Next morning Alvarado and Francisco de Lugo, each with one hundred men, were sent by different ways to reconnoitre and forage, with orders to return before dark.[1] Melchor, on being called to accompany one of them, was missing. Presently his clothes were discovered hanging on a tree, indicating that he had gone over to the enemy. Lugo had advanced not more than a league when, near a town called Centla, he encountered a large body of warriors, who attacked him fiercely and drove him back toward the camp. Alvarado had meanwhile been turned by an estuary from his course and in the direction of Lugo. Hearing the noise of battle he hastens to the assistance of Lugo, only to be likewise driven back by the ever increasing hosts, and not until Cortés came to the rescue with two guns did the enemy retire.[2] The result, according to Bernal Diaz, was two of Lugo's men killed and eleven wounded, while fifteen Indians fell and three were captured.
Nor did the matter rest here. The captives told Cortés that Tabasco, concerned at the arrival of so large a fleet which augured hostile occupation, had aroused the province, the assembled chiefs being also urged by Melchor to manfully expel the invaders, as
- ↑ The Carta del Ayunt. de Vera Cruz, in Cortés, Cartas, 15, refers to a certain intercourse held with natives; on the third day the exploring parties start. This intercourse is spoken of by Gomara, Hist. Mex., 30, as the visit of twenty leading men to promise food and presents, but really to spy. The Spaniards were encouraged to enter the interior to barter food. Torquemada, i. 374; Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 21. Alvarado, Ávila, and Sandoval are sent, each with eighty Spaniards and some Cuban carriers, to explore by three routes, and to get supplies for payment only. Gomara, Hist. Mex., 31; Herrera, dec. ii. lib. iv. cap. xi. Three parties sent out. Tapia, Relacion, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., ii. 559. Four captains sent, with over two hundred men. Carta Ayunt., loc. cit.
- ↑ Gomara, Hist. Mex., 31, states that one of the captains took refuge in a building in Centla town, and was there joined by the other two. All three now retreat to camp, whither two fleet Cubans run for aid. Herrera, Torquemada, and Brasseur de Bourbourg follow him. Before Cortés set out, says Cogolludo, Hist. Yucathan, 32, he had repelled an attack on his own camp.
announced that he took possession for the king, and would defend his right against all comers. The soldiers thereupon shouted their approval, declaring that they would sustain their captain in his challenge. Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 21. Zamacois compares this form with others used elsewhere. Hist. Méj., x. 988.
