Page:Young Folks History Of Mexico.pdf/372

 366 Montejo dispatched one of his captains, Davila, with a demand for tribute. The fierce cacique sent back the haughty message that he would send them fowls on spears and Indian corn on arrow-points. They were only too glad to get back to the main body, this detachment under Captain Davila, which they only accomplished at the end of two years. By this time the remains of the army had reached Campeche, on the western coast, and here they remained for several years making ineffectual attempts to penetrate the country. The Indians of Tabasco, who had been conquered by Cortez, now revolted, and as this province belonged to the Adelantado, Montejo, he felt constrained to go over to compel them into obedience. While he was gone the garrison at Campeche became so reduced that but five soldiers remained fit for duty.

[A. D. 1535.] It was therefore resolved to abandon the post, and in the year 1535, after some years of fruitless fighting the last Spaniard departed from the shores of Yucatan. The last person to leave was Gonzales Nieto, the one who had first planted the royal banner on the eastern coast, eight years previous.

By this time the Adelantado, Don Francisco Montejo, was impoverished. The fame of Pizarro's conquests in Peru drew away his best soldiers, and no one could be found to aid him in the subjugation of a people so fierce as the Yucatecans, the capture of whom would yield no booty other than cotton garments and rude implements of warfare.

[A. D. 1537.] Don Francisco, having completed the pacification of the Tabascans, again turned his attention to Yucatan. In 1537 he landed a small force at Campeche, or Champotan, and, leaving them in command of his son, returned to Tabasco for supplies and reinforcements. The Spaniards were attacked almost as soon as they had landed,