lXTKOIHCTION 27 



Buffering from a dreadful visitation of smallpox, in- 

 troduced by the Spaniards, and Cuitlahuac, the succes- 

 sor of Moctezuma, had died of this disease after a rule 

 of eighty days. Finally Tenochtitlan was besieged 

 again. The buildings were leveled to the ground as 

 the Spaniards advanced. The brave defense of Cuauh- 

 temoc availed for naught against cannon and steel 

 armor. On the 13th of August, 1521, the conquest of 

 Tenochtitlan was achieved and the spirit of a warlike 

 people forever broken. 



The Valley of Mexico having been taken, numerous 

 expeditions were sent out to subdue the more distant 

 provinces and to establish colonies. Alvarado invaded 

 the south and by 1524 he had captured Utatlan and 

 other native strongholds on -the highlands of Guate- 

 mala and had invaded Salvador. Cortez himself under- 

 took a wonderful march from Vera Cruz to the Gulf 

 of Honduras to punish an unruly subordinate. His 

 course lay through the swamps and jungles of the 

 Usumacinta basin, thence across the savannahs of 

 southern Yucatan to Lake Pet en, and, finally, over the 

 mountains to Lake Izabal and the Motagua River. 

 Even today much of his route would be called impass- 

 able for an army. Puerto Cortez, on the northern 

 coast of Honduras, was founded at the conclusion of this 

 expedition. The exploitation of Yucatan and Tabasco 

 was granted to Francisco Montejo, who began the con- 

 quest of this lowlying territory in 1527. The first cam- 

 paigns were disastrous and heart-breaking. Several 

 short-lived Salamancas were founded, one of them at 

 Chichen Itza. But the odd- were too great and by 1535 

 all the Spaniards had been killed or expelled. The son 

 of Montejo renewed the struggle. In 1541 Campeche 

 was founded and early in 1541 the city of Merida was 

 established upon the site of an earlier Mayan town. 



