Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/383

Rh their return with succor they found Aztatlan almost deserted, Cristóbal de Oñate alone having remained in charge of the baggage.

About three weeks after Verdugo had been sent to Chametla, Guzman followed with the main army, and was kindly received by the natives, who sent them food, and furnished a thousand carriers to transport their baggage. But continued friendships the Spaniards could not endure. Would not some of the survivors of this sickly army, some of the soldiers of this dastardly commander, prick these unsophisticated natives to the commission of some rash act which would justify the Spaniards to rob and enslave them! Nothing more easy; and by the time the maestre de campo and Pilar arrived with reënforcements the country was mm a state of glorious hostility. Enslavement flourished so that soon almost any number of human beings could be obtained at the rate of five pesos each. Those captured in raids were divided among the Spaniards present.

After a month's stay at Chametla the army proceeded northward to the Quezala province, and thence to Piastla, easily subduing the natives of the district. The women were becoming more beautiful as they continued their course, which seemed to indicate that they were approaching the object of their dreams, the country of the Amazons. And indeed, glowing reports of Cihuatlan, the 'place of women,' confirmed the marvellous tales which had reached the capital.