SUCCESS OF THE SPANIARDS. 



75 



dians, routed them, and, determined not to make 

 any retrograde movement, encamped upon the spot. 



From this place the Indians, mortified and in- 

 censed at their defeat, erected fortifications along the 

 whole line of march. The Spaniards could not ad- 

 vance without encountering walls, trenches, and em- 

 bankments, vigorously defended. All these they 

 gained in succession ; and so great was the slaugh- 

 ter of the Indians, that at times their dead bodies 

 obstructed the battle, and the Spaniards were obliged 

 to pass over the dead to fight with the living. In 

 one day they had three battles, in which the Span- 

 iards were almost worn out with fighting. 



Here, again, the history fails, and it does not ap- 

 pear how they were received in Campeachy ; but it 

 is manifest from other authorities that in the year 

 1540 they founded a city under the name of San 

 Francisco de Campeche, 



Remaining in this place till things were settled, 

 Don Francisco, in pursuance of his father's instruc- 

 tions, determined on descending to the province of 

 Quepech, and founding a city in the Indian town 

 of Tihoo. Knowing that delay was dangerous, he 

 sent forward the Captain Francisco de Montejo, his 

 cousin, with fifty-seven men. He himself remained 

 in Campeachy to receive and organize the soldiers, 

 who, stimulated by the tidings of his improving for- 

 tunes, were every day coming in from his father. 



Don Francisco set out for Tihoo, and in all the 

 accounts there is a uniform correspondence in re- 



