Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/511

Rh sounding the minds of the several nations through secret agencies. Sorcerers from the mountains of Zacatecas, messengers of Satan the pious chroniclers called them, appeared in the northern towns of Tlaltenango, Juchipila, Jalpa, and elsewhere, inciting the inhabitants to rise and exterminate the oppressors. They refused to pay tribute, and abandoned their houses and lands.

In some parts the Indians killed the missionaries who tried to persuade them to return in peace and submit to Spanish rule; in other places they killed their encomenderos, abandoned their towns, and retired to the mountains. Fortified camps were established in the mountains where the chieftains and warriors gathered to meet the unconquered Chichimecs. Upon their ancient altars again appeared the bloody sacrifice; promise of supernatural aid through omens was made by the sorcerers; and the effects of Christian baptism were removed by washing of heads and other acts of penance. Few, indeed, were the towns in New Galicia, from Colima to Culiacan, not represented at these mysterious conclaves. But while the conspiracy was thus wide-spread, active operations were confined for the most part to the region north of the Rio Grande, and east of the mountains about Nochistlan. Mixton, Nochistlan, Acatic, and Cuinao were the principal strongholds, and were under the command of Tenamaxtli. In other parts of the country the warriors were also on the alert, but seemed in most cases to have awaited the results in the north. Their peñoles and fortified cliffs, almost impregnable, were strengthened by walls supplied with trunks of trees and stones to be rolled or thrown down upon the assailants; they had been well provided with food and water, though the prophetic words of the magicians led the natives to expect that food would be miraculously bestowed; they even reckoned on the annihilation of the Spaniards by the deities without human instrumentality.