now satisfy themselves,--for this was a
battle in every sense of the word which we here fought, fearful in the
extreme, as will be seen.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

_How we are attacked by all the caziques of Tabasco, and the whole
armed force of this province, and what further took place._

The Indians were already moving forward in search of us, when we came up
with them: every one had a large bunch of feathers on his head, a cotton
cuirass on, and their faces were daubed with white, black, and red
colours. Besides having drums and trumpets, they were armed with huge
bows and arrows, shields, lances, and large broadswords; they had also
bodies of slingers, and others armed with poles hardened in the fire.
The Indians were in such vast numbers that they completely filled the
bean fields, and immediately fell upon us on all sides at once, like
furious dogs. Their attack was so impetuous, so numerous were the
arrows, stones, and lances with which they greeted us, that above
seventy of our men were wounded in no time, and one named Saldana, was
struck by an arrow in the ear, and instantly dropt down dead. With like
fury they rushed at us with their pikes, at the same time pouring forth
showers of arrows, and continually wounding our men. However, we fully
repaid them with our crossbows, muskets, and heavy cannon, cutting right
and left among them with our swords. By this means we forced them to
give ground a little, but only that they might shower forth their arrows
at a greater distance, where they thought themselves more secure from
our arms. Even then our artilleryman Mesa made terrible havoc among
them, standing as they did crowded together and within reach of the
cannon, so that he could fire among them to his heart's content.
Notwithstanding the destruction we made among their ranks, we could not
put them to flight. I now remarked to our commander Diego de Ordas that
we should rush forward upon the Indians and close with them. My motive
for advising this was, because I saw that they merely retreated from
fear of our swords, but still continued to annoy us at a distance with
arrows, lances, and large stones. De Ordas, however, considered this not
expedient, as the enemy's numbers were so vast that every single man of
us would have had to encounter 300 of the enemy at once.

My advice, however, was at length followed up, and we fell so heavily
upon them that they retreated as far as the wells. All this time C