and the colonists retired to the larger settlements, particularly to Mexico, to prepare for what might happen. As it would not answer to encourage the natives by a neutral or vacillating policy, several expeditions were formed to chastise the revolted districts, and to keep the others in awe. One party of sixty men, under Captain Vallecillo, proceeded in the direction of Tabasco, there to encounter great hardships, the leader among others becoming incapacitated for active service. Under these distressing circumstances, one man, Juan de Lepe, ventured to find his way to Medellin alone, and thence to Mexico, where his appeals were responded to with a fresh force, under Captain Baltasar de Gallegos, bearing extra supplies and arms. The conquest was now completed; the country was divided among the soldiers, and near the spot where Cortés had gained his first victory in New Spain a town was founded under the commemorative name of Nuestra Señora de la Victoria.