I have already informed the reader, in a previous chapter, that the country of the Zapotecs consists of high mountains; how nimble and courageous the inhabitants are, and how they communicate with each other by means of piping, the shrill sound of which reechoes through all the valleys. In such a place it may readily be imagined that a man like Rangel, and the troops under such a leader, would not be able to achieve anything. Wherever we came, the inhabitants had fled away; besides which, the houses were not built together as in other townships of New Spain, but straggling about, some on the mountains, others in the valleys. The rainy season had just set in when we arrived in this wild country, and poor Rangel suffered so violently from the swellings in his groins, that he cried out aloud in the agonies of pain. The rest of us, therefore, were not a little annoyed that we were compelled to sacrifice our time for such a man; however, he was soon convinced himself that all his trouble was to no purpose, and he resolved to relinquish the expedition, and to allow the men to return to their respective abodes. Pedro de Ircio, whom Rangel had purposely taken with him to profit by his good counsel, was the first who advised this latter step, and left him to return to Vera Cruz, where he had settled. Rangel himself marched back with us to Guacasualco, the warm climate of which he affirmed would agree best with his health. This we looked upon as a greater calamity even than marching out with him into the field of battle; however, we were obliged to submit, and we put the best face we could on the matter. When we had arrived in Guacasualco, he got it into his head to march to Cimatan and Talatupan, in order to put down the insurrection which still continued in these provinces. The inhabitants there principally confided in the strength of their positions, which lay between rivers, swamps, and marshy ground, where every step was attended with danger; besides which, they were remarkably expert archers, and the arrow which flew from their enormous bows seldom missed its aim.
In order that we might not dispute his word, Rangel produced his instructions from Cortes, in which he was also commanded to march against the rebellious provinces of Cimatan and Talatupan; he, therefore, in his capacity of commander-in-chief, summoned all the inhabitants of Guacasualco to join him in the expedition, and we stood in such awe of Cortes' mandates that we durst not offer the slightest opposition to Rangel's authority; and above one hundred of us, with all our horses, about twenty-six musketeers and crossbow-men, marched out with him. We passed through Tonala Ayagualulco, Copilco, Zacualco, crossed several rivers in canoes; and then marched through Teutitan and the townships of Chontalpa, until within twenty miles of Cimatan. Thus far the whole country was in profound peace; but a little further on we found the whole armed force of the country drawn up against us, strongly posted between the swamps and dangerous passes, having fortified their position by ramparts and a palisade, from which they flew their arrows at us through loop-holes. When we had arrived near enough, the enemy showered their arrows so quickly upon us, that six of our horses were killed and eight men wounded. Rangel himself, who was seated on horseback, received a slight wound in the arm. We, the veteran Conquistadores, had often told him what bold, crafty, and expert warriors he would have to encounter here, and now he began to believe so himself; and as he was a man who talked a good deal, he said if he had followed our advice this would not have happened to him; and, for the future, he desired we would take upon ourselves the command of the troops during this campaign.
After the wounds of our men and those of our horses had been dressed, Rangel desired me to reconnoitre the enemy's position, and take with me two of our most active musketeers, and a remarkably fierce dog which he possessed; he himself, as he had been advised, would follow me at some distance behind with the cavalry and the rest of our troops. When I, with my two companions, approached near to Cimatan, we came up to other fortifications equally as strong as the former, from out of which we were greeted with a cloud of arrows and darts. The poor dog lay instantly dead at our feet, and I myself should have shared a similar fate if my jacket had not been very thickly quilted with cotton, for I was wounded in no less than seven places by the enemy's arrows, one of which struck my leg; nor did my two companions fare better. I now called out to some of our Indian troops, who were close behind us, to hasten back and call the whole of the foot to our assistance, but to desire the cavalry not to advance, as they would not be able to manœuvre here, and would only expose their horses to the enemy's unerring arrows.
With the musketeers, crossbow-men, and the remaining foot, we now marched forward in a body to the attack, and very soon beat the enemy out of their entrenchments, who then retreated precipitately to the swamps, where it was impossible to follow them without great risk, for the ground was of so spongy a nature that the moment we set foot on it we sank down, and it was with great difficulty a person was got out again.
