Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/516

496 The contract concluded, Alvarado accompanied the viceroy to the city of Mexico, to attend to the final preparations for the two expeditions agreed upon: one along the northern coast and the other to the Spice Islands, after which Alvarado returned to New Galicia to join his troops and the fleet. When Cristóbal de Oñate, who was now sorely pressed by the savages, learned of Alvarado's return to Zapotlan, he despatched Juan de Villareal to notify him of the Mixton disaster, and to ask for early assistance. It was necessary to Alvarado's enterprise to leave the ports of New Galicia secure as a base for operations, so that there was inducement for him to hasten to Oñate's relief. He sent fifty men to protect Autlan and Purificacion; fifty remained at Zapotlan to guard the districts of Colima and Ávalos; at Etzatlan and Lake Chapala garrisons of twenty-five men each were stationed, and Alvarado himself with a hundred horse and as many foot pushed on to Guadalajara. Tonalá and Tlacomulco had been kept faithful by Friar Antonio de Segovia, and reënforced Alvarado on the way; he seems also to have been joined by a native force from Michoacan. Such was the rapidity of his march to Guadalajara, that the passage of the barranca of Tonalá, which, owing to the river and the roughness of the country ordinarily required three days, was accomplished in a day and a night.

Just before the arrival of Alvarado, which occurred June 12, 1541, Ibarra had returned from a new reconnoissance, during which he had met nothing but scorn