1898-99.] DECIPHERING HIEROGLYPHIC INSCRIPTIONS OF CENTRAL AMERICA, 173 
troubles over the war with the province of Oztoman. His indignation 
and rage were equal. But, too much occupied in restoring his authority 
over the regions dependent upon the great city, he found himself 
unable to go to Zapotecapan in person; he contented himself, in the 
meanwhile, with sending thither his most capable officers, with orders 
to spare nothing in reducing the revolted country, and in gaining 
possession, at whatever price, of the person of Cocyoéza. An army of 
sixty thousand fighting men once more climbed the rugged mountains 
of Mixteca, and, without resting for an instant, marched on Zapotecapan. 
This was the second time that magnificent country became the prey of 
a foreign soldiery ; this time, however, its capital seems to have been 
spared. Instead of entering by Huaxyacac, the Mexicans took the 
road to Teotitlan. For the first time perhaps in their existence the 
venerated sanctuaries of Yopaa were sullied by the presence of a fierce 
conqueror ; those of their inmates who had time to fly went and hid 
themselves among the crags of the neighbouring mountains: but a 
great number of priests perished in their sacred abodes, and the ancient 
memories of the prophet of Tehuantepec‘and of Pezelao could not save 
the Wiyatao from the fated lot of his worshippers. History has not 
preserved the record of these terrible days; but it is known that the 
Mictlan prisoners went, that year, to swell the files of victims destined 
for the altars of Huitzilopochtli, and that the pontifical family suddenly 
_ became extinct, in the midst of the disorders occasioned by the Mexican 
invasion. From lack of more direct heirs, the Zapotec priesthood 
passed to the royal family, in which it remained until the death of the 
last of these chiefs. 
“Cocyoéza saw, without being able to hinder them, the outrages with 
which the ministers of his religion were treated ; but, foreseeing that the 
Mexicans would not leave him long in the enjoyment of Tehuantepec, 
he had taken measures to receive them, and prepared to teach them at 
last to respect the rights of his nation. Three miles from this city, 
the road which leads to the interior of Zapotecapan enters a deep gorge 
through which the river Nexapa flows rapidly. On each side rise steep 
hillocks, forming a succession of impassable plateaus, which extend to 
the neighbourhood of Xalapa. There the king of the Zapotecs had 
raised his chief defensive works. The whole mountain had been 
converted into a double line of formidable fortifications, which 
dominated the valleys and plains below. Into one of these he had 
withdrawn the greater part of his army, with provisions and supplies 
for a year. Twenty thousand Mixtecs occupied the other bank, the 
bold crests of which extended like promontories into the plain. For 
