Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/455

Rh conflict was renewed, and until mid-day the scale of victory hung in the balance, when the natives falling back in some disorder, Montejo ordered a final charge on their wavering ranks. This put them to flight, and the Spaniards, too exhausted for pursuit, flung themselves on the ground amid the corpses of twelve hundred of the foe, having lost one third of their own number during the battle.

No further resistance was made, and the adelantado taking possession of the town of Aké remained there during the winter. Breaking camp early in 1528, he put his troops in motion toward Chichen Itza. Here he impressed into his service a number of natives, and erecting a fort and dwellings of timber gave to the settlement the name of Salamanca. No outward signs of dissatisfaction were shown, and after this battle the inhabitants submitted patiently to the yoke, which for the time they felt themselves unable to shake off. Montejo then distributed the surrounding territory and its inhabitants among his followers, the natives apparently accepting their lot without a murmur.

Had this expedition been in charge of an able leader it would probably have been successful; but Montejo was unfitted for command. Already he had allowed himself to be surprised, and now, surrounded as he was by bands of Indians whom he imagined to be subdued, he committed the fatal blunder of dividing his forces. A rumor was current throughout his camp — one raised doubtless by the natives for the purpose of hastening the overthrow of the invaders — that in the district of Bacalar rich gold mines were to be found. Yielding to the clamor of his men, he despatched in that direction Alonso de Ávila with a