Page:Young Folks History Of Mexico.pdf/211

Rh You may be very sure that he and his soldiers were very much provoked at the obduracy of these heathens, who so ungratefully refused his generous offer of a new king, whom they had never heard of, to rule over them. And how indignant these pious soldiers must have been at such heretics who scorned their offer of new images to worship in place of their old ones, and added insult to injury by telling them that their old gods were good enough for them, and they only wished the Spaniards would sail away and leave them in peace! This, in the eyes of the horror-stricken priests, was blasphemy of the worst nature; these holy men washed their hands of such impious wretches, and adjured the soldiers to do their best to wipe them from the face of the earth. And they did! Though the Tabascans fought valiantly, attacking them with arrows and lances, yet they were gradually driven back, until the Spaniards were in possession of their town. They defended barricade after barricade, whistling and shouting to one another—al calachioni—"kill the captain," well knowing the disastrous effect such a result would have upon the strangers. They left many dead upon the field, but never turned their backs upon the enemy, retreating face to the foe, until their town, and temples, and idols, were finally captured.

When the town was gained, Cortez took possession of the country in the name of his majesty, the King of Spain,—a disreputable monarch of a country thousands of miles away, whom the Tabascans had never heard of. And making three cuts with his sword in a great silk-cotton tree, the commander claimed the whole country for his sovereign, saying that, against any one who denied this claim, he was ready to defend it with the sword and shield he then held. Nobody offered any objection, because the soldiers believed as he did: that the land belonged to them and the king