28 CHACUJAL. 



CHACTJJAL. 



During the years 1524-25 Cortes made his wonderful march from Mexico to 

 Honduras, forcing his way through the swamps of the Tabasco delta and crossing the 

 base of the peninsula of Yucatan. It was not until he arrived at the mouth of the 

 Rio Duke on the Atlantic coast of Guatemala that he got into touch with the Spaniards 

 of whom he had come in search. The first of his countrymen whom he met with were 

 forty men and twenty women belonging to the party under the command of Gil Gonzales 

 de Avila. These unfortunate people were even in a more pitiable condition than his own 

 half-starved followers. Expeditions had at once to be despatched into the surrounding 

 country in search of food, but they proved singularly unsuccessful until Cortes himself 

 took the matter in hand. In a " brigantine " and boats belonging to Gonzales's men 

 he set out with a party of forty Spaniards and fifty Indians, ascended the Rio Dulce, 

 and landed on the south side of the great lake, probably somewhere to the east of the 

 site of Yzabal. Leaving his boats in charge of a guard, Cortes and his followers 

 pushed on during the next few days across the spurs of the Sierra de las Minas and 

 crossed the innumerable streams which score the mountain sides, finding, as he says, 

 the path so rough and steep that they had to make use of both hands and feet in 

 climbing. Some villages were met with on the way, but at the approach of the 

 Spaniards the natives fled to the forest, and the Spaniards found no stores of food — 

 indeed, they barely obtained enough to supply their immediate wants. 



In his letter to the King, Cortes writes : — " Having asked some of the Indian 

 prisoners whether they knew of any other village in the vicinity where dry maize could 

 be obtained they answered me that they knew of one called Chacujal, a very populous 

 and ancient one, where all manner of provisions might be found in abundance." 



The Spaniards reached the neighbourhood of this village at sunset, and Cortes made 

 his arrangements to take it by surprise on the following morning. To quote his own 

 words : — " I had laid down on some straw, in order to rest, when one of the scouts 

 came to me, and said that by the road communicating with the village he saw a body 

 of armed men coming down upon us ; but that they marched without any order or 

 precaution, speaking to each other, and as if they were ignorant of our being on their 

 passage. I immediately summoned my men up, and made them arm themselves as 

 quickly and noiselessly as they could ; but as the distance between the village and the 

 place where we had encamped was so short, before we were ready to meet them the 

 Indians discovered the scouts, and letting fly on them a volley of their arrows began 

 to retreat towards their village, fighting all the time with those of my men who were 

 foremost. In this manner we entered the village mixed up with them ; but the night 

 being dark, the Indians suddenly disappeared in the streets, and we could find no 

 enemies. Fearing some ambush, and suspecting that the people of the village 



