nd sluggish stream in the northern
district, named the New River,[61] at a distance of some thirty-three
miles from its mouth, and, in 1872, contained a population of about 1200
souls, the majority of whom were either Indians or Hispano-Indians, and
indifferent to British rule. The business portion of the town, and most
of the shops or stores, were on hilly ground, considerably above the
river-bed, and built here and there, without an attempt at order or
regularity. About midway between the river and this upper portion of the
town was the barrack, consisting of one large room, sixty feet by
thirty feet, the two ends of which were partitioned off, leaving the
central part for the men's quarters. The partitioned portion at the
south end was used as a guard-room. The walls of the building were
constructed of _pimentos_, or round straight sticks, varying from
half-an-inch to three inches in diameter, driven firmly into the ground,
in an upright position, as close together as possible, and held in their
places by pine-wood battens. The roof was composed of palm-leaves, or
"fan-thatch." The floor was boarded.

On the south-eastern side of the barrack, the ground fell towards the
river, which was about fifty yards distant. About ten yards from the
water's edge was a large quantity of logwood, packed in piles four feet
high, and some little distance from each other. Across the road, on the
southern side, were several native houses; to the east, and about forty
yards distant, was a group of four small buildings consisting of
commissariat stores and the officers' quarters; while the nearest
building on the north was the Roman Catholic Church, about eighty yards
off.

How or when the invaders crossed the Rio Hondo, the northern boundary of
the colony, has not been ascertained; but it is a significant fact,
suggestive of strong suspicions against the loyalty of the Indian and
mixed Spanish-Indian population, whose small settlements were dotted
here and there on the line of march of the invaders, that no information
was conveyed, either to the district magistrate at Orange Walk, or to
the officer commanding the small detachment, that an enemy was at hand,
prepared, as the settlers must have known, to attack and plunder the
town.

The Indians, consisting of about 180 braves, or fighting men, and 100
camp followers, led by Marcus Canul, chief of the Ycaiche, approached
the town about 8 a.m. on Sunday, the 1st of September. They wer