Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/78

58 separated from the main body, and, proceeding by a different route under Ávalos, they obtained the coöperation of several caciques, who were dissatisfied with the king of Colima, and extended their raid over a large tract, notably the northern region which in honor of the leader obtained the name of Ávalos' province. Álvarez had meanwhile, with more ambitious views, advanced by a southern route on the capital, only to be waylaid in a ravine by the allied forces under Zoma and Capaya, caciques of Jicotlan and Autlan, and to be driven back with considerable loss; whereupon he hurried crestfallen upon his original mission to Zacatula.

Informed of the disaster, as well as of the hostility of Impilcingo, a province between Zacatula and Colima, which had probably been stirred by the Spanish defeat, Cortés sent the able Olid with twenty-five horsemen and about eighty foot-soldiers, to chastise this province, restore order in Zacatula, and, reënforced by a part of its troops, to subjugate Colima. The rugged nature of the country, which made cavalry useless, and the warlike spirit of the