By this time Rangel had come up with the horse, and we quartered ourselves in a number of houses which stood together, and were quite deserted by the inhabitants; here we remained quiet for the remaining part of the day and dressed our wounds. The next morning we marched direct for Cimatan itself, and our route lay through extensive open plains, in which there were many dangerous bogs. In one of these the enemy lay in wait for us, and certainly they had calculated well in taking up their position here, for they easily foresaw, when the cavalry, in the heat of the battle, spread themselves in the open plain, they could not fail to get into the swampy ground, where they would be unable to move. We had many times cautioned Rangel about this, but he refused to listen to our advice; and, indeed, he was the first to get fixed in the bogs, where he lost his horse, and would himself undoubtedly have been killed if several of us had not hastened to his assistance, for several Indians had already laid hold of him to carry him off and sacrifice him to their idols. He thus narrowly escaped with his life, though his head, which, besides, was covered with sores, had been shockingly beat about by the enemy.
As this district was very thickly populated, and there was another township not very far off, we determined to march thither; but the inhabitants, on our approach, fled precipitately. Here we halted for a short time to dress Rangel's wounds and those of three other soldiers.
The next township we came to was likewise deserted by its inhabitants; but in this neighbourhood the enemy had thrown up a very formidable entrenchment, with a palisade of uncommon strength, supplied with loop-holes. Here we had scarcely rested a quarter of an hour when the enemy came suddenly pouring forth into the town from all sides, and fell upon us with so much intrepidity that they killed one of our men and two horses, and it was with the utmost difficulty we could succeed in driving them back again.
Our friend Rangel suffered greatly from the wounds he had received on his head; besides which he was tormented by the moschitoes and a large species of bat which bite people and suck their blood, so that he could get no rest day or night; and as it rained without intermission, he, with several of the men who had recently arrived from Spain, grew heartily sick of this mode of warfare; these soldiers brought forcibly to his mind the bad state of his health, the little advantage we had gained by the three several battles we had fought with the enemy, and how we had lost eleven horses and two men, besides that numbers were wounded, and that it would be impossible to accomplish anything more in a country so full of swamps and morasses. All this Rangel listened to with secret delight, for to turn back was the very thing he so ardently desired himself; however, in order to save appearances, and that it might seem as if his determination of marching back to Guacasualco was upon the advice and at the request of the troops themselves, he called a council of war, for which he selected those only whom he well knew would be of the same opinion with himself. I, with twenty of the men, just at that moment returned from a short excursion to some cacao plantations in the neighbourhood to try if we could not capture a few of the natives, and we had the good luck to bring in three females and two men prisoners. When I arrived in Rangel's quarters, he took me aside; he spoke a good deal about the terrible wounds on his head, and assured me that the greater part of the troops had advised him to relinquish the expedition and return to Cortes in Mexico.
I declared myself against this step without any hesitation; and, as we had known each other for four years, even before we left Cuba, I said boldly to him, "How, Señor; you have advanced up to Cimatan, and now wish to return? What will Cortes think of this, and what will your enemies say? How they will always throw in your teeth that you were neither able to gain any advantage over the Zapotecs nor to subdue the inhabitants of this province, although you had among your troops some of the most experienced of the Conquistadores, of those who settled in Guacasualco! Here not your honour alone is at stake but ours also; wherefore I, with a number of my companions, have determined further to explore these swamps and mountains, and to force our way into Cimatan, the principal township of the province. My horse you may give to some other soldier who is expert in handling the lance, it is of no use to me in this country, for, on account of the bad state of the ground, the cavalry are always obliged to remain behind the rest of the troops."
As Rangel was a great talker, and a man who soon fell into a passion, he jumped up from his seat, immediately ordered all the troops to assemble around him, and cried out to them, "The die is cast! by heavens! (for he could scarcely say two words together without swearing.) We must march forward! I am now convinced of the policy of so doing, since Bernal Diaz del Castillo has explained to me what our duty is. He is perfectly right in what he says."