in person,
but vessels arrived carrying soldiers, provisions, clothing, and arms,
and toward the end of the year 1539 his son returned, with twenty
horsemen, from New Spain. The drooping spirits of the Spaniards were
revived, and again they conceived hopes of achieving the conquest of
the country.

About this time, too, the adelantado, grieving over the common
misfortune of himself and those who had been constant and enduring, but
doubting his own fortune, and confiding in the valour of his son Don
Francisco, determined to put into the hands of the latter the
pacification of Yucatan. He was at that time settled in the government
of Chiapas, to which place he summoned his son, and by a formal act
substituted him in all the powers given to himself by the king. The act
of substitution is creditable alike to the head and heart of the
adelantado. It begins with an injunction "that he should strive that
the people under his charge should live and be as true Christians,
separating themselves from vices and public sins, not permitting them
to speak ill of God, nor his blessed mother, nor the saints;" and it
concludes with the words, "because I know that you are a person who
will know how to do it well, putting first God our Lord, and the
service of his majesty, and the good of the country, and the execution
of justice."

Within a month from the time when he was called away by his father, Don
Francisco returned to Champoton with all the provisions necessary for
prosecuting, on his own account, the conquest of Yucatan. From this
time the door of better fortune seemed opened to the Spaniards.

Don Francisco determined forthwith to undertake the march to Campeachy.
At a short distance from Champoton they encountered a large body of
Indians, routed them, and, determined not to make any retrograde
movement, encamped upon the spot.

From this place the Indians, mortified and incensed at their defeat,
erected fortifications along the whole line of march. The Spaniards
could not advance without encountering walls, trenches, and
embankments, vigorously defended. All these they gained in succession;
and so great was the slaughter 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 Spaniards were almost worn out with fighting.

Here, again, the history fails, and it does not appear how they