In France; yet Cortes honourably
reserved the district of Guatitlan for Avila, notwithstanding his
captivity, and gave it three years afterwards to a brother of Alonzo de
Avila, who was then promoted to be _contador_ of Yucutan.
[1] The province here named Panuco, is situated on the coast of the gulf
of Mexico, at the mouth of a considerable river which drains the
superfluous waters of the Mexican vale, named at first Rio del Desague,
then Rio de Tula, and Rio Tampico at its mouth, in about lat. 22 deg. 15'
N. The Modern town of Panuco is about 200 miles almost due north from
Mexico. - E.
[2] These were probably the Chichimecas and Otomies, who inhabited to the
north-west of the Mexican empire. - E.
[3] From these slight notices, nothing certain can be gathered respecting
these large bones: Yet there is every reason to believe they must have
been of the same kind with those now familiar to the learned world,
under the name of _Mammoth_. The vale of Mexico has every indication
of having once been an immense inland lake, and the other _big bones_
of North America have all been found in places of a similar
description. The greatest deposit of these hitherto known, is at a
place called _big-bone-swamp_, near the Mississippi, in the modern
state of Kentucky. - E.
SECTION XV.
_Expeditions of Gonzalo de Sandoval, Pedro de Alvarado, and others, for
reducing the Mexican Provinces_.
After the settlement with Christoval de Tapia, the Captains Sandoval and
Alvarado resumed the expeditions with which they had been before entrusted,
and on this occasion I went along with Sandoval. On our arrival at
Tustepeque[1], I took my lodgings on the summit of a very high tower of a
temple, for the sake of fresh air, and to avoid the musquitoes, which were
very troublesome below. At this place, seventy-two of the soldiers who
came with Narvaez and six Spanish women were put to death. The whole
province submitted immediately to Sandoval, except the Mexican chief who
had been the principal instrument of the destruction of our soldiers, who
was soon afterwards made prisoner and burnt alive. Many others had been
equally guilty, but this example of severity was deemed sufficient.
Sandoval, in the next place, sent a message to the Tzapotecas, who inhabit
a mountainous district about ten leagues from Tustepeque or Tututepec,
ordering them to submit to his authority; and on their refusal, an
expedition was sent against them under Captain Briones, who according to
his own account had served with reputation in the wars of Italy. His
detachment consisted of 100 Spanish infantry, and about an equal number of
Indian allies; but the enemy were prepared for him, and so completely
surprised him in a difficult pass of the mountains, that they drove him
and his men over the rocks, rolling them down to the bottom, by which
above a third of them were wounded, of whom one afterwards died.
