176 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



his kingdom alone against a more numerous and less 

 famished army than that which was approaching Quiche. 

 Irritation, wounded pride, anxiety, and fatigue, brought 

 on a sickness which carried Tanub off in a few days. 



His son Tecum Umam succeeded to his honours and 

 troubles. In a short time intelligence was received that 

 the captain (Alvarado) and his Teules had marched to ? 

 besiege Xelahuh (now Quezaltenango), next to the cap- 

 ital the largest city of Quiche. At that time it had 

 within its walls eighty thousand men ; but such was the 

 fame of the Spaniards that Tecum Umam determined to 

 go to its assistance. He left the capital, at the threshold 

 of which we stood, borne in his litter on the shoulders of 

 the principal men of his kingdom, and preceded by the 

 music of flutes, cornets, and drums, and seventy thousand 

 men, commanded by his general Ahzob, his lieutenant 

 Ahzumanche, the grand shield-bearer Ahpocob, other 

 officers of dignity with still harder names, and numerous 

 attendants bearing parasols and fans of feathers for the 

 comfort of the royal person. An immense number of 

 Indian carriers followed with baggage and provisions. 

 At the populous city of Totonicapan the army was in- 

 creased to ninety thousand righting men. At Quezal- 

 tenango he was joined by ten more chiefs, well armed 

 and supplied with provisions, displaying all the gor- 

 geous insignia of their rank, and attended by twenty- 

 four thousand soldiers. At the same place he was re-en- 

 forced by forty-six thousand more, adorned with plumes 

 of different colours, and with arms of every description, 

 the chiefs decorated with the skins of lions, tigers, and 

 bears, as distinguishing marks of their bravery and war- 

 like prowess. Tecum Umam marshalled under his ban- 

 ners on the plain of Tzaccapa two hundred and thirty 

 thousand warriors, and fortified his camp with a wall 



