Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/668

648 escaped, and some were taken prisoners. But the former soon rallied, and by 10 o'clock fell upon the raiders, whose commander, luckily for the town, was severely wounded, and several of his men were killed. Indeed, it would have gone hard with him had he not bound his prisoners arm to arm, and used them as a barricade, under cover of which to retreat to his boat. He then boarded a Spanish vessel laden with goods and the king's tribute in silver, and took all the valuables, worth £5,000 to his ship. The marauders after that visited an Indian town, where they captured a quantity of logwood. They then departed; but were not long afterward overhauled by two Spanish armed ships, when one of their vessels, with a captain Hess and thirteen others, was taken, the captives being executed.

In 1597 a powerful British squadron made a descent on the island of Cozumel, and held it for a time, but, finding the Spaniards prepared for defence, it was obliged to withdraw. A second attempt in 1606 and a third in 1601 failed. In 1602 a Spanish vessel was captured. No further attacks were made for several years.

Before closing with Yucatan I will give briefly the history of the province during the second half of the sixteenth century. Under the present government was an area of about one hundred leagues from east