Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/468

448 two brothers named Diego and Juan Cansino, the sons of one of the conquerors of New Spain. Unconscious of their danger, they were living at the Indian town of Chemax, granted to them in encomienda, and being attacked, while unarmed, by a multitude, were overpowered and captured. Fastening them to crosses, and retirmg to such a distance that their weapons would not prove immediately fatal, they fired arrows at them, uttering all the imprecations contained in their verancular against the religion of their victims. For many hours these young men were forced to endure this torture. At sunset, their bodies riddled with darts, they expired, chanting the salve regina with their dying breath. Their heads were then chopped off and borne as trophies by the leaders of the revolt, and their bodies cut into small pieces and sent all over the districts in token of the uprising.

Other encomiendas were attacked, and their owners treated with similar atrocity, or offered in sacrifice. Two only escaped. Diego Gonzalez de Ayala, with the aid of a negro slave, forced his way through a band of natives which had surrounded his dwelling, and galloped off toward Valladolid, eight leagues distant, hotly pursued. Their horses were soon exhausted, and they knew that on foot they would soon be overtaken. Thereupon they turned and dismounted, holding their pursuers at bay until their horses were rested; and thus the two reached the settlement in safety. "On the roadside," says Cogolludo, "is a fruittree which is now called the tree of the hook, because here Ayala, riding up sorely fatigued, and feeling that his only refuge was in flight, unbuckled his shield and hung it on one of the branches."

After sixteen Spaniards had thus been slaughtered at the encomiendas in the neighborhood of Valladolid, the Indians united their forces to attack the town. At this time its garrison mustered only twenty men; but sending for assistance to Mérida, they sallied